The Slitheen are a fictional crime family from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They belong to a species known as the Raxacoricofallapatorians, an alien lifeform originating from the planet Raxicoricofallapatorius. The Slitheen can disguise themselves as humans by hiding in skinsuits, though the technology they use results in them farting excessively while in disguise. The Slitheen first appeared in the first series of the show's 2005 revival in the two-part story "Aliens of London" and "World War Three", where they attempt to destroy Earth to sell its remains for profit. A single Slitheen, named Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen (Annette Badland), escapes the subsequent destruction of the family at the end of "World War Three", and reappears later in the series in the episode "Boom Town", where she becomes Lord Mayor of Cardiff and attempts to escape the planet by destroying Earth. Subsequently, the Slitheen recur in spin-off media such as comics, books, and audio dramas in Doctor Who. They also appear as major recurring antagonists in the spin-off television series The Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Slitheen were created by Russell T Davies while writing "Aliens of London" and "World War Three", being inspired to write a crime family from various sources. They were conceived to be appealing to children and had several aspects of their character designed around this fact. The Slitheen were portrayed via physical costumes, though partially portrayed by CGI in certain shots.

During filming of their debut episodes, Davies was impressed by the performance of Badland as Blon resulting in Davies bringing her back for "Boom Town" to portray Blon following the events of the two-parter. Subsequently, Davies pitched the concept for spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures with the idea of Sarah Jane Smith fighting the Slitheen. This inclusion was cited to be because they were popular with children and would help attract viewers of Doctor Who to The Sarah Jane Adventures. The Slitheen were initially criticised by critics, with many disliking the childish humor and lack of narrative weight they were treated with, however Blon's return in "Boom Town" was highlighted for providing greater depth to the family, with their later character depth receiving analysis. The feasibility of the family in real life has also been explored and analysed.

Appearances

Doctor Who

thumb|A Slitheen, as seen on display at the [[Doctor Who Experience|Doctor Who Experience]]

Doctor Who is a long-running British science-fiction television series that began in 1963. It stars its protagonist, The Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space in a ship known as the TARDIS, as well as their travelling companions. When the Doctor dies, they are able to undergo a process known as "regeneration", completely changing the Doctor's appearance and personality. Throughout their travels, the Doctor often comes into conflict with various alien species and antagonists.

The Slitheen are a criminal family of Raxicoricofallapatorians, a species who hail from the planet Raxicoricofallapatorius. They are capable of disguising themselves as humans via skin suits, but the process causes a buildup of "gas exchange", causing the Slitheen to fart while in disguise. They are susceptible to vinegar due to being calcium-based lifeforms, causing them to explode on contact with vinegar. Davies put emphasis on the fact the Slitheen had to be "big and green". Wanting to make them appealing to children, he made them fart while disguised and additionally gave them a gimmick children could easily mimic, which became the motion of the Slitheen unzipping their skin suits via a zipper on their foreheads.

Davies' original script describes the Slitheen as being around "eight feet tall", with lots of spikes, a babyish face, a posture akin to an "upright prawn", and slime leaking from their mouths. The design that would be used in the final episode were designed by Edward Thomas and Bryan Hitch, with some alterations made from Davies' original script. The design team at Millenium FX was concerned about the realizability of the Slitheen as physical costumes, and suggested computer-generated imagery be used to depict them instead. Davies insisted the Slitheen be portrayed by actors, leading to the construction of the costumes. The team predicted they would need six weeks to construct the Slitheen costumes, but they only had around three weeks to do so. The costumes used in the episode were constructed on lifecasts, and made out of fibreglass and foam latex. Actors were able to see out of the costumes through the costume's necks, with heads being mounted onto the actor's own. The heads' mouths were able to be radio controlled, though the eyes were not, with CGI being used to depict the eyes blinking. A suggestion to have the actors wear stilts in the costumes to gain extra height was scrapped so the actors would be more comfortable in the costumes.

The Slitheen were originally planned to appear in 2006 two-part story "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit", where, now disgraced and seeking to redeem themselves, they would have acted as servants in the episodes. Their role would be replaced by a new creation: the Ood, with the Ood serving a servant role in the family's place. According to Davies, he originally planned for some Slitheen, including a child version of Blon, to appear in "The Stolen Earth" (2008) as a cameo alongside a large number of other monsters from throughout the show's revival. Badland had already recorded her single line for the episode before the scene was cut.

The Sarah Jane Adventures

The original pitch for The Sarah Jane Adventures was the idea of "Sarah Jane versus the Slitheen." The Slitheen were considered optimal monsters for the series for several reasons: the physical costumes allowed them to physically interact with the cast, which was important to the design team, and they were popular with children, which would help bring some of the general Doctor Who audience onto The Sarah Jane Adventures. This resulted in the Slitheen's role as the main antagonists of Revenge of the Slitheen. Several new costumes were created for the family, as the original costumes from Doctor Who had deteriorated due to their display at public exhibitions. The production team for the series wanted them to return for the finale of the show's first series, thus resulting in their presence in The Lost Boy. The original script would have depicted the Blathereen using Rakweed, then called Yorrum Grass, to convert Earth into a new Raxicoricofallapatorius. The Slitheen would have had a larger role, with Sarah Jane and the others allying with a child Slitheen to stop the spread before the child betrayed them for the Blathereen. The episode would have ended with them being handed over to military organisation UNIT, with the child Slitheen declaring revenge. Arnold T. Blumburg, writing for Now Playing, highlighted the Slitheen costumes as "nicely designed monsters," though criticized the usage of zippers on their in-universe skin suits, as well as the childish humor surrounding the Slitheen. Alasdair Wilkins, writing for The A.V. Club, defended the Slitheen's associated fart humor, but criticized how the two-parter doesn't "...take the Slitheen themselves seriously," citing his disappointment, "...because there's plenty of intelligence in how the two-parter portrays the Slitheen." The Slitheen have been characterised as an example of external forces influencing the government from within in media. Marc DiPaolo, writing about political satire in Doctor Who, cited the family as an example of this satire; he stated that the Slitheen acted "as an allegorized dramatization of the 9/11 conspiracy theory presented by Thierry Meyssan in the book L'Effroyable imposture," comparing the Slitheen's plot of using the UK government to cause domestic terror to the conspiracy theory that the US President George W. Bush staged the September 11 attacks.

Graham Sleight, writing in The Doctor's Monsters: Meanings of the Monstrous in Doctor Who, stated that the Slitheen acted as creatures that acted as a "compilation album of good bits", with different aspects of the monsters existing only to serve certain roles within individual scenes. Sleight highlighted "Boom Town" for expanding on the Slitheen and giving them greater depth as monsters, allowing them to be creatures who can be good or evil and be judged as individuals, not just for who they are. Mulkern, in his review of "Boom Town", praised Badland's performance in the episode, highlighting the nuance brought to the role by her, which Mulkern believed helped offset the sillier aspects of the Slitheen and bring unexpected depth to the character.

Priya Dixit, writing in the piece Relating to Difference: Aliens and Alienness in "Doctor Who" and International Relations, stated that the show's expansion of the character of Blon helped to illustrate that, despite the traditional views of aliens as Others, aliens were just like humans, and are only judged to be different when viewed from a human-centric standpoint. Dixit describes how the Slitheen's farting factors into this, as the Slitheen are seen as "alien" or "abnormal" for their frequent farting, despite the fact this farting is not inherently an alien concept.

A physics paper for The University of Leicester calculated the force of the Slitheen's compression fields, which are used to help them fit in their skinsuits in universe. The book The Science of Doctor Who analysed the scientific realism of the Slitheen's compression field technology and their status as calcium-based lifeforms, with the book deeming both to be likely impossible to exist in real-life.

References

  • Slitheen on the official Doctor Who website's character section