Genre Crushes

We’ve all had them. Who were your genre crushes when you were young? And how about now? Some grew up with a crush on Eartha Kitt or Julie Newmar as Catwoman. Others may have had a crush on Dirk Benedict or Richard Hatch in Battlestar Galactica. Did your bionic leanings lean toward Lee Majors or Lindsay Wagner? If you are drawn to liking women, were you inclined towards Velma or Daphne in Scooby Doo? Buffy or Willow in Buffy: Vampire Slayer? Xena or Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess? Bo or “Kenzi” in Lost Girl? Maggie or Carol in The Walking Dead? Number Six (Tricia Helfer) or Number Eight (Grace Park) in BSG? If you are drawn to liking men, were you inclined towards Fred or Shaggy in Scooby Doo? Steve or Bucky in Captain America? Apollo or Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica <1978-79>? Spock or Kirk in Star Trek <1966-68>? Sam or Dean in Supernatural? The Shoveler or Blue Raja in Mystery Men? And there are, of course, a very long diverse list of crushes, including Sanaa Latham; Wesley Snipes; Michelle Rodriguez; Simu Liu; Michelle Yeoh; Diego Boneta; HoYeon Jung; Zoe Saldana; Sonequa Martin-Green; Eartha Kitt; Ming Na Wen; Nichelle Nichols; Tia Carrere; Thandie Newton; Grace Park; Terry Carter; Kandyse McClure; Will Smith; Yadira Guevara-Prip; Bille Dee Williams; Park So-dam; Priscilla Quintana; LeVar Burton; Woo-sik Choi; Lisa Ray; Michael B. Jordan; Luciana Paluzzi; Sarah Shahi; Nicole Beharie; Steven Yeun; Kelly Hu; Diego Luna; and Rekha Sharma, among many others. There are so many, one cannot do an episode without leaving out one of your own. Troy Harkin and David Clink welcome back two special guests for this Valentine’s TOF. Charlene Challenger was the guest for Season 1 Episode 6: Blade Runner. Shaindle Minuk was the guest for Season 1 Episode 8: Plan 9 from Outer Space. Who were Charlene and Shaindle’s crushes? Who are they now?Troy and David cover their own, as well. Some of the categories the four will look at: ALL-TIME GENRE CRUSH SEXIEST ACTOR/ACTRESS (Genre TV Show) SEXIEST SEX SCENE (Genre TV or Genre Movie) LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (Genre Actor) LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (Genre Actress) SEXIEST Sci-Fi Movie of All Time David came up with a couple of fun categories… Sexiest genre actor/actress in an annoying party scene Looking for Love and Feline Groovy Charlene and Shaindle and Troy and David will come up with, individually, based on a movie that does not exist, their own… ELEVATOR PITCH for the SEXIEST Sci-Fi Movie of All Time Will it live up to the one for Barbarella? A beautiful, young fortieth-century astronaut prevents the positronic ray from getting into the wrong hands.

Charlene Challenger is a writer and graduate of X (renaming in process) Theatre School. Her first novel, the young adult fantasy The Voices In Between, was nominated for the 2015 Aurora Award for Best Young Adult Novel and longlisted for the 2015 Sunburst Award Young Adult Novel category. Its sequel, The Myth In Distance, was published in 2016. Her work is also featured in Stone Skin Press’s Gods, Memes and Monsters. She lives in Pickering, Ontario with her family and her adorable house-wolves.

Shaindle Minuk is an animation builds artist and has been working in the TV and film industries for decades in various capacities. She is also the editor and co-founder of misterkitty.org, which hosts some of the many comics and graphic novels Shaindle has created over the years, alongside humorous features such as “Found Objects” (in which Shain showcases her vast collection of creepy, unappealing ceramic animal figurines and toys) and the popular “Stupid Comics”, which provides in-depth commentary on, well, stupid comics.