The Psychology of the Slitheen

The Psychology of the Slitheen
In this article, I will review the thoughts and the meanings of events in Aliens of London & World War Three. This article will have my opinions in; for the thoughts, as we do not know.

Situation 1
Let’s start off by looking at the cabinet room in the episode Aliens of London. Here are the people who are there:

·        Jocrassa Fel-Fotch Passameer Day Slitheen (in disguise as Joseph Green)

·        Rup Fel-Fotch Passameer Day Slitheen (in disguise as Oliver Charles)

·        Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer Day Slitheen (in disguise as Margaret Blaine)

·        General Asquith (Human)

General Asquith is wondering what has been going on as the ‘default’ prime minister, Joseph Green has not been doing anything, he is questioning the trio. The Slitheen are thinking that they can still let their plan succeed, without unmasking at the moment. At this point, the Slitheen are not being sensible and are just laughing when they fart. With the situation heating up, Asquith decides to remove Green from the prime minister position.

Joseph instantly answers back by saying “I’m scared,” in a sarcastic way. This sarcasm shows that Joseph knows the Slitheen have got full control in this situation and Asquith is just saying meaningless things. With Joseph continuing answering back to Asquith, he says: “I mean that’s hair raising. I mean literally. Look!” Jocrassa, then begins to unzip: with Blon and Rup then going onto unmask.

Meaning for unmasking:

If we look deeper into this situation, you think there is 1 meaning being the trio unmasking: to kill Asquith. I personally think there are 3 meanings in this situation.

1)      The obvious one to kill Asquith as he is required for the plan. (I won’t go into the plot :P)

2)     To scare Asquith: I think that the Slitheen had viewed him as challenging them too much, of course most people are scared when they unmask; but it is not intended.

3)     To dominate the situation: think about it. Rup was the one who was going to kill him for his skin. Blon and Jocrassa could have just stayed in their suits.

Summary for Situation 1:

The Slitheen felt challenged in this situation, so they unmasked to show that they are dominating the situation.

Situation 2
Let’s go forward to the meeting of the alien experts with Rup (Asquith) and Jocrassa (Green.) With everyone having a minute looking through the summaries of the events over the last 24 hours: Rup begins to read out, with the Doctor interrupting him. The Doctor notices the very small important things and he starts to read them out. Rup and Jocrassa look at each other. With the Doctor carrying on making sense of everything: Jocrassa farts. The Doctor turns around and says: “Do you mind not farting when I’m saving the world?” With Jocrassa answering back: “Would you rather silent but deadly?”

This reaches the points, where the brothers: Rup and Jocrassa look at each other. Rup begins to unmask in front of the experts. Jocrassa is looking at them and laughing. Rup is growling when he is unmasking in front of the experts: with Jocrassa still laughing. When he is finally out of the suit, he looks at the Doctor and the experts saying “We are the Slitheen.”

Meaning for unmasking:

In this situation, you instantly think there is just 1 meaning. Looking at it again we can see there are 3 meanings, and are all similar with Situation 1.

1)     To reveal the Slitheen to the experts, so they can see they’re already in the trap.

2)     To scare the experts: we know this for sure, as Rup was growling when he was unmasking. (When unmasking normally, Slitheen make groaning/squelchy noises.)

3)     To show the Doctor that he is not dominating the situation. The doctor took control earlier on, the Slitheen were reclaiming it back.

Summary for Situation 2:

Jocrassa and Rup knew the plan was being figured out, and that the trap was being recognised. Luckily for the Slitheen, Jocrassa farted creating a distraction so it was a good time for the situation to begin. The Slitheen were questioned in this situation. Making the Doctor and the experts know that they are one step ahead.

Overall Summary

The Slitheen unmask when they feel it is necessary to, the main reasons in AoL and WWIII, were:

·        To kill.

·        To reveal themselves.

·        To show that they are dominating the situation.

·        To hunt people down.

·        To be naked:

1)      To release pressure from the gas exchange.

2)      So they are in their natural form.