Production for Joss Whedon’s new series Dollhouse (see the trailer) has joined 24 in the purgatory of script-writing for January’s Mid-Season replacements. Just like 24 stopped to re-tool the story, so will Dollhouse, which focuses on a harem of “dolls,” women who can have their memory and personality programmed to be anyone at anytime.

Whedon’d Dollhouse was greenlit on the basis of the original pilot, but whatever that pilot was didn’t satisfy Whedon or 20th Century Fox, so a second pilot was shot with the original pilot being moved to episode 2 (a similar thing happened with Fox and Whedon’s Firefly, but hopefully Fox learned to treat Whedon series’ with respect this time).

Word from Zap2It is that Joss has directed 2 out of the three episodes shot (we assume that means both pilots), and hasn’t had time to sit down with the writers and be as involved in future episodes as he would like. So, like 24 who will not be postponing any air dates, Dollhouse is taking a production break to get its story in line.

This should not delay the premiere in January.