Dollhouse

What with reconceiving and reshooting the show’s pilot, Joss Whedon didn’t have much to present to the Dollhouse panel observers at Comic-Con on Saturday, other than an extended trailer for the Fox show (which debuts in January). But one thing about the new sci-fi/action show was certainly made clear: Man, do its stars have chemistry!

Dollhouse, about a shady cabal that strips its employees or "actives" of their personalities and imprints them with new ones (for a fee, obvs) to do whatever their clients want, stars Eliza Dushku (pictured) as Echo and Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett as an FBI agent who’s been looking into the illicit organization. Dushku and Penikett sat alongside Whedon for the entire Q&A session, looking very much like the will-they-or-won’t-they pair their characters will play on the series.

After Penikett explained to one questioner that there would be no shooting conflict between Battlestar and Dollhouse because he’d been written out of the Sci-Fi Channel series, Dushku interjected, "Thank you, Battlestar Galactica! You are a strapping and extraordinary man." And that left Whedon to joke sheepishly, "I’ll just be here," as Dushku scooted her chair closer to Penikett. The duo seemed fully at ease with each other, whispering and joking throughout the session. At one point, Whedon half-heartedly lamented his third-wheel status, joking, "This is like bringing your banjo onstage after the Stones play."

The love wasn’t just between the costars, however, with Whedon declaring himself in a full-on bromance with Penikett, and Dushku announcing her eternal affection for the man who’s guided her through three series (Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse). "Joss makes me feel smart and sexy. He just fits — like a career brassiere."

The audience — clearly a houseful of Whedonistas — did their part in bringing the panelists back to reality, first with a question about fan sites dedicated to saving Dollhouse, which, we should remind you, does not air until 2009. Whedon clearly had mixed feelings about the sites, at once thanking fans for their affection while decrying the notion that "it gives people the perception that we’re somehow failing...that’s the part I worry about." But given the storied and occasionally painful relationship Whedon has had with television (Firefly, anyone?), "let’s face it," he added, the fans’ fear "is earned."

With 10 minutes remaining in the session, someone finally got around to asking about the reconceived pilot, now a "prequel" to the previously finished episode. "I know that scared a lot of people," Whedon admitted. But "the episode I shot had everybody already in place, so to go back just meant finding different aspects to these people that would lead up to what I shot, and give what I shot more resonance."

For what it’s worth, the sci fi auteur seems pleased with the new material and expounded on it at length, noting "it felt organic. It felt right — which I can tell you the [original pilot] kind of didn’t. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I did some things that weren’t right for the network. That’s on me.... Also, I made the vital mistake of not giving Tahmoh shirtless scenes. That has been rectified."