Cooper Hawkes from Space: Above and Beyond
Hawkes is so, so Sci Fi. He's an In-Vitro, home grown instead of the usual way. In-Vitros were second class citizens, and I remember one particular story line where he was being brainwashed in their institution, and he wondered who watched the birds -- and the question was so beautiful and poignant it broke my heart. But he was brave and he bucked the system, gave the man what for. (Just for the record, there were a lot of good characters in that show and I didn't dislike any of them. Hawkes just happens to be my bestest, and everybody should go watch the show right now.)
Admiral Adama from Battlestar Galactica
Coolest admiral ever. I just fell in love with this character as BSG progressed. Even when the Story Line turned weird and half baked, he was still awesome. I think I like him so much because he was so very human.
Sam Adama from Caprica
Gangster. Lover. Father figure. Season's not even half over and he's already more complicated than some people on the list. *HUGS* (I should also add that his brother, Joseph, is pretty cool too, but I gravitate more towards Sam.)
Ianto and Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood
BBC goes where American Television is too scared to go.
McKay and Zelenka from Stargate: Atlantis
Genius, funny, socially inept? Can totally relate to that (well, not the genius or the funny parts).
This is Zalenka. He is my personal hero because he's always in McKay's shadow. However, Stargate missed a wonderful opportunity. See, they mistakenly gave McKay numerous love interests such as Carter, some random biology chick, and Keller, but what the writers and head honchos didn't realize is that Zalenka and McKay are
In Love With Each Other.
So much chemistry on screen - these pics don't even do them justice. All that potential, wasted. Stargate, this is why I love you so much - but why don't you ever follow through!
Demetri Noh and Al Gough from Flashforward
Oh, Flashfoward. I'm so in love with you - do you even know? ABC, please please please don't cancel Flashforward. Because I'm in love with Demetri Noh (above), who didn't receive a flashforward and even though he puts on the tough FBI agent act, he's still so very scared.
I can't babble on about Al Gough (above) like I want to because if I did there'd be spoilers, but he was the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. I salute you, Mr. Gough.
Harry Kim from Star Trek: Voyager
Oh, Harry - so neglected by the script writers. Any idiot should have known that you had so much more character than They allowed you to have. Even a nincompoop knows that you had more character than stupid Tom Paris who still managed to get more screen time and story than you. And I don't care what the scriptwriters said, you and Seven of Nine had more chemistry than any pairing on that show. So there.
Daniel Jackson from Stargate Sg-1
He has glasses - always a bonus point, but he's also an archeologist and his brain is a magnet for languages (seriously, the languages the character speaks is somewhere in the double digits, I forget how many precisely). He's a man of language - how can that NOT be attractive? Unfortunately, language is an aspect that Stargate ignored - because I guess it would have taken to much
Eli and Ronald Greer from Stargate: Universe
(God, I'm such a Stargate fan for no reason - don't hurt me!)
This is another character with so much potential. He's chubby and a total geek that just makes my heart wibble with all the nerd references. Unfortunately - Stargate is about to drop the ball on this character (or I think they are - someone had the brilliant idea to not run any episodes for four months...*grumble grumble*) and they have him falling for some Annoying Dumb Chick. Puhlease. It'll be really interesting to see where they go with his character - there's so much potential, they just have to follow through. You can do it, Stargate!
This is Ronald Greer. He also has a lot of potential to be an amazingly complex and 3d anti-hero - but I also fear there's potential for stereotyping too. So, my fingers are crossed because I really really like him and I want him to be a real boy - not some stupid, typical Pinocchio. And, as I've said, since Stargate Universe has been on hiatus for several months, I don't remember exactly what I like about him - but, out of all the military characters, he's the one I keep thinking about the most. Stargate, don't screw him up! [as of the ending of the first season, he still shows much promise]
Spock from Star Trek
You know that scene where Kirk is trying to get Spock to show that he's emotionally compromised and Spock just -- *shivers* Chemistry, man. Pure, sheer, hair raising chemistry (and I don't mean this is in a sexual way [though it's definitely there, I think], just something deeper than that which gives me chills every time I watch it). And for the record, Leonard Nimoy as Spock is amazing but I could easily spend another three hours looking at pictures of Spock, so. Spock is just - that perfect portrayal of human beast (and I mean this in a good and bad way) within us all. Like, Hawkes, Spock is just so sci fi.
Sam Tyler from Life on Mars (BBC)
In one of my English classes, we talked about something called cultural estrangement, which is, in a nutshell, what happens to civilized people when stuck in uncivilized places. A good example of this is Heart of Darkness, "Outpost of Progress," Lord of the Flies etc. It explores what makes a person really human -- science fiction actually provides a lot of tropes to explore this idea of humanity in inhuman situations, and Life on Mars explores it with Sam Tyler.
1973 was a different world than the 21st century. Women and minorities weren't treated like individuals, civil rights were disregarded as seen fit, etc. Yet, Sam Tyler is always fighting against this. In 1973, he's placed in a position where he could give in to his baser, darker instincts and probably not suffer any sort of negative consequences. After all, he'd just be going with the flow, doing what everybody else does. Instead, he sticks up for what's right -- sometimes to his humiliation (honestly, I've never seen a protagonist physically put down so often in a single series) and usually to his slight alienation from the rest of the team. He's one of those rare human beings who struggles to say no, to do the right thing, while, at the same time, he's not unrealistically (and annoyingly) good. He's human - intensely so. He doesn't assimilate well to 1973, he encounters his breaking points in a realistic and utterly believable fashion, and he makes mistakes. I honestly believe that the character of Sam Tyler was (is?) one of the most intensely human characters I've ever encountered in fiction. It's beautiful and painful and exquisite all at the same time.
I liked the way they played with the time travel aspect of it (even though it was revealed to be more dream than weird funky time travel, which honestly put me off so it's a good thing it was only of secondary importance) -- a lot of times, shows will have a time travel episode and people just seem to assimilate naturally - or when the few times they do something not quite timeworthy, they're moments of comic relief instead of moments of any real significance. But Simm, as Tyler, played the timey-wimey aspects of this situation beautifully and significantly.
Gorgeous. Absolutely Gorgeous.
And just for the pure hilarity of it (no spoilers, just an opening for an episode in series 2):
Honorable Mentions
Jin from Lost. I love Jin, I really do. At first I hated him and then I loved him and then the show went from half baked to dough and I just don't have the desire to wade through all the other muck to figure out whatever happens to him (which is why it's only honorable because I only know half his story). Still, I love him to pieces.
The second is Ryan Nichols from the new V show on ABC. He's only honorable because it's hard to judge a character from only four episodes, but from what I've seen so far, he has a lot of potential to be pretty awesome. Right now, he's like Willy from the old show (one of my fave characters) -- but cooler. It kind of depends on how ABC follows through. [as of the ending of season 1, he is still only honorable because there has been a new and intriguing plot development; how this is resolved in later seasons will determine his status as honorable or hot]
