If there wasn’t reason enough to be excited about Joss Whedon’s new show DOLLHOUSE now comes word that a favorite from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is joining the cast. According to TheHollywoodReporter.com, Tahmoh Penikett, best known for his role as Lt. Karl “Helo” Agathon on Battlestar Galactica, has been cast as Paul Smith, an FBI field agent obsessed with the urban myth of Dollhouse and a twisted romantic foil for Echo (series star Eliza Dushku).

DOLLHOUSE center around ‘a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.’

Also joining the cast are Fran Kranz, Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj.

Kranz will play Topher Brink, a twentysomething genius programr responsible for imprinting the dolls. Lachman will play Sierra, a doll like Echo and her friend, who has every personality in the world but her own. Gjokaj will play Victor, also a doll and a friend of Echo’s, who is childlike when he’s inactive, and everything from Errol Flynn to young DeNiro when he’s active.

DOLLHOUSE already has a seven-episode commitment from Fox.  Seems like Fox has heard good things about this Whedon guy.