The Science of Dollhouse

One theory of cellular memory suggests that the neuropeptides thought unique to the brain may in fact permeate all the cells of our bodies, and most particularly the heart, which has such a high quantity of peptides as to present a particularly fruitful area for study. If there should turn out to be a 'special' relationship between the two organs, we're all going to feel pretty silly for abandoning that romantic conceit as children...

In terms of SF tech, nothing qualifies more as a predecessor to Dollhouse than Gerry Anderson's final 'Supermarionation' series Joe 90. Here the young adopted son of a brilliant scientist receives implants of brain patterns from highly specialised personnel in order to undertake special-agent missions for one of Anderson's typically global peace-keeping forces, the World Intelligence Network. The 'Big Rat' (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer) was the very psychedelic spinning machine that not only made the transference process visual but provided a golden excuse to re-run stock shots each episode. Joe himself kept a continuous memory, unlike the 'dolls' in Whedon's series, and never seemed to have any unwarranted side effects, such as an urge to ogle centrefolds or start smoking (God knows, everyone else did in Gerry Anderson shows). On the other hand Joe needed some nasty-looking souped-up specs in order to stay in touch with the implanted abilities.

I suspect that Whedon's 'dolls' will have rather more emotional points-of-vulnerability, with a more ambiguous treatment of the source brain-patterns that our heroes will receive in the show; the difficulty in sifting practical abilities from emotional impressions and non-essential memories when sourcing implantable material is bound to emerge. In yet another real-life transplant case, a young girl who had never experienced any emotional problems led police to the killers of the donor of her new heart, after being plagued by nightmares about being murdered. To what extent, then, will the living templates of Dollhouse adopt more than just the skillset of their donor minds...?

The character without memory is instantly sympathetic, as they can hide so little from us, and we have seen the narrative dynamic before in Angelheart, Total Recall, Memento, Resident Evil, Dark City, Regarding Henry and many others - and in many cases, the ultimate truth at the end of amnesia was an ugly one. Will Echo find out that she was once Faith?

Though he only went through the process once, Peter Weller in Robocop (1987) is another Dollhouse analogue, and the emotional dynamic of Paul Verhoeven's film centred on Murphy's struggle to re-invent himself with the tatters of his old personality, much as cynical megacorp OCP had reinvented his body with cybernetic technology. Robocop's reply when asked his name by the head of OCP at the movie's end is one of the big cheer moments of the dehumanising, yuppified 1980s ("Murphy!"), and Eliza Dushku's search for 'integration' is surely set to be the emotional heart of Dollhouse. If we're lucky, there'll also be a ton of good one-liners on the journey there.

'Integration' describes the elusive stage in the treatment of multiple-personality disorder where the patient combines the various traits of their 'cast of characters' into one cohesive and continuous personality, an ascension out of the darkness and confusion of insanity into the life-challenges that the patient had been fleeing before. In terms of the general culture of Whedon's target audience, the 'hook' in Dollhouse is surely the struggle to be accepted (and presumably appreciated) for who one really is; people have the right to reinvent themselves, but doing so on an ad hoc and daily basis is chaos and self-negation.

But that's a mission-statement aimed at broader demographics than those which likely interest Joss Whedon. I can't help but feel that there's a reason the show is called Dollhouse and not Toy House. I'm not convinced by the inclusion of the male 'doll' Victor (Enver Gjokaj); outnumbered by his two female colleagues (Dushku and 'Sierra', played by Dichen Lachman), this sounds like the Token Guy, Dollhouse's own ogleable Angel, there to provide balance and backdrop to another Whedon exploration into the female psyche, the fascination - if not obsession - that threads his career. Guys will tune in for Dushku as they did for both her and Sarah-Michelle Gellar in Buffy, but Dollhouse is x-chromosome all down the line, from the evidence of the set-up.

Hey, sounds good to me.

Dollhouse premieres in the US on February 13, 2009.