The Best Sci-Fi Characters of All Time: the verdict

Ever since he stole a blue box and ran away, he’s been in the nation’s living rooms – even when fighting monsters on far-flung planets. And now the man known only as ‘the Doctor’ has won our showdown and is named the greatest sci-fi character of all time.

Since August, you’ve been voting in your thousands. In terms of overall votes the Timelord triumphed, but when it came down to a battle of the sexes – madman in a box versus Ellen Ripley’s tortured lone warrior – it was very, very close. But for all her bravery, the Nostromo’s warrant-officer-turned-warrior could not beat Gallifrey’s greatest hero, who pipped her to the post by just 110 votes. Ripley emerges, however, as your favourite character from sci-fi cinema by some margin.

You were overwhelmingly fonder of characters from television than cinema, with characters originating on the small screen taking 61% of the vote. This may tie in with the date statistics, which are heavily weighted in favour of a halcyon period: 22% of votes went for characters from the 1980s, 28% from the 1990s and 20% from the 2000s. This means our most popular decade was when our winner, the Doctor, was not on air, save for a divisive TV movie in 1996.

Sci-Fi still looks like having some way to go when it comes to gender equality. 60% of votes were for male characters, with 33% for female, non-specific entities chalking up 6% and one character qualifying as both – following Michelle Gomez’ casting as the Master/Missy in this year’s series of Doctor Who.

Humanity as whole came out well though, with 67% of you polling for your own species. Aliens took 19%, while robots and computers trailed behind at 14%. Some 82% of the vote went to characters that can broadly be described as heroes, with just 15% for villains and 3% for characters in that ambiguous grey area. Anti-heroes certainly played their part: that most iconic of villains, Darth Vader, makes an impressive stab for domination at number three, closely followed by Avon from Blake’s 7 at four, and Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly one place behind.

1. The Doctor, Doctor Who
2. Ellen Ripley, Alien saga
3. Darth Vader, Star Wars saga
4. Kerr Avon, Blake’s 7
5. Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly / Serenity
6. G’Kar, Babylon 5
7. HAL-9000, 2001: A Space Odyssey
8. Rick Deckard, Blade Runner
9. Han Solo, Star Wars saga
10. Spock, Star Trek saga
11. John Crichton, Farscape
12. Roy Batty, Blade Runner
13. Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood
14. Captain James T Kirk, Star Trek saga
15. Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
16. Londo Mollari, Babylon 5
17. The Alien, Alien
18. Dana Scully, The X Files
19. Ianto Jones, Torchwood
20. Yoda, Star Wars saga
21. Aeryn Sun, Farscape
22. Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace, Battlestar Galactica
23. Sarah Connor, The Terminator saga
24. Doctor Emmet Brown, Back to the Future trilogy
25. Fox Mulder, The X Files
26. Professor Bernard Quatermass, Quatermass and the Pit
27. The Terminator, The Terminator saga
28. Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5
29. Captain John Sheridan, Babylon 5
30. Delenn, Babylon 5
31. Jack O’Neill, Stargate SG-1
32. Daleks, Doctor Who
33. Data, Star Trek: The Next Generation
34. Luke Skywalker, Star Wars saga
35. Gort / Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still
36. Maria the Robot, Metropolis
37. Judge Dredd, Judge Dredd
38. E.T., E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
39. Ben ‘Obi-Wan’ Kenobi, Star Wars saga
40. Neo, The Matrix trilogy
41. Robbie the Robot, Forbidden Planet
42. Marvin the Paranoid Android, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
43. Marty McFly, Back to the Future trilogy
44. Rose Tyler, Doctor Who
45. Samantha Carter, Stargate SG-1
46. Donna Noble, Doctor Who
47. Walter Bishop, Fringe
48. Admiral William Adama, Battlestar Galactica
49. River Tam, Firefly / Serenity
50. Arthur Dent, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
51. Wall-E, Wall-E
52. R2-D2, Star Wars
53. Boba Fett, Star Wars
54. Arnold J Rimmer, Red Dwarf
55. Sam Bell, Moon
56. Leeloo, The Fifth Element
57. Roj Blake, Blake’s 7
58. Elim Garak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
59. Scorpius, Farscape
60. Thomas Jerome Newton, The Man Who Fell to Earth
61. Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek Voyager
62. Gaius Baltar, Battlestar Galactica
63. Chiana, Farscape
64. Kaylee, Firefly / Serenity
65. Sarah-Jane Smith, Doctor Who
66. David, Prometheus
67. Q, Star Trek saga
68. Dave Lister, Red Dwarf
69. Amy Pond, Doctor Who
70. Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon
71. Princess Leia Organa, Star Wars saga
72. RoboCop, RoboCop
73. River Song / Melody Pond, Doctor Who
74. Snake Plissken, Escape from New York
75. Alfred Bester, Babylon 5
76. Barbarella, Barbarella
77. John Sheppard, Stargate Atlantis
78. Seven of Nine, Star Trek: Voyager
79. Daniel Jackson, Stargate SG-1
80. R.J. MacReady, The Thing
81. Dave Bowman, 2001: A Space Odyssey
82. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, Babylon 5
83. Lyta Alexander, Babylon 5
84. Tetsuo Shima, Akira
85. The Predator, Predator
86. Benjamin Sisko, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
87. Gwen Cooper, Torchwood
88. Kryten, Red Dwarf
89. Servalan, Blake’s 7
90. The Master, Doctor Who
91. Vala Mal Doran, Stargate SG-1
92. Bo Dennis, Lost Girl
93. Michael Garibaldi, Babylon 5
94. Number Six, Battlestar Galactica
95. Hoban ‘Wash’ Washburn, Firefly / Serenity
96. C3PO, Star Wars
97. Riddick, The Chronicles of Riddick
98. Motoko Kusanagi, Ghost in the Shell
99. Laura Roslin, Battlestar Galactica
100. Doctor Ellie Arroway, Contact

Please note: this page was updated on 19 December to reflect the fact Ambassador Delenn at 73 and Delenn at 35 were the same character. As a result she has moved to position 30, allowing for a new entry at number 100.