SO cool that you got an interview here - and I love how it fits into your Substack's theme (with the pitch to comic to screen thing)! Anyway, great questions (and answers). I do wish I understood more about what happened with ONE (it always felt incredibly strange/off to me, but oh well). And I loved learning that Zairon was a reference to Gundam, ha! Hopefully one day we'll get more of a resolution, but oh well. Upsetting to hear that it might have been because of Network Politics and Shenanigans :(.
I'm also interested in the Dollhouse comparison. I've never felt that Dark Matter dealt with super similar material, since Dark Matter had characters that could form new memories out of the gate. [I totally agree with Mallozzi about how cool it was to have: "the audience discovering the world and backstories at the same time as our characters."] On Dollhouse, it was hard to root for Echo when A) she supposedly could not grow (even if later it became clear that she could); and B) she took on Totally New Personalities each episode, effectively reset to zero at the end. Early on, we were basically just following Echo's weekly programmed personality saving the day - not really Echo (or Caroline).
Thanks a lot! I tried to avoid stuff that Mallozzi has covered in the past, and he's covered a lot of things on his blog, including some deep dives into his plans for S4 and S5, which would've covered the alien-centric and android-centric story arcs respectively. In a q@a session back in 2018, he revealed that killing off One was a demand from the network:
" I was asked to kill off the character to “shake things up”. At the time, I was waging creative war on multiple fronts and that was one battle I realized I would have a difficult time winning. Ultimately, I agreed because I saw some creative opportunity there and felt that, unlike the other characters, ONE’s death could still, foreseeably, keep actor Marc Bendavid (who I love) in play as Jace Corso."
I think you're right: 'Dollhouse' was about resetting memories all the time, at least initially. But it was also a show that wanted to be about 'nature vs. nurture' at least to an extent and trying to develop characters who were tabula rasas. It never entirely succeeded in doing that though!
That was such an informative interview. It's unfortunate the show was canceled. You asked very thoughtful questions.
Thank you!
SO cool that you got an interview here - and I love how it fits into your Substack's theme (with the pitch to comic to screen thing)! Anyway, great questions (and answers). I do wish I understood more about what happened with ONE (it always felt incredibly strange/off to me, but oh well). And I loved learning that Zairon was a reference to Gundam, ha! Hopefully one day we'll get more of a resolution, but oh well. Upsetting to hear that it might have been because of Network Politics and Shenanigans :(.
I'm also interested in the Dollhouse comparison. I've never felt that Dark Matter dealt with super similar material, since Dark Matter had characters that could form new memories out of the gate. [I totally agree with Mallozzi about how cool it was to have: "the audience discovering the world and backstories at the same time as our characters."] On Dollhouse, it was hard to root for Echo when A) she supposedly could not grow (even if later it became clear that she could); and B) she took on Totally New Personalities each episode, effectively reset to zero at the end. Early on, we were basically just following Echo's weekly programmed personality saving the day - not really Echo (or Caroline).
Thanks a lot! I tried to avoid stuff that Mallozzi has covered in the past, and he's covered a lot of things on his blog, including some deep dives into his plans for S4 and S5, which would've covered the alien-centric and android-centric story arcs respectively. In a q@a session back in 2018, he revealed that killing off One was a demand from the network:
[https://josephmallozzi.com/2018/07/24/mailbag/#more-48052]
" I was asked to kill off the character to “shake things up”. At the time, I was waging creative war on multiple fronts and that was one battle I realized I would have a difficult time winning. Ultimately, I agreed because I saw some creative opportunity there and felt that, unlike the other characters, ONE’s death could still, foreseeably, keep actor Marc Bendavid (who I love) in play as Jace Corso."
I think you're right: 'Dollhouse' was about resetting memories all the time, at least initially. But it was also a show that wanted to be about 'nature vs. nurture' at least to an extent and trying to develop characters who were tabula rasas. It never entirely succeeded in doing that though!