Dollhouse

Dollhouse: Joss Whedon Characters in the ’House!

Here at TWoP, many of us are huge fans of the TV shows of Joss Whedon. (Hey, we’re geeks — so sue us.) And ever since we found out about his latest series, Dollhouse, we’ve been looking forward to it with bated breath. ...Of course, now that it’s here, we can’t help but hold it up against all of his previous shows! That may seem like a tall order — after all, nothing is as good as Buffy in its prime — but it certainly doesn’t hurt that two of the cast members are Joss Whedon show alumni, and the rest just feel like Whedon characters. In this, our guide to the characters of Dollhouse, we call out the Buffy, Angel and Firefly characters that each of them reminds us of, for better or for worse. - Zach Oat

Echo (Eliza Dushku)

Who is She? Formerly known as Caroline, the Doll known as Echo is a blank slate, able to be imprinted with any personality she needs to fulfill the job she’s hired for. Those jobs can include motorcycle racing, mountain climbing and robbing banks, although they usually also involve having sex with the client. She’s basically the most expensive, high-tech call girl in the world.

Her Whedonverse Predecessor: At times, Echo possesses a reckless, devil-may-care personality reminiscent of Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, although that may just be the fact that Eliza Dushku played both roles. Usually, Echo is programmed to be less bad-ass and more care-free — even a little boy-crazy — which gives her a very Buffy Summers quality. Additionally, when she gets wiped, her blank-slate persona has a childlike understanding of the world that reminds us a lot of the Buffybot that impersonated Buffy in later seasons, who possessed limited conversational skills, having been built mainly for sex.

Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix)

Who is He? A former cop, Langton was brought in to be Echo’s handler when her previous handler was brutally killed. (Yes, he knew beforehand, and yes, he took the job anyway.) He thought of Echo as an asset at first, but as he’s spent more and more time with her, he’s come to feel more fatherly feelings towards her. That doesn’t mean he’s not a kick-ass S.O.B., though. So don’t mess with his daughter, or he’ll shoot you.

His Whedonverse Predecessor: This one’s a slam-dunk — Langton is basically the American version of Buffy’s Rupert "Ripper" Giles, Buffy Summers’ Watcher from across the pond, which is pretty much the same thing as a handler. Giles is also a former black-magic-using hooligan, and the fatherly feelings he felt for Buffy would occasionally lead to violent, Ripper-like behavior if he thought her to be in any danger. Also, both men are built like stevedores.

Sierra (Dichen Lachman)

Who is She? A recent addition to the Dollhouse, Sierra is a Doll like Echo, and Echo actually sees her in the process of getting her memory erased. Sierra is quickly operational, however, as she takes on a SWAT-team personality and leads a squad of agents into a kidnapper’s lair, wiping out all targets and rescuing Echo.

Her Whedonverse Predecessor: While she has a lot of traits in common with Echo, Sierra’s shy demeanor, exotic appearance and occasional demonstrations of deep military training remind us a lot of River Tam, the mentally damaged fugitive from Firefly. River looks at the world through a child’s eyes until someone activates her, and then she can take out a room full of people bare-handed. If she wasn’t currently Eliza Dushku’s Friday-night lead-in on The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Summer Glau would have made a great Doll.

Topher Brink (Fran Kranz)

Who is He? As the lead technician at the Dollhouse, Topher is responsible for mind-wiping all new Dolls, uploading the personalities they’ll need to complete their missions and blanking their memories afterwards. Younger than some of the operatives he’s programming, he takes great pride in his work, verging on cockiness. He seems to see the immorality in his actions, but also doesn’t seem to care as long as he gets the snacks he asks for.

His Whedonverse Predecessor: Topher is three, three, THREE Whedon characters in one! Seriously — his youthful, geeky nature, combined with his extreme scientific know-how, make him sort of a conglomeration of all three members of the Trio, the band of nerds who declared Buffy their nemesis in Season 6. Warren’s megalomania, Jonathan’s empathy and Andrew’s... uh, blondness all add up to make one Topher, albeit with 1/3 the Star Wars references.

Dr. Claire Saunders (Amy Acker)

Who is She? When Dolls get injured, they get checked out by Dr. Saunders, a friendly woman with horrible facial scars. When Echo asks about them, Saunders avoids the subject, and they obviously make her very uncomfortable, as she lets her hair hang down in her face to cover them. Since her check-ups seem to come after the Dolls have been mind-wiped, she sometimes has to skirt around the reasons the dolls got hurt. Awkward!

Her Whedonverse Predecessor: It would be easy to say that Amy Acker’s new character reminds us of her old character, the bookish Winifred Burkle from Angel, but it wouldn’t be true. As a healer of winsome operatives who has a horrible secret, she reminds us more of Simon Tam, the ship’s doctor on Firefly who gave up his life and career to break his sister River out of a research lab, and has to give the doll-like girl care on a regular basis.

Agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett)

Who is He? If there’s a TV show about an illegal organization, then there needs to be a side plot about the cop who’s trying to bring it down, right? Dollhouse is no exception, as it follows FBI agent Paul Ballard in his quest to find the mythical Dollhouse. He gets teased by his co-workers — who tell him they’ve got a lead on gingerbread house, among other things — but he is totally driven... not to mention oblivious to his flirty next-door neighbor.

His Whedonverse Predecessor: In the early seasons of Angel, the titular vampire crossed paths several times with a cop, Kate Lockley. After her father was killed by vampires, she started to investigate every unusual case that came across her desk, wanting to purge Los Angeles of the bloodsucking fiends. Her obsession earned her a rep for being weird, and eventually cost her her job, even as she found herself having feelings for Angel. Could Ballard develop the same feelings for Echo? We’ve got five bucks that says yes.

Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams)

Who is She? The highest-ranking person at the Dollhouse, Ms. DeWitt gives the orders, and she does it in a condescending British accent. However, she is not her own master, as she has to answer to the Dollhouse’s parent company, and she occasionally displays a sense of morality, as when she approved a mission to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a dying client. Awwww.

Her Whedonverse Predecessor: Although she’s not British, we can think of another officious, professional woman who gave orders and brandished criticism like a club. On Angel, Lilah Morgan was a lawyer at the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart who was later made Vice-President of Special Projects, a position that gave her a fair amount of power. However, she still had to answer to the ominous Senior Partners, and often found herself helping out Angel and company with cases that were in her best interests to see closed.

Lubov (Enver Gjokaj)

Who is He? An informant for Agent Ballard, Lubov is a member of the Russian mob who speaks in a silly accent and gives Ballard the information he needs to find the Dollhouse. But is he really all he appears to be? Rhetorical question says no!

His Whedonverse Predecessor: Hmm... funny accent... provides information... may be more than he seems... That sounds a hell of a lot like Doyle, Angel’s half-demon, all-Irish sidekick from Season 1, who hid the spiky, green side of his family from Cordelia, among others. Sadly, Doyle (and the actor who played him) didn’t survive the season, but hopefully Lubov will.

Laurence Dominic (Reed Diamond)

Who is He? While Langton looks after Echo, Dominic looks after the whole Dollhouse as head of security. If something comes up that threatens the company, he steps in and takes over, pushing Langton aside and generally acting like a humorless jerk. He also thinks that Echo is more trouble than she’s worth, and wouldn’t mind seeing her six feet under. He’d better not follow through, because it’s doubtful this show would survive without her.

His Whedonverse Predecessor: It’s hard to find a Whedon character so thoroughly unlikable, since even Whedon’s jerks have a playful side to them. But if you look at the more dislikable qualities of hired gun Jayne from Firefly — rude, ruthless, power-hungry — and put aside that he can be kinda cute sometimes, you’ve got Dominic to a tee.

Alpha (????)

Who is He? First seen sitting naked and blood-covered in Caroline/Echo’s old house, watching home movies and holding photographs of her, Alpha has a military-alphabet name like Echo and Sierra, which means that he’s probably a Doll, and possibly the first doll. We’ll eventually see how he factors into the Dollhouse, but for now, we’d like the naked, bloody guy to stay as far away as possible.

His Whedonverse Predecessor: Our first instinct was to call this scary, bloodthirsty guy we never see directly a Reaver, as seen in Firefly, but then we realized — an evil guy who used to be good, possibly stalking our heroine? Alpha is Angelus, the evil version of Angel seen in Buffy and Angel. Because while the Reavers are scary, there’s nothing scarier than a guy who used to be your best friend and knows everything about you suddenly going all psycho on you. Trust us.