SANCTUARY

Review by Sandra Bruckner

I have to admit, I was skeptical of SANCTUARY. It is the new project of Amanda Tapping from STARGATE fame and I wondered what it would be like. I began watching the clip SCI FI had on their clip page and was intrigued. It gave you a hint of what was to come -- but only a hint.

What I did like about it was that it brought back memories for a lot of people related to Babylon 5. B5 worked with a number of virtual sets, especially in the last LOST TALES movie. SANCTUARY works primarily with virtual sets and it does so quite successfully.

I just finished watching the premiere episode and I loved it. Not only is it a good, different sort of story, but it has a lot of twists and turns that come both expectedly -- and unexpectedly. I enjoy the writing the most. It is done without dumbing it down for today’s general TV viewer (much like Babylon 5). People talk intelligently, using more than the monosyllables you find in a great deal of today’s shows. I wouldn’t call it high-brow, bu t it does take you back to your English class and those old vocabulary words you haven’t used for ages.

I like that!

Main Characters:

Amanda Tapping is Helen Magnus, a doctor who captures/rescues creatures/beings that are out of the norm -- monsters to some -- sentient beings to others (another Babylon 5 tenant).

Will Zimmerman is a police psychologist -- who becomes a colleague of Dr. Magnus through an amazing set of circumstances -- not all happenstance. Robin Dunne is wonderful as the young doctor who is looking for something -- and may have just found it in Sanctuary.

Ashley Magnus, daughter of Helen, "snags and tags" the abnormals and brings them to Sanctuary for her mother to study. Ashley rides around the city on a motorcycle and works with some pretty tough characters -- getting weapons and supplies to fight the baddies with. Emilie Ullerup is marvelous in this very challenging role of monster hunter.

Henry Foss is the computer geek in the group -- you knew there had to be one! He helps with monitoring the Sanctuary systems, find security video from crimes around the city, etc. Ryan Robbins is a scruffy voice of reality sometimes.

As I said before, there are aspects of the show that remind me of Babylon 5 quite a bit. During the first tour of the Sanctuary, you see various residents in their natural habitats. The first we see is a mermaid -- swimming in an underwater cavern. There are many others -- which reminded me of "The Gathering" as Sinclair walked Lyta Alexander through the section of the station where other sentient being lived.

This is quite a creative series and I hope that they can maintain the quality of the pilot episode.