What does the Terminator show have to do with Dollhouse? This a review of Dollhouse, it's not relevant what you thought about the Terminator Finale or which show you want back next season. It seems to me like you're being overly critic of Dollhouse just because it might get the spot of your beloved Terminator, and that's stupid.

I kinda have to agree with you foolspike.

 I wholeheartedly agree with foolspike. You are one of the worst reviewers I've ever came across and your comment about the engagement of the week being more like a Lifetime movie instead of a sci-fi action series just shows how narrow-minded you are, unable to see that it was an allusion to the bigger picture.

i agree with everyone here so far. i don't know if he is a bad reviewer, but i think he is overly biased & therefore, overly critical. i don't think i've seen a positive review from this one.

I think, Stephen, you missed a big point with Echo's engagement. Topher was trying to use the Dollhouse to actually help someone, rather than just be a high-priced sex service.  It shows a compassionate side of the character that we've seen very little of. Casting Tudyk as Alpha was genius IMO.  I was so bummed when his Firefly character was killed in "Serenity". I thought that was a weak point in that film, because there was so little emotional weight attached to his death. Good to see him back, lets hope they don't kill him off in the next episode.  I do agree with your assessment of Ballard, though .... and there's something about the way Tahmoh Penikett MOVES....y'know, his walk. Is that swagger real or directed? Anyway it's getting annoying.

 It's obvious Stephen relates the genre of science fiction to fast-paced, explosion-driven story lines.  This captured in the second line of the review "This is a science fiction action series not a Lifetime movie of the week. Fortunately, that part of the episode is very brief."  I can only wonder what he might say about some of my favorite science fiction authors' stories (Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov).  Science fiction does not exist to see Arnold-like robots smashing sexy fem-bots.  

As a science fiction film, Deep Impact blew the socks off of Armageddon.  The Deep Impact story really spoke to the human condition and caused us to reflect on how our fragile our existence on this planet truly is.  Deep Impact also did a much better job integrating science honestly into the story.  I could write a text that might be as long as the Bible listing the scientific inaccuracies of the far more popular film, Armageddon.

Joss Whedon is trying to do in Dollhouse what he started to do in Firefly and what J.M. Straczynski did in Babylon 5.  The first season of B5 was arguably slow and plodding, as folks like Stephen would say.  But each of those slow stories, laid an important brick in the road that eventually become a very exciting road to travel down.

Dollhouse is an amazing concept that is suffering on FOX from the fact that it requires viewers to think, Firefly's curse as well.  Please don't sell out like Straczynski did with Babylon spin off Crusade.  It was obvious that TNT forced certain aspects into the show that might pull in its WWF wrestling audience that was one of their biggest demographics at the time. 

To wrap, I would like to ask Stephen to not confusion the concept of Science-Fiction with Action/Adventure.  From reading this review, you obviously like Terminator: the Sarah Conner Chronicles more so for its Action/Adventure aspect than its Science-Fiction qualities.  I really wish we had more honest Sci-Fi shows on TV, but I am not betting money on this.

I don't agree with the review either and thought this was a good episode a B and I hope the show gets picked up for next season though being Fox I'm not holding my breath.

I find it odd that everytime someone rips a sci-fi show (and Stephen didn't even rip the show) the fans of the show throw the "he wants fast paced explosions instead of a story" reply out there.  Stephen never said that and it's an assumption on your part if you feel otherwise...and you know what happens when you assume.  He thought the story was lacking and its his review if he wants to point that out.  You don't like his review, that's your right but don't put words in the mans mouth.   

That's why I rarely eve read ANY critics reviews.

Why do I care what a critics opinion is? It's just His/Her OPINION. It has absolutly no bearing on what I think of the media in question.  I may have thought that the Dark knight was total trash but all the critics keep telling me it was great.  I may like SC: Terminator but I don't think the series captures the flavor of the first 2 movies. My opinion of SC: Terminator wont sway our reviewer's opinion and I don't expect it too.

I propose that we all just stop reading reviews since all we seem to do is agree to disagree.  Maybe CRITICS would have to get real jobs if we just stop reading their opinions.

I thought this was probably the best episode of the series so far due largely to Alan Tudyk.  Like Stephen said, he really just stole the whole show.  I was one of the fans that also thought that Ballard was going to be Alpha, but I did read last week that Alan is Alpha.  I wasn't too sure how Alan would be able to pull off the role, but he did pretty well as the "scary" villian.  I've only ever seen him do comedic roles, so I've never thought of him as being able to pull off a intimidating villian or someone who can strike fear into people just by hearing his name, like Alpha.

80smarvelfan hit on something I've noticed over the past decade...scifi has become watered down and less intellectual in this century. Now it's more about special effects and explosions rather than thought-provoking stories (see JJ Abrahms Star Trek for evidence). It's more about what's cool (or perceived to be cool) rather than substance.

Will scifi ever go back to its roots? Probably not in the current state of hollywood execs and brain dead audiences. Maybe it's time we start bringing the real scifi back underground and out of the mainstream just so it doesn't die completely.