Friday nights just got a lot more mysterious and interesting for the SCI FI Channel with the premiere this week of the new series Sanctuary. Starring Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne, Emilie Ullerup, Christopher Heyerdahl and Ryan Robbins, Sanctuary starts off looking like a police procedural type of show before veering sharply into supernatural territory. Will Zimmerman (Dunne) is a psychiatrist who works with the police. His already fractured life takes a bizarre tumble while investigating a crime scene that rapidly becomes anything but routine. Zimmerman discovers that monsters don’t just hide in our imaginary closets, but are real and running around in the dark places. Helen Magnus (Tapping) asks Zimmerman to be part of her team consisting of her daughter Ashley (Emilie) and Henry Foss (Robbins). Team Magnus is a super-secret monster squad who take it upon themselves to round up the lurking monsters and…well, give them shelter. As Magnus explains, the cavernous institute that the team works out of is a sanctuary for all. Yes, there are some of those she’s rescued that need to be locked up to protect humanity, but most are there to be protected. In fact, Bigfoot is also part of the staff. And there’s a mermaid as well.
The first double-length episode sets up a lot of the story and gives plenty of mysteries and intrigue to propel us through the rest of the thirteen episode season. There’s the fact that Magnus is over 150 years old. She also became involved with John Druitt (Heyerdahl) in Victorian London. Druitt is a mysterious man who can teleport himself any distance, but at a great price: brain-damage that at one point causes him to become Jack the Ripper. Oh, and he’s the father of Ashley (a secret that Magnus imparts to Zimmerman to gain his trust), who’s been told her father was killed by a monster years ago. Yes, the opener raises a lot of questions and you’ll find that you will want to stick around to see how they’re answered.
In both our conversation with Amanda Tapping at Comic Con in July and her conference call with reporters a week and a half ago, her enthusiasm for the show is very apparent. Speaking about her own character, she says that Helen Magnus views her longevity as both a gift and a curse. She sees her quest to find monsters as worthy and worth being around for, but there is also a feeling of incredible loneliness attached to watching everyone you’ve ever known grow old and die. “So I think she’s very guarded because she doesn’t want to give people too much for fear that it – you know, she’ll be heartbroken in the end,” says Amanda.
The first episode gives us a glimpse of Helen in Victorian times and we will continue to get glimpses of her past between then and present times. Amanda also agreed that Helen is maybe building more of a family of like-minded people rather than a team, especially to have people around that will provide a good influence for her daughter. And Ashley will find out who her real father is with obvious consequences. There is also much more to reveal about John Druitt and he will be a main presence throughout the season.
I highly recommend checking out the premiere and then tuning in each Friday night to see what happens next. And stay tuned to Pop Culture Zoo for our upcoming interview with Amanda Tapping where we’ll talk to her further about Sanctuary.
