TV auteur Joss Whedon plays with the ultimate blank slate in his new sci-fi series Dollhouse.

The show from the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly revolves around a mysterious organization that erases the memories of men and women — so-called Actives — and imprints them with a different personality for each "engagement."

Programmed with somebody else's expertise, the Actives render exotic services for weird clients, then forget all about the mission once they return to their spa-like headquarters.

The catchy premise of the show, which premieres Friday on Fox, gives Whedon a nearly endless canvas for exploring sex, murder and other complicated ares of human existence.

Whedon has built his daring Dollhouse around Eliza Dushku (pictured right, with Whedon), who stars as Echo, the lead Active. Dushku, an executive producer on the show, played Faith in Whedon's Buffy series, and here she assumes one fresh identity after another. Echo's memories of previous engagements have been "wiped" — although not entirely.

Whedon and his ever-shifting star spoke to reporters about sex, multiple personalities, brainwashing, crossbow hunting and the roller coaster ride they've got planned for Echo and her fellow Dolls over the next 13 weeks.

Dushku, Sex Object?: Fox promo site Echo Chamber shows Dushku posing nude with the tag line, "Get to know Echo intimately." The photos, and the show's undeniable parallels to the prostitution trade, raised some executive eyebrows during development. But Whedon tackles the sexuality issue head-on.

"I saw the [Echo Chamber] photo shoot and I do support it," he said,

"mostly because Eliza was very comfortable with it and very pleased with the photos. She's very comfortable with her body.... Those photos bring up what is ultimately the touchiest issue of this show, which is:

Are we actually making a comment about the way people use each other that is useful and interesting and textured, or are we just putting

Eliza in a series of hot outfits and paying lip service to the idea of asking those questions?"

Control Freaks: "One of the main themes [of Dollhouse] is that objectification hurts, whichever side you're on," Dushku said.

"When you put so much control in certain people's hands in terms of what people want and need and desire versus what they think they want and need and desire, they may be surprised at this sort of Frankenstein story."

Development Hell: Dollhouse went through some very public birth pains, with Whedon reshooting the pilot and fans campaigning to save the show before it even hit the airwaves.

"The original pilot explained everything that happened," Whedon said, "but came at it very sideways and [the network] said, 'Let the audience see an engagement so that they understand that every week she's going to go to a different place and be a different person.'"

The Joy of Multiple Personalities: Dushku says she enjoys playing the ever-changing Echo, a role that gives her the chance to stake out a new set of character traits every week.

"On the one hand it's awesome and exhilarating to be the sexy assassin," she said, "but at the same time I've been surprised time and again how much I also really enjoyed playing this blind cultist. That was a particularly special episode, as was having the personality of a 50-something-year-old woman in my own body."

Crossbow Hunt in Episode 2: "Outrageous is always good," Whedon said. "That episode was meant originally to be around Episode 5, or possibly even 8, and it was the network who said, 'Excuse me, did you say bow-hunting? That will come second please.'"

Laughs Will Come After Humor-Free Premiere: Dollhouse expands as the season unfolds, Whedon promises, giving him the chance to flex his funny muscle.

"Dollhouse does not have the inherent silliness that both Buffy and Firefly had, and even Angel, where part of the fun came in taking one step back and deconstructing the genre we were in," he said. "Dollhouse has to be a little bit more grounded or it would become campy, but humor is a part of the show because we have really funny actors and these situations do become absurd."

Secrets of "Seven Pilots": At the network's request, Whedon crafted Dollhouse as a series of free-standing episodes.

"We refer to the first seven episodes as the 'Seven Pilots,'" Whedon said. "The first five are individual engagements where the premise and the characters and the relationships are made clear. Nowhere do you have giant pieces of information missing where you have to sit through a three-minute 'Previously on ...' in order to get to the show."

Identity Crisis: "I'm very interested in concepts of identity," Whedon said. "What is our own, what is socialized, can people actually change, what do we expect from each other, how much do we use each other and manipulate each other, and what would we do if we had this kind of power over each other? In our increasingly virtual world, self-definition has become a very amorphous concept."

Female Show-Runners: Whedon hired Liz Craft and Sarah Fain to supervise Dollhouse.

"It was important that the show-runners be female because the subject matter is intense and delicate," Whedon said. "Liz and Sarah are aware of that without being a slave to it. They are so solid and sensible and good at the day-to-day show-running that you forget how good they are with a script until they turn one in and you go, 'That's right, you guys are really funny and very twisted.' They take all of their weirdness out on the script and not out on me or the people they work with. That's what you look for in a show-runner."

Dushku, the Muse: "Eliza Dushku has a genuinely powerful electric and luminous quality that I've rarely seen," Whedon said. "She's also a really solid person. She's a feminist. She's an activist. She's interested in the people around her. She has a lot of different things going on, and I've watched her over the years, as a friend, try to take control of her career. Being part of that progression is, for me, one of the greatest benefits of this show."

Actives as Empty Vessels: "The [Actives] are supposed to be empty vessels," Whedon said. "The constant struggle with that is Echo is evolving in a way that they have not imprinted her to do."

The Big Theme: "I've been fascinated by the idea of avatars and the idea of fantasy and the little insular world that we've been able to create for ourselves with our computers and with our extraordinarily specific medications," Whedon said. "It's a fairly new means to ask very old questions about what I can point to and say, 'This is me' and what has been imposed upon me, and who the hell am I, and why aren't I prettier?"

This Grindhouse*-style trailer from Fox promotes* Dollhouse as a Friday night follow-up to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Setting Up a Mythology: The original pilot included more back story. That material will now surface in bits and pieces, according to Whedon.

"We're definitely laying in some threads," he said, "but we took some of the things we were going to hold for a few years and said, 'Hey, let's just hit them in the head with a frying pan, because that will keep them excited.' It's not like we lack for places to go."

The Limits of Technology: "What you can accomplish and what you can destroy with this technology is something that we're going to be asking increasingly towards the end of the season," Whedon said. "As Echo's friendships are formed, we'll spend more time with the other dolls. I can't really go into specifics, but we pretty much get to start putting everybody through the wringer long about halfway through. It starts to get complicated for all of them."

To Be Continued?: Production wrapped a few days ago on the first 13 Dollhouse episodes ordered by Fox. Will there be more to follow?

"It's crazy because it's been such a hustle," Dushku said. "Yet I'm already thinking up ideas for the next 13 episodes and dying to get back in the writer's room and tell more stories. Given the opportunity, we're going to be exploring every element of human desire."

Dollhouse debuts Friday at 9 p.m. EST on Fox. Photos courtesy Fox.

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