Dollhouse? How familiar is this idea? by SpaceAnJL

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Dollhouse? How familiar is this idea?

POSTED BY: SPACEANJL
UPDATED: Monday, November 19, 2007 07:06
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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 1:55 AM

Well, now, having seen the outline for 'Dollhouse', did anyone else think 'oh, so that's what they had in mind for River?', or am I just obsessed?

Incidentally, I used the dollhouse imagery with a similar idea re River in a little something I wrote a while ago. So it is official. Joss is storing his spare ideas in my brainspace. *Runs off to put on tinfoil hat*

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 4:23 AM

MICJWELCH

I've heard Joss say it a few times, and I get the impression that it's a staple for Hollywood writers: Fresh and Familiar. It has to be both something new, and something you're used to, all at the same time.

"We may experience some slight turbulence, and then... explode."

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 6:54 AM

DAVESHAYNE

Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
Well, now, having seen the outline for 'Dollhouse', did anyone else think 'oh, so that's what they had in mind for River?', or am I just obsessed?

I suppose it is possible that the dollhouse of Dollhouse will be similar to what the Academy of Firefly was like. Mostly though I think it's just Joss exploring the kinds of identity issues that Joss occasionally likes to explore with the addition of the super powered woman thing that Joss gravitates toward in his stories.

David

'Geeks can't admit that anything worthwhile was invented before 1981. Soon, "making cocoa" will be called "milk hacking."' - Lore Sjoberg

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 7:07 AM

REGINAROADIE

I think it's more along the lines of say THE ISLAND and THE MATRIX put together.

Like the "Dollhouse" would be this all white environment where the people walk around and do things in a somewhat daze. They have some basic skill set, like knowing how to go to the bathroom and their abc's and 123's, but no larger knowledge of say the outside world, politics, culture, that sort of thing. Kind of like the people in THE ISLAND, where when they go to the outside world, everything is brand new to them. But when they go out on assignment, they strap them in a chair and insert a pin into a hole in the back of their head and download a new personality and knowledge right into their cerebral cortex. Or maybe a CLOCKWORK ORANGE chair where they're bombarded with coded images that gives them their personality.

So I'd say that it's kind familiar, but not in the configuration Joss is putting it is. The idea of "original concept" doesn't really exist if you think about it. Because it's all been done in one way or another. It's HOW you tell the story that true originality shines through.

**************************************************
"And it starts with a sentence that might last a lifetime, or it all might just go down in flames. If I let you know me, then why would you want me? Each day I don't is a shame. Each day I don't is a great shame."

Loudon Wainwright III - "Strange Weirdos" off the "Knocked Up" soundtrack

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 7:10 AM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
Because it's all been done in one way or another. It's HOW you tell the story that true originality shines through.

Totally.

Original Chrisisall

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 7:34 AM

OUT2THEBLACK

Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:
I think it's more along the lines of say THE ISLAND and THE MATRIX put together.

Like the "Dollhouse" would be this all white environment where the people walk around and do things in a somewhat daze. They have some basic skill set, like knowing how to go to the bathroom and their abc's and 123's, but no larger knowledge of say the outside world, politics, culture, that sort of thing. Kind of like the people in THE ISLAND, where when they go to the outside world, everything is brand new to them...
**************************************************

...It could be a little THX-1138 , a little Dark Angel , a little 'Alliance Academy' , Manchurian Candidate , Alias , etc...

The comparison to THE ISLAND seems particularly apt...

An especially-underrated recent sci-fi film , BTW...

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 9:28 AM

LEIASKY

>The idea of "original concept" doesn't really exist if you think about it. Because it's all been done in one way or another. It's HOW you tell the story that true originality shines through.

Perfectly said.

"A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned."

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 8:14 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Although applicable, the above references seem to all pertain to unwilling subjects. I had gotten the impression that Dollhouse inhabitants were willing, to at least some degree. To what level of degree, perhaps the arcing storyline will expose, and maybe some not-exactly-willing examples as well. How would each subject know or suspect which if any of the others was originally willing or not?
As I mentioned in the other thread, Total Recall appealed as an example because the subject had originally been willing, even though not at first aware, and (spoiler) the emerging personality had a different view of things.

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Monday, November 19, 2007 6:45 AM

STORYMARK

If this gives him a chance to explore stories or concepts he may have told with River, and now can't, I'm cool with it.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Monday, November 19, 2007 7:06 AM

REGINAROADIE

One thing that I would like to see is not an over-reliance on action plots on a weekly basis. It's just that the concept itself is open for a wide range of plots and personalities for her to inhabit. It would be a shame if week after week it's "spy/assassin/butt kicking mode". We already got that with ALIAS, BIONIC WOMAN and Joss' earlier work.

I'd like to see maybe an action plot once a month, and that there would be missions for supposedly minute things. Like maybe there'd be a billionaire businessman whose about to die, and has never been married or known the love of a good woman (not in that way, you pervs) and she's programmed to be a housewife not for some misogynisitc reason, but just so that the dying guy can have that sense of being loved before dying, and that it would influence the Eliza character in that she's haunted by the abstract feeling of love. Or for a wish fulfillment ep, some manager for a rock band needs a back-up singer or a replacement bassist or drummer before a big show and she's programmed to play an instrument or to sing and she finds out that she's has a creative, musical side to her.

The point is, she can literally be ANYBODY. Joss basically said the entire point of the series is to show that Eliza can play a ton of different characters and personalities and not be typecast as the tough broad. If week after week is "here's a bad guy that's bad to women, kick his ass", it'll be the biggest waste of a concept for a sci-fi show since SLIDERS.

**************************************************
"And it starts with a sentence that might last a lifetime, or it all might just go down in flames. If I let you know me, then why would you want me? Each day I don't is a shame. Each day I don't is a great shame."

Loudon Wainwright III - "Strange Weirdos" off the "Knocked Up" soundtrack

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