So often we see actors with only the flexibility to perform slightly modified versions of themselves.

But Dollhouse required the best; that ability to completely transform into any chosen character, losing any trace of one’s own personality.

And Dollhouse delivered.

We got great ranges of performance in that respect, but especially from Dichen Lachman who convincingly played such a wide range of characters, from a hard-eyed gun-girl to a nerdy fan, with many shades in between.

Dollhouse has sweeping imagination, great scripts and fine acting. So, come on Fox, what else are you looking for?

Trust Josh Whedon not to use the notion of a Dollhouse simply as a base from which to launch conventional plots.

Rather, the Dollhouse is a concept with profound implications and extraordinary consequences, not least for the Dollhouse itself. Whedon didn’t fail to realise them and explore them. This is sci-fi at its classical best, and that’s what impressed me.

I have read others saying the series made an average start (6/10, OK for the loyal fan base etc.) There is always room for improvement to any idea, but given the imaginative sweep of the Dollhouse concept, I can’t see how it could have been bettered for a first go.

Now that the first series is over, it’s easy to appreciate how wild the possibilities might be for its continuation, an “embarrassment of riches” in fact.

In other hands, it would be difficult to keep a second series on the rails but I am sure Josh Whedon measures up to the task. Bring it on!