Daddy is what. John Druitt, who happens to have been Jack the Ripper in his formative years, is the time-traveling villain of the piece, and snarls convincingly enough as he exposes his paternity to dear Ashley who – wouldn't you know – hasn't exactly been kept in the loop as far as her heritage goes. The makeshift pilot episode, whose creators have charitably permitted us to try at low-res on the YouTubes before we buy in HD, is pacey but poorly put together; the short scenes and quick cuts create an illusion of leanness, but the first set of webisodes are insultingly heavy on exposition and ultimately light on any real development of the world or the narrative. None of which is to say that Sanctuary doesn’t deserve your time, and perhaps your money at that.
It's the second arc of episodes that finally impresses. With the world-building affair momentarily forgotten, key creators Damian Kindler and Martin Wood – SG-1 alumni both – seem to find their feet. The composite CGI is still iffy at best, particularly at 720p, and despite the pilot’s efforts, the matters of setting and back-story remain baffling, but with bad dad out of the picture and some perfunctory Ripper-mythos mining done for the time being, things start to look up for Sanctuary.
Arthurian legend is the source of the bad guys on this occasion, but they don't swallow the narrative whole like Druitt was wont to; notwithstanding the shorter running of the sophomore story-arc, there's time all the same for the characters to bounce off one another some. Magus' intriguing youth gets some screen real estate and her modern-day persona exhibits a chill air that’s different enough from your usual brooding vampire to stand apart. The action is tighter and more effective, and when Ashley the ass-kicking robot isn’t busy kicking ass, she begins to terrorise Daniel – wait, my bad, I'm sure I meant 'Will' – with her sexuality. This is the kind of smouldering relationship that'll hand-to-God never happen until ratings start to drop off, and for all of Sanctuary's faults, I think I’d like to be around when the back-pedalling begins in earnest.
In the end, it's a bit of good, old-fashioned fun. The scripts aren't witty enough to be Whedonesque and their attempts at self-awareness largely fall flat, but on those occasions when the narrative puts aside its seriousness, Sanctuary seems an inviting enough place to spend a few hours. However cack-handed the viewer's exposure to it, the mythology is obviously rich, and there's a vein of promise that some strategic brutality – come the development of Sci-Fi's series order – could well tap into. Eight webisodes in, there's already an acceptable story-telling template in place, a storied, if staid, cast of characters for the creators to exploit, and countless touchstones of the genre to play off.
Article comments
1 - MIke
Sanctuary is an awesome TV show. I loved Outer limits and X-Files. Now i got what i looked for.