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Vote for the Greatest Sci-Fi Characters of All Time

We’re on a mission to find the best ever characters of sci-fi film and TV. Have you had your say?

Updated:

  • Metropolis (1927): Robot Maria is born

  • The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951): Klaatu

  • Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963)

  • Jane Fonda in Barbarella (1968)

  • Gary Lockwood as Astronaut Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

  • Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979): Gil Gerard as Captain William "Buck" Rogers

  • Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979): Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock

  • Alien (1979): Sigourney Weaver as Ripley

  • Flash Gordon (1980): Max von Sydow as the merciless Emperor Ming

  • E.T. the Extra-terrestrial (1982): Thomas Henry with E.T.

  • Blade Runner (1982): Sean Young as Rachael

  • Blade Runner (1982): Harrison Ford as Deckard

  • The Terminator (1984): Arnold Schwartzenegger as the Terminator

  • Akira (1988): Kaneda

  • Red Dwarf (1988): Chris Barrie as Rimmer

  • Back to the Future Part II (1989): Christopher Lloyd as Dr Emmett Brown

  • Terminator 2 Judgment Day (1991): Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor

  • The X Files (1998): Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully

  • Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd in Danny Cannon's 1995 film

  • Lori Petty as Tank Girl in Rachel Talalay's 1995 film

  • The Fifth Element (1997): Milla Jovovich as Leeloo

  • The Matrix Reloaded (2003): Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus

  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005): Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox

  • Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

  • Transformers (2007)

  • WALL-E in Andrew Stanton's 2008 film

There are just two months to go until blast off. The BFI’s blockbuster season, Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder, together with O2, includes over 1000 screenings of classic film and television programmes at venues across the UK, film releases and a new sci-fi collection on the BFI Player.

Now is your chance to take part in an epic battle as part of the celebrations – the votes are coming in thick and fast in our poll to find the greatest sci-fi character of all time.

Vote now

We want to find out the nation’s favourite character from this most visionary of genres. For all the spaceships, explosions and alien races, the secret to any great sci-fi odyssey is character – the beings that make us invest in the fantastical, be it through honourable heroism, conflicted villainy, or even just being a cute friendly robot.

So which protagonist do you identify with? A stoic alpha-male like Captain James Tiberius Kirk? The renegade Timelord who goes by the name of the Doctor, saving the universe using just a screwdriver to fix things and a box from which you can call for help? Maybe you identify with the naval mercenary Ellen Ripley, the reluctant heroine who time and again overcomes dank claustrophobia to kick Xenomorph butt. Or maybe you prefer robots to humans and respond to the soft, sinister voice of HAL 9000.

The journey of Anakin Skywalker has lessons for all of us about what it takes to turn a hero into a villain. Sarah Connor has evolved from waitress to warrior across a franchise spanning film and TV. Rick Deckard goes through one of cinema’s most compelling examinations of what it really means to be human – or otherwise. And who among us hasn’t had days when we identify with Marvin, the paranoid android?

Heroes, villains, robots, aliens, anthropomorphic entities – in the world of science-fiction, anyone can be a player. So use your vote wisely – the fate of the universe could be at stake!

Vote now

Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder runs from October to December 2014.

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