Oz Comic-Con

There is so much to enjoy at Oz Comic-Con — a celebration of pop culture geekery — that even two days are not enough. The 2016 Melbourne edition is again held at South Wharf's expansive Convention & Exhibition Centre, and, amusingly, in tandem with both a New Age and a hair expo.

It's easy to focus on the famous actors — like Robert Patrick, iconic for his Terminator assassin T-1000; Lucy Lawless, from the eternal Xena: Warrior Princess; or Grimm's David Giuntoli. The stars head Q&A panels and, for an additional cost, sign autographs and pose for personal snaps (plus Oz Comic-Con markets dinner events). However, the fest also encompasses comics, anime, fiction and gaming. The cosplay itself virtually constitutes a con-within-a-con (how canny is it that Spotlight should be a sponsor?). This year Alice In Wonderland emerges as a major theme. And then Oz Comic-Con has endless merch stalls. Our best find here? A meta badge that reads "STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER".

In 2016 Oz Comic-Con's main attraction is the gracious, exuberant, and ridiculously dashing John Barrowman, MBE. The Scottish-American idol is the ultimate slashie. Launching his career in musical theatre, Barrowman can today claim to be a thespian, presenter, soap star, music artist, reality show participant, memoirist, fantasy novelist, comic writer, and LGBT activist. Still, Oz Comic-Con's patrons mostly equate Barrowman with either the mercurial time-traveller Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and Torchwood, or the villain Malcolm Merlyn in CW's superhero series Arrow. Inundated with Tim Tams from fans, Barrowman posts updates about his growing #timtamtower in the autograph area — including its inevitable collapse.

Barrowman's popularity is such that the weekend's two scheduled sessions quickly reach capacity. He approaches them as (brilliantly) improvised stand-up comedy gigs, combining pantomime routines for kids and artful innuendo for adults. At the end, Barrowman sings — on Sunday — turning Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off You into a duet with bashful hubby Scott Gill. He closes Oz Comic-Con playing Tim Tam Jenga(!) with attendees.

Captain Jack was one of the first mainstream characters on TV to express a fluid sexual identity: being omnisexual. Conducting interviews in a swank hotel, Barrowman agrees that Russell T Davies' creation was "a huge gamechanger for everybody". So beloved was Jack that in 2006 he inspired the edgy Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. The show ran for four seasons — the last a US co-production. In 2015 Torchwood audio plays were announced — and Barrowman is authoring officially sanctioned graphic novels with his academic sister Carole. "It's basically a carte blanche to do what we wanna do," he says. But will Torchwood ever return to the screen? "Everybody asks this question!," Barrowman laughs. "What frustrates me is I hear it, and the executives who are sitting in the offices of the BBC don't hear it — and they need to hear it, because there is a worldwide fanbase that is hungry for more Torchwood. I'm pretty sure it would be a huge success for them, if it's done the right way... I am hopeful that one day it will come back."

Barrowman has since appeared in the US Arrow — the intriguing Merlyn initially antagonist to Stephen Amell's titular crime fighter, then morally dubious ally. "Malcolm sees himself as a hero — good villains are the heroes of their own story, right?" Barrowman jokes. Nonetheless, he is uncertain about The Dark Archer's development in the fifth season, airing in October. "I don't know as of the moment because honestly I haven't signed a contract yet, so I'm kind of in limbo, as we speak," Barrowman reveals. "I know he's a very popular character. I would like to see Malcolm have more screen-time than he does, because people love the fact that he crosses both lines." Ironically, Barrowman is also co-writing DC Comics' Merlyn stories, again with Carole. "There's things that you will find out that are not in the TV show."

Meanwhile, Barrowman has guest starred in another CW staple — Reign, a historical fantasy centred on the future Mary, Queen Of Scots (Aussie Adelaide Kane). He requested a role from the network's boss, the show his "guilty pleasure". Indeed, Munro, clan leader and king slayer, was "especially" created for this "true Scot", who wore "nothing" under his kilt. And Barrowman is down for other CW spots — he fancies jumping into Supernatural. "I was actually looked at for [The] Vampire Diaries — before I was doing Arrow," Barrowman shares. The actor is in-demand — he was considered, too, for Game Of Thrones' Oberyn Martell.

Barrowman isn't the Whoniverse's only wanderer at Oz Comic-Con. Also billed are Samuel Anderson, aka the hapless teacher Danny Pink, and Ingrid Oliver, who portrays the reoccurring UNIT scientist Petronella Osgood. Anderson hangs out in the hotel lobby on media day, playfully pretending to nap on the comfy couches. We first encounter Oliver — unrecognisable from the nerdy Osgood in her glam-rock chick attire — searching for the Ladies in a gloomy hall. The English comedian later tells how she secured the part of Osgood with "a five-minute audition". Osgood left an immediate impression on viewers in 2013's 50th anniversary spesh The Day Of The Doctor, her scarf a cosplay-style homage to Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor. "The glasses were my idea," Oliver says. She last interacted with Peter Capaldi's Doctor — "he's such a nice, kind man" — in a two-parter about a Zygon invasion. Following the exit of Jenna Coleman, speculation mounted that Osgood might be cast as the Doctor's next companion. But now Pearl Mackie has been confirmed to play 'Bill'. "I think as soon as someone's the favourite to be anything that automatically means that they're not going to be," Oliver says easily. "So I never thought that was going to be. Also it made sense to me that you'd bring someone new in." She approves of the decision. "Pearl Mackie looks great! I saw the trailer — I loved it!" Will Osgood be back? "There's never any talk of it before it happens," Oliver laughs.

Oz Comic-Con's revelatory panellist is American David Anders, who has abundant swagger and a sharp sense of humour. In downtime, he's been playing blackjack at the casino. Post-convention, Anders will holiday in Cairns, then visit New Zealand — home of his iZOMBiE co-star (and fellow guest) Rose McIver. The "Oregon boy" — who early on performed in musicals — scored his unlikely TV breakthrough realising the British spy Julian Sark in Alias. "It was a far cry from peddling khakis at The GAP in Beverly Hills," Anders quips, pre-Con. But, notably for punters, he subsequently surfaced in The Vampire Diaries as John Gilbert, biological father of Elena (aka "sweet, sweet Nina" Dobrev). Anders wasn't an obvious choice. After all, he's just eight years older than Dobrev. Besides, Anders laughs, "I'm not a father -- that I know of!" In fact, he'd auditioned for Alaric Saltzman. "I did it in principle to work with my buddy Ian Somerhalder [Damon Salvatore] and I'm so glad — working with Ian was just fantastic," Anders raves. Gilbert's narrative arc took him from being a loathsome vampire-hunting ideologue to a loving and accepting father, sacrificing himself to save his daughter from original vampire Niklaus Mikaelson's supernatural schemes. On viewing the playback of his lonely, redemptive death set to Birdy's Skinny Love, Anders cried. Yet, while still tight with the cast, he admits to not keeping up with the saga. "I barely watched it when I was on it!"

Currently Anders can be seen in CW's cult hit iZOMBiE as the drug dealer/zombie godfather Blaine "DeBeers" McDonough — and its fandom is significant. Most of the panel questions he'll field are about iZOMBiE — many from young women. "Blaine's pretty great," Anders enthuses. "In spite of all the terrible things that he's done, other than that, he's the closest character to me that I've ever played... He's an arsehole, I'm a bit of an arsehole, but he's a cool arsehole (laughs)." Alas, the third season of iZOMBiE won't air until 2017 — and, Anders says, it'll be shorter at 13, not 19, episodes. "Maybe we pack a wallop in 13?"

Anders, who commands a scary-good knowledge of contemporary music, listens to Arctic Monkeys to enter Blaine's headspace. But one sleepless night during filming, he wrote a song that could sneak its way into iZOMBiE. As for the S3 storyline? "I can't reveal it but, yeah, we're gonna pick up from where we left off with last season," Anders hints. "Trouble's still afoot. We might have a zombie apocalypse on our hands."