Let’s face it, science fiction is for nerds. And nerds, in general, have trouble getting the girl. Instead we (yes, I consider myself a nerd) are left with video games, TV shows and movies and fantasies about Slave Leia or Lara Croft.

But our hot, isn’t always regular hot. There is such a thing as “nerd hot.”

For example, Scarlett Johansson in The Island is hot. Carrie Fisher as Slave Leia in Return of the Jedi is nerd hot. In other words, “nerd hot” refers to the fact that in ordinary circumstances, the actress is not necessarily considered “hot.”

(By the way, I apologize to anyone who finds the term “hot” offensive. Prove to me that there is a better word and I’ll use it.)

That said, over the next few days, I’ll reveal my Top 10 Sci-Fi girls.

A few criteria, however. The role must be recurring (at least two movies, or a TV show). This means that Johansson doesn’t make the list for her roles in either The Island or The Prestige. But Megan Fox is eligible for her recurring role in Transformers, although she doesn’t automatically make the list.

The character she plays has to be hot as well. She can’t just be eye candy.

In addition, fantasy films and fantasy TV shows will count in these rankings. And finally, movies and TV shows can have at most two characters on this list.

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The List:

10. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson)
The X-Files

Why she’s hot: Perhaps no one typifies nerd-hot more than Gillian Anderson, who played Dana Scully on The X-Files. She isn’t hot in the traditional sense, but her intelligence and her Ying to FBI partner and UFO believer Fox Mulder’s Yang propelled her to the top of nerds’ list of hot sci-fi chicks during the show’s nine-season run.

Nerd Fantasy: An alien abductee lies naked in a forest after a spaceship drops him off. Agent Scully comes running shouting, “Mulder? Mulder!” before tripping over the naked, shivering body. Struck by compassion for the naked abductee, Scully covers him. She cocks her head noticing how cute the abductee is and plants a big fat kiss on his lips.

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9. Aayla Secura (Amy Allen/Cartoon)
Star Wars

Why she’s hot: When Emperor Palpatine issued Order 66 in The Revenge of the Sith and the clone troopers gunned down the blue Jedi with the bare midriff and bountiful cleavage, I thought, “She should have had more screen time.” Aayla Secura made me want to be a Twi’lek. They’re the ones with tentacles for hair. They keep Jabba the Hut entertained—see Oola, Jabba’s slave. Not only is Aayla hot, but she’s a powerful Jedi. (I wonder if Yoda ever got confused when talking about her: “Hot Jedi is… I mean Powerful Jedi is she.”) In The Clone Wars, she’s just as talented Jedi as Anakin Skywalker and leads him into battle in the episode “Jedi Crash.”

Nerd Fantasy: Would color would our babies be? And will they have tentacles for hair?

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8. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff)
Battlestar Galactica

Why she’s hot: Starbuck is like that girl school bully in sixth grade. She was taller, faster, stronger, and smarter than any of the boys and she could kick some major ass. It didn’t matter that she was a promiscuous, chain-smoking, alcoholic and bad-tempered because Starbuck’s vulnerable side made up for that.

Nerd Fantasy: To play cards with Starbuck and hope that one night she’ll notice you right after she says, “I really need a good frak.”

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7. Star Wars Royalty—Padme Amidala and Princess Leia
(Natalie Portman and Carrie Fisher)
Star Wars Episodes 1-6

Why they’re hot: OK, maybe I cheated a bit by making these two as one entry, but I couldn’t justify putting Leia any higher and, well, Padme was a bit annoying in Star Wars. Anyway, do a Google image search of Princess Leia and you’ll have to sort through dozens of “Slave Leia” photos in order to get to one of her fully clothed and in her hairbuns. That is iconic. In 1983, Slave Leia WAS the male sci-fi fantasy. How can someone wearing a metal bikini kill Jabba the Hut? Also, thanks to Slave Leia, guys who attend Star Wars and comic book conventions all over the world are treated to women in gold bikinis walking around with chains dangling from their necks. As far as Padme Amidala goes, she’s the hottest queen/senator in the galaxy. I mean, she is stunningly beautiful. What other senator would rope into a pit of evil alien creatures with a bare midriff and firing off blaster shot after blaster shot. That’s hot. The prequels could have used more of that and less of the “Anakin, you’re going down a path I cannot follow” stuff.

Nerd fantasy: Time machine. It turns out that Leia is the wrong kid and is not even related to Padme. Two on one mud wrestling.

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6. Jessica Alba (Max and the Invisible Woman)
Dark Angel and Fantastic Four

Why she’s hot: Admittedly, I wanted to keep Jessica Alba off this list. Not because she isn’t hot. She is. On any other list, Alba is in the top five of hot women. But on this, she has to settle for No. 6 because of the mediocrity of her work. But I only thought about her as Max, the genetically engineered supersoldier in Dark Angel. Although there’s nothing wrong with a leather-clad Alba riding motorcycles and kicking some ass, the show just wasn’t that good. Then I remembered that she also starred in the two Fantastic Four movies as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman. And with that, she’s in.

Nerd Fantasy: Sure, this is about Jessica Alba, but I think the nerd fantasy in this is to have Reed Richards superpower. Maybe that’s how he got Sue Storm?

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5. Alice (Milla Jovovich)
Resident Evil 1-3

Why she’s hot: The model-turned-actress-turned sci-fi goddess jumped into the hearts of fanboys with her portrayal of Leelo in the 1997 movie The Fifth Element. So fans of the Resident Evil video game series didn’t flip out when Jovovich was cast as lead role in a movie adaptation. She succeeded as a survivor of the un-deadly T-virus and succeeded in kicking some zombie ass. She’s recently accepted a role in a fourth Resident Evil movie.

Nerd fantasy:

Nerd: So, level with me. What are the chances of us, you know, hooking up?

Alice: Let’s put it this way. If we were the only two survivors in an attack with a deadly virus that spread throughout the world and the only way we could save this world is to repopulate it with our spawn, then there’s a .01 percent chance we’ll, how do you say, “hook up.”

Nerd: (About 5 minutes later) So what you’re saying is, I have a chance?

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5. Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly)
Lost

Why she’s hot: She’s crafty. Smart. Sexy. Independent. Tough. And she’s one of the few, OK, several hot women on The Island in Lost. She makes it in the top four, not just because of her overall hotness, but because she fits into the prototypical male fantasy of getting stuck on a deserted island with a woman of her sort. She’s also almost always naked. I wonder what the over/under is on episodes in which Kate strips down to bra and panties and jumps in the water to take a bath, or rescue something or someone—three?

Nerd fantasy: The entire plot of the show Lost. That’s the nerd fantasy. Get stuck on an island with a bunch of hot women and have all kinds of weird stuff happen. Nothing better than that… I guess we could do without flaming arrows flying at our heads.

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See No. 3 Here