Comic Con: Joss and Eliza Welcome You To The Dollhouse

By Ed Perkis: 2008-07-28 18:39:50

The Joss Whedonites arrived in force for the Comic Con panel dedicated to his upcoming Fox show, Dollhouse. It was going to be tough for Whedon and the show’s two stars Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett to top the Dr. Horrible panel from the previous day, but they did their best to inform and entertain. It wasn’t quite enough to help me forget “the hammer is my penis,” but it wasn’t bad.

The panel started with the show’s trailer. This is something that has been on the Net (and maybe even on Fox, although I haven’t seen it) for awhile. It gets the basic plot out that Dushku is an “active” who has her memory erased and reinserted to be anything a paying client wants her to be. Joss spoke later in the panel about how a new pilot needs to be shot so it makes sense that nothing would be available from that, but why not provide a full scene from the original pilot? Isn’t that why everyone paid seventy trillion dollars for tickets and twice that for parking to attend Comic Con in the first place? Or did they just pay to scream out their love/lust for Joss, Eliza, and Tahmoh? Probably a little of both.

The panel was a mutual admiration society. Whedon said he had a “man-crush” and a “bro-mance” with the studly Penikett. Dushku said Whedon “makes the words party on the page” and said he was “a career brazier.” for her. Penikett said that he was so busy looking at how cute Dushku was that he blew the title of the show in his first day of filming, blurting out “how did you hear about the Wallhouse?”

As was the case with the Dr. Horrible panel, Whedon almost immediately opened things up for questions. There were a few that focused on how attached fans should get to the show. Ignoring that Whedon’s shows for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel had pretty good runs, the focus seemed to be on Firefly and its quick cancellation by Fox in 2003. A fan asked Whedon if he knew that websites had already sprung up to save the show, even though it won’t premier for six months. Whedon laughed but pointed out that things like that make it seem like the show is in trouble before it even premiers and also that it could contribute to it being viewed as a “niche show” that will only appeal to a few people (basically, the four thousand or so in the ballroom for the panel.) When a questioner said the show premise sounded “mundane” and asked “why should I be excited”, Whedon deadpanned “lower your expectations.” Wishful thinking with this crowd, Joss.

Whedon and Dushku tried to get the basic idea of the show across. Joss said the “question of identity is going to be strange and twisted, and believe me when I say it’s going to be really exciting.” Dushku added that it was about her character Echo trying to figure out “who is my authentic self.” While Whedon noted that it didn’t have some of the fantasy elements (space and vampires) that have been a part of his previous television efforts, it does have a fantastical premise and all his shows are ultimately “just people.” He listed the book “Never Let me Go” and the movies A.I. (which Whedon said was very underrated) and Collateral as influences on the show. He also said that he intends to ramp up the action and allow himself to be “a little more visceral….sorta try to challenge myself as a director.”

Someone asked if reshooting the pilot meant the show was already in trouble and Whedon spent a long time trying to explain that he decided that the original pilot wouldn’t have the same impact if you didn’t have some background on the characters first. So the “new pilot” will provide that and then the second show will be the already shot “first pilot” with some changed scenes. He joked that he hadn’t had Tahmoh shirtless originally but that had been rectified. Dushku made every fanboy warm and fuzzy by noting that she gets to wear her leather pants. Whedon also said that other than Dushku and Amy Acker, there would be no regulars from his usual stable of actors. Dushku asked if Nathan Fillion could be hired so she could have a “Nathan/Tahmoh sandwich”. While there might be the odd guest star he didn’t want to turn it into a “party at my house”.

Whedon was preaching to his choir here and the fans seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the show, although the lack of vampires does seem to have a few of them a little nervous. Whedon said they would also be doing Webisodes along with the regular television program. Then he disappeared with his two hot stars and went back to filming that “new pilot” that everyone hopes will be shown in the correct order.

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