Firefly and Dollhouse

          

                                          

            One of the most important parts of a well crafted Syfy show is an intelligent sense of humor. Just look at the old fashion Science Fiction nerds such Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. When I think about good sense of humor Syfy writers, Joss Whedon comes to mind. He may be most well known for his work in the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but in my opinion his more recent work in Syfy has more humor than his older work. My family and I were first exposed to Joss Whedon’s work through his movie, Serenity. It was made after the fans of the show Firefly campaigned for a movie to conclude the one season series.

Malcolm Reynolds is the captain of Serenity, the ship he uses to lead his crew in the black market business of deep space. Malcolm fought with Zoe, who is now his first mate, on the Independent side of the space war against the Alliance. A war the Independence lost. Now, forced to the edge of space to avoid the Alliance, he takes black market jobs to keep the old firefly ship in the air. From selling bobble head dolls to cattle, the crew travels from one end of their galaxy to the other.

My favorite part about this show is the characters. Malcolm, though not the brightest in most situations, is loyal and always looks out for his crew. Zoe, a strong warrior kind of woman is second in command, and Wash is her nerdy, genius pilot husband. Inara, a professional companion, is the only one on the ship who openly defies the captain. Kaylee, a young and gifted engineer has a quirky sense of humor. Then there is Jayne, an insecure gun for hire that we are never sure we can trust. Bishop, a wandering shepherd (the religious kind-not the sheep variety), holds the moral compass on the ship. Dr. Simon, serious and born under the Alliance’s rule, finds himself an outsider among the smugglers hiding out on Serenity in order to protect River, his younger sister, whose craziness is either insanity or misunderstood genius.

“I know something ain't right,” Zoe says, looking out the window of the cockpit.

“Sweetie, we're crooks. If everything were right, we'd be in jail,” Wash says from the pilot’s seat.

            Departing from the galaxies of space and into the galaxies of the human mind, we next found Joss Whedon’s most recent TV series, Dollhouse. Dollhouse explored the idea of completely creating a new person. They do this by wiping an individual’s brain and uploading a created personality onto it from a database of talents, knowledge, and abilities. Imprints.

            Fantasy is what the dollhouse deals with. Its job is to create the fantasy of their clients desire. Whether it be a past memory of a dead loved one to an imagined dominatrix to a hired assassin loaned out to an unknown client. Only a company that can run under the radar of legality and morality would be able to fulfill the many questionable requests. Their job is to cater to the very rich and very powerful.

            The ‘dolls’ of the Dollhouse are people who have had all of the memories of their old life completely wiped clean so that they can be made into whatever  the client’s wishes through personality imprints on the brain.

The main characters in this show include Echo, the main doll, Adel, the administrator of the dollhouse, Boyd, a caretaker who looks after care of the dolls, Paul Ballard, an FBI agent investigating the existence of the dollhouse, and Topher, the computer techie in charge of the personality imprints-the coolest nerd ever. The Dollhouse series begins with the break in by a former doll gone bad-Alpha.     

When asked about how he feels programming people, Topher responds, “You wear the tie because it never occurred to you not to. You eat eggs every morning but never at night. You feel excitement and companionship when rich men you've never met put a ball through a net. You feel guilty, maybe a little suspicious, every time you see that Salvation Army Santa. You look down for at least half a second if a woman leans forward. And your stomach rumbles every time you drive by a big golden arch even if you weren't hungry before. Everybody's programmed, Boyd.”

 Once the appointment with the client is over, the doll is brought back. Their memory is wiped clean. This leaves the person in a doll like state, wandering around the complex in a daze.

 “Did I fall asleep?” a doll asks, waking up after a wipe in the imprint chair.

“For a little while,” Topher says.

“Shall I go now?”

“If you like,” Topher says.

NEXT WEEK'S BLOG:

Lost

            Lost’s creators, JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof, said that they wanted to create Lost with two purposes: to center a show around highly developed characters and to stimulate an intelligent audience who would stay engaged in their story. They wanted to create a show that would require the audience to think. They succeeded.

Scattered plane parts lay in the sand, crushed and smoking. People sit collapsed underneath the sun, clutching their bleeding limbs. Jack heaves in a breath. He’s a doctor. This is a disaster situation. He needs to take action, fast.