Sanctuary Discussion (Spoilers for the most recent episode)

[Skydiver]

its like...ok, so vampires can regenerate...so druitt needs regular doses of vamp blood so that his body can fix the damage caused by teleporting.

so,for him, maybe it's like a drug. the first dose gave hi the powers, now he needs regular doses to stay sane...but vamps don't seem to be the most altruistic bunch so if he wants the blood, he likely has to take it.

and didn't tesla mention something about a purge?

if the vamps were thinned out to the point of extinction, druitt would have no source for his 'fix it' drug

[helenmagnus23]

I was thinking in Revelation's part 2 Tesla mention's how if Druitt had the pure blood it could rid him of his insanity problem so what i'm thinking is back in victorian era at oxford did Druitt get a full dose or a minor dose of the pure blood ?

The reason i ask is becase Ash has the same gift but the cabal have mutated her dna would her teleporting have the effect on her as it does on Druitt or have the cabal in doing the test's on her solved the problem which could help John ?

What do you think ?

[rderoch]

Maintaining Syfy’s ratings surge, the second season premiere of Sanctuary leaped 18% in Adults 18-49 and 7% in Adults 25-54 versus last year’s average, while grabbing nearly 1.9 million viewers (1.85) on Friday, October 9

Woo Hoo! So proud of our folks.

[RealmOfX]

Oh yeah!! I forgot to post this earlier - Syfy has the Sanctuary crew doing podcasts for each ep now (how on Earth did I forget!!) This is what Jaclyn was talking about the other day on Twitter.


Check the first one out here : http://www.syfy.com/sanctuary/podcasts.php

[the dancer of spaz]

Just watched the Season Two Premier and enjoyed it apart from some rather odd editing tricks i.e. screen splitting. What's that about, eh? Are they jumping on the 24 bandwagon, cos if they are, then it don't bloody work.

Hi, there! Personally, I loved the editing of the season premiere. Can it become a lazy way to evoke suspense if overused? Yeah... But for a premiere that came after a several-month-long hiatus, I think it was appropriate.

I don't think "24" has full ownership of split screens and such. A lot of shows are adopting different editing and shooting techniques these days. From purely a visual standpoint, it was cool to consider how many different ways the scenes had to be shot. I dunno... It was just cool to me.

[majorsal]

Oh yeah!! I forgot to post this earlier - Syfy has the Sanctuary crew doing podcasts for each ep now (how on Earth did I forget!!) This is what Jaclyn was talking about the other day on Twitter.


Check the first one out here : http://www.syfy.com/sanctuary/podcasts.php

now wait... i went to the website, and it's basically commentaries for each ep? so if they do them there, on syfy, then what happens with the dvds? i like them on the dvds.

but i'll listen to this tomorrow.

[EvenstarSRV]

I was thinking in Revelation's part 2 Tesla mention's how if Druitt had the pure blood it could rid him of his insanity problem so what i'm thinking is back in victorian era at oxford did Druitt get a full dose or a minor dose of the pure blood ?

The reason i ask is becase Ash has the same gift but the cabal have mutated her dna would her teleporting have the effect on her as it does on Druitt or have the cabal in doing the test's on her solved the problem which could help John ?

What do you think ?

Oh, that could be interesting. Maybe the teleporting affects Ashley the same way it affects Druitt, but she's also part vampire so she can constantly repair that damage, allowing her to stay in control and not go insane like Druitt.

With Druitt, maybe the treatments Helen gave him while at Oxford were from her blood, since he came after it in the pilot. She's got some vampire blood in her, so it probably works in a similar but slower way, repairing the damage to her body so she doesn't age. If Druitt used the pure stuff, it could do a better job of curing him.

Hi, there! Personally, I loved the editing of the season premiere. Can it become a lazy way to evoke suspense if overused? Yeah... But for a premiere that came after a several-month-long hiatus, I think it was appropriate.

I don't think "24" has full ownership of split screens and such. A lot of shows are adopting different editing and shooting techniques these days. From purely a visual standpoint, it was cool to consider how many different ways the scenes had to be shot. I dunno... It was just cool to me.

I wasn't expecting it, but for the most part I did like the split screens. I think they mostly used it well

Spoiler:

esp the Helen/Druitt conversation, Helen/Kate confrontation, and the transitions to the Cabal lab.

I think it worked in this ep because of the multiple storylines, but I hope they don't regularly use it on the series.

[bossluna]

Oh yeah!! I forgot to post this earlier - Syfy has the Sanctuary crew doing podcasts for each ep now (how on Earth did I forget!!) This is what Jaclyn was talking about the other day on Twitter.


Check the first one out here : http://www.syfy.com/sanctuary/podcasts.php

oh my god! this is hilarious!! I can't stop laughing! I just muted my tv and am listening to them talk. Thanks for the heads up ROX.

[Isolde]

Hi, there! Personally, I loved the editing of the season premiere. Can it become a lazy way to evoke suspense if overused? Yeah... But for a premiere that came after a several-month-long hiatus, I think it was appropriate.

I don't think "24" has full ownership of split screens and such. A lot of shows are adopting different editing and shooting techniques these days. From purely a visual standpoint, it was cool to consider how many different ways the scenes had to be shot. I dunno... It was just cool to me.

You are quite correct when you say 24 does not have exclusive rights to split screening, and it is certainly a technique used to create tension/drama, but I'm still not certain it worked in the manner they wanted it to. Too much will become tedious quickly and detract from the story arc so I'll be thinking about the effects rather than interplay.

Hmmm... That must mean my gnat-like attention span is increasingly worse. Pity there's no disclaimer for viewers with incipient senility.

[Tracy Jane]

I was thinking in Revelation's part 2 Tesla mention's how if Druitt had the pure blood it could rid him of his insanity problem so what i'm thinking is back in victorian era at oxford did Druitt get a full dose or a minor dose of the pure blood ?

The reason i ask is becase Ash has the same gift but the cabal have mutated her dna would her teleporting have the effect on her as it does on Druitt or have the cabal in doing the test's on her solved the problem which could help John ?

What do you think ?

I was under the impression that the Five created a "serum" containing vampire blood / derived from the source blood. Which would essentially mean that the blood sample wasn't pure. That's how I understood it.

Thoughts on the season opener. The first section is not specific and only discusses things others have discussed outside of spoiler tags. But personally, I would be upset to read these things before seeing the show, so I've put them in tags. Do unto others...

The second, however, is more plot specific.

Spoiler:

Overall, I really enjoyed it. A lot more than most of the season one episodes. But there were some niggly bits for me.

Like others have mentioned, the split screen was a little off-putting. At times it worked well, at other times it felt over-done and at others it was just plain annoying. The most jarring split screen event, for me, was with the gun. Hopefully, however, it was just a stylistic thing they did for one episode, a little like the hand-held camera in Instinct.

The Essex thing.... Chelmsford is Essex, right? I seem to remember plenty of fields and greenery outside Chelmsford. Ok, so it's not the first thing I would think of when thinking of Essex, I would also think of cities, towns, industrial areas and so on, but greenery does exist. Though, maybe not as idyllic as in the episode (I certainly haven't seen a landscape in Essex unspoiled by pylons, roads or other such industrial evidence).

I would agree that a British audience, for the mostpart, would not be predisposed to think of Essex as a "green" county, but it was probably the first that came to mind, what with Amanda having been born there.

I think, as well, that we in the UK got different a different title sequence to the US. Someone told me the other day that Robin Dunne was only listed as a guest star in the US one or something, so I presume it was different. That might answer questions about the actor status.

Although I sometimes found Emilie's performance jarring in the webisodes, my only little issue in the series is her accent. I can hear the Danish in it. Now, as a foreign language teacher myself, I will be the first to acknowledge that no non-native speaker of a language can ever be absolutely and wonderfully flawless, but they can get pretty damn close - like Emilie has. And, as such, my issue is more with the writing than the actress. I just wish we had had some line about Ashley moving around growing up, or having spent part of her childhood elsewhere, or having a foreign tutor as a child, something that might just explain away that little trace. Just one comment or one line. I suppose it's very much like I'd love a throwaway comment about Helen's accent to stop the critics (I still think Ashley's comment in Sanctuary For All was wasted. It should have been "A bit like yours, but more British" and Helen could have been slightly affronted, instead of "but more evil").

Spoiler:

Onto the show specific stuff.

Henry's behaviour really annoyed me. I know Henry's the Sanctuary's weak link, that he's a complete prat and he messes up on almost a weekly basis. But really? Would he really have done it? It was just far too contrived for my liking. Granted, I don't know how else they could have done it, but the look on her face and everything else... there's no way he would have fallen for that, no matter how dumb he can be.

Kate bypassing security. I can sort of understand this in a way. I mean, the guys WANT the Cabal to show up so that they can interrogate them, and John's the only other thing they were trying to keep away. Now he's on their side, security can afford to be quite lax. But it would have been nice to have Henry defend that with a "yeah, but we're not really trying" or something similar. I can hardly see, on normal operating duty as we saw last season, anyone penetrating the fortress unwanted and undetected.

Ashley's powers were interesting, I thought. She already had the powers inherited from her father, which according to S1 included her "killer instincts". So they've given her her own as well. The fascinating bit, really, is the fact that they are using the mind control drug. Does this mean that the Cabal have succeeded where Tesla failed? That without the drug, Ashley is now, essentially, an intelligent, autonomous vampire? It will be interesting to see if she's also got any of the other vampire traits, other than the nails and so on. Has she got the invisibility? Or the intelligence of Watson (though currently quelled by the drugs). Endless possibilities.

I don't like the Bigfoot storyline. Again, it feels forced. But, saying that, it looks like that is going to be the way to bring Helen back to the Sanctuary. If he dies, then she may realise that life goes on and she still has her work.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. But little things do niggle me and those are them. It's reassuring to see that people agree with me on some of those issues.

[Tracy Jane]

I was thinking in Revelation's part 2 Tesla mention's how if Druitt had the pure blood it could rid him of his insanity problem so what i'm thinking is back in victorian era at oxford did Druitt get a full dose or a minor dose of the pure blood ?

The reason i ask is becase Ash has the same gift but the cabal have mutated her dna would her teleporting have the effect on her as it does on Druitt or have the cabal in doing the test's on her solved the problem which could help John ?

What do you think ?

I was under the impression that the Five created a "serum" containing vampire blood / derived from the source blood. Which would essentially mean that the blood sample wasn't pure. That's how I understood it. As much as I would love to hope that Ashley has the capacity to go the same way, there's an additional clue in the episode.

Spoiler:

Helen tells John that one doesn't become what he did without a predisposition t murder.

Thoughts on the season opener. The first section is not specific and only discusses things others have discussed outside of spoiler tags. But personally, I would be upset to read these things before seeing the show, so I've put them in tags. Do unto others...

The second, however, is more plot specific.

Spoiler:

Overall, I really enjoyed it. A lot more than most of the season one episodes. But there were some niggly bits for me.

Like others have mentioned, the split screen was a little off-putting. At times it worked well, at other times it felt over-done and at others it was just plain annoying. The most jarring split screen event, for me, was with the gun. Hopefully, however, it was just a stylistic thing they did for one episode, a little like the hand-held camera in Instinct.

The Essex thing.... Chelmsford is Essex, right? I seem to remember plenty of fields and greenery outside Chelmsford. Ok, so it's not the first thing I would think of when thinking of Essex, I would also think of cities, towns, industrial areas and so on, but greenery does exist. Though, maybe not as idyllic as in the episode (I certainly haven't seen a landscape in Essex unspoiled by pylons, roads or other such industrial evidence).

I would agree that a British audience, for the mostpart, would not be predisposed to think of Essex as a "green" county, but it was probably the first that came to mind, what with Amanda having been born there.

I think, as well, that we in the UK got different a different title sequence to the US. Someone told me the other day that Robin Dunne was only listed as a guest star in the US one or something, so I presume it was different. That might answer questions about the actor status.

Although I sometimes found Emilie's performance jarring in the webisodes, my only little issue in the series is her accent. I can hear the Danish in it. Now, as a foreign language teacher myself, I will be the first to acknowledge that no non-native speaker of a language can ever be absolutely and wonderfully flawless, but they can get pretty damn close - like Emilie has. And, as such, my issue is more with the writing than the actress. I just wish we had had some line about Ashley moving around growing up, or having spent part of her childhood elsewhere, or having a foreign tutor as a child, something that might just explain away that little trace. Just one comment or one line. I suppose it's very much like I'd love a throwaway comment about Helen's accent to stop the critics (I still think Ashley's comment in Sanctuary For All was wasted. It should have been "A bit like yours, but more British" and Helen could have been slightly affronted, instead of "but more evil").

Spoiler:

Onto the show specific stuff.

Henry's behaviour really annoyed me. I know Henry's the Sanctuary's weak link, that he's a complete prat and he messes up on almost a weekly basis. But really? Would he really have done it? It was just far too contrived for my liking. Granted, I don't know how else they could have done it, but the look on her face and everything else... there's no way he would have fallen for that, no matter how dumb he can be.

Kate bypassing security. I can sort of understand this in a way. I mean, the guys WANT the Cabal to show up so that they can interrogate them, and John's the only other thing they were trying to keep away. Now he's on their side, security can afford to be quite lax. But it would have been nice to have Henry defend that with a "yeah, but we're not really trying" or something similar. I can hardly see, on normal operating duty as we saw last season, anyone penetrating the fortress unwanted and undetected.

Ashley's powers were interesting, I thought. She already had the powers inherited from her father, which according to S1 included her "killer instincts". So they've given her her own as well. The fascinating bit, really, is the fact that they are using the mind control drug. Does this mean that the Cabal have succeeded where Tesla failed? That without the drug, Ashley is now, essentially, an intelligent, autonomous vampire? It will be interesting to see if she's also got any of the other vampire traits, other than the nails and so on. Has she got the invisibility? Or the intelligence of Watson (though currently quelled by the drugs). Endless possibilities.

I don't like the Bigfoot storyline. Again, it feels forced. But, saying that, it looks like that is going to be the way to bring Helen back to the Sanctuary. If he dies, then she may realise that life goes on and she still has her work.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. But little things do niggle me and those are them. It's reassuring to see that people agree with me on some of those issues.

[Rocky89]

Maintaining Syfy’s ratings surge, the second season premiere of Sanctuary leaped 18% in Adults 18-49 and 7% in Adults 25-54 versus last year’s average, while grabbing nearly 1.9 million viewers (1.85) on Friday, October 9

Woo Hoo! So proud of our folks.

Alright that's great news, the season is off to a really good start.

But where'd you get this info?

Oh yeah!! I forgot to post this earlier - Syfy has the Sanctuary crew doing podcasts for each ep now (how on Earth did I forget!!) This is what Jaclyn was talking about the other day on Twitter.

Check the first one out here : http://www.syfy.com/sanctuary/podcasts.php

now wait... i went to the website, and it's basically commentaries for each ep? so if they do them there, on syfy, then what happens with the dvds? i like them on the dvds.

but i'll listen to this tomorrow.

I wouldn't worry about it Sally, they did this for Scrubs over at NBC. The episode would air, the they'd have the commentaries for the episode on it's website the next day, then they were put on the DVD. So I'm sure they'll do the same thing here.

oh my god! this is hilarious!! I can't stop laughing! I just muted my tv and am listening to them talk. Thanks for the heads up ROX.

Downloaded, and I'll listen to it later.

[rderoch]

Alright that's great news, the season is off to a really good start.

But where'd you get this info?

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/10/12...ond-week/30250

[antoa]

The podcasts will simply be the commentaries on the DVDs. This is what was done for Battlestar Galactica.

[rderoch]

Oh yeah!! I forgot to post this earlier - Syfy has the Sanctuary crew doing podcasts for each ep now (how on Earth did I forget!!) This is what Jaclyn was talking about the other day on Twitter.


Check the first one out here : http://www.syfy.com/sanctuary/podcasts.php

Forced me to fire up my dvr and watch the episode again.