Sanctuary Premiers on Sci-Fi Channel TV

Canadian Fantasy Series Starring Amanda Tapping

Sanctuary, a new series on the Sci-Fi Channel TV network, premiered Friday, October 3^rd. The series, staring Stargate: SG1's Amanda Tapping, concerns a group of people who hunt and capture "unusual creatures" in order to help and study them.

Sanctuary has already had a successful run as a series of "webisodes" before making the leap to TV.

Sanctuary takes place in a city that may or may not be New York, but which has a certain, CGI unreality to it on the TV screen. The pilot episode starts with what appears to be a triple homicide in a crowded apartment inhabited by East European immigrants. It is assumed that the crime was committed by a convicted felon living downstairs.

That is to say, it is assumed to have happened that way by everyone but a forensic psychologist, Dr. Will Zimmerman, played by Robin Dunne. Zimmerman has the powers of observation and deductive reasoning skills of a Sherlock Holmes and a sense of the unusual of a Fox Mulder. Because of that last quality, Zimmerman was fired by the FBI and is looked upon with suspicion by the police.

Zimmerman soon finds that the killings were not done by the felon, but by a ten year old boy who has-shall we say-unusual characteristics. Zimmerman soon encounters the people from the Sanctuary during his quest for the truth.

Amanda Tapping plays Dr. Helen Magnus, the head of the Sanctuary, who is also a hundred and fifty seven years old (she was the lover of the creature known to history as Jack the Ripper, who shows up in the series as John Druitt, played by Christopher Heyerdahl, a man who can not only teleport through time and space, but who is also quite insane.) Assisting Helen Magnus is her daughter Ashley, played by Emilie Ullerup, who is the team's "monster hunter", though in the mode of "bring 'em back alive." Henry Foss, played by Ryan Roberts, is the team's obligatory geek, both a weapons and computer expert.