Are the Slitheen the Most Underrated New Who Monster?

Guest contributor Connor Michie believes the Raxacoricofallapatorians deserve another shot.

From reading certain online discussion, I find the general theme and opinion is that the Slitheen from Series One are generally not well liked, which is fair enough. However, my own opinion has been constantly positive towards the Raxacoricofallapatorians, and I think that this family and the race in general is a bit underrated, and that is what I shall discuss further in this article.

For a family show, I think that the Slitheen were actually a well-crafted alien. They have huge 8ft bodies, and long claws on the end of their extensive arms, and considering their speed running through the halls of Downing Street, this bunch of natural hunters sound like they really should not be messed with… until you see their baby face. That description of enormous and wild natural hunters is lightened for the younger audience by giving the Slitheen oversized, innocent eyes, a little button nose and some infant-like plump cheeks. Giving the Slitheen the face of something more creepy, like the chillingly original and alien Ood (which makes for an interesting mental image), would surely have been too frightening for the younger audience?

The same goes with their method of infiltrating the British government by murdering politicians and police officers, along with other people such as Sylvia Dillane, director of the North Sea Boating Club. The idea of killing an innocent individual and then wearing their skin to achieve what you want is quite a dark theme in my opinion, but arguably not as dark as the ones in Dark Water, but that is a different debate.

It could be argued then that the race wouldn’t work in this current darker era, but since Mr Moffat has mentioned that Series 9 will be “funnier,” you never know. The element of the creatures’ flatulence is used in the same way of a baby-faced alien – to lighten and balance the theme of ‘murdering a person and wearing their skin’.

If they were to return, I think that the graphics of today would allow for the already rather unnerving unzipping and decompressing of the 8ft killer after a blue glow and a warbling eerie sound of undressing, to be greatly improved, so they could be creepier than ever.

I think that there are quite a few different aliens species that have been seen in New Who just the once, but they have a good platform to make a return. Another race, the Sycorax, I think would have a fantastic opportunity to come back. The Sycorax have a whole context and mythology and copious opportunities to return in the Whoniverse.

Some races and settings in New Who have been so well established but only seen once, and I think that we should see a bit more of them. Doctor Who has seen the return of the Ice Warriors, the Silurians, the Great Intelligence, and more, but i’d love to see the return of some more recent adversaries, and I think that the Slitheen would be perfect. They deserve another opportunity.

So that’s my opinion, but I am aware that there a lot of other monsters that also deserve a comeback. Or do we need more new monsters in Doctor Who? Let me know your thoughts below.