A Trip Inside The ‘Sanctuary’

More and more, science-fiction shows have been experimenting with new ways to get to their audiences. "Babylon 5" just released a new straight-to-DVD movie that may lead to an all-new anthology series for the series released only on DVD. And even SciFi Channel recently announced that they are making new episodes of "Farscape" as Webisodes.

But this is a new frontier and pioneers are needed to explore it. Stage 3 Media is one such pioneer that has gone further than anyone else to date with their Web series "Sanctuary."

Damian Kindler is known for his work in the Stargate franchise, but he's also the chief executive officer of Stage 3 Media and the creator of "Sanctuary," which he developed almost on a dare by his agent.

"'Sanctuary' was written seven years ago, before 'Firefly,' [and] before a lot of other shows," Kindler told SyFy Portal's Marx Pyle. "It was primarily influenced by a number of things, [but] it was sort of an answer to a challenge of my agent at the time."

Kindler's agent said that perfect example of innovation could be found in existing franchises like CSI and "NYPD Blue," but that audiences were looking for the next big thing.

"What really turns people on, when they are looking for writers, is someone who writes in their own voice, and go like, 'Wow! This is someone new and interesting,'" Kindler said. "She [his agent] said that maybe one of the things you should do is write a script of a show you would create if given all the freedom in the world."

That project became "Sanctuary," a series developed specifically for the Web that follows Dr. Helen Magnus, played by Amanda Tapping, the new star of "Stargate: Atlantis," as she seeks out monstrous creatures to reform, protect or capture. She gets help with this quest from her reckless daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerip) and is joined in the pilot episode by her hesitant sidekick Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne). Oh, and did we mention that Dr. Magnus is 157 years old and was once engaged to Jack the Ripper?

"At the time I was very influenced by 'The X-Files' and to an extent ['Buffy the Vampire Slayer']," Kindler said. "I was very influenced by the graphic novel of 'League of Extraordinary Gentleman,' and I was very influenced by a novel I read called 'The Alienist' by Caleb Car. So I had kind of a gothic steampunk ... 'X-Files' sort of 'The truth is out there,' except the truth is out there, but you don't want to find it."

Talk about this story