Buffy The Vampire Slayer

TV shows like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER have given rise to a new breed of sci-fi fans - women.

British digital television channel Sci Fi UK claims that girls now outnumber male fans, due largely to the popularity of strong female characters like SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR and ANGELINA JOLIE in TOMBRAIDER, who star in more emotional storylines than the surreal plots of old.

And having hunky male co-stars is a bonus too.

PROFESSOR ADAM ROBERTS, a science fiction author and lecturer of English at Royal Holloway London University, is convinced the rise is due to the focus on primary characters in science fiction programmes as opposed to the bizarre plots.

He says, "Programmes are moving away from the emphasis on machines and zombies in the 1960s.

"More women are tuning in to see the relationships develop between wittily written, complex central characters they can identify with.

"A film like THE MATRIX attracted female viewers partly because it was about complicated concepts of life and death.

"It also had KEANU REEVES running around in leather, which helped."