I knew it was going to be A Very Special Day when I overheard not one, but three Whedonverse conversations on my way to the Javits Center (located in a lovely area known as the ‘armpit of Manhattan’). While trying to hold back my friend, henceforth referred to as Riley’s Only Fan, from interrupting a nearby discussion of Buffy Season Four, all I kept thinking was…it’s starting again. And the world was good.

 There’s nothing like a new Joss Whedon show, is there? The excitement, the obsessiveness, the regression into beloved mythologies, the quoting of memorized (and thanks to DVD – rememorized) lines of dialogue, the anxious worries of inevitable cancellation, the grassroots campaigning for a show that may or may not need saving. Fans long initiated into the Whedon cult, obsess; everyone else turns around and stares, wondering what all the fuss is about. And this year, with a shiny new Joss show, starring not one but two of his past alumns, the pilgrimage to New York’s Comic Con (lets face it, our Mecca), feels that much more important and exhilarating.

 Every year there is one television panel that really seems to be at the epicenter of the Con. Last year it was the Battlestar panel, held perfectly during the height of Cylongate, which brought out more people than I ever thought watched the show. This year, Dollhouse is definitely it. It’s only 11:00 and already there is a very long, jittery line outside the IGN Theater, including many bouncy twentysomethings in orange Jayne hats and a very pale young man possibly wearing fangs. An interesting assortment of personalities abound, with different levels of interest in all things Whedon. I tend to be of the walks-on-water persuasion, and Riley’s Only Fan is, well, a fan, albeit a milder one. She hasn’t followed every step of Dollhouse’s development like I did, and comes to the panel with an open mind. We find ourselves talking to a cute couple from Brooklyn who I’ll call Buffy Maniac and possibly dragged-along Buffy Hater Boyfriend (who did enjoy Firefly). I compliment them on their ability to stay together despite obvious philosophical differences, something I have struggled with in the past (but that’s a whole other article), and ask them why they’re attending the panel. Buffy Maniac was invited to come by friends, and is excited about the show (though worried about its prospects – insert anti-Fox diatribe). Buffy Hater Boyfriend is not very interested or aware of the show, but wants to see what they have to present. As we finally walk into the room, filled with lots of very excited people, and I say ‘shiny.’ We all share a moment of geek-tinted camaraderie and grab our seats.

 While we wait for the panel to start, I get some early “pre-show” thoughts. The Firefly fan sitting next to me (Browncoat) is a “big fan” and is “really excited about this new show.” Buffy Maniac is “worried about the show being on Fox but has high hopes. “Joss is a brand that I’ve come to trust,” she says, “so I’m eager to try the new product launch. I trust that the show will be good, even if it hits some bumps early on.”

Finally, at 12:45, the stage lights up and TV Guide’s Matt Roush, the moderator, walks on stage. “You guys are here to see Joss Whedon?” has asks playfully as 3,000 people scream. Joss walks across the stage and takes a seat, and those 3,000 people scream louder. The audience is excited and extremely supportive of this man, and I think to myself…we’re the best fandom ever! Tahmoh Penikett comes on shortly after and, surprise, more screaming! This is partially because he’s in a new Whedon show, partially because he’s Helo, and mostly because he’s, well, hot. Joss seems to think so too and suggests that we may be seeing some shirtless Tahmoh action very soon.

 Joss explains the concept of the show, which is about “people getting their personalities wiped” by an underground organizations that caters to the rich and powerful. These individuals, living in the ‘Dollhouse’ are essentially blank slates upon which new personalities can be uploaded. “Roll it, clip man!” Joss yells as the lights dim and the footage of the “first act” of Dollhouse begins to roll (spoilers follow).

 We first see a conversation between Eliza Dushku’s character (in the scene, called Caroline), and Olivia Williams’ (playing Adele Dewitt). Eliza is mildly Faith-ish here, a little tough, a little broken, looking for someone to save her. Adele offers Caroline a way out of whatever jam she’s in – five years of service in exchange for “a clean slate.” “I don’t have a choice, do I?” Caroline asks, rhetorically. Actions have consequences, she muses. The scene ends on a shot of Adele, saying: “but what if they didn’t?”

 We then jump to a motorcycle race between two people (Eliza’s character and a guy named Matt) that culminates in their arrival in some sort of restaurant right in time for his birthday party. It is clear, after everything we’ve heard about the show, that Eliza’s character is “on assignment” and that the personality of the day is Matt’s perfect girl, there to give him one great birthday weekend. After they dance, something comes over her, like a switch being flicked, and she knows she has to leave. She goes outside and gets into a car which takes her back to the Dollhouse. It is clear from her behavior that she still fully believes she is the character she’s supposed to play, that her love for Matt is, in that moment, real. We meet her handler, Langton, who seems protective and conflicted. She tells him she wants to go back to the party after her treatment, and he nods. That’s when her mind gets wiped.

 We see her current personality disappearing, Matt, the party, the motorcycle race, her life, her childhood, her birth…all disappearing until she is just a shell who has no past, no personality, no memory. She wakes up thinking she’d been asleep. Topher, the tech guy tells her she can go if she likes, and she does, floating away “without a care in the world.” Topher seems to think that they are humanitarians, doing nothing more than letting people live out their dreams, but Langton is not so sure.

 We then cut to a little girl on the phone with her dad. They have a cute, very Jossian conversation. When she hangs up a bunch of men in black gear and masks grab her and stick her in a body bag. This is the act of the first act.

 There is a lot of clapping as the lights come back on. Tahmoh is asked to talk about his character, and Joss yells “spoiler!” before Tahmoh has a chance to speak. “I’m on the show…” Tahmoh jokes, referring to the fact that he wasn’t featured anywhere in that first act. He plays “noir hero” Paul Ballard “a man trying to expose the Dollhouse.” Paul (who he jokes, gets to wear fancy suits, as opposed to the flight suits Helo dons on BSG) is drawn to Echo even before he meets her (he sees a photo of her), and wants to help her. Clearly, since she is never the same person twice, she can “never remember him.” “She can meet him for the first time all year,” Joss jokes. Tahmoh and Joss discuss how meeting Echo allows him to put a face on the Dollhouse (“and it’s Eliza’s face” Joss stresses) and it becomes a very personal pursuit for him. They then talk about how the show will deal with a lot of moral dilemmas, with the search for identity. “I’m a bitter, sad man,” Joss explains. “Welcome to my bitter, sad show. It is far and away the most disturbing thing I remember myself doing, at least since Season 6 of Buffy,” (cue knowing laugher). He continues: “The idea is to take something appalling and find something beautiful. My hope is that the audience comes across as unclean as the characters…everyone is compromised.”

 Joss talks about how all of the characters are complex, that every person on screen matters and represents something. “What’s fun,” he says, “is taking these people and digging underneath.” Aside from dealing with interesting characters, the show will have exciting and varying plots, a constant sense of tension. Joss says that he has been asked many times why things go wrong in the Dollhouse every week. “People say…it’s not very well run [is it]?” Their reply to them? “Then we wouldn’t have a show.”

 This first part of the panel really illuminated what his vision for the show was and where he wanted it to go. This is clearly a story he wants to tell and is excited to tell, and he insists that Fox believes in his vision and the show. The process of dealing with the network and working on the show was “not unusually tough, but tough in an unusual way,” Joss says, going on to explain that the show is creepy and about sensitive issues and the network just wanted to make sure that it was handled well. “The relationship with the network has been completely different [compared to Firefly].”

 The rest of the panel is spent discussing Battlestar Galactica (there is a running gag with Joss blaming Tahmoh for his character’s decision to let Baltar take his place on the raider that took survivors back to he ship). They also give some hints about what is to come on Dollhouse. In Episode 3, Echo sings (apparently Eliza has a very nice voice), Episode 4 is a caper episode, and in Episode 6 Paul Ballard interacts with a Dollhouse client (setting of some big moral questions in his head). Joss seems to be very content with the finale. “Episode 13 ended exactly the way we wanted, even if we got there in a different way. It’s phenomenal.”

 The moderated discussion ends with Joss talking about how challenging the show is, and how exciting it is, both for him, and for Eliza as an actress. “We have to create these worlds and make them matter,” he says, thoughtfully to a round of applause as Roush opens the panel up for Q&A. From the session we learn that Tahmoh “really can’t sing” but does get to show off his Muay Thai boxing skills in the pilot (see: aforementioned shirtless scene). We learn Joss really wants to make a “frilly costume drama,” (he’d wanted to make a western, but after an episode of Dollhouse filmed in the desert, he what he wants to explore now “is air conditioning.” Joss says that we will see Angel in the Season 8 comics “probably when it is most painful,” and that there is a high likeliness of a Dr. Horrible sequel, and almost no likeliness of a Serenity one (Joss suggests that we stop listening to Nathan Fillion – he may or may not have used a colorful adjective rather than the actor’s name). The panel ends with a reminder that the show will air Friday the 13th, at 9:00 pm.

 Afterwards, I bother ask people for their thoughts. There is a lot of excitement, though some reservations as well. Browncoat and Riley’s Only Fan agree that the footage shown was a bit uneven – “it wasn’t clear if it was continuous or a couple of disparate clips…some of the transitions were disjointed.” Browncoat adds that “it was still enough for me to get me to watch. Some of the dialogue definitely sounded like Joss, and that alone is enough to get me excited.” Buffy Hater Boyfriend thought the footage was “boring,” though might still give the show a shot. “The way Joss described the show was more interesting than what I saw.” Buffy Maniac says that Eliza “did a good job switching between the personalities…the before and after was really clear. And it was exciting to watch Joss’s work again. I loved the way they talked about the show, and the footage had some really good moments (and some uneven ones. I’ll definitely be watching on Friday.”

 All of us did love the panel as a whole. Joss and Tahmoh were hilarious and down to earth, and seemed passionate and excited about the show. From the footage I definitely think the show will have some growing pains. It will definitely need to find its rhythm both in terms of the characters, the dialogue, and the way the story is told. I have a feeling, considering that the pilot was refilmed and parts of that original episode were taken out and put into later ones, that it may take at least half the season to really hit its groove. However, I already am interested in the characters, and am excited to see what Eliza can do.

 This is a show that Joss is clearly invested in and challenged by. Dollhouse was a “leap” he says, explaining that he is “making a show that frightens me. I am very pathetic and desperate in the need for my audience to love me. Not me, but what goes on the screen.” And after the panel, I definitely trusted him to do everything in his power to make that happen.

Photography by Serge Sanin. All rights reserved

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