Talk:Dollhouse (TV series)

Joe 90?

The premise (of imprinting personae to undertake various missions) sounds like a rip-off of the old Gerry Anderson series Joe 90. Probably should be mentioned in the article, especially if it has been pointed out in the media. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.142.194.1 (talk) 08:26, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

It hasn't been, but it's hardly a unique enough concept that it would warrant phrasing like "rip-off". The idea of imprinting a different personality for the sake of a mission, unless I'm mistaken, was also in Total Recall. I think there's also stories with a similarly "mission-based" premise that involved, say, robots - or people whose characters were just really good actors, minus the memory wipes (like Alias). Honestly, both aspects of the concept? Been around for a while. Please keep an open mind, since the series has yet to air, and we know relatively little about it thus far. I say this because, in addition to you being the only person who seems to have drawn this connection (making it - especially at this stage - original research unless a "reliable source" media source has also drawn said connection), you chose to use the more than somewhat non-NPOV language of "rip-off". Please try to stay within more neutral language in the future, 'kay? 70.118.80.144 (talk) 05:06, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Er... "It hasn't been"? Try googling: dollhouse whedon "joe 90". A lot of people seem to be drawing the same conclusion as 86.142.194.1 -- OK, maybe "rip-off" is too strong, but a line or two about how people are comparing it to Joe 90/Total Recall/other things would be OK. 138.251.192.96 (talk) 14:26, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

As you'll see mentioned about a bajillion times on Wiki (and I won't argue that I hate it sometimes) but forums and blogs are not considered reuputable sources for here. It's also not a terribly specific plot idea, and you also have to keep in mind that any idea has likely been done at least twice already. If a review ends up coming out comparing the two then it will be notable, but then again it's going to be a rather long time until that happens. --Human.v2.0 (talk) 00:02, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Necromancer

The concept of renting your body out for sex and murder and having your mind wiped clear afterwards is also used in the book Necromancer. TheTyrant (talk) 12:26, 19 May 2008 (UTC)TheTyrant

Alias

The premise sounds a lot like the first season of Alias —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.70.72.149 (talk) 11:24, 17 November, 2007

agreed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.70.102.47 (talk) 20:16, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

...Wait, Sydney Bristow had her memory wiped and constantly had new memories imposed on it? Either I missed something back when I was actually watching that show in exactly the season you just brought up, or you're zeroing in an awful lot on the spy stuff and ignoring the rest of it. :P That said, both aspects of the concept, as well as the existentialism stuff that will no doubt arise, are common in science fiction. Joss Whedon does tend to have a real penchant for taking genres or concepts that are fairly common, and putting a different spin on it. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (feminist fantasy + subversive horror-comedy + Lovecraft-esque backstory), Angel (noir + vampire genres), Firefly (western+"used future" SF, + Asian influences), and Fray (used future + fantasy with dare I say it, the tiny touch of cyperpunk?) are all good series examples of how he's done just that. Not to mention individual episodes, where he has subversive or otherwise fairly unusual treatments of everything from the nature of evil to musicals, or of course, existentialism. There's a reason a number of academics actually bother to study and publish essays about his stuff; it's absolutely rife with references and twists and subversions of all kinds of older material and concepts (noir is a favorite of his, as is existentialist works, and old comics and plays - heck, somewhere I even saw it pointed out that this series in particular's title is probably a reference to A Doll's House, which was additionally referenced in an episode of Angel, so we at least do know he knows of the play's existence), which is the kind of a thing a lot of them seem to go for, given it gives their memory/research/analysis skills a good work out. However, I don't know if he's an Alias fan or not. It did have a strong female character at the center, and at least one of his Firefly actors was on it at some point or other, so it wouldn't necessarily surprise me, just I've never seen it mentioned anywhere ... 70.118.80.144 (talk) 06:21, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

*cough cough* Never watched Alias myself, and I know this is a pretty superfluous comment, but 'here here!' regarding Joss and his awesomeness. It's hard to find something that hasn't been done before, yet when Joss does it, it's fantastic. Let's not compare it to any other shows until we've seen it. Etimodnar (talk) 14:26, 1 May 2008 (UTC)