Slitheen - Physical Characteristics

Physical Characteristics

Raxacoricofallapatorians are eight feet tall, rather fat with long forearms and powerful claws. They do not appear to have eyelids, but have a nictitating membrane. They have a highly-developed sense of smell, able to track a single target across a few city blocks, smell adrenaline and hormones in people, and can sense if one of their own dies. Female Raxacoricofallapatorians can produce poisons within their bodies which they then use against their enemies. Known methods of delivery include a poisoned dart that is formed in the finger and then fired and exhalation of poisoned breath. Members of the Slitheen family have green skin, though there is variation in the skin tone of other Raxacoricofallapatorian families. In The Sarah Jane Adventures episode, The Gift, members of the Slitheen-Blathereen family group are seen to have orange skin.

The Slitheen disguise themselves by fitting into the skins of their victims, using compression fields created by a collar worn around their necks to squeeze their huge size into a slightly smaller space. Initially the compression ratio was limited, so the disguises tended to be that of obese people. This issue was overcome by new technology by the time of The Lost Boy in which the skins of thinner people were used (by the time of From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love short people could also be used). The exchange of gases that compression entails also builds up within the acquired skin, causing a very loud fart in humans (the expelled gas smells like bad breath, which the Doctor noted was a form of calcium decay, although in reality the bacteria that cause tooth decay are different from those that cause bad breath). This side-effect is also overcome by the newer technology in The Lost Boy.