It’s been quite a few weeks for Joss Whedon and Dollhouse, the acclaimed Doctor Horrible launched and soon after broke the Internet, the TCA came to visit the Dollhouse set, Comic-Con has pushed the Dollhouse promotional front into over-drive, Whedon announced his plan for Dollhouse Webisodes, Dollhouse filming resumes in just under two weeks..oh and it was revealed that FOX aren’t completely convinced with the ‘accessibility’ of the Dollhouse pilot, hence Whedon will be filming a new 2nd pilot..a prequel, no less. Hey Joss, why not just use flashbacks like I suggested a few months back?

Anyone could forgive Whedon for feeling a bit claustrophobic when it comes to Dollhouse, indeed he summed it up nicely when he said:

“we are kind of living in the fish bowl a little bit”

He’s not wrong, I’ve been blogging Dollhouse for a long time now and I have to say, I only blog what I find interesting..so Dollhouse must be pretty darn interesting, from my perspective.

Speaking of which, what I like about Whedon is that he’s kinda unpredictable, I suspect Dollhouse will also be the same. Which makes me wonder whether his comment about ‘being in a fish bowl’ was a clever metaphor for Dollhouse, seeing as the “actives” have short-term memories as do Goldfish? Although myth-busters have revealed that in actual fact goldfish have memories of at least three months. Perhaps Whedon knows this and this is the secret of Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness..we only think her mind gets wiped, when in actual fact she’s playing us all..she has always remembered everything!? OK, I’m looking into this waay too much./

I recently heard Whedon say that the long wait until the January premiere was a good thing, because it gives him time to tinker and tweak the show (and make 2nd pilots). But I wonder whether this long wait will also pile more pressure onto Dollhouse, as peoples expectations grow with each passing week? What will this pressure do to Whedon – will he come out swinging? By the sounds of it, he’s got it under control, which is reassuring:

“Every time, I’m like ‘Here it comes. This is the big miss. This is where I fail. This is where they tear me down. This is the one that they don’t like,’” he says. “And you do feel a little bit of pressure. You do start, once people have recognized that you have done something. But at the same time, you learn to let go off that or not one word can you write. So you have to sort of swing. You have got to swing. And you are going to miss, it’s going to happen. But it doesn’t necessarily mean, again, not black and white. It could be that not everybody related to it or that one episode, or it could just be ‘Wow, America hated my show.’ It could be that bad, but if you live in fear of that…”

He says, “The only thing I really live in fear of is that I’ll put something out there that I really didn’t do my best on. That’s all, and that doesn’t mean that it wont be something that, it could be something that I did quickly. It could have been something that I slaved over for a long time. It doesn’t matter. If I am putting out less than my best, if this is me running the show then people will know and that is something to be ashamed of. If I believe in the story and the rest of the world ends up not, that’s a blow that I will have to take and can live with it.”

Let’s go back over that last part again:

“If I believe in the story and the rest of the world ends up not, that’s a blow that I will have to take and can live with it.”

OK, so does Joss no longer believe in his original pilot? What about FOX – do they count? I only ask because those from a distance might believe that the bushy-tails have already lost faith in Dollhouse by asking Whedon to make the lead-in episodes more accessible (yes, I know it was “Whedon’s idea” to do the prequel..but this Deus ex Machina was surely triggered by the suits at FOX). Of course this isn’t the case, FOX haven’t lost faith in the show - they’ve invested heavily in the Dollhouse set and the show itself by ordering 13 episodes before a minute had even been filmed.

It’s obviously a difficult situation for FOX, because on the one hand they want to protect ‘their’ show and ensure that it’s as marketable as possible, but on the other-hand they don’t want to appear to be like the old regime..you know, the folks who cancelled that show..what’s it called again?

Now that the dust has settled, I’m rather looking forward to seeing a Dollhouse prequel – even though I still persist that flashbacks would be just as effective a tool to use to tell the Echo (etc) backstory (OK, I’ll let it go now). My main worry now is that people will go all ‘panic station’ mode and whip up more ’save Dollhouse’ campaigns (aka “Cheap Seats“) in light of the (presumed) slight cracks in the Whedon-FOX relationship.

The thing we have to remember is that all relationships are about give and take. Although it would be great to think that Whedon would hold his ground and not bend to FOX’s wishes, it’s not really realistic - a bit of co-operation is exactly what a show like Dollhouse needs..everyone pulling in the right direction. I also think Whedon’s ‘openness‘ over this latest situation shows growth and maturity – it’s not always easy to take criticism, especially when the man has gazillions of loyal fans who have his back, right or wrong.

So yeah, props to Whedon for being so accessible (and for keeping a sense of humour. That’s important).

The truth is, we wont know whether the decision to shoot another pilot is the right decision or not (at least not until January 09). At the time of writing this post, 34% of you think that it is a ‘good thing’. I think I’m in the ‘Unsure at this point’ category, although as I said, I am looking forward to this ‘prequel’ business. Although I obviously hope Dollhouse as a whole gets as ‘dark’ and ‘gritty’ as possible.

Amy Acker – Claire Saunders. A Scarred Past?

Amy Acker – IMDB | Wikipedia | Claire Saunders Forum

SNIPPET:

 an “older woman with whom Topher is smitten.” It’s likely they’ll drop the “older” part and just stick with “smitten.” Acker of course is best known from her Angel days when she played the sweet and somewhat Mousy “Fred Burkle” and the not so sweet and not-at-all mousy “Illyria.” IGN

(This piece contains slight Dollhouse spoilers in the 3rd paragraph, regarding the length of time the volunteers remain as ‘actives’)

Today I read a most interesting article about the ‘ethics of erasing bad memory’. Dr. Haig tells the real-life story of a young woman called Ellen, who is undergoing a biopsy when she accidentally overhears that she has cancer. You see, she didn’t want to be put under general anesthesia because she didn’t like the idea of “losing consciousness”. Anyway, Ellen freaks out, understandably distressed and distraught, however the anesthesiologist quickly injects her with a chemical called propofol which erases the last few minutes of her memory. Sound familiar?

This is an amazing article, because not only is it a real-life happening, but it plugs right into the heart of Joss Whedon’s ‘Dollhouse’. After the biopsy Ellen doesn’t remember the events which took place, nor was she ever told..for the record, the news (about her cancer) was broken to her in a more appropriate manner and she eventually dies 6 years later. But the doctors knew that a line was crossed..an intrusion of human rights and a breach of ethics. Until time-travel becomes possible, we as humans don’t get to go back and patch over the mistakes, we don’t get to just press ‘rewind’ and do it better next time around. But apparently, we can. Chemicals which can delete the last 10 or so minutes of a persons memory do exist. Whether or not Echo and her fellow actives are given a heightened form of propofol remains to be seen, but we can at least relate real-world science to the Dollhouse mind-wiping premise.

Of course there is a difference between what happened to the Ellen in the article and our what happens to our ”actives”. Echo and the gang are ‘volunteers’, according to Topher, which means they gave consent to have their memories erased, wiped, deleted. One would assume that they were made aware of all of the consequences before-hand. But surely this doesn’t make it all above board? After all, what about the human ability to change ones mind? There seems to exist no get-out clause for the actives, and so they exist in a state of un-conciousness for 5 years, with no way of opting out. Madness! You can buy a car and return it (within a certain time-period) if it’s not to your suiting, yet you ask for your mind back and instead you get uploaded with another persona..in fact I assume that the actives wont even be able to tell whether or not they ‘like’ the process once they’re in it, therefore they wont be ‘able’ to say the words “I want out now”. Whilst this may maintain employer/active harmony, the actives are effectively plugged into a virtual reality machine for 5 years. Sounds like “robots, zombie slaves” to me, Adelle.

This is bad ethics in my book, but it’s a wickedly brilliant story device. If Whedon executes Dollhouse with the craft and skill that we all know he’s capable of, then he’s got a real gem on his hands.

I’ll end this article with the words of Dr Haig:

“It’s (Consciousness) arguably the most precious thing we have”

To read the article referenced in this piece, please head on over here.

Top image credit: Matthias Kulka / zefa / Corbis via Time