Season 3

 of Sanctuary premiered at 10:00pm on Friday, October 15th, 2010 on Syfy in the United States and SPACE in Canada, in the United Kingdom at 9:00pm Tuesday October 19th, 2010 on WATCH and on Thursday October 21st, 2010 on SciFi in Australia.

Synopsis
Ultimately, Big Bertha/Kali is saved and Terrance Wexford is ousted, but more questions are raised than answered. Dr. Will Zimmerman visits the spirit plane via induced cardiac arrest, and while there he sees two other powerful beings in addition to Kali; encounters Helen's father, who gives Will a message for her; and then spontaneously returns to life with no brain damage after an unprecedented length of time. The Sanctuary team speculate that the beings are avatars of abnormals as powerful as Big Bertha, one of which may have been the source of the earthquake that stopped a destructive tidal wave started by Kali's wrath. Meanwhile, Gregory Magnus' message leads the Sanctuary team to old birthday gifts that he had given to Helen years before, which in conjunction produce a tangible holographic map or miniature representing an unknown steampunk-style city. This is eventually revealed to be Praxis, an advanced underground civilization of humans and abnormals. After an initial period of mistrust (exacerbated by the antics of Adam Worth (Ian Tracey), an old enemy of Magnus's who inspired "Jekyll and Hyde", Magnus and her team save the world and reach an entente, with Gregory acting as ambassador. However, the peace does not last long. Worth, who escaped, manipulated unhappy abnormals in Praxis while experimenting with a dangerously unstable energy source to power a time machine. The end results of his machinations were the destruction of Praxis, several armies of displaced abnormals marching on the upper world, and his escape to the past to attempt to save his daughter, with Magnus hot on his heels.

About the season
The third season of the Canadian science fiction–fantasy television series Sanctuary, premiered on Syfy in the United States on October 15th, 2010 and consists of 20 episodes. Created by Damian Kindler, the series was adapted from a series of webisodes released in 2007. The increased number of episodes in this season allows the producers to include numerous story arcs. The second half of the third season premiered on April 15th, 2011 until it was moved to Monday nights on April 25th, 2011.

The Sanctuary team deal with the aftermath of the gigantic tidal wave released by Big Bertha while Dr. Will Zimmerman's life remains in balance but soon the errand comes to an end once Will leads one final plea to "Kali" A.K.A. Big Bertha in his near death experience to stop the destruction. Following Will's return to life two abnormals appear to him to rekindle his memory and in doing so Will remembers an important message that Gregory Magnus sent for Helen to find an underground city with great technology and secrets.

Later Nikola Tesla sends an SOS call and after his rescue continues to help Dr. Helen Magnus in discovering the secrets of the city which eventually leads them to a Hollow Earth atlas. Soon Adam Worth, a former acquaintance, tricks Magnus and causes radiation poisoning (that should kill both Magnus and Worth in a few weeks) so that she may show Worth the Hollow Earth. Upon Worth's interference Magnus, Will, Henry Foss and Kate Freelander enter the city to save Gregory and find a cure for the poisoning but only to be executed immediately when caught while Worth imprisons John Druitt, leaving Tesla and Bigfoot alone in the mysteries. Magnus is then revived by Ranna Seneschal for answering and Magnus finds out that she needs her to help an abnormal from the events of 'KALI', thereby Magnus and the gang is revived and she given the cure and is reunited with her father, together Gregory and Helen save the abnormal and reach the surface back again while Druitt kills Worth.

The show returned to its original format, featuring a new short story for every episode until Tesla and Magnus discover a Praxian stronghold. This is revealed to have been taken by vampires and as such was a vampire stronghold where a whole army of vampires and their queen were buried to be awakened someday. Magnus views this as a threat and destroys the stronghold, but not before restoring Tesla to a vampire again.

Series regulars

 * Amanda Tapping as Dr. Helen Magnus
 * Robin Dunne as Dr. Will Zimmerman
 * Ryan Robbins as Henry Foss
 * Agam Darshi as Kate Freelander
 * Christopher Heyerdahl as John Druitt / Bigfoot

Recurring characters

 * Jonathon Young as Nikola Tesla
 * Ian Tracey as Adam Worth
 * Robert Lawrenson as Declan MacRae
 * Paul McGillion as Terrance Wexford
 * Pascale Hutton as Abby Corrigan

Guest appearances

 * Callum Blue as Edward Forsythe
 * Sahar Biniaz as Kali
 * Peter Wingfield as Dr. James Watson
 * Peter DeLuise as Ernie Watts
 * Polly Walker as Ranna Seneschal
 * Adam Copeland (credited as WWE Superstar "Edge") as Thelo

Production
On December 12th, 2009 Sanctuary was renewed for a third season consisting of 20 episodes. It will conclude the second-season cliffhanger. The expanded season will also give the producers the opportunity to involve "really big story arcs", as well as exploring more on Magnus's past and deal with "something that's much bigger than Big Bertha." Former Rome and "Caprica" actress Polly Walker will guest star as antagonist Ranna Seneschal in two episodes during the middle of the season. In addition, former wrestler Edge (Adam Copeland) will guest star as an abnormal named Thelo in the season finale, scheduled to air during the Spring 2011. Production of the season commenced on March 15th, 2010.

Broadcast and ratings
Syfy originally announced that the third season will premiere alongside the second season of "Stargate Universe" on September 28th, 2010. However, they later announced it will be delayed until Friday, October 15th on their original 10 pm timeslot. The season premiere was seen by almost 1.8 million viewers and 1.3 household ratings. Viewership increased 17 per cent in total viewers, and 12 per cent among adults aged 18 through 49, compared to the average for season two. After the fall season concluded, the first ten episode averaged 1.483 million viewers, with an adults 18–49 rating of 0.4, per episode, making it one of the higher rated shows in 2010 for the network.

The spring season began airing on April 15th, 2011 with 1.217 million viewers, a season low. Syfy later announced it would swap the show with "Urban Legends" where it was moved to Monday nights and be paired with "Stargate Universe" starting April 25 due to the low rating from the mid season premiere. However ratings for the show worsened, with 868,000 viewers watching. Ratings hit an all-time low when only 656,000 saw. However, the last three episodes of the season saw a sizable recovery, likely due to the ending of the 2010/11 broadcast season from the major networks; nearly 1.3 million watched the season finale. The spring season averaged 997,000 however, though Syfy picked up the show for a fourth season in January 2011. In Canada the season premiered on the Space channel on October 15th, 2010. In the United Kingdom, the satellite channel Watch bought the rights to show the third season of the show. The previous two season were shown on ITV4.

Awards and nominations
The third season won three Leo Awards out of seventeen nominations. Jean Tejkel, Kevin Sands, Hugo de la Cerda, Kevin Belen won "Best Overall Sound in a Dramatic Series" for. Christina McQuarrie won "Best Costume Design in a Dramatic Series" for her role in. Ryan Robbins won "Best Supporting Performance by a Male" for his role in. it was the second time he won the award in the category, the first time being in 2009. The season was also nominated for "Best Dramatic Series", but lost out to the final season of "Smallville".