Sanctuary
Created by Damian Kindler, Sanctuary debuted in October 2008 and ran for four seasons (59 episodes). The show initially began as an 8 episode webseries that was soon picked up by Syfy due to its success.
Sanctuary follows the adventures of Dr. Helen Magnus (played by Amanda Tapping), a 157-year-old teratologist, and her team of experts that includes her daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne), Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins), and a taciturn “Bigfoot” (played by Christopher Heyerdahl).
Dr, Magnus runs what is known as Sanctuary – an organization that seeks out extraordinarily powerful creatures and people, known as Abnormals, and tries to help and to learn from them while also having to contain the more dangerous ones.
As the first seasons unravels we lean that Dr. Magnus was trained by her father, a gifted Victorian-era scientist, to study the world and protect the unusual. She then went onto become a memeber of a group of experimental scientists known as “The Five”, which also included Nikola Tesla (Jonathon Young), Nigel Griffin (Vincent Gale), Dr. James Watson (Peter Wingfield), and Magnus’s love interest John Druitt (Heyerdahl). The Five hoped to push the boundaries of their understanding of the physical world through unconventional means.
During The Fives adventures Magnus acquired a vial of untainted vampire blood and used it in a serum that “The Five” injected into themselves. Following the injection each member of The five reacted differently:
- Magnus began to age slowlym- explaining why she is now 157 years old.
- Nigel Griffin acquired the power to become invisible at will.
- Dr. James Watson’s intellect was tremendously heightened.
- Nikola Tesla underwent transformation into a vampire, with the additional power of electrical manipulation.
- John Druitt developed longevity and the ability to teleport through time and space, and later was driven to become Jack The Ripper.
By the third episode of Sanctuary we are introduced to The Cabal. A powerful and resourceful organisation who captures, study, and experiment on Abnormals. They believe that the Abnormal population is a threat to the human species.
As the first season continues, so do the battles between Sanctuary and The Cabal, and teh fall out of the battles will impact the series for the rest of its run!