Forgotten great Sci Fi tv characters.

[Jayson1]

What are some Sci FI or genre type of characters from years past that you feel have sort of have been forgotten because people don't talk about them or they were even underrated back in the day and maybe this is just because people haven't watched those shows in awhile or have but it's hard to get people to talk about some older shows. I will start of with a list of 5

1 Frank Black=I thought The Millennium was a great show and to me this is my favorite Lance Hendrickson perfromance.

2 Lionel Luthor=He was brilliant on Smallville and everything with him and Lex worked great. I would like to see him return someday and with Crisis it seems possble.

3 Rygel=Only puppet but he was great in a Quark kind of way.

4 Chiana=Only Farscape character that was awesome. She brought a lot of energy to the show which was perfect because that was what the show was about.

5 Callisto=She gets overshadowed by Ares in terms of baddies for Xena but she was very memorable. If they ever do a reunion movie they got to bring Callisto back somehow but I guess that is also something they got to figure out for Xena and Joxer as well.


Jason

 

[Valin]

Captain Robert April --first captain of the Enterprise. Only on screen once, in TAS. CBS should make a TV/Streaming movie based on Diane Carey's "Final Frontier" (one on my favorite Trek novels).

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I wouldn't think of any Farscape character as forgotten, but they were almost always great.

Akton - StarCrash (yes that's David Hasselhoff on the left). OK, maybe not so great, but definitely forgotten.


Dallas Corbin - Fifth Element.


Johnny Mnemonic - Johnny Mnemonic. Not the virtual part Keanu was known for.


Sgt. Pinback - Dark Star.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Charlie Jade

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[The Borgified Corpse]

I've always got a soft spot for sarcastic sidekicks. Some of them are pretty well remembered, like Kenzi from Lost Girl, Maria from Roswell, and Doyle from Angel (although he sometimes gets overshadowed because he was only on the show for the first 9 episodes). But there are a couple others who are favorites of mine from shows that it seems like no one talks about:

Thelma from Hex. The show overall could be quite dull at times but it was always spiced up thanks to Thelma, the wisecracking lesbian roommate. Given that she was the best part of the show, I was bummed when she was killed off in the first episode. But it turned out fine because she came back as a ghost and was still regularly haunting Cassie. Even when she wasn't in a scene, she could still provide some of my favorite moments of the show. There was one scene where Cassie seemed a bit distant & distracted (which would make sense considering she had recently given birth to the spawn of Satan). One of her classmates went up to her and asked her if everything was OK. Thinking that she still might be mourning her dead roommate, he asked, "Is it Thelma?" To which she replied, "Oh, no, Thema's fine. She's actually been a lot better lately...." trailing off because she suddenly remembered that Thelma is a ghost that no one else can see.

Chuck Fishman from Early Edition. Much as I liked Gary Hobson, the show was nothing without his constantly scheming friend. I don't know why he left after Season 2 but it just made the show nowhere near as good.

And a few more of my forgotten favorites:

Dr. Kurt Mendel from Odyssey 5. Actually, I miss everyone from this show and it's an absolute crime that it was canceled after only 1 season. But Kurt was my favorite. Apart from sarcastic sidekicks, my favorite character type is asshole scientists and, IMO, Kurt belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of them, right next to Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica, Dr. McKay from Stargate Atlantis, and Dr. Rush from Stargate Universe.

Lt. Ford from Stargate Atlantis. Not that he was necessarily the best character on the show. But he was a thoroughly underrated one and writing him off of the show threw the entire cast out of balance. By having a young, naive, and relatively unassuming military officer as part of the main cast, it brought out different sides of the other characters. Maj. Sheppard had someone to order around. Teyla had someone to be motherly towards. Dr. McKay had someone that he could pick on with impunity. The show lost all of that when they replaced him with Ronon Dex. He wasn't a member of the U.S. military, so he didn't have the same kind of formal relationship with Col. Sheppard. He was also big & intimidating, so he didn't inspire motherliness from Teyla. Dr. McKay didn't dare make fun of him due to the implicit thread of an ass whooping. Also, by being yet another stoic alien warrior, he ended up infringing a bit on Teyla's role on the show. The later seasons are still good but I think that the loss of Lt. Ford was a big part of the reason why the show never quite recaptured the initial chemistry of Season 1.

Jaye Tyler from Wonderfalls. This is another one where most of the cast could make this list, especially since I've got a bit of a crush on the actress that plays Jaye's sister. But Jaye herself is perfect. It's like the sarcastic sidekick finally got to be the lead on her own show. It's a show that really spoke to me, since I also felt very over-educated & directionless at the time. And I still choke up a bit whenever I watch her breakdown after Eric left. "I let him go. I had to let him go. I didn't want to let him go. I wanted to keep this one. Why can't I have nice things?"

John Doggett from The X-Files. I don't know why I seem to be the only one, but I actually liked Doggett way more than Mulder. I loved Doggett's no nonsense personality. He was skeptical about all of the paranormal stuff but wasn't trying to rationalize it away. And there's an intensity to Robert Patrick's performance that I really appreciate. And while I wouldn't say that The X-Files is forgotten at all, it seems like Doggett has been a no-show ever since the end of Season 9. Has he even gotten a name drop in the revival series?

 

[JD]

Charlie Jade

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I love the show, but I like 01 Boxer even more than Charlie himself. I loved how he had a totally different personality in each universe, and I thought the actor did a great playing all of the different versions of him. I'm disappointed we never got the second season, which would have had him and Charlie change places, so that the actors were now playing the other characters. I would have loved to see how they would have each played the other character.

 

[Reyman]

Rev Bem - Andromeda

There were some interesting ideas explored with the character and his species. It's a shame the character didn't stick around longer.

 

[theenglish]

Some great memories here--should be an avatar contest.

Here's one......MANIMAL!

And another that many won't get until you know the title of the series....Mark Harris.

 

[Silvercrest]

I remember Mark very well. A few years ago I had the chance to go through his series again, and was appalled at how bad some of the episodes were.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

3 Rygel=Only puppet but he was great in a Quark kind of way.

A sign of the sheer brilliance of FarScape, as he was a puppet (very clearly not a human in makeup) but his performance was so detailed and believable that you just totally forgot that he wasn't "real". There was more life in his whiskers than there was in Chakotay's whole body

Lt. Ford from Stargate Atlantis. Not that he was necessarily the best character on the show. But he was a thoroughly underrated one and writing him off of the show threw the entire cast out of balance. By having a young, naive, and relatively unassuming military officer as part of the main cast, it brought out different sides of the other characters. Maj. Sheppard had someone to order around. Teyla had someone to be motherly towards. Dr. McKay had someone that he could pick on with impunity. The show lost all of that when they replaced him with Ronon Dex. He wasn't a member of the U.S. military, so he didn't have the same kind of formal relationship with Col. Sheppard. He was also big & intimidating, so he didn't inspire motherliness from Teyla. Dr. McKay didn't dare make fun of him due to the implicit thread of an ass whooping. Also, by being yet another stoic alien warrior, he ended up infringing a bit on Teyla's role on the show. The later seasons are still good but I think that the loss of Lt. Ford was a big part of the reason why the show never quite recaptured the initial chemistry of Season 1.

I've just finished a rewatch of Atlantis and there are parts of this I can agree with, though I never really saw him as a character the writers/producers knew what to do with (the episode where they "go back" to Earth highlights this, with all the others having their own storylines, but he has just a couple of throwaway lines). He was always Sheppard's subordinate, though skilled there would always be that barrier between them, I never really saw Teyla being motherly towards him, whilst he and McKay did have some good banter here and there. He definitely got better as a recurring character in S2, it's a shame they never kept him as a special guest every season, especially as the fight against the Wraith ramped up.

Can I include the whole cast of Stargate Universe? Young the stalwart military officer who slowly crumbles under the pressure of the situation they're in, though starts trying to at least keep a facade of control by the end. Scott the man-of-action, though clearly is capable of achieving so much more. TJ who is the heart of the group and holds them together. Eli the kid genius without being irritating and is actually very endearing. Rush the brilliant Machiavellian scientist you love to hate (a character archetype I typically can't stand). Greer the very angry, very damaged soldier. Chloe the naive one who goes through a helluva lot in a short space of time and finds her place. Wray whose side or motives you're never quite sure about, though does care about the others.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

A sign of the sheer brilliance of FarScape, as he was a puppet (very clearly not a human in makeup) but his performance was so detailed and believable that you just totally forgot that he wasn't "real". There was more life in his whiskers than there was in Chakotay's whole body.

I would give at least half the credit for Rygel to the late great Jonathan Hardy. The "puppet" was one of the most amazing works from Henson, but great voice actors can really make a character un-forgettable.

Lets not forget Pilot was also a puppet. Less mobile than Rygel obviously, but still a marvel.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm going to shout out Elizabeth Lochley, the new Station Commander of Babylon 5 first introduced in Season 5 of that series.

She's one of my favorite characters from that show and it's a shame that JMS didn't bother editing Sleeping in Light so that it either included or referenced her, because her absence diminishes that episode's effectiveness as a series finale.

 

[Kilana2]

I've always got a soft spot for sarcastic sidekicks. Some of them are pretty well remembered, like Kenzi from Lost Girl, Maria from Roswell, and Doyle from Angel (although he sometimes gets overshadowed because he was only on the show for the first 9 episodes). But there are a couple others who are favorites of mine from shows that it seems like no one talks about:


Chuck Fishman from Early Edition. Much as I liked Gary Hobson, the show was nothing without his constantly scheming friend. I don't know why he left after Season 2 but it just made the show nowhere near as good.

Yep. He was fun. But the show lacked a proper ending. But it featured guests like Robert Duncan McNeill, Robert Picardo and George Takei .

 

[Mysterion]

From B5: Zathras. Not to be confused, of course, with Zathras.

 

[JD]

Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon a Time is one of my TV characters ever, but nobody really talks about him much since the show ended. It was a brilliant performance by Robert Carlyle, and the character's arc took some fascinating turns as he kind of went back and forth between villain, to anti-hero, to real hero.

 

[Qonundrum]

Hawk and Crichton from the ill-fated second season of "Buck Rogers". Hawk had a great introduction, Chrichton is America's version of Orac (from Blake's 7), but the show's ratings didn't improve...

 

[fireproof78]

Lets not forget Pilot was also a puppet.

I think Pilot is incredible, and Lani Taupa (sp? Sorry) does such a great job with his voice.

For me, I personally think that Captain Bridger from Seaquest often gets forgotten. I personally also enjoy Damian Fawkes from "The Invisible Man" who had a great everyman type of attitude that I always appreciated.

 

[Relayer1]

Freeman Lowell from Silent Running.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I think Pilot is incredible, and Lani Taupa (sp? Sorry) does such a great job with his voice.

For me, I personally think that Captain Bridger from Seaquest often gets forgotten. I personally also enjoy Damian Fawkes from "The Invisible Man" who had a great everyman type of attitude that I always appreciated.

What I found strange was, how different Pilot sounded in PKW, despite still being voiced by Lani.

 

[DigificWriter]

Rumpelstiltskin from Once Upon a Time is one of my TV characters ever, but nobody really talks about him much since the show ended. It was a brilliant performance by Robert Carlyle, and the character's arc took some fascinating turns as he kind of went back and forth between villain, to anti-hero, to real hero.

Once Upon a Time as a whole has faded from the pop culture consciousness since it ended, which is sad because the series was phenomenal overall.