fajrdrako | SF: My Pic of the Greatest Love Stories in Science Fiction...

I enjoyed reading Science Fiction's 10 Most Epic Love Stories. I agree with some of the choices - though I never saw enough of Farscape or Cowboy Bebop to get to the romance, but I loved both insofar as I saw them and would agree on principle. The romance of Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia Naismith is one of my favourites ever, and the Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese was great because Michael Biehn is about as hot as a guy can get. But generally speaking, my favourite characters in SF (Aral and Cordelia notwithstanding) don't get romances. Or if they do, they're lame, like Mulder and Scully - brilliant characters, weak romance. So, hmm... going purely from canon and discounting the above, discounting slash, saving comic book characters for a list another day, what would my choices be?

The Ten Most Epic Love Stories in Science Fiction

Firefly by Joss Whedon: Mal and Inara.

So beautiful, so impossible. Mal the rough, tough cowboy-soldier from the wrong side of a losing battle. She the cultured, polished, respected integalactic sex worker. Such love, such sparks between them - but how could they ever get together without loss of character or integrity?

We'll never know.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Kamala, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Perfect Mate", written by René Echevarria and Gary Perconte. This one tugged at my hearstrings, and I found it an interesting premise: what makes a soulmate? Besides, I liked the Shakespeare references.

... and Kamala was played by the lovely Famke Janssen.
Buffy Summers and Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, written by Joss Whedon. I haven't watched far enough to see Buffy with Spike yet; when the show was first on, and I was aware of it but not actually watching, I couldn't believe that Buffy could possible prefer Angel to Spike. When I watched the first two seasons, I was astounded and converted by the beautiful writing of the Buffy/Angel relationship.
From Peter David's Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Imzadi, the relationship between William Ryker and Deanna Troi. No, I didn't like the characters in the TV show, and I didn't like their relationship. But in this novel? They're terrific.
Jenny Haydon and the Starman in Jeff Carpenter's Starman.

And alien comes to earth. An earth woman helps him. This is still one of my favourite SF movies, and one of my favourite romantic movies, ever.
Torchwood: the romance of Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams. She's learning to be a hero, he's such a delightful everyman. He works in haulage; she saves the world from aliens. She has adventures; he makes lasagna for her to come home to. They're sweet and funny and sometimes heartbreaking, and best of all, they are happy together.
Battlestar Galactica: Kara Thrace and Lee Adama. Starbuck and Apollo. The hottest het non-couple ever.
Wall-E and EVE. Can you deny it?
Captain Jack Harkness and Captain Jack Harkness in the Torchwood episode called, what else, "Captain Jack Harkness". An intense love between people with no opportunity to be together.
From the last five episodes of series one of Doctor Who: the Ninth Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness, and Rose. You might argue that it isn't cannon that these three were lovers, but who could watch those episodes and deny that these three people love each other?

Looking at this list, I note that though they are love stories, only Wall-E ends with the lovers happily together ever after. I think there are two reasons for this: one is that in science fiction, generally speaking, women who are a love interest in the story usually achieve either a tragic death or a minor role - not attributes likely to attract me to them. And male/male (or even female/female) romances are primarily a feature of the past decade or so, though I almost listed Xena and Gabrielle among my choices, and didn't, because it wouldn't be honest: I never watched much Xena.

The other reason is that most science fiction is not romantic fiction. With some exceptions, my favourite SF isn't romantic SF. And SF isn't my favourite genre, anyway. Most men, when they write love stories, write about lovers being separated and torn apart, rather than lovers getting together, and most TV shows are written by men.