Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie Review

The Torchwood has been passed.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 1, 2011

Can anything relevant be gleaned from what font a television series uses for its titles? Probably not, but it’s rather interesting that a glut of relatively recent science fiction outings, especially some with at least some kind of British connection, feature a simple, sans serif font with letters slightly spaced apart. Think Primeval. Or Torchwood. Or, in fact, Sanctuary. The connections between Torchwood and Sanctuary are more than typeface deep, however. Both series feature a main character who’s, well, been around for a while, a character in charge of a rowdy team which interacts with all sorts of strange manner of beasts and creatures. The main differences are that Sanctuary’s lead character is a woman, Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), and the fact that Magnus and her crew are actually attempting to help the monsters rather than dispatch them. Sanctuary rose from the figurative ashes of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, as three of those shows’ creative team matriculated over to Sanctuary, including star Tapping, creator Damian Kindler and producer Martin Wood. Interestingly, despite that pedigree, the series actually began life as a series of webisodes, though those attracted so much attention and positive buzz that an actual series was soon greenlighted and premiered on Syfy in October of 2008. It’s somewhat indicative of the series’ increasing popularity that while its first two seasons were relatively modest thirteen episode runs, its third season, which has recently been released on Blu-ray in a six disc set, consists of twenty episodes. The series’ fourth season has been announced, though it is back to a thirteen episode arc. Sanctuary is notable for its extensive use of green screen technology as well as being shot with the digital RED system. The third season, given its longer collection of episodes, further exploits the possibilities of CGI and delivers an often compelling, usually quite visually captivating, set of stories that are interlinked and create an overall story that slowly develops the series’ central conceit of Magnus helping to rescue and preserve mutants whom she perhaps ironically calls Abnormals.

The opening of the third season of Sanctuary picks right up from the second season’s cliffhanger (cliffhangers are something Wood and Tapping evidently aren’t that fond of based on their commentaries). The opening episode is a great example both of what this series does very well and also how it sometimes falls at least a bit short of the mark. Without divulging too many details for those who aren’t yet acquainted with Sanctuary, the third season starts off with the team dealing with the somewhat humorously named Big Bertha, a malevolent mutant gigantic spider which is wreaking havoc off the coast of India. Big Bertha also has a humanoid avatar in the form of Hindu goddess Kali which is in touch with Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne). The show is spectacularly successful in one green screen sequence especially, when Zimmerman bites the bullet (so to speak) and allows himself to be flatlined so that he can contact Kali after a series of misfortunes has hit the Indian subcontinent. This sequence which plays out in a huge field of flowing golden wheat is visually off the charts, a stunning testament to what is possible now in the world of CGI, even within the confines of relatively modestly budgeted television fare. On the other hand, the scenes with Bertha atop a rocky atoll look like something out of one of those old Gerry Anderson series like Thunderbirds or Space: 1999. This unevenness crops up again and again throughout the series. The episode (along with many others in this season) also has a penchant for the overly melodramatic, with silly dialogue and sometimes ridiculous story turns that may have some less patient viewers sighing heavily.

This season’s best achievement is the long story arc which takes up a great deal of the twenty episodes and which deals with a secret world which Helen is introduced to. Sanctuary does an exceptional job making the Kali subplot the portal by which this long arc is introduced and developed, and the introduction of this aspect contains one of this season’s most patently cool visual effects, when Helen and Will are able to retrieve a couple of old birthday presents Helen’s long missing father gave her years ago, which, when combined, bring to life a holographic recreation of unknown realms. It’s in imaginative, fantasy laden moments like this that Sanctuary really finds its footing and delivers really interesting, compelling entertainment that perfectly blends gorgeous visuals with some outstanding storytelling.

Sanctuary is frequently visually quite audacious, but it manages to maintain a firm foundation in character, at least most of the time. The show tends to be too predictable for its own good at times, with guest star characters who initially seem villainous turning out to have redeeming qualities, while semi-regular Paul McGillion as Terrence Wexford spends too much time plotting against Helen, making him a sort of mutant Snidely Whiplash at times. The show is much better when it concentrates on the interactions between Magnus’ team, something this show in fact shares with Torchwood. It’s the interrelationships between the main characters that, as in Torchwood, gives this show its heart and soul, despite all of the special effects wizardry which surrounds them.

Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sanctuary is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As my colleague Dustin Sumner commented in his reviews of Sanctuary: The Complete First Season and Sanctuary: The Complete Second Season, this is a sometimes oddly bifurcated presentation that looks incredibly sharp and well detailed at one moment and then devolves into a fuzzy softness the next. While practical sets continue to be used in this third season, the glut of CGI in Sanctuary means that the image quality often depends on the quality of the animation itself, and in that regard the series has a really wide disparity in quality. Some shots are incredibly crisp, colorful and bursting with fine detail, while others are relatively soft and ragged looking, perhaps the result of having to churn out so many effects shots over what was a longer than usual season. In terms of the real life actors and the actual sets, fine detail is usually quite excellent, though viewers need to prepare themselves for the shiny smooth ambience that is part and parcel of RED productions. On the whole, Sanctuary is certainly well above average in image quality, though at least at times some persnickety videophiles are going to wish that things were just a tad more consistent over the course of the entire season.

Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season sports a surprisingly robust and effective lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which is really quite impressive a lot of the time. The series is filled with inventive sound effects, and such special effects extravaganzas as the tsunami washing over India in the first episode of the season are accompanied by expert sound design that very artfully utilizes the surround channels to immerse the listener in consistent activity. This soundtrack is full of whooshes, zings, crashes and other great effects which keep the sonic activity at a fairly high level almost all of the time. Fidelity is superb throughout these episodes, and the score by Andrew Lockington is also very well presented here. (I'll be just a little curmudgeonly and point out that the series' theme bears more than a slight resemblance to Tears for Fears' "Mad World"—later remade as the closing credits theme for Donnie Darko—and Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," both tunes which utilize more or less the same changes). Dynamic range is exceptional throughout the series, as we get everything from quiet dialogue scenes to over the top explosive elements, and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is really a fine piece of work for an episodic television series.

Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentaries by Cast and Crew. At least one episode per disc for the five discs containing actual episodes feature commentaries. These are fairly raucous affairs, certainly not recommended for younger children to hear, with participants discussing everything from sex to flatulence (no, I'm not kidding). The participants obviously have a great, joking relationship with each other, and that comes through loud and clear on all of these commentaries. Along the way, a few actual salient points of information do get imparted. My personal favorites were the commenataries for Metamorphosis, which was a fascinating episode filmed more or less entirely from Robin Dunne's character's point of view, and Normandy, which featured an unusual symphonic underscore. The list of commentaries and participants is:
  Kali Part III: Martin Wood, Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne
  Animus: Martin Wood, Robin Dunne
  Breach: Martin Wood, Amanda Tapping, Damian Kindler
  The Hollow Men: Amanda Tapping, Martin Wood, Robin Dunne
  Metamorphosis: Andy Mikita, Robin Dunne
  Normandy: Martin Wood, Amanda Tapping, Damian Kindler
  Out of the Blue: Martin Wood, Amanda Tapping, Damian Kindler
• Extras (HD; 2:02:05). The sixth disc is comprised entirely of supplemental material, including this set of interesting, albeit sometimes rather brief, featurettes. Everything from profiles of crew members, directors and stars to a look at the usually excellent visual effects is included here. The contents are:
  Amanda Tapping Directing "One Night"
  Visual Effects
  Hollow Earth
  Damian Kindler—In the Director's Chair
  The Music of 'Sanctuary'
  Behind the Scenes: "Normandy"
  Character Profile: Jonathon Young/Nikola Tesla
  Sanctuary for Kids
  Blooper Reel
• Deleted Scenes (HD; 31:08). Some of these are literally just a few seconds in length, but there are lots of extra beats here for most of Magnus' team.

Sanctuary: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sanctuary really picked up some significant steam in its third season and delivered what is arguably the most entertaining set of episodes yet in the series' history. The show still has the tendency to get overly melodramatic a lot of the time, and it sometimes expends momentum and creative energy on silly subplots like Wexford's shenanigans, but overall the long arc of this season dealing with the hidden world (I'm trying not to spoil too much for those who haven't yet seen the season and have an interest in it) really reveals the series' greatest strength, which is the often wonderful interplay between Magnus and her team. Though video quality is still slightly variable, an really robust soundtrack and copious supplements help to make up for that, and overall both the series and this Blu-ray set come Recommended.