When was the last time you encountered Jack the
Ripper, the Invisible Man, Dr. Watson, Nikola Tesla,
and a 147-year-old heroine all in the same
television series? That's not to mention Big Foot,
the resident werewolf, or a host of other
fascinating creatures that make up the
Sanctuary. The brainchild of sci-fi queen
Amanda Tapping, the series originally started out on
the internet in a saga of fifteen-minute
installments but the Sci-Fi Channel saw its
potential and immediately snatched it up.
Our story opens in a dingy city where the shadows
are crawling with what those in the know calls
"abnormals" -- inhuman creatures who are either a
threat to -- or threatened by -- humanity. Their
would-be caretaker is Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), a
Victorian scientist who not only managed to bend the
laws of physics with her unusual longevity but also
inherited the Sanctuary from her father, who made it
his life's work to protect and defend creatures from
a world that would harm, kill, or abuse them.
Accompanying her on this mission is her no-nonsense
daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), and her adopted computer
whiz son Henry (Ryan Robbins), whom she rescued from the
wilds. Helen also hopes to recruit the talented Will
(Robin Dunne), whose powers of observation resemble those
of the great detective Sherlock Holmes, into her
fold.
Fascinated with the world she has revealed to him,
Will quickly adapts to life at the Sanctuary --
escaped inmates, a Big Foot butler, and all, but
soon discovers Helen is not the only game in town. A
rival organization known as the Cabal has made it
their mission to control or destroy all the
abnormals, and when the team steps on their toes
more than once, launches a war against them. Helen's
former associates and friends soon begin to emerge
from hiding, including three of the members of The
Five, a small group of scientists from the Victorian
era devoted to experimentation. Dr. Watson
(Wingfield), the inspiration for the famous literary
detective, an electricity-wrangling vampire-inventor
named Nikola Tesla (Jonathon Young), and Helen's former
lover, John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl), whose powers of
teleportation caused him to go on a murderous
rampage in Whitehall.
Sanctuary is the first completely
computer-rendered television show on the market, as
97% of it is shot against a green screen. This not
only provides an extra challenge for the actors but
allows for incredible panoramas and wide shots. From
the depths of the Bermuda Triangle to the caverns
beneath an ancient civilization, most of what you
will see in the background is all fake. Most of it
is astonishingly realistic and the special effects
are fantastic. The series starts out with the web
episodes, altered and reshot slightly to make them
more cable-friendly, but once it moves beyond the
original script, the creativity and mythology behind
the characters explode into one surprise after
another. By the seventh episode, in which Tesla and
his army of "dumb as tree stumps" vampires turned
up, I was in love. If you are a sci-fi fan, this
will blow your mind. It resembles the British
production Torchwood
slightly, but it far better written and much
cleaner.
Content is never a huge problem but mild language
intrudes on occasion and there is a great deal of
violence. That itself is not as disgusting as some
of the carnage. Severed limbs and bloodied stumps,
disintegrating carcasses, and seeping leg wounds are
present in "Nubbins," and "Instinct." Mermaids in
tatters are seen in "Requiem." A character has a
fist put through his stomach in "The Five." The
Ripper murders a prostitute on two occasions. Helen
engages in several gruesome autopsies. In
"Warriors," she attempts to extract a beetle that
has been injected into a man's spine. (We see
another man also being infected.) Sensuality
includes innuendo in "Nubbins," when a group of
furry creatures heightens the sexual awareness of
everyone in the building. In the last two episodes,
a young woman's bare back and part of her bare
breast (from behind) are shown. (She has the power
of invisibility, but only when naked.) She persuades
Will to strip to his boxer shorts for her own
amusement.
One of the best things about the series is its
snappy dialogue and witty banter. Each character is
different and unique but most of them have a good
comeback for every occasion, particularly Tesla. If
you decide to give the series a chance to impress
you, watch at least a half dozen episodes, as it
continues to improve and delivers most of its
excellent material toward the end of the season.
It's also not only your chance to see literary
characters in a modern setting, but also meet one of
the finest leading ladies ever penned. Once you
encounter her, I don't think you will ever forget
Helen Magnus.
