Moderator's Note: This is Mike's original Slitheen summary:

The new series contribution to the Doctor's rogues gallery is bit of a mixed bag. Scary, yes; evil, yes--but gassy? And with dreadful halitosis? Well, they're certainly the smelliest Who villain.



Yeah, I agree they stink too.

It wouldn't suprise me one bit if we see them again in series 2 or 3, not the Slitheen but another family (or individual) from their race. Hopefully with no gas exchange.

Well, they're certainly the smelliest Who villain.

Though Kroll DID produce a lot of methane...

It wouldn't suprise me one bit if we see them again in series 2 or 3, not the Slitheen but another family (or individual) from their race.

Most non-Slitheen Raxacoricofallapatorians are actually highly civilised. OK, so they dip their criminals in acid till all their internal organs plop out - whilst they're still alive to feel it - and then drink the resultant soup, but hey, who are we to judge?

Hopefully with no gas exchange.

Sadly The Monsters Inside revealed that the gas exchange problems still hadn't been fixed in FIVE HUNDRED YEARS' time.

I admit I could do with a bit - actually a lot - less farting, but the Slitheen are adorable! Which other alien monstrosities have actually dragged the Doctor out on a dinner date? In bondage? Or ask why they'd want to invade this godforsaken planet? Or have so much FUN taking over? Or have such an affectionate, close-knit family? Or explode in such a disgusting way? Which other alien monstrosities have actually had the courage to tell the Doctor to his face that he's a murderer* and should face up to that for once? 'You butchered my family and ran for the stars, am I right? Well, not this time. This time you have consequences...'

*Oh, OK, I suppose the Dalek in Dalek did that too...

Why DID Margaret insist on dragging the Doctor on that date, anyway? A way of passing the time till her extrapolator started working? Of punishing him for murdering her family? Of seeing - from intellectual curiousity - if she could talk her way out of being executed?

And if Margaret HAD succeeded in murdering him, as attempted (three times) what did she expect to do afterwards? She couldn't move more than a few feet away thanks to the handcuffs, and, whilst she would be more than capable of carrying his body back to the TARDIS, quite a lot of people might have noticed their Lord Mayor wandering around with a corpse slung over her back.

And, given that she DID try to worm her way out of trouble, why start by cheerfully admitting that she'd wipe out the human race 'like stepping on an ant-hill'?

I was right about seeing them again, in that Attack of the Greske thingie. It's even referred to as a Slitheen. How the Doctor knew its lineage is beyond me, but the Greske thing is virtually beyond nitpicking for a variety of reasons. For starters there's no board. (not a request really.)

Speaking of boards, this one is misnamed.

Back to the Boomtown dinner. I thought it odd that no one recognized her and came up to her, threrby noticing the handcuffs.

And could she have possibly broken the handcuffs by just turning off her matter compressor? (That may have been addressed. I don't remember.)

And regarding the summary and earlier posts, we don't know if the gas exchange actually produced a small. Unless I'm forgetting something, no one reacted that way, except the Slitheen who would have pretended so.

I thought Margaret was distracting/stalling the Doctor, so he wouldn't discover her real plan.

If she was ready to escape on the TARDIS energy wave, I'm sure she'd have no problem running through Wales with a dead Doctor on her back.

Speaking of boards, this one is misnamed.

Why?

I thought it odd that no one recognized her and came up to her, threrby noticing the handcuffs.

Well, Margaret was quite sensibly (if not as sensibly as killing someone else and stealing THEIR body) camera-shy ('I can't bear self-publicity'), presumably on the grounds that Harriet might have recognised her.

And could she have possibly broken the handcuffs by just turning off her matter compressor?

That's a point...or just ripping off her human arm, as she did to grab Rose. It should have occurred to the TARDIS crew that they were taking too great a risk, but then Captain Jack was obviously desperate to use his handcuffs, and the Doctor was obviously desperate for a date.

Why didn't Margaret use the teleport as soon as she knew that the Doctor ('Just the Doctor', tee hee) was right outside? Instead of trying to climb out of the window and run away. Alright, she didn't know that the Doctor had his team of crack commandos (I exaggerate slightly) covering all exits, but all the same...she DOES grab for the teleport in emergencies or she'd never have survived World War Three, where all any of her brothers had time to do was say 'Oh boll-'.

Speaking of the other Slitheen (Slitheens?) - one getting exploded with vinegar is sensed by his siblings. Margaret is physically unscathed when ALL her Family on Earth get blown up. And yet electrocuting one of them electrocutes the whole Family, even the one miles away - why? (Other than to get out of a triple cliff-hanger, obviously.)

we don't know if the gas exchange actually produced a small.

You mean smell? Yeah, the farting definitely smelled (of bad breath) but there's no evidence they actually had halitosis.

I thought Margaret was distracting/stalling the Doctor, so he wouldn't discover her real plan.

Oh. Yeah, good point. I thought it was stupid of her to leave juicy potential hostages like Rose, but come to think of it she scarpered with Mickey, so it WAS more sensible of Margaret to get the Doctor away from the TARDIS while her extrapolator went to work.

Incidentally...rather than blowing up Earth and pan-dimensionally surfboarding her way across the universe, wouldn't it have been easier for Margaret to discover who'd taken her 'parked, not crashed' spaceship and then stuffed herself inside a Torchwood (UNIT. Whatever.) skinsuit, recovered her property, and left THAT way?

According to 'Doctor Who: The Inside Story' RTG was actually gonna use Slitheen instead of Ood in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, to save money. How would THAT have worked?

Instead of zapping people with translation globes, the Slitheen could have gassed everyone to death.

Sorry, couldn't resist...

I never really much cared for these creatures. Doctor Who should be above such crude things as fart jokes. This is NOT some lame Yankee sitcom, it's DOCTOR WHO!!

No, they're not my favorite either. The non-CGI ones are too panto-looking, almost as bad as the Merka.

Oh, the Slitheen are lovely! Sure, in the Bad Old Days I'd've had fits of screaming hysteria at the thought of degrading Who with farting monsters...And that scene where they're farting and giggling at General Asquith goes on FOREVER, but that's the fault of the director, not the Slitheen (Boak's scene of Auton brides also went on forever, and as for the Aliens of London cliffhanger...)...And, of course, the CGI ones don't look particularly similar to the costumed ones, BUT...seriously...can you IMAGINE life without the immortal line 'Excuse me. D'you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?'

(Apparently MINOR SPOILERS FOR END OF TIME Captain Jack was originally gonna snog a Slitheen - before RTG decided to bring back his beloved Alonso instead. Have to admit I regret not seeing that.)

So...with the SJA gone...are the Slitheen gone too? The costumes will probably have degraded by now so there won't be a cost incentive to reuse them. And Moffat doesn't seem that keen on 'em - I don't think they even appeared in the Alliance of Evil, though considerably less plausible creatures did.

I never much liked them. Too goofy looking and the constant farting was grade school.

But they only constantly-farted when that idiot Boak was directing them. Blon didn't fart ONCE during her date with the Doctor.

RTG in DWM: 'I loved that fact that in the Human Nature novel, the villains were a family, instead of an entire species. In fact, I'd nicked that concept for the Slitheen' - hell, was it really THAT original a concept?!

Didn't World War Three say that Slitheen farts smelt of bad breath or tooth decay or something? Why does Revenge of the Slitheen say they smell of batteries?

(Gods, the depths to which a nitpicker will sink...)

So why exactly are the SLITHEEN joining the Armies of Evil in the skies above Trenzalore? They're a small criminal family. What on Earth did they think THEY could do to save the universe from, um, a scary voice that THE DALEKS, THE CYBERMEN etc etc couldn't? I don't remember 'em joining the LAST Alliance of Evil in Pandorica Opens...

So why exactly are the SLITHEEN joining the Armies of Evil in the skies above Trenzalore? They're a small criminal family.

Obviously, those were not Slitheen, they were simply members of the same species.

I can certainly imagine the Raxacoricofallipatorians, with their love of justice and their extreme ruthlessness, being in on the Siege of Trenzalore...but why would anyone CALL them Slitheen if they weren't from that particular family? It would be like calling the human invaders of your planet the Joneses, or something.

Well, the Doctor returned ONE Slitheen to her homeworld, in the form of an egg. Maybe as she grew up again, she became a respected member of her society, married, had a lot of respectable little Slitheen and thus founded a dynasty that ended up, after many generations, being the natural choice of soldiers to send to Trenzalore.

Or maybe Moffat forgot that Slitheen is NOT the name of the species, but a family name instead.

It would be like calling the human invaders of your planet the Joneses, or something.

You wouldn't do it, and I wouldn't do it, but a bunch of average Joes would.

Well, the Doctor returned ONE Slitheen to her homeworld, in the form of an egg. Maybe as she grew up again, she became a respected member of her society, married, had a lot of respectable little Slitheen and thus founded a dynasty that ended up, after many generations, being the natural choice of soldiers to send to Trenzalore.

But surely no none (least of all Blon herself) would KNOW her egg was a Slitheen one? (At least unless she grew up REALLY REALLY evil instead of a respected member of society, as I strongly suspect was the case, and they had her DNA tested and turned into soup...)

Or maybe Moffat forgot that Slitheen is NOT the name of the species, but a family name instead.

He can't possibly have FORGOTTEN! He's a FAN! He must have watched each episode of Season 1/27 TEN TIMES, like the rest of us!

You wouldn't do it, and I wouldn't do it, but a bunch of average Joes would.

Truth be told, I never much cared for these aliens. If I want fart jokes, I'll watch Two And A Half Men.

Gotta have SOMETHING to keep the kiddies happy while the rest of us enjoy the philosophical debate about the death penalty...

Doctor Who should be above such juvenile humour like that.

One of the many things I love about Who is that it NEVER considers itself 'above' anything.

About Time: 'Rose has ceased being the audience-identification character. She has spent the last two episodes being the mouthpiece through which Steven Moffat slags off all previous Doctor Who...Mickey is simply too needy to have our sympathy. So the viewpoint character for [Boom Town] is a flatulent reptile who is trying to blow up the world.' - WERE the audience sympathising with Blon's nasty questions to the Doctor? Do we really CARE if his happy-go-lucky existence leaves devastation in its wake?

The Lost Boy:

Who put the kid in charge of the whole mission anyway? One thing I've always liked about the Slitheen is the way they keep their offspring in line - by having 'em eaten by Venom Grubs if necessary.

I know the Slitheen love a good gloat, but TELLING Luke this process will kill him will hardly help ensure his co-operation.

So the super-genius never foresaw that a super-brain might just overheat the equipment? NEVER send a kid to do an adult's work.

Why do the Slitheen fall for Sarah's 'Mr Smith sent me here and he's betrayed you' story. (Alright, so it's TRUE. That's not the POINT.)

The Slitheen just fly merrily on their way without dismembering Sarah or anything? They HONOUR their pact?

'They're not going to be scary, however you shoot them' - Keith Boak re the Slitheen. Funny, cos every OTHER director managed to produce a few spine-chilling moments with the Slitheen. Even in a so-called kids' show like the SJA. Probably by dint of NOT having them fart non-stop and NOT elongating their cliffhangers past the point of sanity? Just a thought.

Annette Badland: 'I can terrify young people, even now. I just have to reach for my fringe, which is a tactic I use when I'm in the supermarket. Shamelessly! Slowly raising the hand to the forehead does it' - ooooh yeah. SO much for NOT GOING TO BE SCARY, Mr Boak.

'You've done me a favour, all the more treasure for me' says 'Sir Edward' the Slitheen after the rest of his family are vinegared to death in Big Finish's Lady Chrstina: Death on the Mile. At first I was outraged that the main USP of the Slitheen - their familial devotion - was spat all over in this disrespectful manner by this second-rate audio. Then I started to think that OF COURSE you can, and should, show a returning alien species diverging from its original appearance. And it's only FEELINGS, it's not like the Slitheen are developing magic powers totally at variance with everything we know about 'em a la the Weeping Angels.

But it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It just makes the Slitheen so much less interesting.

Plus Sir Edward says he has embarrassingly big claws. Like ANY Slitheen would ever start developing body dysmorphia over their darling CLAWS.

SJA: The Gift:

'Now, nothing can stop us from turning this scuzzy little planet into a massive money-spinner' - you know, if you hate Earth so much ('godforsaken rock') AND human skin-suits ('Victory should be naked!') why don't you bloody invade SOMEWHERE ELSE for a change?

I mean, sure, 'This little planet's stuffed full of carbon' but surely so are a LOT of other ones?

*Spends two seconds on research to spare Francois having to explain for a change*

'A carbon planet is a theoretical type of planet that contains more carbon than oxygen. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen' - HA! I KNEW IT!

And yes, Rakweed grows very fast here but you know the thing about Rakweed? It grows very fast ANYWHERE.

'By order of the High Council of Raxas Prime' - the what of what?

Ah well, they ARE pathological liars, they probably just made that bit up. Along with all that Slitheen-took-over-Raxacoricofallapatorius-and-were-overthrown stuff.

'The destruction of the undigested Rakweed created methane gas. It could not be contained' - IS that what would happen if a plant just shrivelled and died inside you (well, if you're a Slitheen)?

So what do the Blathereen do with their captured Slitheen, exactly? I don't THINK they were faking their planet-suppressing just so the Blathereen could lull Sarah Jane into a false sense of security by defeating them?

Aliens of London/World War Three:

The Slitheen are just so HAPPY, honestly, couldn't they have invaded SOMEWHERE ELSE where they could revel in their glee instead of somewhere that meddlesome Doctor was just gonna RUIN things for them?

(Of course, they DID infiltrate the planet Justicia (Monsters Inside novel) AND the planet MXQ1 (Taste of Death audio) and that pesky Doctor STILL thwarted them so actually I'm starting to think Blon had a point about this being persecution...)

Jeez, the Slitheen can compress a planet into a diamond (SJA: The Gift) but can't invent ID cards that kill you QUICKLY?

ASQUITH: Let the sport begin.
GREEN: I'm getting poisoned by the gas exchange. I need to be naked.- shouldn't the announcement of a hunt have AUTOMATICALLY resulted in everyone getting naked?
ASQUITH: Rejoice in it. Your body is magnificent. - Um, aren't they...brothers?

'Little human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips' - the Doctor had a DATE with this creature. BUT NOT WITH ME.

So Blon is in charge of cloakroom duties? Am I being unduly paranoid to suspect this is because she's the only female Slitheen?

They're FIGHTING over costumes when they're about to get blown up?

Boom Town:

'I'd have surfed away from this dead end dump and back to civilisation.' - you really couldn't just hitch a lift on the nearest spaceship (a la Captain Jack at the end of Children of Earth, for example)?

'You're very quick to say so. You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood, which makes you better than me, how, exactly?' - er, cos they're offing one mass-murderer not an entire planet you moron?

Who says 'thank you' when being reverted to an embryo?