Victor, but mostly because I have an affinity for people who pee on their shoes.

I believe that my favorite character is Topher. I can relate somewhat. There's a lot of suppressed genius in that noggin, but more repressed emotion and yearning for "real/natural" companionship.

My favorite Dollhouse character is Special Agent Paul Ballard. For the obvious reasons, sure, but for others as well.

My favorite thing about Dollhouse right now is the fact that I don't really know who I'm rooting for. There is a part of me that rebels against what they are doing at the Dollhouse, against taking people out of themselves, using them for whatever you see fit while they lay helpless. But there is another part of me that can rationalize the way that DeWitt and Topher do; can tell myself that their volunteers, that they had no other choice, that it helps people. Perhaps this makes me evil.

The one thing I know is that Paul Ballard is good. Some might say that he's sold out for the sake of November/Madeline, that now he's in he will be corrupted. We've all seen from certain other shows, what can happen when you try to change evil from the inside. It changes you.

I don't think this will happen to Ballard. I think he feels, with a certainty I have never felt, the wrongness of what is happening. I think he wants to change it. I think that he will.

My second favorite thing about Dollhouse? It's ability to surprise me. When November left instead of Caroline, when Paul took (and I mean took) Mellie, knowing what she was. Despite his goodness, Paul Ballard is still human, but I have trouble faulting him for acting upon his humanity.

I feel as though I can count on Paul Ballard. To be human, to be good, to act according to his conscience, and to carry us through a world fraught with distrust and deception with at least one foothold in reality.

My favorite character hands down has got to be Whiskey/Dr. Saunders. There's a mysterious element to her, and it seems, like Echo, she knows more than she lets on. Not the most developed character, yet, but she's got a promising story line, and Amy Acker brings Whiskey to life. She was "the Echo" before Echo got there, number one, for a reason. She's smart and empowered, which is why she's my favorite.

I have to admit, Victor didn't stand out to me at first. As Lubov, he was a moderately interesting character, and his interactions with Ballard provided some funny moments ("Dollhouse, dollhouse, doll-fricking-house"). But after we learned that Lubov was himself a doll--Victor--I found myself increasingly drawn to his character. It's early days for the show still, but I think Victor may become the Wesley of Dollhouse--a secondary character who gets some of the best storylines in the entire show, played by an actor with extraordinary range.

Because, of course, my love for Victor is partly due to exceptional acting: Enver Gjokaj is, for my money, one of the best actors in the entire Whedon canon. (His transformation with each imprint appears effortless; his impersonation of Dominic in "Briar Rose" was stunningly convincing.) But the acting alone wouldn't make him my favorite: I also love Victor himself.

I first realized it in "Man on the Street." At the time it looked like Victor had been abusing Sierra, while both were in their doll-state. Before he's led away, we think to be punished, Victor says to Echo: "I think I did something bad. But nobody will tell me what it is." He's troubled, but speaks so openly, so innocently. That line broke my heart--and, at the same time, encapsulated the true horror of what the Dollhouse does--the true evil of taking away someone's memory and knowledge and free agency. Later, once we've learned that Victor's innocent, we also learn that he knew something was wrong with Sierra: every night, he would stay awake in his pod until she came back, trying (with his limited resources and understanding) to make sure she was okay.

Two episodes later, in "Needs," we get to see Victor as his true self--not as a doll. He's intelligent, good at handling an insane situation, and--just as he was in his doll-state--completely devoted to Sierra. His "need" is fulfilled not by doing anything for himself, but by accompanying and supporting Sierra as she confronts her own terrible past. There's something within him that goes deeper than memories and mindwipes: a gentle strength, and a deep love for Sierra. (Also, in this episode, he gets one of my favorite lines from the entire season: after assuring Echo and the others that they'll be okay, Victor leads them out into the hallway, where they hear the other dolls talking inanely about the joys of banana pancakes. To which Victor says, deadpan, "We're all gonna die.")

I could go on--but this is getting long. Suffice it to say that Victor is, to me, one of the most sympathetic and likeable characters in the show; that I'm more deeply invested in the Victor-Sierra relationship than any of the other romantic pairings; and that, if the Powers-That-Write-the Show gave me one wish for Season 2, I'd wish for at least one Victor-centric episode.

I myself like Echo because her character is so very good, even though she is a doll. Her good nature just simply shines through even though she's not supposed to have traits like this. Like when she was stuck in the vault with those robbers without an imprint. Even though the police were shooting at her and she had a clear chance to escape she went back for the injured robber who had been kind to her. Then coming out of the vault she had clearly known that she had done right, because she says "I'm not broken." This good trait obviously comes from Caroline, her prior and original personality. In the episode where Caroline was herself again, she wanted nothing else but to save the dolls inside the dollhouse. Although she could've escaped by herself and the odds were stacked against her, she went back. Caroline possesses a goodness worth being envious of and has passed it down to her doll self, Echo. I also love the fact that Echo still has a kind of personality even though she is not supposed to. She comforts people when they are sad and recognizes when is the right time to talk and feels that it is only right to save people when they can't save themselves. I believe it is impossible not to love Echo, she can be everyone at once but still be herself.

with apologies to Topher, my favourite character is Echo, including all meanings of 'who' she is.

She is a body, a blank slate, a Ghost vessel, an ultimate metaphor for the changeability of human nature and the dissociation of the body image in culture; even without a mind, her voice body and situation resonate, exactly as we see Boyd begin to care for her despite his reason telling him that it makes no sense; to see one body/voice with many minds/lives, this object/vessel itself is a person. she is the ultimate personification of the inanimate (joss's Danger Room to another level), as she is a person herself, as we are personifications of ourselves to others.

She is a sleepy child-yet-not-child doll of the Dollhouse, ready to be her best, heartbreaking and happy, serenely lost and disconnected yet curious, protected and pampered yet played with and endangered, "living the life" and living whose life for others. An innocent to be rescued yet perfectly content. The dancer in the cage, escaping only to serve another layer of fantasy, in the endless cages of the mind.

She is the ghost in the machine, a true embodiment of cyberpunk ideas, the glitch of cumulative information that becomes a person, she is artificial intelligence formed through experience, and her experience is the human mind, one playground after another; and we watch every subtlety of Eliza's under-appreciated and astonishing performance to see where Echo will slip through and bend the imprint, even unconsciously, to her growing awareness and sense of self-preservation ...we strain to see her, inbetween the lines, to finally meet her for the first time. and our search is who she is.

She is Caroline, some deep hardwired aspect that cannot be erased, she is the mind inside our mind, given voice, speaking to us and asking us why, why did we do this to ourselves?

She is Eliza, she is the performance itself, the ultimate physically-driven performance, movement itself, personality through dance.

She is joss's embodiment of Eliza the actress, she is every actress/performer, she joss and she is the words, she is all of us, and most of all she is the show itself.

She is Ghost Vessel, Target, Star, Grey Through the Glass, True Believer, Companion, Echo, Caroline, Spy, Eternal, Briar Rose...

She is Omega.

The next step in character evolution, coming soon.

I don't think I need to explain why, only wonder who she is

(...is who she is)

My favorite character in the first season of Dollhouse has been Joel Mynor, the client who had Echo imprinted with his dead fiance in Man on the Street. I think he is the classic Dollhouse client (if there is one): He has a legitimate/acceptable need for the Dollhouse that gives you a little bit of sympathy for him, but when all is said and done he has pretty much just hired a hooker. Plus I liked seeing Ballard being knocked off his high moral horse (for the first of many times). I'd love to see more clients and hear there back stories in some season two episodes.

My favorite character would have to be Echo. Even in her blank state, echo is still consciously aware of the happenings around her and is still, even in a state void of matured morality, able to distinguish between what is right and wrong. While Topher's wiping process is meant to place the dolls in a childlike state and render them powerless, echo even after being wiped is anything but. She sees, hears, smells, and most remarkably she does what others in their doll state are unable to accomplish, she feels. Even after being emptied of her relations with others she cannot help but sense an instinctive connection with others whom she feels that she must not only love and care for, but whom she must also protect. Not one to take things lying down, Echo is also a fighter, displayed in many of the first season’s episodes she has been consistently portrayed as a warrior not of what is good and righteous in the eyes of others, but what she instinctively views as right and just. Echo’s persistent, inquisitive, and let’s just face it “KICK A**” nature is why she is my favorite character…and hopefully I have convinced you to think the same way!

Thanks to all that entered, your responses made wonderful reading. It was a tough choice but the winners are:

speare
tparris2
ds4

The above names have been contacted for their details. Once again, thanks to everyone that entered.