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Slitheen
Slitheen
In a respectable tenth place, it’s the Slitheen.
These extraterrestrial invaders are a ruthless criminal family of aliens from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius, whose main concern seems to be crooked business deals and the maximization of profit. The Slitheen are essentially business tycoons, they are business orientated with an eye for profit (nothing wrong with a bit of that - the Editor). Standing at around eight feet tall, with green skin, long arms, vicious claws and large over-hanging beer-bellies, the Slitheen are extremely ugly creatures. The Slitheen have developed shape-shifting technology. This means they can disguise themselves by taking the form of other beings. They do this by using a compression field created by a collar worn around their necks. The method though, has its limits. Because they are large aliens, they can only shape-shift into over-sized people. But once they have identified there prey, death inevitably follows, allowing the Slitheen to turn their victim into a skin suit. Once inside, the Slitheen copy looks completely real; unfortunately, though, the compression technology is crap and leads to the build up of gasses causing a condition similar to flatulence in humans. So, with their over-sized bodies and tendency to break wind, these baby-faced creatures appear to be rather clumsy and awkward. But looks can be deceptive. They are in fact a lot worse than this. They are ruthless profiteerers, and will stop at nothing in their pursuit of the green stuff. No-one stands in their way... Check-out the ending to Aliens of London. This is the best clifhanger since episode three of the Deadly Assasin (a Tom Baker classic from 1976 - the Editor). What we have here is in effect not one but three seperate cliff-hangers; we just don't see one Slitheen unmasking, but three, and each one involving the three main characters. Anyway... You could argue the Slitheen are not really villains at all. They are bad, yes, but evil, well that really is a matter of opinion. Certainly, they are not in the same league as the Daleks and Cybermen; their motivation for visiting earth was neither conquest nor colonization, they wished only to make a fast buck. So what if that meant turning the planet into nuclear fuel. The galactic economy was knackered and required a new source of energy. The Slitheen were merely servicing a gap in the market. Nothing wrong with that. Business is business! So really, the Slitheen are just good old-fashioned entrepreneurs looking to expand their money-making opportunities. Therefore, they cannot be classed as super-villains as such; nevertheless their dodgy Arthur Daley-like dealings have them sneaking just inside the top ten. So all hail the Slytheen. That’s what I say!









