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Dollhouse will be about "identity, self-determination" and the fact that "free will is both a blessing and a pain in the ass, " says creator Joss Whedon, who helped revolutionize science fiction with his space western Firefly. Also important strands in the show: Joss' view that Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation "is a great TV character," and the hotness of star Eliza Dushku. Joss spilled tons of details on the Dollhouse pilot, plus the first script review just popped up online. Spoilers, as they say, ahead.
Joss told E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos that the Fox show's pilot is called "Echo," which also happens to be the name of Dushku's character. Says Joss:
Echo is a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.
Joss also describes Dollhouse as, "The Bourne Identity meets Stepford Wives meets boarding school meets Los Angeles neo-noir meets the Whedonverse." But Echo is much more self-aware than the character Dushku played on Whedon's Buffy, despite being mind-wiped a lot of the time. "In the first episode, we are shown that Echo is essentially like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz — 'If I only had a brain...' — but she's otherwise fully equipped with a soul, a rockin' bod, and a good, fearless heart."
Joss also spilled more details about the supporting cast:
- Olivia Williams is Adelle Dewitt, a "Frigidaire administratrix" who runs the Dollhouse. She has rare moments of human empathy that make you wonder if she's not secretly a good guy.
- Tamikoh Penikett plays FBI agent Paul Ballard, who's obsessed with opening up the Dollhouse, but "he may have more in common with — and already be closer to—the Dolls than he even knows." And Paul may have a hot romance with Echo.
- The Doll mechanic, Topher (sort of like the nerd who controlled Michelle Ryan in Bionic Woman, but more evil) may end up having a relationship with another doll, Sierra (Dichen Lachman).
- And the show's "Xander" may be Victor (Enver Gjokaj).
- Then there's Dr. Claire Saunders, who has visible facial scars from a razor-blade attack, plus a cooperative, calm personality.
Meanwhile, Televisionary has a full review of the Dollhouse pilot script, which is full of "morally grey characters" engaged in the most sickening human trafficking imaginable. The Dollhouse has a power structure that's constantly in flux, and the place itself is "not a draconian prison nor an icy SD-6-type operations hub; instead it's more like a serene, Japanese-influenced, high-tech spa for the Actives." Topher, Claire and Adelle are engaged in a high-stakes game of "human chess," with the dolls as pieces.
We get to see Dushku's Echo take on no fewer than five identities in the pilot episode alone. And we see her starting to remember things from her assignments, things which were supposed to have been wiped from her memory. There's also a huge backstory, referred to as "Alpha," that gets set in motion in the pilot. [E! Online and Televisionary, via Whedonesque]
Eliza Dushku image by WENN.
Comments
The title for this is misleading. Why isn't this post simply blank?
Wow that better be a photoshopped image. I didn't know it was possible to make Eliza Dushku look so terrible.
@joemono: Mean, but funny.
I may tune in for Helo.
Not a man crush. Honest.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
@moff:
Stupid and wrong, but funny.
Fixed that for you.
I honestly cannot wait for this show. While Joss may have lost some of my respect with his work on Runaways, I'm hoping he'll redeem himself with this.
@The Blow Leprechaun: Well, yes, it's photoshopped... but it's a real picture of her. I think it looks cute.
When me and my wife would watch Tru Calling, my wife would refer to her as Turkey Neck Tru. She's kind of got a Jorge Posada thing going on there in the neck.
Wow, a multi-layerd, morally ambiguous, dark, futuristic, complex show starring Eliza Dookshoot as one of central main characters who have essentialy... no character?! What could possibly go wrong?!
@Charlie Jane Anders: Either she's leaning at like a 45 degree angle towards the camera, or her legs have been exposed to some kind of shrink ray.
> the hotness of star Eliza Dushku
This will be a key factor. I miss the days of Buffy & Faith going at each other in leather pants.
> The Doll mechanic, Topher...may end
> up having a relationship with another
> doll, Sierra
We did this already in Serenity, with Mr. Universe
@The Blow Leprechaun: tiny legs, but she's still hot.
You guys all suck. When I heard about this show all I could think was WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN. If anybody can play de-brained, brawny hot chick, Eliza can. If anybody can make this complicated, freaky vision work, Joss can. Case closed.
Even the most elaborately plotted, aesthetically pleasing, sci-fi minded show show ever created cannot disguise the fact that Eliza Dushku is one of the worst actresses ever to walk the planet.And so incredibly bland that I think I've even forgotten what I was writing about....
@Calraigh: But the smokey voice! The way she called Buffy "B"! Oh Eliza.
@Annalee Newitz: Yeah but why bother getting involved in a a show that is just gonna get canned. This sounds too much like Harsh Realm, Dark Angel, Nowhere Man, even flippin Dead at 21. Quality is not the issue. This will be handled very poorly by the network.
@Garrison Dean, King Awesome: They should just add in Virtual Reality and bury it before it starts.
Hmm. My initial reaction to this was to the heavy-handed allegorical feel. But then, I probably would have reacted the same way to a Buffy pitch, and it was my favorite show evar.
And I would imagine that when Whedon set up a new high-concept SF show, he wd have put a lot of thought into how Firefly was handled, and how to prevent a repetition?
Even if it only runs for one season (I'm pulling for a longer run) it will most likely have me hooked. I come for the good dialog, the kick ass ladies and the pretty people. I stay for the better than average sci-fi. Seriously how can there be so many Joss haters on a website where we routinely give Torchwood a free pass?
@Aethyr: Yes. YES. I am so, so bitter over his run with my Runaways.
No more pasty makeup for Eliza! She needs a tan. And leather pants, fer real.
So... Joss likes Data? I think what he really liked was all the singing Data got to do in ST:TNG. And the smart remarks.
@Austin Grossman: Let's hope. I am preparing to love this show, realize immediately that it is doomed due its inherently weird plot that involves heroic hookers, and remain stoic when it is canceled after three episodes.
Dushku may have ****ability, but she does not have likeability. I can't picture her carrying a series (not a successful one, anyway).
I just finished rewatching the Angel series, and kept thinking Wolfram & Hart would make an excellent series on its own. No need for any crossover characters, just a legal show about lawyers working for an evil firm who almost always win. "Good guys win" has become a cliche. Each week we'd see good threaten the firm, almost win, but ultimately be crushed by evil.
Why all the hate for this show and Eliza? She's no worse an actress than Jennifer Garner, and Alias was crazy popular. I really like the concept too. Reminds me of the backstory of Molly from Neuromancer.
Atleast she cant be anyworse than when she was on Buffy and Angel.. I mean it would be almost physically impossible for Eliza Dushku to suck even more, right?
I can't be the first to mention Gerry Anderson's Joe 90, can I? That was based around agent Joe being implanted with knowledge and personalities, plus it had a wicked theme tune. Interestting to see how this turns out.
+ Watch video
Eliza now looks like a cracked-out shadow of her former self, and where did her nose (and figure, more importantly) go? Apologies for lack of sci-fi content in this post.
I really have no interest in this show... it sounds like crap.
Now if the 'dolls' were androids that were beginning to develop sentience... that'd be worth watching.
well, my hubby is very happy to have Eliza back on tv, to which I say - yay! more time for me to watch my Ashes to Ashes dvd set....
Sounds interesting, and it sounds like it will end up having some stories similar to Pretender.
@Luana Arrrr: Isn't calling it a run a bit optimistic. More like a walk, a stroll really. It's going nowhere fast.
@Ravac: What difference would it make if the dolls were human or android? Both would be programmed. The whole android being sentient with emotions thing is getting a bit overdone now anyway, with BSG and Terminator and all those movies.
Personally I find the idea of personality programming fascinating, the ideas of self and identity and artificial identities. Would these "personality packages" constitute a separate being? Are they full A.I.s that can run on any platform?
That wasn't actually an interview with Joss. It was Kristin talking about what she read in a Q&A format.
Damnit. I still haven't found the title of the book that the premise of the show reminds me of. I might have to go back to the library I interned at just to find it, despite its distance from my house. While she appears to be leeching a little of her desires into the new personalities, in the book the personalities would leech into the personality of the (to borrow the term from this show) "doll". If anyone can find it you win 3.5 internets and a replicated cookie.
I was forced to watch her on some show called Tru Calling. She was a psychic or time traveler or something like that. All I remember was that it was crap, it didn't make sense and Eliza sucked hard. They tried the leather pants and kick boxining but nothing could save that show. I am surprised that the networks would even let her set foot on the lot after that turkey.
Last I heard, the Topher role was going to be played by Fran Kranz. He was the lead on that short-run sitcom "Welcome to the Captain" and he's shown up in a couple of movies (Matchstick Men, The Village), but nothing really big yet. I knew him at Yale where he was the funniest actor on campus; so maybe Topher will be the funny, Xander-type role - I saw somewhere that he's supposed to have the hots for Doc Saunders? Hilarity in the making.
The book you may be thinking of is Michael Swanwick's Vacuum Flowers. In Swanwick's novel people buy wetware personas that they can imprint themselves with for a limited time.
I can't imagine that happening now. Think of the EULAs.@Ghede:
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