Originally Posted by Trollheart

From books, TV or movies, or wherever you happen to encounter them. Who and (if you want) why?

Arnold J Rimmer in Red Dwarf: If you watch the show, you'll know why. If you don't watch the show, watch the show.

Spock. Between Gene Roddenberry and he, they revolutionised the idea of aliens in sci-fi. Up to then, aliens were either evil, invaders or amorphous blobs or whatever. Spock's character opened up to us the idea that aliens could be, well, human, and part of the team. And of course nobody played him like Leonard did, god rest his soul.

O'Brien (Nineteen Eighty-Four): Sure, Winston Smith is the main character but I've always felt he did little and really I found it hard to care about him. O'Brien, on the other hand, gives this kind of almost grandfatherly performance (certainly Burton's portrayal in the movie does), and he seems even sad as he orders the switch to be thrown again as he "conditions" Smith to the party line.

Ambassadors G'Kar and Londo Mollari, Babylon 5: These guys start out hating each other, blood enemies, but in an amazing piece of character writing they become the oddest odd couple you ever saw on screen. Even though they will never admit it, they almost become friends. The humour between the two is worth the price of admission.

Jack Bauer: Who doesn't love Jack?

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.