The SFX Factor: Round Six

Who is the latest to be eliminated? And voting for the final nine opens!

The SFX Factor continues, with more singing casulaties and voting open for round six!

Band From TV, featuring Heroes’ Greg Grunberg and Lois And Clark ’s Teri Hatcher (among others) are the latest hopefuls to be voted off by you!

William Shatner

Best known as: James T Kirk in Star Trek
Singing: Rocket Man (1978)

Just as Shatner never let a limited range of acting talent stop him becoming a huge acting icon, he never let a total inability to sing get in the way of a singing career. His ’68 album, The Transformed Man – featuring a bizarre mix of poetry, Shakespeare and part-sung, part-shouted, part-mumbled covers of Mr Tambourine Man and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – has become a cult classic despite Q naming it one of their worst 50 albums of all time. Nearly four decades later he teamed up with the acclaimed Ben Folds, who produced the album Has Been , which spawned a quite extraordinary version of Pulp’s Common People, and, even more extraordinarily, good reviews. Here he “transforms” Elton John’s Rocket Man , with an official endorsement from the song’s co-writer, Bernie Taupin, amazingly.

Song we’d like to hear him cover: If… You TOL…erATE This, Then… You’re Chil… dren WILL… be NEXT

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Leonard Nimoy

Best known as: Spock in Star Trek
Singing: The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins (1968)

With a voice like a less-depressed Leonard Cohen, Nimoy embarked on a five-album singing career in 1967, thanks to the fact that the daughter of the record company’s boss was a Spock fan. That first album, Mr Spock’s Music From Outer Space , shamelessly played on the Vulcan’s popularity with dodgy songs titled things like Music To Watch Space Girls Go By and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Earth . On later albums he would start growling his way through standards like If I Had A Hammer , but his crowning glory will always by this insufferably catchy ode to Middle-earth’s most famous son.

Song we’d like to hear him cover: I Second That Emotion

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Brent Spiner

Best known as: Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation
Singing: Oye Como Va in the film Out To Sea (1997)

Spiner already had a background in musical theatre before he joined Trek , so you can forgive him using his new-found fame as a launching board to record an album, Ol’ Yellow Eyes Is Back (1991), which found him Sinatra-esque, lounge lizard mood. Since Trek he’s flexed his vocal chords (though that may not be the right phrase, as he often sounds like he’s singing out of his nose) in Broadway plays like Sunday In The Park With George and films like this, Out To Sea .

Song we’d like to hear him cover: Paranoid Android

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Claudia Christian

Best known as: Susan Ivanova in Babylon 5
Singing: Taboo (1998)

You just knew there was a raunchy singer inside Susan Ivanova’s always-so-neatly-ironed uniform busting to get out. Christian has so far released three albums: Claudia Squared (1996, with Claudia Cummings, hence the title), Taboo (1998) and Once Upon A Time (2001), writing or co-writing most of the songs herself. She was also part of The Be Five, a group made up of Babylon 5 cast members with Billy Mumy, Peter Jurasik, Mira Furlan and Andreas Katsulas also providing vocals. Yes, G’kar had a go at singing ! Sort of. All the songs were written by Billy Mumy. Talking of whom…

Song we’d like to hear her cover: I Kissed A Girl

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Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman

Best known as: John Steed and Cathy Gale in The Avengers
Singing: Kinky Boots (1964)

Commissioned by Ned Sherrin for the satirical TV show That Was The Week That Was , Kinky Boots was inspired by the leather-clad Cathy Gale in The Avengers . It only took 24 years to make the Top Five, thanks to Radio One breakfast DJ Simon Mayo who championed the record. It was clearly his major contribution to modern culture.

Song we’d like to hear them cover: Summer Loving

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Kate Kestrel

Best known as: Kate Kestrel in Terrahawks
Singing: SOS (1983)

Okay, is this postmodernism gone mad? A character from a puppet show releasing a single? Bizarre. Admittedly, Kestrel was a pop singer in the show, so there is some logic, but honestly, if you’re going to pull off a publicity stunt like this, at least make sure the song is not completely loathsome, and also, have the courage of your convictions, and have the character sing the song on TV and not get some session singers in. Not one of Gerry Anderson’s greatest moments…

Song we’d like to hear her cover: Puppet On A String

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David Tennant

Best known as: The tenth Doctor
Singing: I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) with The Proclaimers (2009)

Okay, okay, Mr Tennant isn’t attempting to create a musical “product” here. It’s not premeditated and he doesn’t expect us to fork money out for it. It’s just Doctor 10 meeting his musical heroes and spontaneously bursting into song with them. The sheer joy on his face outweighs any, erm, inadequacies in his voice…

Song we’d like to hear him cover: Donald Where’s Your Troosers

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Amber Benson

Best known as: Tara Maclay in Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Singing: Queen Of Hearts from the film 7 Things to Do Before I'm 30 (2008)

We all realised Benson could sing when she stole the show in “Once More, With Feeling” with her magical, folky rendition of Under Your Spell . And this gutsy performance in 7 Things to Do Before I'm 30 proves that was no fluke. How come this girl doesn’t have a record deal? And while we’re on the subject of Buffy cast members…

Song we’d like to hear him cover: Puff The Magic Dragon (in an Eva Cassidy style)

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James Marsters

Best known as: Spike in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel
Singing: A song (2009)

You knew he was going to put in an appearance sooner or later. He formed the band Ghost Of The Robot before going solo, and he tours constantly. He loves to rock’n’roll basically, and you need to keep your eye on this page for the latest live appearance news. Now we'll shut up, because we can't be heard over the screams anyway.

Song we’d like to hear him cover: Tubthumping

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Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.