Sanctuary


 * This article is about the series.

 is a Canadian science fiction-fantasy television series, created by Damian Kindler and funded largely by the Beedie Development Group. The show ran for four seasons, from 2008 to 2011. A 6-episode fifth season was planned and eventually green-lit by Syfy but never made.

The show is an expansion of an eight-webisode series that was released through the Internet in early 2007. Seeing the success of the web series, Syfy decided to buy the broadcast rights to the series and pay to re-stage the series in a season of thirteen episodes.

The show centers on Dr. Helen Magnus, a 157-year-old English scientist, and her team of experts who run the "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.

Plot
Sanctuary follows the exploits of Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) and her quest to protect various cryptids, legends, and abnormal animals/people with certain extraordinary powers and abilities (which most people would consider "monsters"). She heads the Sanctuary Network, which consists of large facilities known as "sanctuaries" scattered throughout the world serving as safe havens for these "abnormals". She is initially aided in her quest by her reluctant protégé Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne); her intrepid, if somewhat reckless, daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup); the talkative geek and lycanthrope Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins), a computer and security expert; and her taciturn, Homo heidelbergensis-like assistant, played by Christopher Heyerdahl (whose character is unnamed, but listed as "Bigfoot" in the show's credits).

Main characters

 * Amanda Tapping as Dr. Helen Magnus, an English medical and scientific researcher who has devoted her life to both hunting and protecting abnormals—creatures with genetic abnormalities. She runs a "Sanctuary" in the fictional Old City, where the abnormals may find refuge while she attempts to help them and to understand them further.
 * Robin Dunne as Dr. Will Zimmerman, a forensic psychiatrist who is recruited by Dr. Magnus to help her treat abnormals.
 * Emilie Ullerup as Ashley Magnus (Seasons 1–2), the daughter of Dr. Magnus and John Druitt. Ashley is an expert monster hunter, and provides a counterbalance to Dr. Magnus' desire to protect creatures.
 * Christopher Heyerdahl as Bigfoot, a former Neanderthal-like patient of Dr. Magnus who would not leave after he recovered, so Dr. Magnus offered him a position at the Sanctuary as a butler, chauffeur, and body guard. Heyerdahl also plays the recurring character John Druitt.
 * Ryan Robbins as Henry Foss (Seasons 2–4; Recurring Season 1), a technological wiz and lycanthrope.
 * Agam Darshi as Kate Freelander (Seasons 2–3; Recurring Season 4), a con-artist with Cabal connection who has a vast knowledge of their tactics and movements. After she is hunted by the Cabal, she reluctantly switches sides to the Sanctuary, staying on as a member of the team.

Recurring characters

 * Jonathon Young as Nikola Tesla (Seasons 2–4; Guest Season 1)
 * Peter Wingfield as Dr. James Watson (Seasons 1 & 3-4)
 * Robert Lawrenson as Declan MacRae (Seasons 2–4)
 * Lynda Boyd as Dana Whitcomb (Seasons 1–2)
 * Pauline Egan as Erika Myers (Season 3-4)
 * Ian Tracey as Adam Worth (Seasons 3–4)
 * Pascale Hutton as Abby Corrigan (Seasons 3–4)
 * Brian Markinson as Greg Addison (Season 4)
 * Carlo Rota as Richard Feliz (Season 4)

Production
The series is produced by Stage 3 Media based in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in 2006. The webisodes were filmed from January 3rd to January 31st, 2007, at Bridge Studios. Sanctuary is filmed almost entirely using the green screen technique. Unlike many other shows, no elaborate sets are built for the scenes to be filmed; instead, they are created using CGI technology. Production on the television version of Sanctuary began in early 2008, with a reshooting of the pilot episode, "". The first season cost an estimated $21 million (CAN), and filmed in Burnaby, British Columbia. In December 2008, the series was confirmed to have been picked up for a second season of thirteen episodes. The second season began production in the end of March/beginning of April, 2009. Guest stars for the second season include Agam Darshi, who will play con-artist Kate Freelander, former "Stargate SG-1" actor Michael Shanks as Jimmy for the ninth episode, entitled "", and former "Stargate Atlantis" actor Paul McGillion, who will play Terrance Wexford, a character he played in the web series, in the final two episodes.

Sanctuary is the first television series in North America to use the RED camera exclusively. The RED camera system does away with tape and film and records straight to a hard drive allowing the Anthem Visual Effects and the series' post production team immediate access to the day’s footage, and is capable of recording at resolutions up to 4096 horizontal by 2304 vertical pixels, four times the resolution of current day HD. Along with being a primary cast member, Amanda Tapping is also an executive producer on the show, but according to Tapping herself in an interview with The Today Show, she does not get paid extra as an executive producer, mainly because what salary the executive producers would get would go towards paying for the sets, because the series is not backed up by a studio. Although heavily reliant on virtual sets, a few episodes in the first season, including and, were filmed on practical sets, including the fuselage of an aircraft. The series also took a different filming style for the "Cloverfield"-esque.

Broadcast and release
Unlike traditional TV series, the primary distribution channel for Sanctuary was originally the Internet. Episodes were sold directly to viewers on the official website. The web episodes or "webisodes", are about 15–20 minutes in duration and were released bi-weekly. The success of the webisodes led the Syfy Channel to commission a 13-episode season for 2008. The first four webisodes were rewritten and reshot as a two-hour premiere episode, "". After the deal with the SciFi channel, the webisodes were moved to the Sci Fi network on Hulu.com.

Air dates, timeslots, and renewals
The series premiered on October 3rd, 2008, in both Canada and the United States and on October 6th in the United Kingdom. The premiere drew in more than 3 million viewers, making it the highest rated original series premiere for Syfy since "Eureka" debuted in July 2006. The premiere two-parter, "", was a combination and rewriting of the first four webisodes and was followed by, based on Webisodes 5-8. Amanda Tapping, with all of the original cast from the web series, made the transition to the television series.

A second season of 13 episodes aired in 2009–10, and Sanctuary was renewed for a third season of 20 episodes on December 12th, 2009. The second season premiered on Friday, October 9th, 2009, in the 10 pm timeslot. In Australia, the program debuted on Pay Television's Sci Fi and on free-to-air channel ABC2, where Season 1 started on March 1st, 2010, each Monday at 9:30 pm. Season 2 commenced on July 12th, 2010, in the same timeslot. Season 3 premiered Friday, October 15th, 2010, on Syfy in its original 10 pm timeslot. In January 2011, Sanctuary was renewed for a fourth season, which finished airing on December 30th, 2011. On May 21st, 2012, Syfy announced that Sanctuary will not be returning for a fifth season and that the show has been cancelled.

On October 8th, 2012, PPI Releasing announced that it would distribute the series in U.S. syndication, starting fall 2013. As of 2021, the series is available to watch for free with ads on Vudu.

Ratings
In its first season on Syfy, the original series, Sanctuary has averaged a 1.9 Household rating; 1,044,000 Adults (ages 18–49); 1,371,000 Adults (ages 25–54) and 2,366,000 total viewers. The pilot episode, "" received a Nielsen household rating of 2.2, the highest rated original series premiere from Syfy since the series premiere of "Eureka" in July 2006. The 2.2 rating represented more than 2.7 million viewers; 1.08 million among the adult 18–49 demographic and 1.4 million among the adult 25–54 demographic. This placed Sanctuary the number one cable program among adults 25–54, and number four among adults 18–49. The ratings success also boosted the web series to 1.2 million views. In the United Kingdom, both parts placed the series first place on the top ten viewing programmes for ITV4 during the two weeks they aired. The first part was viewed by 565,000, while the second part received a higher viewing figure of 608,000.

Home media release

 * The Webisodes were included as part of the special features of Season 1 on Disc 4.

Stats and facts

 * Sanctuary by numbers:
 * 80: crew working on the show.
 * 4: approximate number of months it takes to complete one episode, from first day of shooting to final delivery.
 * Over 1,000: approximate number of visual effects shots in only the first four episodes.
 * 5: hours spent in the prosthetics make-up chair by an actor to evolve into one of the creatures in Sanctuary.
 * 2: hours spent in the make-up chair by an actor to get out of prosthetics.
 * Firsts:
 * Sanctuary was the first television series in North America to start production using the new RED camera exclusively, capturing images at four times the resolution of a high definition camera.
 * Sanctuary is one of the only television series to shoot extensively on green screen with virtual sets.