Sanctuary Discussion (Spoilers for the most recent episode)

[Uber]

Just as a re-re-re-emphasis...we're trying to get as many in as possible as soon as possible.

So if you want to participate, please contact me on MSN. It honestly only takes a couple minutes. Tops.

[suse]

Just as a re-re-re-emphasis...we're trying to get as many in as possible as soon as possible.

So if you want to participate, please contact me on MSN. It honestly only takes a couple minutes. Tops.

Even for me - who is absolutely horrible at putting these type of greetings together. What a weird combination of serious and poking fun.

suse

[BruTak]

Yes, but Sanctuary is a h.264 codec in the .mov container. A .mov isn't always a .mov - it's what's known as a container. Think of it as a box. You can have heaps of boxes of the same design (ie the .mov) but the content inside that box can be stored in different patterns (ie the codec). If you don't have the nessacary tools to read the pattern then you wont be able to use that file.
Now, you can't burn straight from a h.264 to a DVD because your DVD player won't recognise the codec. You'll need to encode it to a dvd standard which basically means downsampling the HD content (which is why it takes a while)

This is getting a bit technical for me... Just cos I used to work in a computer factory doesn't mean I know anything about them - I only built the ruddy things, not programmed them...

[meredithchandler73]

Okay, watched webisode 2 about 10 times already. LOVE IT. My thoughts (sorry, they kinda ramble):

Spoiler:

I love Helen's air of confidence and her humor. (Damian Kindler promised and he delivers. "Scone?" and "Don't be ridiculous. Exercise time isn't for another two hours." Heehee.)

Also mentioned before - Helen sitting in that large red chair. That's one sexy 157-year-old! Honestly, the first six times I watched the webisode I was just enjoying the story and the humor. It's just the most recent viewings that I find myself thinking, "Yep, NO trace of Sam in there at all." Not just her accent, but her speaking voice, her carriage and demeanor. I LOVE IT.

Speaking of voices - John Druitt's is just perfect. His, "I love the dark" really sets the tone. Can't wait to see more of him.

It's obvious that the mother-daughter relationship will be an interesting one.

I keep looking for that streak of pink in Helen's hair. I was starting to think that maybe it's there sometimes and not at other times, but I think you just can't see it depending on how her hair falls. The more I see it and think about it, the more I like that streak being there.

Love the old photos of Helen in the bedroom. Looking forward to seeing flashbacks - to any time period, really.

The TWELFTH NIGHT program seems to be an obvious hint left by John Druitt. (It was a performance for Queen Victoria so the timing fits.) Druitt was asking the boy earlier to help him find an old friend. Sounds to me like John and Helen haven't seen each other since that fateful night. Ooooh! Cool! And the writing on the back of the program - A5 S1, if I'm not mistaken. Would that have been a section and seat location?

I wonder what kind of protection the Sanctuary has around it, besides the security system we briefly see outside the gate. I mean, in all this time, why wouldn't Druitt have been able to find Helen?

Oh yeah - Will's fainting spells were hilarious.

[Skydiver]

i do agree

Spoiler:

will's fainting spells were funny....just don't overuse it or it'll get silly

as to druitt not finding helen, i think helen has been hiding from him, likely trying to hide ashley's presence. and he's either looking for ashley or for something else

which might put alexi in the position to be amole, even if he doesn't know it

[Mousie]

Excuse my stupidity but I have just been on the Sanctuary site and am a little confused. I haven't tried downloading any of the webisodes yet and when I go into 'My Library' (where I assume the free ones are) there are 3 versions of Ep 1 and 5 of Ep 2. What is the difference between them?

Is a free webisode a frebisode?

[BruTak]

Ok, from what I understand - and I'm sure someone will correct me if I slip up - low-def versions of the first four webisodes are being posted on YouTube as a taster for the rest of the series.

Items only appear in "My Library" when you've bought them for download.

[RealmOfX]

I have a few questions about Webisode 2 :

Spoiler:

When the two rail guards are searching for the missing guard one of them says "Hey, no one likes working under old city. Too many bad memories." So did some catastrophy happen in the past? Why has two distinctley different parts of the the city developed? Did they build the New City after some trouble and now only the poor and downtrodden stay in Old City?

Spoiler:

How does Ashley drop down so silently behind the guards? When Ashley is talking to Helen towards the end she says "Tall dude, moves faster than me, if that's possible". So does Ashley have special powers? or is she just extremely fit and is supremely confident / over confident of her skills?

Spoiler:

When Will is looking at the photos in the bedroom, who is the wedding photo of and what time period is it from? Tracy Jane are you about? I know you did some research on Victorian clothing, can you pick the era they belong to? I don't think it is Victorian but clothes aren't my thing.

Spoiler:

Is anyone familiar with the play Twelfth Night, it's not one I've read or seen. Could the "A5 S1" be something from the play? Act / scene?

Does anyone have some insight to offer?

[Tracy Jane]

RoX

Spoiler:

Hi, I'm about. I still haven't watched the ep properly, but I was just about to because I think the photo is from about 1912ish. It definitely looks Titanic era-ish. I'm currently writing that chapter of The Curse, you see, so I wanted to check myself.

As for Ashley, Damian said she ages normally but nothing about special abilities. Judging by historical evidence that insanity ran in the maternal side of John Druitt's family, this could present an interesting dilemma for Ashley. If we attribute the insanity (As the show has done) to the powers of the Harvey line (Ann Harvey being Druitt's mother), then we could say that the abnormal gene is a dominant gene that Ashley will have inherited in some form.

This would kind of explain Ashley's speed, strength, skill at being so quiet etc. I also think this would be a fascinating storyline in terms of how Helen would deal with knowing the existance of this inside Ashley.

Perhaps, this is a reason why Ashley is so young... Did Helen find a way to delay/prevent Ashley's birth or somehow put her into "stasis" until she found a way to stop the abnormal DNA overwhelming Ashley like it did Druitt, his sister, his mother, aunt and grandmother?

Sorry... just musing.

Anyway, off to watch the wep for you!

[BruTak]

I'm assuming that the weapons used in Sanctuary - the cop's sidearms, Ashley's pistol etc. - fall under the auspices of "Evil" Kenny Gibbs and his minions in the Props Department?

Are they off the shelf weapons, or custom jobs?

[tagger]

I have a few questions about Webisode 2 :

Spoiler:

When the two rail guards are searching for the missing guard one of them says "Hey, no one likes working under old city. Too many bad memories." So did some catastrophy happen in the past? Why has two distinctley different parts of the the city developed? Did they build the New City after some trouble and now only the poor and downtrodden stay in Old City?

Spoiler:

How does Ashley drop down so silently behind the guards? When Ashley is talking to Helen towards the end she says "Tall dude, moves faster than me, if that's possible". So does Ashley have special powers? or is she just extremely fit and is supremely confident / over confident of her skills?

Spoiler:

Is anyone familiar with the play Twelfth Night, it's not one I've read or seen. Could the "A5 S1" be something from the play? Act / scene?

Does anyone have some insight to offer?

Re: the rail guards:

Spoiler:

In one of Martin Wood's interviews he says the set up is that New City is elitist, technologically advanced, while Old City is a little as you described - poor and downtrodden, technologically behind. The bad memories part I don't know, but I think DK will eventually show us!!

Ashley:

Spoiler:

Don't know how she did that, but it sure was cool! I looked for a rope, but nothing, I like your supah powah theory.

If Ashley is already that edgy with her Mom, she may go AWOL when her mother reveals her dad to her...

12th night:

Spoiler:

Some good theories being generated on the Webisode 2 thread at the sanctuary forums, someone even posted the actual act and scene.

My question:

Spoiler:

Right before Druitt captures the policeman for the boy, his power flash happens. He hasn't traveled, just the flash before he grabs the guy - is the flash the source of his power/ strength/ what? Or maybe I saw the scene wrong...

Overall feeling:

Spoiler:

Loved it. The flashlight effect on Helen and Will in the tunnel was a little funky, but I think these kind of kinks will eventually be worked out.

For me, knowing part of it is CGI just impresses me more, I think the image quality is great, but I have been watching CGI since it's inception, so can appreciate the advances I see each year.

Loved the humor, of course!

I know it has been said before, but I am not in show business, so I don't get to see people invent brand new characters on a regular basis. I am totally impressed with AT's ability to create a completely new person. Besides the accent and voice, the physical presence, her facial expression: all different. Not a hint of Carter. Pretty cool!

Now the interminable wait begins.

[Mousie]

Items only appear in "My Library" when you've bought them for download.

Thanks for that. That is a bit weird though as I haven't tried to buy any.

[BruTak]

Not a problem. Always happy to help.

[Tracy Jane]

Ok, the second photo Will looked at, when he made the comment about Job Lewis.... Job Lewis Smith was the founder of the American Pediatric Society. He lived from 1827-1897 in New York and was possibly the best known American doctor of his time. Lewis Smith argued that "deformity" was due to the emotional state of the mother during pregnancy.

The first photo...

Right... the hat is very typical of 1938. There's a possibility of 1936, but that style of hat was only just coming in in the 1936 fashion season. Perviously, in the 1920s, women tended to wear "cloche" hats and if you go back to 1910s, it was much wider brimmed hats (I had a huge Titanic style brim in my memory... d'uh!).

In terms of the dress itself, the print is fairly typical of the early 1940s, I would say. However, the style of dress is not. The 1930s and 1940s saw a return to figure hugging designs, though if you look at the late 1940s, you could argue that the waistline does, in fact, tally with the typical fashion for slightly older women.

Ok, now the confusing part. The text on the newspaper talks about the Crimean Peninsula and General d'Allembert. I did a search and there was a General d'Alembert heavily involved in the Crimean War, but that ended in the 1850s when Helen was a child.

Odd.

So I looked at other happenings in the area, the most prominent o with was the Russian Civil War which ended in 1922. This is probably our best guess at a date for the photograph, though I'm thoroughly confused as to why it is 1930s/1940s fashion on a 1922 photo.

Unless we're looking at the end of the second world war. It says in the caption that "they expect to reach an agreement within the day". So I'm tempted to go with 1945, and the fact that it was a boat around the Crimean Peninsula is just coincidence.

[BruTak]

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Yalta - as in Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference - in the Crimea?