Why Sci-Fi Opens Your Imagination

You may know Naoko Mori as Toshiko "Tosh" Sato from the science fiction universe of Doctor Who and Torchwood, or you may recognise her as Saffron Monsoon's bashful bestie Sarah, aka Titicaca, " in Absolutely Fabulous. Either way, the iconically diverse actor is Australia bound for the first time, making a rare convention appearance at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo alongside her Torchwood co-stars Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd. "I'm super-excited about coming out," Mori says from Los Angeles.

"When you create a character and you live as her, and in her, and when you have such amazing writers, who almost know you better than you do yourself..."

Mori is an internationalist. Born in Nagoya, Japan, she moved to New Jersey, USA, at three. After briefly returning home, the family then headed to the UK. "I had the thickest Jersey accent," a very English-sounding Mori quips. In London she studied singing, then drama, "As a hobby". This led to a radio play and auditions. Mori was cast as Kim in the musical Miss Saigon opposite future Torchwood co-star John Barrowman, becoming the first Japanese national to assume a lead role in a West End production. Her major break into television came with Jennifer Saunders' Absolutely Fabulous. Still, Supanova attendees will geek out over the Mori they know as Tosh.

Mori says she had no idea of Doctor Who's sub-cultural fandom when she accepted a part in Russell T Davies' 2005 reboot starring Christopher Eccleston. "I mean, when I got Doctor Who, I didn't even know who Doctor Who was," she laughs. Mori depicted the government pathologist Dr Sato in Aliens Of London, which introduced the (gross) Slitheen monsters. Impressed, Davies secured her for Torchwood, a spin-off program about a secret agency investigating extraterrestrials. The show is often described as "Doctor Who for grown-ups". Tosh was now a tech expert. Alas, she was killed in the second series' dramatic finale. Emotional for audiences, but also for Mori. "I was absolutely heartbroken! When you create a character and you live as her, and in her, and when you have such amazing writers, who almost know you better than you do yourself... That was probably one of the best written things I've ever done — it was so organic and so natural. It was just really, really hard to say goodbye to her."

Mori kept watching Torchwood. "It was hard," she reiterates. "Because I did wanna stay in the show." Young female viewers especially connected with Tosh. "They will tell me personal stories how they maybe felt unconfident, but saw Tosh and kind of thought, I can be confident." For Tosh to even inspire an action figure is "just crazy", Mori says.

Mori has continued to explore sci-fi, recently popping up as "Fiona" in the AI-themed hit Humans. "Sci-fi is becoming more and more mainstream, in a way, which is always brilliant because the beauty with sci-fi is that you can go to places that you wouldn't be able to do ordinarily. It opens your imagination. It takes the blinkers off people, and I think anything like that is always good. Otherwise you end up doing the same old, same old. So I'm always really excited about sci-fi and new things, because I think that's how we develop as human beings, too." She could return in season two. "There was talk that the character might come back. We're still not sure what's happening with that yet. And, even if I knew, I wouldn't be able to talk about it!"