Sheppard doesn't agree with our assessment that he always tends to play "shifty" characters (like Badger in Firefly, or Manservant Neville in The Middleman.) Look at Romo Lampkin, he says — he's completely altruistic and trying to do the right thing. Sure, he manipulates Lee Adama like a pro, but that's just for the good of the Colonies. But Sheppard freely admits the business with Romo Lampkin's dead cat was a terrible mistake. Lampkin was carrying his dead cat around for two whole weeks, according to Sheppard — and they almost cut that whole business out of the episode, except that then they wouldn't have had an excuse to give Romo a pet dog, something they'd promised to do.

And yes, that dog is the forebear of every dog living today — in fact, says Sheppard, he's the "mitochondrial dog." Which should be the name of an indie-punk thrash band, if it isn't already.

The Comic Con video of the "Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse" table read is a poor substitute for getting the actual episode, but at least now you get to hear some of that fantastic dialogue coming out of the mouths of the actors, the way it was meant to. Our favorite moment: Manservant Neville (Mark Sheppard) growls, "My plan is sheer elegance in its draconian complexity!" (Take that, Guy Goddard!). And of course, if the video's not enough for you, the whole thing has been released as a graphic novel as well.

The whole thing is on YouTube, and the playlist of all the segments is here.

Oh man, it is so great to see the Middleman cast all together talking glibly and to hear Matt Keeslar spouting incomprehensible dialogue and crazy plot stuff like:

Prophecies of Orac! A Polyditetrahexamono-Trioctalon?

Or Wendy's line: "Look at all those pineal glands. It's like a gland-nado." To which Tyler says: "A tornado made of glands?" And then Manservant Neville says "You must admit, my plan is sheer elegance in its draconian complexity."

So in the unfilmed season finale, the Middleman finally kisses Lacey. Later she says she wasn't sure if it really happened. The Middleman says "It happened, and it will happen again." The Middleman even tells Lacey he loves her! And Tyler learns the truth about what Wendy does for a living — and we learn it's not just coincidence that Tyler and Wendy got together, it was all part of the fiendish plot by Tyler's boss, Manservant Neville. And the fiendish plot really really is fiendish. And over the top. You probably couldn't have filmed of all of this in any case, but

Oh my god, the fantastic fearsomeness of Romo Lampkin himself, Mark Sheppard, as Manservant Neville, the story's villain. The snarling! The raging! The ranting! Especially after he gets the power to reshape reality itself. "I shall turn all the beans of this world... into peas!"

We'll have a review of the graphic novel up on the site soon enough, but I really really hope the video of the table read goes up on Youtube. If you ever loved The Middleman — Hell, if you ever loved goodness, virtue or crazy science fiction gadgets and surreal humor. If you ever loved anything, you must see this for yourself. It is the culmination of all Western society.

"You will be made to walk the streets in suits made of cactuses and be flagellated by talking fish!"

Oh, and you should have heard the crowd go wild when narrator/writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach read the stage description that Wendy is chained up in a Princess Leia slave girl costume. Says Wendy: "You want to make me the star in your hentai fan vid, go ahead." Manservant Neville says "Animated Japanese Erotica is the last thing in my vast and god-like cranium, Wendy Watson...from this sacrificial altar, you will bear witness to my master stroke." To which Wendy says "Eww," and her reading of that line was side-splitting.

And we learn the Middleman's true name, and we delve into his history, and the heartbreaking loss that turned him into the great upright hero we know and worship.

It is totally demented and incredible stuff, and it deserves to be seen for itself. Let's hope someone was filming it, and you all get to see it!

EW's Michael Ausiello didn't confirm that pervasive rumor that regular Whedon actor Alan Tudyk is playing Alpha, the renegade doll gone bad. (We originally reported it as fact, thinking it came from official sources, then corrected the entry as soon as we realized.)

But Ausiello did find out that knowing the identity of Alpha's actor would reveal a major twist in the Dollhouse saga. Reading between the lines, it sounds like we'll meet Alpha without knowing we're meeting Alpha, because he'll be masquerading as someone else.

Meanwhile, ShowMeSciFi says one of their readers claims Sean Maher (who played Simon Tam in Firefly) is actually playing Alpha.

Can I be the first to start the rumor that the FBI agent formerly known as Romo Lampkin is Alpha? (It makes perfect sense. Plus then we'd get to see Mark Sheppard naked.) [EW]