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Revision as of 16:57, 9 August 2020

Series   Overview   Webisode Guide   Episode Guide   Cast & Crew   Characters    
This article is about the series. For the institution, see Sanctuary Network or Old City Sanctuary.
Sanctuary logo (2007, Promotional Image)

Sanctuary 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[1] 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-cast-768x1024

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).

Cast

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

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, "Sanctuary for All". 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 "Penance", and former "Stargate Atlantis" actor Paul McGillion[5], 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 Episode 1x05 - "Kush" and Episode 1x09 - "Requiem", were filmed on practical sets, including the fuselage of an aircraft. The series also took a different filming style for the "Cloverfield"-esque Episode 1x11 - "Instinct".

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, "Sanctuary for All". 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, "Sanctuary for All", was a combination and rewriting of the first four webisodes and was followed by Episode 1x03 - "Fata Morgana", 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.[6] On October 8th, 2012, PPI Releasing announced that it would distribute the series in U.S. syndication, starting fall 2013.

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, "Sanctuary for All" 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

Season Episodes Originally aired DVD release date Blu-ray release date
Season premiere Season finale Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
W 8 March 14, 2007 August 30, 2007 September 15, 2009 [7] October 12, 2009 [8] September 9, 2009 [9] June 15, 2010 [10]
1 13 October 3, 2008 January 5, 2009 September 15, 2009 [7] October 12, 2009 [8] September 9, 2009 [9] June 15, 2010 [10]
2 13 October 9, 2009 January 15, 2010 June 15, 2010 [11] October 4, 2010 [12] June 9, 2010 [13] June 15, 2010 [14]
3 20 October 15, 2010 June 20, 2011 September 13, 2011 [15] September 29, 2011 [16] September 14, 2011 [17] September 13, 2011 [15]
4 13 October 7, 2011 December 30, 2011 July 17, 2012 [18] July 2, 2012 [19] August 29, 2012 [20] July 17, 2012 [18]
The Complete Series October 23, 2012 [21] — November 14, 2012 [22] —
  • The Webisodes were included as part of the special features of Season 1 on Disc 4.

The Complete Series

Sanctuary - The Complete Series (Front)

Cover art of Sanctuary: The Complete Series DVD boxset (Front)

Sanctuary - The Complete Series (Back)

Cover art of Sanctuary: The Complete Series DVD boxset (Back)

LEAVE THE WORLD YOU KNOW BEHIND.
WELCOME TO THE SANCTUARY...

Dr. Helen Magnus (AMANDA TAPPING) is a beautiful and enigmatic scientist who seeks out all manner of monstrous creatures. Aided by forensic psychiatrist Dr. Will Zimmerman (ROBIN DUNNE), tech expert Henry Foss (RYAN ROBINS) and the real Bigfoot (CHRISTOPER HEYERDAHL), the Sanctuary team tracks down, studies and protects the strange and often terrifying creatures that secretly populate our world.


Features
  • Content: 59 Episodes / 18 Discs
  • Running Time: 2650 minutes approx (Over 44 Hours)
  • Aspect Ratio
    • DVD Format: 16X9 (1.78:1)
  • Audio:
    • DVD: 5.1 Surround Sound / 2.0 Dolby Digital
  • Language: English
  • Subtitles: English SDH
  • Studio: E1 Entertainment
Contents
  1. SEASON ONE - DISC ONE
  2. SEASON ONE - DISC TWO
  3. SEASON ONE - DISC THREE
  4. SEASON ONE - DISC FOUR
  5. SEASON TWO - DISC ONE
  6. SEASON TWO - DISC TWO
  7. SEASON TWO - DISC THREE
  8. SEASON TWO - DISC FOUR
  9. SEASON THREE - DISC ONE
  10. SEASON THREE - DISC TWO
  11. SEASON THREE - DISC THREE
  12. SEASON THREE - DISC FOUR
  13. SEASON THREE - DISC FIVE
  14. SEASON THREE - DISC SIX
  15. SEASON FOUR - DISC ONE
  16. SEASON FOUR - DISC TWO
  17. SEASON FOUR - DISC THREE
  18. SEASON FOUR - DISC FOUR
BONUS FEATURES
  • Over 20 Making-of Featurettes
  • Audio Commentaries on Select Episodes
  • Bloopers / Outtakes
  • Deleted Scenes
ALSO INCLUDES - EXCLUSIVE 16-PAGE GUIDEBOOK
Release Dates
DVD
  • Region 1: June 3rd, 2019

Background, Notes, and Trivia

Media Gallery | Photos and Video


References, External Links, and Websites

  1. ↑ as of August 27th 2007
  2. ↑ Lynda Boyd on The Internet Movie Database
  3. ↑ Brian Markinson on The Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ Carlo Rota on The Internet Movie Database
  5. ↑ Paul McGillion on The Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ Syfy cancels Sanctuary.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sanctuary-1st Season. Amazon.com. Retrieved on June 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sanctuary Complete Season 1 [DVD [2007]]. amazon.co.uk. Retrieved on June 14, 2009.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Sanctuary – Season 1 (4 Disc Set). EzyDVD. Archived from the original on October 1, 2009. Retrieved on September 4, 2009.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Sanctuary – The Complete First Season [Blu-ray (2008)]. Amazon.com. Retrieved on May 20, 2010.
  11. ↑ Sanctuary – The Complete Second Season. Amazon.com. Retrieved on May 20, 2010.
  12. ↑ Sanctuary: Series 2 Box Set (4 Discs). play.com. Retrieved on February 10, 2010.
  13. ↑ Sanctuary: Season 2 Box Set (4 Discs). ezydvd.com.au. Archived from the original on May 11, 2010. Retrieved on April 8, 2010.
  14. ↑ Sanctuary – The Complete Second Season [Blu-ray]. Amazon.com. Retrieved on May 20, 2010.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Sanctuary – 'The Complete 3rd Season' of the Syfy Series: DVD and Blu-ray Date, Extras, Box Art. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2011. Retrieved on June 26, 2011.
  16. ↑ Sanctuary Season 3 [DVD]. amazon.co.uk. Retrieved on May 29, 2011.
  17. ↑ Sanctuary – Season 3 (6 Disc Set). EzyDVD. Archived from the original on April 6, 2011. Retrieved on July 18, 2011.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Sanctuary – Release Date Tweeted for 'The Complete 4th Season' on DVD and Blu. TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved on March 28, 2012.
  19. ↑ Sanctuary - Season 4 [DVD]. Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved on April 21, 2014.
  20. ↑ STACK Australian DVD release dates. stack.com.au. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved on July 12, 2012.
  21. ↑ Sanctuary - Finished Box Art Appears for 'The Complete Series' on DVD. TVShowsOnDVD.com (August 23, 2012). Archived from the original on August 24, 2012. Retrieved on August 23, 2012.
  22. ↑ JB HiFi Sanctuary Seasons 1-4. jbhifionline.com.au. Retrieved on May 13, 2013.
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