Slitheen
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, 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''
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.
The Slitheen first appear in the 2005 episodes "Aliens of London" and "World War Three". In the episodes, the Slitheen have infiltrated the Government of the United Kingdom, replacing many key political figures. They crash a spaceship, piloted by a pig, into Big Ben, causing a state of world panic. The family wished to use this paranoia to allow the United Nations to let the government utilise its nuclear arsenal against a supposed alien threat; with this nuclear arsenal, the Slitheen will destroy the planet, selling the leftover chunks as spaceship fuel. The Ninth Doctor and his allies are able to arrange for a Harpoon missile to demolish 10 Downing Street, killing all of the Slitheen and averting the crisis.
A single Slitheen from the invasion survived. Appearing in the 2005 episode "Boom Town", Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen assumed the identity of Margaret Blaine of MI5, and slowly worked her way up to the position of Lord Mayor of Cardiff. Blon planned to channel nuclear power into an alien device, which would allow her to escape the planet at the cost of the planet's destruction. Blon cornered the Ninth Doctor and his allies in the TARDIS, at which point she was exposed to the "heart" of the ship. This reverted her back to an egg, which the Doctor took back to her home planet so she could have a chance at a peaceful life. Following this, a Slitheen appeared in the 2005 mini-episode "Attack of the Graske", in which one is captured by an alien called a Graske. It is released from its prison and attacks the Graske.
Spin-off media
The Slitheen would appear in several pieces of spin-off media for the series. They appear in the novel The Monsters Inside, in which a pair of them ally with the Doctor to help stop an invasion attempt by the Blathereen. The 2009 novel The Slitheen Excursion depicts the Tenth Doctor attempting to foil a Slitheen plot in ancient Rome. Big Finish audio dramas Death on the Mile and The Taste of Death see further plots by the Slitheen, with the former being thwarted by the Doctor's friend Lady Christina de Souza, while the latter is stopped by the Tenth Doctor.Blon would re-appear in the 2019 audio drama Sync, which depicted her prior to the events of "Boom Town". Blon investigates a crashed spaceship in the hopes of leaving Earth, finding Suzie Costello at the site. The two work together to stop an alien race called the Elyrians, and the two part ways. She also appeared in the 2017-2018 comic strip A Confusion of Angels, in which she is shown following the events of "Boom Town". Having joined an intergalactic police body known as the Shadow Proclamation, she aids the Twelfth Doctor against robots known as the Heavenly Host.
''The Sarah Jane Adventures''
The spin-off television series The Sarah Jane Adventures saw the return of the Slitheen. They first appeared in 2007 episode Revenge of the Slitheen, which depicts the family as they plan to avenge the deaths of the family who invaded Downing Street by shutting off the Sun and destroying Earth. Though the rest of them are killed after their machinery malfunctions and explodes, a child Slitheen named Korst is able to escape. Korst re-appears in 2007 episode The Lost Boy, in which he recruits two other Slitheen to pretend to be character Luke Smith's real parents, forcing Sarah Jane Smith, who had adopted him, to give him back to his supposed "real" family. The Slitheen teamed up with Sarah Jane's alien computer, Mr. Smith to destroy the planet using Luke's intellect, which would allow the Slitheen to avenge their family members' deaths and for Mr. Smith to free other members of his race known as the Xylok. Upon discovering that they would perish before being able to escape the exploding planet, they help Sarah Jane stop Mr. Smith's plan. They leave peacefully following his defeat.The Slitheen appear again in the 2009 charity special "From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love", where one masquerades as an alien diplomat to steal Sarah Jane's robot dog K-9. They then re-appear in the 2009 episode The Gift, where a group of Slitheen have their plans seemingly foiled by a group of Blathereen, who are another family that hails from Raxicoricofallapatorius. The Blathereen offer humanity a plant called Rakweed as a peaceful gesture. However, it's revealed that the Blathereen that are present are actually related to the Slitheen, and are criminals. Specialised sound waves are used to destroy the Rakweed, which includes the Rakweed that the Blathereen had eaten, causing the Blathereen to be killed. A Slitheen later makes a brief appearance in The Nightmare Man, in which one captures the main characters before it is killed by Clyde Langer, who throws a bucket of vinegar at it.
Conception and development
''Doctor Who''
Writer and then-showrunner Russell T Davies, while writing "Aliens of London" and "World War Three", was inspired by the BBC2 serial Edge of Darkness. Wanting to do a Doctor Who-themed take on the serial, he conceived the idea of an alien criminal family, which was also partially inspired by the Aubertide family, who had appeared in the Doctor Who spin-off novel Human Nature. 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.
When the Slitheen were brought on set, the production team realised that though the costumes were impressive, the Slitheen would have been better realised via CGI. Scenes where the Slitheen had to emerge from their skinsuits were done by having actors wear entirely green costumes, with the skinsuits worn on top, in order to allow for the Slitheen emerging from the suits to be added in post-production via CGI. Slitheen dialogue was read by a crew-member on set, with the dialogue later dubbed on top in post-production. Sequences in which they chased the characters was done via CGI instead of using the costumes.
While filming "World War Three", Davies stood in as the Doctor during rehearsals, at which time he saw Annette Badland's performance as a Slitheen. Impressed, he decided he wanted to bring Badland's character back later in the season. Due to the contents of Doctor Who series 1's eleventh episode not yet having a concrete plan, Davies saw it as an opportunity to revisit Badland's character, Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen. This also helped the episode keep its budget down, as the production team could re-use the Slitheen costumes and CGI models from previous episodes. A Slitheen arm prop was re-used from prior episodes in a scene in which Blon grasps character Rose Tyler in her human disguise, with the prop that was used to portray Blon's egg also being re-used, in this case from the episode "The End of the World".
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" 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.