Topher Brink
From Dollhouse Wiki
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| Name: | Topher Brink |
| First Appearance: | Ghost |
| Actor: | Fran Kranz |
| Age: | 28 |
| Occupation: | programmer |
Portrayed by Fran Kranz, Topher Brink is a character of Dollhouse. According to casting documents, "he is the genius programmer of the Dollhouse who's articulate, nerdily attractive, and blithely amoral. He's responsible for imprinting and wiping the dolls — and making sure they stay unaware of anything. Is fascinated by the science and kind of digging the illegality. Fun to be around, but might not be remotely trustworthy."[1] His assistant is Ivy, a young Asian American woman.
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[edit] Characterization
Joss Whedon describes the role: "Topher, the programmer, who is going to be cute and funny and sexy, he programs them, and he has a very amoral kind of point of view"[2] In this regard Brink is the counterpoint to Dr. Claire Saunders.
Topher did not invent imprinting technology, but he did significantly improve it, reducing the time for an imprint from at least two hours to five minutes.
Topher takes a great deal of pride in his work programming Actives, and usually blames others when things go wrong or the unexpected happens. He considers himself Adelle's "number one son", and uses his status to dress and act unprofessionally, and to annoy Dominic, but is deeply intimidated by Adelle. He also uses his talent to justify treating his assistant Ivy as a gofer, but later grudgingly gives her more responsibility, including running the imprint chair.
In "Haunted", Topher requested an Active for tests, but he actually imprints Sierra with a personality similar to his own. They spend a day or two discussing nerdy topics and playing laser tag. Adelle tells Boyd that she allows Topher to do this once a year on his birthday because she knows he is lonely.
Topher avoids discussing the morality or ethics of his work at the Dollhouse. Adelle once told him that he had no morals, that he'd never been able to see others as anything except dolls to be manipulated, but also said that this was not necessarily a bad thing, as he always takes good care of his toys. Despite this, Topher once persuaded Adelle to let him use Echo to help a traumatized young girl.
"Omega" reveals that Topher created the "Dr. Claire Saunders" imprint for Whiskey, to replace the previous doctor who had been killed by Alpha. However, he gave her advanced computer skills, enough to uncover her status as an Active.
In "Vows", Topher says that he created the Dr. Saunders imprint to be "everything I'm not," and that her hatred of him evolved naturally. This also showed that he sleeps on a cot in one of the Dollhouse's computer rooms.
After Dr. Saunders' escape, Topher's attitude changes. In "Belle Chose", he tells Adelle he has ethical reservations with reviving a comatose serial killer. In "Belonging", he realizes he was deceived about Priya Tsetsang's mental condition when he helped recruit her for the Dollhouse. Instead of imprinting Sierra permanently to be Nolan Kinnard's lover, he secretly gives Sierra her original personality back, thinking she would flee. When Priya kills Nolan in self-defense, he tries to help her. He and Boyd cover up the murder and dispose of Kinnard's body. He brings Priya back to the Dollhouse to return to being Sierra and living with Victor. At Priya's request, he promises never to imprint her with any memories of killing Kinnard.
In "The Left Hand", Topher was compelled to accompany DeWitt as she headed to the D.C. branch to retrieve Echo, who had run away after being hit by Topher's still-experimental Disruptor. While away, he imprinted Victor with the former's personality, so that he could watch over the Dollhouse. While in DC, he met his local counterpart, Bennett Halverson, and developed a crush on her. Unfortunately, Halverson had a serious vendetta against Echo, blaming for the accident that cost her the use of her left arm, and she exploited Topher's crush to make him ignore her attempts to turn Daniel Perrin into a weapon to kill Echo. Halverson questions Topher's description of Echo as his "friend," and Topher is speechless. Ultimately, he is forced to clock Halverson, remarking that she was "so close to perfect."
In Meet Jane Doe, Topher admits to Ivy that he was smitten and fooled by Halverson and claims he will never trust a woman again. This could be seen as foreshadowing, since later in the episode (though approximately three months later in the actual timeline) his trust is entirely betrayed by Adelle DeWitt. During those three months, Topher had been running the R&D department, developing a remote wiping device per the request of Matthew Harding. He began to speculate on Rossum's plans for such technology, and came to the conclusion they were exploring the ability to remotely imprint regular people who have no implanted active infrastructure. He is both fascinated and frightened by his discoveries, and confides in DeWitt, who had been demoted and spent three months in a role subservient to Harding. She takes the tech directly to Harding, using it to prove her loyalty to the Rossum Corporation and successfully regain control of the LA Dollhouse. Topher is furious, calling her the "coldest bitch on the planet" and asking her if she is "out of [her] British mind."
In "A Love Supreme," Ballard and Boyd tell Topher that Echo has access to all of her former imprints. Topher suddenly seems to treat Echo as a person, introducing himself to her and not using the patronizing tone he usually reserves for dolls. Because of Alpha's invasion of the dollhouse and remote imprint of the dolls in this episode, Victor knocks Topher out. He eventually wakes up and manages to escape to the bedchamber with Boyd, Adelle, Echo, and Joel Mynor. Topher and Boyd make a run for the manufacturing to retrieve a remote wiping device to treat all of the rebelling dolls.
In "Epitaph One," a series of flashbacks in the form of memories detail the time Topher spent working at the dollhouse. One memory shows his final interview for the position, where he drastically improves the imprinting technology after only a few minutes in the room. Topher also establishes his childishness and lack of professionalism in front of Dominic and DeWitt, though the latter sees past this to his value as an employee. Another memory has Clive Ambrose, imprinted into Victor, telling Adelle and Topher of Rossum's plans to sell off the bodies of actives. Adelle vehemently protests, and Topher is visibly chilled by the direction Rossum has taken his tech. The last memory reveals Topher has suffered a total mental breakdown, due in large part to his guilt over creating the tech that destroyed modern civilization. He is barely lucid or coherent and has come to depend almost entirely on Adelle, who treats him and cares for him.
[edit] ARG Backstory
Topher got a backstory in the interactive Dollhouse-ARG Dollplay:
ID-no: N/A
Last Name: Brink
First Name: Christopher
Middle Name: N/A
Race/Sex: C/M
Date of Birth: 27/01/81
Height: 5’11
Weight: 134
Hair color: Middle blonde
Eye color: Blue
SSN: 569-85-3247
Birth State: CA
Generation: JR
City: Los Angeles
Zip: 90091
Age: 28
Scars Marks: Tattoo: NCC1701, left ankle.
Skin Tone: Beige
Military Service: N/A
His complete psychological profile can be found here.
[edit] Trivia
- Topher has Nyctophobia, a fear of the dark. Exactly how badly he suffers from it is unknown, but blackouts put him on edge. He's also afraid of rats.
- Notes in the Dollplay ARG indicate that he has been scanned numerous times. An imprint wedge for him exists dating to the end of his work with Dr. Alexandra Rose, but before being recruited to work in the Dollhouse.
- The nickname Topher can be glossed as "bearer", from the name Christopher meaning "Bearer of Christ". Thus his full name can be read, appropriately, to mean "one who carries to the brink."
[edit] Notes & References
- ↑ Dos Santos, Kristin (2008-03-26). Dollhouse Casting Alert!. eonline.com. Retrieved on 2009-01-03.
- ↑ Spelling, Ian (2008-06-02). Joss Whedon offers a sneak peak at his brand-new Dollhouse. Sci Fi Weekly. scifi.com. Retrieved on 2009-10-07.
