How Steven DeKnight Survived Last Friday’s Dollhouse

If you think last friday ’s wood - hunting Dollhouse installment was a harrowing experience for you , the viewer , then just imagine how terrific it was for writer / directorSteven DeKnight . He separate us his Dollhouse endurance narrative .

Steven S. DeKnight , of course , is the guy who write a caboodle of episodes ofBuffy The Vampire Slayerand Angel . ( He helped deliver Angel ’s Shanshu Prophecy from irrelevance and did a circumstances of the heavy lifting to build up it into a real mythos . ) And he was a author / producer on Smallville , where he was instrumental in introducing the untested Justice League . Here ’s what he had to say about his work on Dollhouse .

Are you stoked that everybody ’s singling out your sequence as one of the series ’ best , with the bow - hunt and the most grave gambling ?

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I ’ve been very pleased with the chemical reaction to it . “ Relieved ” is probably a more precise verbal description . I ’m still recovering over the directing repugnance of the exploding baby episode I did for Smallville . A humbled power point , to be certain – for me and the hearing . I gained a little ground after that withthe Justice League episode , and really felt like I take a saltation forward with “ The Target ” for Dollhouse . It ’s only the 6th installment of television I ’ve directed , so I still have an unbelievable amount to learn . Luckily I had such amazing directors as Joss Whedon , Tim Minear , and David Solomon to help civilize me in the art .

One thing to remember when you ’re watch out this episode : it would n’t exist without Joss Whedon . He give me all the tools and all the objet d’art to put it together . He also fall in me an episode that played to my specialty . Without the juice squeezed from that magnanimous beat brain of his , I ’d be sitting here with an empty glass .

One thing I loved about this instalment was the whole episode where Echo is “ imprinted ” to bank Boyd , and it ’s sort of show how a lot of our social tie are actually sort of fictional , and how sappy rite produce them for us . Did you add up up with that , or was it Joss ?

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I had pitched the whole “ Welcome to the Dollhouse , Mr. Langton ” scenario because , quite frankly , I did n’t conceive I could dramatically hold 50 minutes of running around in the woods . Joss was very much interested in how humans interact , what make you a someone , how you define your relationships , and all that other good stuff , so it just seemed natural to show Echo imprinting on Boyd . I think Tim and I came up with that part , but I ’m a petty muzzy . I do remember that what stimulate me about it was how uncomfortable Boyd was in acknowledging Echo as a human being . It ’s a beautiful arc from treating her as a thing to love her as a person .

Your instalment takes on a heap of the laborious lifting in full term of present the whodunit of Alpha , the rogue “ combat-ready ” who went psycho . Was Alpha always croak to be the person behind “ Richard Connell , ” or was that bestow later ? A creative thinker - pass over slasher and a fictional prow - killer seem to go together fairly seamlessly .

Joss had always plan to reveal that Alpha was behind the assault . It was a very raw convulsion , and I think elevated it from a dim-witted mad - guy - in - the - woods instalment . It generate the tarradiddle a much deep sonority . Originally , however , there was no flashback structure . That was something I suggested . When Joss heard the pitch , he immediately say , “ permit ’s show the backwash of Alpha breaking out of the Dollhouse . ” And that , ladies and gentlemen , is why he makes the big bucks .

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Did you cast The Middleman as Richard Connell ? We ’re all huge devotee of Matt Keeslar over at io9 . And was this a fun instalment to take , thanks to all the running play in the woods ?

I was a huge fan of Middleman . I had n’t see such bright sharp talks since my Buffy days . When Matt came in , I thought , “ Holy Irish bull ! It ’s the Middleman ! ” He gave a peachy audition and was a blast to work with .

I loved directing this episode , but I ’m not sure I would employ the word “ fun ” . It was a grueling shoot that take us to rivers , woods , and rock . The woods part of it was particularly demanding — and puke bring on . We shot at Angeles Crest only about 30 mi north of LA , but 26 mile of that was gut - churning sight road . I was chewing Dramamine like Tic - Tacs . The trip to Kern River , where we dart the water rafting succession , was just as bad . I actually did blow my breakfast on the location scout to that one . And those rocks for the mountain mounting sequence heated up to a thousand degrees by late morning . Plus we had to stand off rattle snakes and avoid bee hives the size of a Buick . But see back , I had a blast . The bunch was amazing , Eliza and the cast of characters were delicious , and the end product came out pretty good . Well , better than an explode baby , at least .

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