The Most Famous Science Fiction Characters

The twentieth century saw an explosion in the whole science fiction genre, and with this explosion there was a whole new range of heroes and villains born. Comic book, pulp fiction and science fiction novel writers managed to create characters that gripped the reader’s imagination. The heroes were strong characters with extraordinary powers, fighting against adversaries that were clearly evil. For every good guy there was a bad guy to battle, and a bad guy who’s powers were a clear threat to the hero.

With the prevalence of science fiction, spreading into every sort of media, many characters are known by large proportions of the population. Therefore many people could provide a list of their favourite characters or those they believe to be the most famous. My selection appears below, and I hope that you agree with at least a few of them.

DOCTOR WHO 

The Doctor and The Master

My favourite science fiction character is the Doctor’ from Doctor Who. Created by the BBC some forty-five years ago, the Doctor has spread from the small screen, to radio, to film and to some two hundred books. The Time Lord from Gallifrey is now in his tenth regeneration and is nine hundred years old. Despite his age, the Doctor still travels through time and space with a succession of companions in the TARDIS. Regarded as do-gooder’ by his enemies, the Doctor continues to stick his nose into historical events, gets to meet famous people and fights a succession of aliens. The special effects have improved greatly over the year, although generations of children have hidden behind their sofas as the Daleks or Cybermen appeared on their television screen.

The Master is almost the total opposite of the Doctor, and is a reoccurring adversary for the Doctor to fight. The Master is the greatest individual enemy that the Doctor has yet faced. The Master is a renegade Time Lord, and in many aspects is the classic villain. The Master is shown to be a genius, a maniac and a man with a huge ego and a lust for power. The Doctor and The Master were once class mates, and developed a number of the same skills, including hypnosis. If anything it shows that there is perhaps very little difference between a hero and a villain.

The Doctor and Amy Pond - Stephen Broadhurst - CC-BY-2.0

STAR TREK 

Captain Kirk and the Klingons

James Tiberius Kirk, Star Fleet captain and admiral. I am not sure that you can think of science fiction on television without William Shatner springing to mind. As the lead character in the original Star Trek series, Kirk captained the Enterprise in 80 episodes and 7 films. Kirk’s mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.’ This of course brings him into weekly contact with aliens, including his main adversaries, the Klingons.

Created by Gene Roddenberry in 1964, to rival Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, Kirk in the official series has been killed off, brought back and then killed off again. Shatner himself though has resurrected the character himself in a series of his own novels.

Kirk rarely faces an individual enemy, as he normally annoys a whole species. Throughout the original series, the Klingons appeared as the main opposition to Kirk and Star Fleet. A warrior race from Qo’noS (Kronos), they originally fought against the Federation. It is a possibility that they just fought Kirk, as after his demise they joined the Federation to fight against the Dominion. As an alien race the Klingons have a cult following.

Captain Kirk - PD US no notice

FLASH GORDON 

Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless

The stories of Flash are a classic tale of good versus evil. Flash leaves earth with a couple of companions, Dale Arden and Dr Zarko. Travelling to the planet of Mongo, there are years of adventure as the companions travel through the Forest world of Arboria; the ice kingdom of Frigia; the jungle kingdom of Tropica; the undersea kingdom of the Shark Men; and the flying city of the Hawkmen.

Created originally for the comic by Alex Raymond, the story of Flash spreads from the comic book, to radio and television series, animated series and also a number of appearances on the big screen. The 1934 comic strip hero has recently been resurrected for a US television series. I would suggest ignoring the 1980′s film, although in itself it quite entertaining for being so bad, but I would seriously recommend the soundtrack, as it written and performed by Queen.

Flash faced one constant adversary in Ming the Merciless. The evil emperor of Mongo is a dictator, who uses his army and technology to keep the population in servitude. As Flash battles Ming, he is eventually overthrown although not killed. As a new leadership is put in place on Mongo, Ming fights back.

Ming the Merciless - PD US not reneewed

X-MEN 

Professor Xavier and Magneto

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Professor Charles Xavier, or Professor X, was the leader of the X-men. A paraplegic, his mutant abilities compensate for his lack of movement. Xavier is a high level telepath, as well as a scientific genius, and leading authority on genetics and mutation. Xavier seeks a peaceful co-existence between mutants and humans. With the renegade mutants willing to cause trouble, Xavier creates the School for Gifted Youngsters, which teaches but also moulds X-men to fight against Magneto and his Evil Mutants.

Magneto is a villain that it is often hard to hate. One of the most powerful of all mutants he is supervillain, anti-hero and hero at various stages of his life. Initially he is the supervillain fighting the X-men, and using terrorism to improve life for mutants. His motives though are relatively pure, having survived Auschwitz; Magneto wants to ensure that mutants do not face the same kind of holocaust

HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 

Arthur Dent and the White Mice

Arthur Dent may not necessarily be famous but he is a cult character. Arthur was the human lead from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, originally a 26 episode 1970′s BBC radio production, Arthur soon became the lead character in a series of 5 books, a television series and finally a Hollywood movie.

Arthur escapes the destruction of earth, dressed in his dressing gown with the help of Ford Prefect, an alien from Betelgeuse and not Guildford as he claimed. Travelling through space with Zaphod Beeblebrox, and Marvin the paranoid android, Arthur has a series of adventures in time and space, where everything seems to be a result of the spaceship improbability drive. It is far too complex to explain, but if you get the chance take the time to read the trilogy of five’, all will become clear, well at least as clear as a cup of tea.

Arthur doesn’t really have enemies, he is chased by the Vogons, but he is mainly fleeing the attention of Frankie and Benjy Mouse. Part of a pan-dimensional race, Frankie and Benjy are after Arthur’s brain to obtain the question to the ultimate answer of 42.

The list is of course in no way exhaustive, and everybody will have their own opinion on whether those listed are famous at all, or how they relate to characters from other series. There is so many television series, comics or novels that each person will have to make their own minds up.

Copyright - First Published 22nd February 2008