Nathaniel R. of The Film Experience is running another of his famous blog-a-thons today: this one’s on Action Heroines. Rather than yabber on about Ellen Ripley and Sarah Conner and Princess Leia, I thought I’d look at the action heroines on TV who thrill me the most, and make me wish I could be just like them when I grow up:
10) Jamie Sommers (Lindsay Wagner), The Bionic Woman
Cuz she buzzed me with her kick-ass feminism before I even knew what feminism was.
9) Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner), Alias
Cuz she loved a man, and lost him, and for that someone must pay.
8) Officer Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black), Farscape
Cuz she was strong enough to admit she was weak, but she would’ve kicked your ass if you’d suggested as much.
7) Juliet Parrish (Faye Grant), V
Cuz she didn’t hesitate to take up arms against a sea of reptilian troubles.
6) Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff), Battlestar Galactica
Cuz she’s frakked up enough to be a man, but she’s still a woman.
5) Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Cuz she put her Klingon husband in sickbay with their wrestling… or was it their lovemaking?
4) Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), Doctor Who
Cuz she’s smart enough to choose sneakers for running away from vicious aliens on distant planets.
3) Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), The X-Files
Cuz she had a gun and she wasn’t afraid to use it… and she was so smart she almost never had to anyway.
2) Zoe (Gina Torres), Firefly
Cuz she said things like, “Jayne, you’ll scare the women,” and was only half joking to not be including herself among the girly girls.
1) Colonel Samantha Carter (Amanada Tapping), Stargate SG-1
Cuz she can reprogram an ancient alien computer on the fly, she kicks Gao’uld and Ori ass, she sacrificed her own romantic happiness for the sake of the entire planet Earth, and she can do anything a man can do even if she keeps her sexual organs on the inside.
(Technorati tags: action heroines, Jamie Sommers, Sydney Bristow, Aeryn Sun, Juliet Parrish, Kara Starbuck Thrace, Jadzia Dax, Rose Tyler, Dana Scully, Zoe, Samantha Carter)
Hitting the sci-fi a little hard? What about all the female cops on TV? Like Olivia Benson on Law and Order SVU…or Kira Sedgwick in the Closer…or Molly Price from Third Watch…or what about Xena? Sure, they don’t have spaceships or loads of super secret spy stuff, but being a heroine should mean more than simply zipping through galaxies and changing hairstyles every five f**cking minutes:-)
By the by, love the movie reviews. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say about Transformers. I really hope it sucks. It’s embarassing to live in a country where a movie about toy robots grosses more than all of the Cannes film picks put together.
Olivia Benson is cool, yes, but she doesn’t rock my world like these gals do. I don’t watch *Third Watch,* and I’ve never gotten into *The Closer.* And yes, Xena is cool, and she was somewhere around 11 or 12 on my list.
What can I say? I’m a dork. I like science fiction. And only Sydney changes her hairstyle every five minutes: the rest of these women are too busy saving the world bother much with their hair. :->
and, remember, sydney only changed her hair in the line of duty — straight rather plain brown hair won’t cut it if you’re pretending to be Eurotrash or a Russian hooker.
Buffy would wup everyone of those asses, i think she would get number 1
Veronica Mars, any day.
Nancy Drew. (The Pamela Sue Martin version, anyway) :-)
And oh, yes, Buffy.
And Faith.
And Anya. (Okay, maybe not Anya.)
I always did like Dawn. Even if she didn’t exactly qualify as an action heroine and went on to give Dr. Gregory House all that trouble.
And yes, I suppose considering Cuddy and Cameron as action heroines would be stretching the point quite a bit…
It was great to see Julie Parish on the list…have just rewatched all of V on DVD recently, I was reminded again how awesome she is (though I always liked Lydia).
But…the one name you are missing…that would be the number one of my list:
Emma Peel (Diana Rigg), The Avengers
Able to kick all sorts of ass, charming and witty, an ace driver in her flashy sports car, brilliantly intelligent (from codes to bridge to nuclear physics), and cool under pressure. — and all of this in 1966
I think I love you for including Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner)…
I agree with many of your other picks, too… Sydney, Juliet (OMG, I almost forgot about her), Kara (aw, yeah, babe), Jadzia, Scully, Zoe (I woulda included Kaylee since I have a big thing for female engineers).
But… you haven’t seen Buffy, yet?! C’mon, MaryAnn… don’t make me buy you the series…
Buffy is a Must-See.
It would be rather miraculous, though, if I could offer commentary on a TV series I’ve never seen.
My birthday *is* coming up soon…
Ah, yes, Emma Peel. How soon we forget…
She is very easily one of my all-time favorites.
My birthday *is* coming up soon…
–MaryAnn
Come to think of it, so is mine…
Buffy, Veronica Mars! (Seriously, Veronica was smart and vindictive, unless most sugar-sweet heroines. She made it okay to have a bad day.)
But Kara Thrace? She’s so whiney and can never hold the line. Give me Sharon Agathon- the Cylon who crossed over to the human side, fights the Cylons, protects the humans, protects the Cylons, married a human and had a hybrid, became accepted and even loved, is a kickass Raptor pilot and still tries to save Boomer. (Remember Flight of the Phoenix when she defeated a Cylon assualt and protected Galactica *with her brain*?) Roawr.
I love Zoe, especially when she was in Browncoat mode. Samantha Carter was my first girlcrush. Great list.
Lol i think you should watch buffy then, season 1 isnt the best series but it does have good storylines, plus season by season it really does improve. i highley recomend it lol.
OK, MaryAnn, a pure dose of vampire slaying is needed in your life. The boxsets must be available cheaply these days and, as all have pointed out, Buffy would kick everyone else’s ass.
Veronica Mars would probably put up a good fight though.
The complete Buffy is $165 on Amazon.
Like I said, my birthday is coming up…
Though where I’d find the approximately 100 hours watching the whole series would demand is a mystery…
Good list, only change I would make is to put Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) at #1 and replace Samantha Carter with Xena. Oh and I might replace Sidney ‘drama’ Bristow with Katherine Janeway. Even though I didn’t much like Voyager, that woman took no nonsense.
I have to say, seeing Buffy Summers and Sydney Bristow and Veronica Mars teamed up Charlies Angels style, would be amazing.
As much as i love Sydney and Veronica, and i am up to date on the characters you wrote down, none of them compare to how Buffy saved the world nearly every other day.
You can watch it online at Alluc.org
She killed her lover to save the world.
She died, twice to save the world.
She, and the school took on a giant worm.
She took on a demon hybrid cyborg thing and then the first ever slayer, then her super evil powered witch friend.
And then the first evil ever, with ancient vampires from the hellmouth. Although she *HUGE SPOILER, as i just said alot of spoilers lol*
She created and made every girl who had the potential to become slayers, made them slayers. Now thats power.
End of spoiler.
Buffy, best hero EVER. and im a male.
Liked your quote on Sydney. But why is she 9th when theres someone from Firefly near the top. Come on, firefly?
Rose Tyler’s an action heroine? I thought she was more a damsel in distress/love interest.
Starbuck RULEZ!