More than 20 years after the Hellmouth closed, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast are closer than ever as they reunite at Aberdeen Comic Con.
James Marsters, Charisma Carpenter and Juliet Landau swapped Sunnydale for the Granite City to greet their north-east fans last month.
And Marsters, who played villian turned anti-hero Spike, was thrilled by his Aberdeen audience.
“I’m loving Aberdeen. The people are wonderful,” he spoke of the event.
The 61-year-old actor and musician was met with a throng of fans lined up in anticipation of meeting the former bleach blonde baddie.
Despite the show – and its spin-off series Angel – ending in 2003, the trio were easily among the convention’s most popular guests.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all.
“I knew the central message was really strong on Buffy; it’s basically don’t give up, the world’s not perfect, it often hurts but it’s worth it so keep going.
“That’s a really good central message and then you combine that with really funny, sparkling dialogue and you get something the audience wants to go back to even when they know what the dialogue is, what the plot is, they just want to go back to that world,” said the headliner.
Amid late night shoots, Marsters would clue his co-stars into his thoughts about the show’s potential legacy, believing it to be something they would “remember for the rest of our lives.”
He added: “I always knew it had a chance and it has surpassed my hope.”
Over the last two decades, Marsters has joined Carpenter, Landau and several other cast members at conventions across the globe.
But he was no new hand to the world of sci-fi and comic con.
At the age of 13, the actor was attending Star Trek conventions in full Spock attire, and he noted that this attributes towards his connection with his Buffy fanbase.
Marsters said: “I know the feeling of having a central message that is really useful; in Star Trek, it was hope.
“It was basically that the human race might grow up and start helping each other rather than tear each other down, and that’s very powerful; and when you combine that with something very well realised in this delightful world, you’ve really got something.”
Now with a backlog of work himself, the self-proclaimed “fanboy” sits on the other side of the table, but he’s content enough with his chair.
Marsters said: “It’s fabulous. First of all, I get to sit down.
“Everyone else around here has to walk on concrete all day, and believe me, concrete is not easy to walk around on. I feel lucky just to get the chair and the coffee is free.
“I also feel like I’m with my people.”
On screen Marsters and Landau played love interests whereas his and Carpenter’s character were like ships passing in the night.
Nevertheless, the trio are “family” and have “been in the trenches” together.
“We love each other. We just talk about our lives. Charisma (Carpenter) and I talk about being parents. Juliet and I talk about theatre.
“[When filming] You see the best and the worst in people and you come to know them as brothers and sisters, so I know them very well and I love them to pieces.”
Whilst his and Carpenter’s characters were adored for their witty one-liners on the hit series, Marsters confessed he “loves” the humour of the Scots and recalled the time he learned they “don’t take guff.”
He said: “I came twice with my band Ghost of the Robot. We played more than once in Scotland, so I remember almost getting beat up twice.
“Our lead guitarist got lippy with someone on the street and I had to intervene like ‘dude, they don’t take guff here so back down or we’re toast.’”
Thankfully, his experience in Aberdeen was less confrontational.
