There's a fact of life that Lucy Lawless has had to accept: she will never escape the geeks. She must admit she doesn't really want to. "Everything I do is sort of fringey," she says. "I inhabit that cult world a lot."

I had asked if she was suffering from Icon Deprivation Syndrome, now that 12 years have passed since the end of Xena Warrior Princess, which made her a feminist role model and an object of nerd lust. Surely the Xena hysteria must be over by now.

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" she says. "But here we are in New Zealand, embroiled in a political scandal, with an election three weeks away, and today my whole twitter feed is clogged up with people wishing Xena a happy 19^th birthday. Apparently it was 19 years ago that the show first aired.

"They're amazingly loyal, these fans. And these guys are forces for good in their communities. They band together and do projects. They see Xena as an inspiration for social improvement.

"The show was about empowerment and it helped a lot of people. It gave them the idea they could bust out of poor relationships or come out to their families. A lot of gay and lesbian people took courage from that show. They took messages of friendship and courage and self-love and turned it into something in their lives."

Lawless couldn't even escape the geek factor in her new series The Code, which starts next Sunday on ABC. She plays an outback teacher who protects an Aboriginal boy blamed for the death of a teenage girl. She gets help from a computer geek who tries to prove the girl's death was caused by an evil company doing secret government business.

Since the end of Xena, Lawless has been mostly doing comedies such as Parks and Recreation or tongue-in-cheek epics such as Spartacus. So how did the serious-teacher role come about?

"I was sent the script by Shelley Birse, the writer, because I guess she thought I had a bit of activist cred. She was looking for someone with grit and love, I guess. I'm very concerned about the environment. I don't want to see Australia getting six degrees hotter in the next 50 or 60 years.

"I read it and thought, 'Ohmygod, this is so good I have to jump on it', and I was the first person on. I normally don't like to do that, but you don't want to miss the chance of being part of a script that good. Fortunately all the other pieces that fell into place were as good as the writing: the actors are phenomenal, the director did a really brilliant job. I'm very lucky. I just hit the jackpot.

"I think Australia should be be really proud of the talent of its filmmakers and writers. It shows off Australia's depth and beauty and sophistication."

The teacher in The Code is the grimmest role Lawless has done in 20 years, but she couldn't resist adding her trademark twinkle. In early episodes, I remarked, there seemed to be sexual tension between the teacher and an investigative journalist (played by Dan Spielman) who arrives in her town.

Lawless: "I'm glad you could see that, because I just thought, 'Let's layer it up, make it interesting.' He blows into town like a cool breeze and wouldn't she just go, 'Yep, I'll have a bit of that'? I know I would."

Sadly the climax of the relationship does not appear in the show. "There was this really kind of hot scene that I did not see in the final cut. Maybe [it will appear] when they do the unexpurgated version on the DVD".

Lawless has spent most of this year in New Zealand, where her children prefer to go to school, but she's about to return to Los Angeles. She's told the kids: "I've got to maintain a career. It's time for mummy to go back to work."

She'll take on the role of heroic Isabelle Hartley in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "My reason for doing it is a bit of a nod to my old fan base and to the writers, because the executive producers were on Spartacus,"  Lawless: says. "It's one of those loyalty jobs that you put in."

Not that she's in any way reluctant to do a series based on a comic: "I love geeks. Geeks are my life."

The Code starts on Sunday, September 21, at 8.30pm on ABC TV. 

Conflict and interest

Normally the producers of a reality show want two things from their participants: sex and conflict. On SBS, the sex is already covered elsewhere (with subtitles), so conflict becomes the priority. In its latest reality series, SBS decided to maximise the chances of getting conflict by setting up this scenario: two people with diametrically opposing views must share a house for 10 days.

This Wednesday's episode of Living With The Enemy sets Abe, a refugee from Sudan who came here with no English in 2004, up against Nick, an activist who believes Australia should accept only white immigration. I asked them both whether they'd felt manipulated by the show's setup.

Abe: "I went into the house and I was so confused. I thought I was going to be handed a script in some way, where both opinions would feature, but I didn't expect Nick's passion, his approach to the whole show. He was so eager. I did not think I would meet an individual who was, I don't know how to say it, possessed!

"I'm used to meeting Australians who are generous enough to give people from disadvantaged backgrounds a fair go. My words didn't really come out as I would have liked them to. But even if I could have spoken better, I think he has come too far to turn back now.

"I found it intimidating, in the sense that if this is what people are thinking right now, what could this country be 10 years from now. For me personally, even though I have not seen the final cut of the show and everyone said how great it was, I don't think I did that well because I was tongue-tied."

Nick: "I was worried a little bit because I see SBS as definitely leaning towards the left and they are protective of multiculturalism, so they might come out with a final cut that is skewed in some way and might make me look racist. But it's a great thing for a public broadcaster to give me this opportunity. I would never get this opportunity on a commercial station.

"Definitely there were moments when I said, 'Oh hang on, I feel I'm being set up here'. They're trying to create a bit of drama and confrontation, but that's journalism in itself. It's good that they put us both in difficult situations. I think that makes great TV and brings out probably the best and worst in people."

You can see whether Nick and Abe's hopes or fears were realised on SBS at 8.30pm on Wednesday, September 17.

Panda-ing to a cult

Is there no limit to the genius of the Sydney actor/writer/director Brendan Cowell? He's performed in countless comedies and dramas (including Hamlet), directed The Outlaw Michael Howe for television and written three plays, a novel, episodes of The Slap and the sadly underrated movie Beneath Hill 60. He's played Mattai the Hebrew in The Borgias and Rodney Marsh in Howzat! Kerry Packer's War. And now a career first: he has given voice to a super-intelligent panda, a feat previously attempted only by Jack Black.

Wastelander Panda is an experimental miniseries described thus by the ABC: "A post-apocalyptic tale about humanoid panda Isaac, who is banished to the Wasteland after the violent death of a young girl, and sets out to find a replacement to reinstate his family into the Tribe of Legion."

Cowell didn't actually have to walk around wearing a panda head, but he did have to provide appropriate gravitas for lines such as "Do whatever you want to me, but you let her go. You may outnumber us, but we will overpower you." With this on his resume, he's guaranteed a part in Star Wars Episode VII.

All six episodes of Wastelander Panda go up on ABC iview for bingeing at 10am on Saturday.