Character: Dr. Claire Saunders
Creator: Joss Whedon
Other Cast: Eliza Dushku, Miracle Laurie, Olivia Williams, Tahmoh Penikett, Fran Kranz, Topher Brink, Dichen Lachman, Enver Gjokaj
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: TV-14 (US) & 15 (UK)
Schedule: Fridays 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT on FOX (premiered February 13, 2009)
Echo (Eliza Dushku) is a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.
Recurring Role: Looks after the physical well-being of the dolls. Has an acid wit that she usually reserves for Topher, who may only be kidding about being smitten with her. (Or he may not.) She is scarred from a razor attack.
Amy plays Dr. Claire Saunders. She works in the Dollhouse and she’s a very moral force and she’s very, very, very broken. She’s scarred. Something happened – she’s literally scarred. Something happened at the dollhouse awhile back and she was scarred and she just sort of lives there and her whole mission in life is to take care of them. Topher, the programmer, he programs them and has a very amoral kind of point of view, and she’s sort of his counterpoint. -Joss Whedon
Right now I’m a recurring character, but I’ve been in every episode, all but one, so I feel like I’m definitely around. When there at the Dollhouse you usually see me and hopefully if there’s more episodes after these first 13 then I think you’ll see a lot more of Dr. Saunders in the future. -Amy Acker
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• Marks Joss Whedon’s return to TV; last project was Firefly (2003)
• Eliza Dushku is also a producer
• Reunites Amy with Joss Whedon (previously worked together on Angel)
• Also reunites Amy with Eliza Dushku (had brief scenes together during Angel‘s season 4 episode arc)
• Limited (numbered) editions of Region 1 DVDs were available to purchase at Comic-Con (July 2009)
• Released on Region 1 DVD July 28, 2009; released on Region 2 DVD September 14, 2009.
• Dollhouse has been renewed for a second season, with 13 episodes initially; returning September 25, 2009
• Amy has been confirmed to be in 3 episodes — busy with a full time gig at ABC with Happy Town
• Sadly, Dollhouse has been cancelled, but the remaining episodes will be airing (13 in total; like season 1) with the series finale airing on January 29, 2010
• The season 2 DVD is finally available for pre-order on Region 1 (April 2010) but the release date & specifications are still unknown.