“When I launched Queer As Folk back in 1999,” remembers Russell T Davies, “I did a Q&A in a club called Nightingale’s in Birmingham, and the very first question was, ‘Why aren’t there any bisexuals on TV?’ And I remember making a mental note, right there and then. So that’s a scoop, SFX, he was created in a gay club in the Midlands!”
Fancy that.

When Captain Jack Harkness arrived in “The Empty Child” in season one of the reheated Doctor Who, the sexually omnivorous inter-galactic con man signalled the first glorious break with the past 42 years of sexually frigid Who.

RTD is under no illusions as to why Jack caught on. “It’s John,” he tells SFX. “He’s simply outrageous – but he’s clever, too. And let’s not forget that those first scripts were by Steven Moffat. Whatever happened to him? But he just made Jack soar – within two pages, he’s slapped a man’s arse, in a gentlemen’s club in 1941! That’s brand-new territory, in his very first scene. Seriously – try to think of a character who does something brand new to TV in his very first appearance. See how hard it is? Then look at Jack!”

What would Russell think of Jack if he met him at a party, we wonder? “I’d think, ‘You lucky bastard,’ as all the men gravitate around him. Then I’d fall over in the kitchen and be thrown out!”

Of all the characters on this list, there are few that can be called not just an icon, but also a national treasure. The last of the Time Lords is certainly one of them.

But then he has an advantage. The Doctor isn’t one man, but 11 (and counting). For Who head honcho, Steven Moffat, that was part of the appeal. “The Doctor can change with the times,” he says.

“I always thought the new Doctor episodes were the most exciting. That idea [regeneration] really caught my imagination.” Another thing that appealed was the Doctor’s lack of a modus operandi. “He’s not James Bond. He doesn’t have a mission and his superpower is just that he’s a really good improviser.”

And he’s an alien! Russell T Davies describes writing for the character as, “like looking into a furnace. Whole universes turn inside his head”. He’s a mystery. Nearly 50 years on, we don’t even know his name. Then again, for a Gallifreyan, he’s distinctly human. “He’s not very alien,” Moffat agrees. “You could almost be like him. He can die and regenerate – it would be harder for you to do that! But I like the fact that anyone can be a bit like the Doctor.”

He’s the space cowboy, the galactic gunslinger, the tight-trousered, quip-quoting hero – or probably antihero – of the Joss Whedon generation. He’s Malcolm Reynolds, owner of the fine Firefly-class spaceship Serenity and the head of a ragtag crew containing at least one true love, one crazy lady, one preacher and one mercenary you really shouldn’t turn your back on. He’s lost a war (badly), survived a marriage (she was a little sneaky), earned a crust (not necessarily legally), lost some family (sniff) and lived to fight another day (even if we don’t get to see him any more).

He’s the guy you voted number one in this poll, and he’s played by Nathan Fillion. The actor took time out from his busy schedule to talk to SFX about what it means to
be an icon…