Genre Character of the Week: Dr. Simon Tam

As I’m currently going through my old Firefly DVDs with my youngest daughter, I thought I would focus this week’s character on one of my favourite characters of the series, Dr. Simon Tam.

Here’s the thing about Simon, this guy is exactly the big brother everyone wishes they could have; the lengths he goes to in protecting his sister are pretty incredible – he throws away his career, becomes a fugitive, and effectively leaves everything he has ever known and removes any chance for a return all to do his duty and try and help out his little sister River.

I'm not at all saying that Simon has no flaws, the guy seems to have a talent for putting his foot in his mouth and even when he's trying to act like a gentleman he tends to come across as a bit of a prissy princess. I think it was this balance between being genuinely heroic and a bit of a jerk that really impressed me with the actor who played Simon (Sean Maher), who I thought was great throughout the series.

A few episodes into the series I asked my daughter about who she liked best; Dr. Tam definitely came out on top - and as we're from the same hometown as Nathan Fillion, I thought he would be a shoe in (She loved him as Captain Hammer and we watch Castle with her every week); I guess it just goes to show that if you are going to be portrayed in a flashback episode as a little kid, you should have that kid played by Zach Efron.

Genre Character of the Week: Sheriff Bill Pardy

Like most people, I'm a huge fan of the character who is in over his head. Whether it's a cop out of his element like in Die Hard or even a security guard out of his element in Paul Blart: Mall Cop (who will get his own post here one day), these kind of characters resonate with the audience due to one simple fact - we are able to ask ourselves, What would I do in this situation? Of course when the character is in a genre film, the stakes are immediately raised, which is why this week's character is Sheriff Bill Pardy (pictured below), from the Horror/Comedy film Slither.

Bill (played by Nathan Fillion), is the Sheriff of a small town in South Carolina, and he is still in love with his Junior High crush Starla, who is now married to the richest man in town. The problem begins when alien slugs begin showing up and taking over the bodies of the towns folk.

Now before anyone comments on it, yes, this film bears a lot of similarities to Night of the Creeps, and Bill is kind of a mixture of the two main leads from that film, but I think that as Slither borrows concepts from so many '80s horror films, this is forgivable.

In the end, I love that Bill does exactly what we all wish we would do in this horrible, not to mention disgusting scenario. He does his best to take care of the citizens of his town, and although he isn't the main character of the film (that would be Starla, played very well by Elizabeth Banks), I really admire his courage.