Nerdgasm alert! Two of the all-time biggest sci-fi babes — Karen Gillan, who played Amy Pond, the red-haired companion from “Doctor Who” (2010-12), and Katee Sackhoff, who was tough-as-nails “Battlestar Galactica” space pilot Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (2004-09) — are in a movie together!
While “Oculus,” which comes out Friday, is a horror film, the pair’s geeky sci-fi fans have been waiting to see the objects of their obsessions return to the screen. This intense fandom creates all sorts of interesting situations; here are five the actresses shared with us:
You get to lobby for cool roles
Sackhoff has two dream roles in mind. The first is as Harley Quinn, the maniacal psychiatrist who falls in love with the Joker in the Batman universe. Harley is a fan favorite, but she’s yet to make it into a live-action movie.
“Harley Quinn is an amazing character, and such a wealth of entertainment that hasn’t been tapped into that world yet,” Sackhoff says.
She jokes, “It’s totally acceptable and realistic for me to want to play every single strong female character that’s ever been written.”
(Nerdy side note: In the comics continuity right now, Harley Quinn has inherited the deed to the Coney Island freak show, which she lives above.)
Her other dream job makes sense after five years jockeying a spaceship on “Battlestar” — any role in the new J.J. Abrams-directed “Star Wars” trilogy.
“I can’t imagine anyone growing up in the ’80s and being a fan of science fiction and action, to not want to be part of these ‘Star Trek’ or ‘Star Wars’ movies. It embodies everything that I grew up idolizing. I told J.J. I’d play a rock.”
You get brought in for emotional support
As “Doctor Who” fans know, this winter brought the emotional farewell to Matt Smith’s three-year run as the 11th incarnation of the Doctor. Gillan and he shared a special bond, since they started on the show at the same time.
In the final scene of his farewell, he hallucinates seeing Amy Pond, the first person he saw upon regenerating way back in 2010.
Gillan — who left the show in 2012 — says she thinks showrunner Steven Moffat wrote her into that scene just so she could be on set to give Smith emotional support.
“It was a really strange situation,” she says. “It was just the saddest thing I’ve ever seen to see him play his last scene as a character.”
The weight of the scene felt like the “end of the world.”
“Nothing’s going to be as fun as that,” she says.
People love to frak around with you
On “Battlestar,” the word “frak” was the catch-all curse word of the future that stood in for most four-letter words.
So whenever Sackhoff gets cast on a TV show like “CSI” that has a fracking (the other kind) storyline, the writers can’t resist putting her in the scene.
“That’s so annoying to me,” she says. “Everyone wants to, I get it, it’s hysterical.”
Fans try to be you
Both actresses are subjects of one of the highest honors from sci-fi fans: They regularly dress up as them at conventions, or just for the frak of it. Amy Pond, in her various outfits from “Doctor Who,” is an omnipresent sight at every comic-con, and fans recreate Starbuck’s military getup, right down to the arm tattoos.
“There’s nothing more flattering than someone who dressed up as you,” Gillan says.
But mostly, fans just can’t get enough of you
When you play an iconic sci-fi character — especially a strong female one — fans just want to see more. Sackhoff has picked up her Starbuck role a handful more times on the satirical animated show “Robot Chicken,” in which she voices an action-figure version of herself. She’s appeared as herself on CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” in full Starbuck gear.
Fans have asked Gillan which series she’d like Amy Pond to make a cameo on.
“I’d have her just sit in the back of Central Perk in ‘Friends,’ and just say one line,” she says. “I’m the biggest ‘Friends’ fan in the entire world.”