Mr Crane was John Lumic's right-hand man and deputy.
Having worked alongside Lumic for many years, he realised how ruthless he could be, and was just the same himself; Crane had no conscience when fooling homeless people into believing he would supply them with free food, when, in actuality, it was merely a con to have them abducted and converted into Cybermen. During the conversion process, Crane would play pop music through the Cyber-factory to cover the screams. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen)
On the night of 1 February 2007, Lumic reprogrammed the EarPods into blanking everybody's mind, and lured them into the Cyber-factory at Battersea, ready for cyber-conversion. Crane realised it was meant to include him and ripped out his malfunctioning EarPods.
Despite this, he was unable to escape, as Cybermen took him to Lumic for being "unprogrammed". There, Crane pretended to have seen the future and requested an upgrade, getting closer to kill Lumic by damaging his wheelchair's life-support systems, but was electrocuted by a Cyberman. Ultimately, as a result of Crane's actions, the Cybermen took Lumic away for an emergency upgrade and the Cyber-Controller was created. (TV: The Age of Steel)
Behind the scenes[]
- Crane's exercise of control over people implanted with EarPods is later repeated by Mercy Hartigan. Each ordered their victims to turn right, then left.
- Crane heavily resembles the character of the same name from Don't Step on the Grass. The characters undergo a similar arc in which they assist the main villain before eventually turning against them. It is possible that this character was a Pete's World counterpart of Crane from N-Space.
