Abnormal Hooligan

The Great Divide...

2008-03-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

This post is happening courtesy of me remembering, a week or so ago, that I'd predicted new Sanctuary episodes in February, if ever at all. So, being very bored, I cruised past the Sanctuary websites, and, when I finished sniggering, Gateworld.

I hadn't imagined I'd have more to say about Sanctuary, but, it seems that things in the land of Sanctuary-production just go down hill (the vids themselves excluded, as there are no new ones, and the old ones ranged from visually intriguing, and workmanlike down to tolerable, if barely, in terms of plotting, characterization, focus, continuity, etc.), the news gets worse, and Damian Kindler gives interviews of ever more discouraging content.

So... here's my thoughts from last year, and then we'll move on to current developments over at http://alienatedhooligan.blogspot.com/.

.............................................................................................

I tried to be upbeat and positive. Oh, Gods, how I tried.

I wanted so badly to like Sanctuary without reservations. And I tried to make my opinion of it conform to that, but, alas, I could not.

Niggles grew to be concerns, concerns grew to be problems, problems grew to be quandaries, and those quandaries grew to be hard things for my liking to support. But I kept trying.

Until there came an interview...

The trailer for the interview was fair useless in terms of information...

The first part of the interview was as utterly useless as it was incredibly pretentious, but, being me, I promptly wasted my time concocting a written opinion of it:

I may have to change my glasses.

I’ve gotten around to viewing part 1 of the interview with Damian Kindler, and my first reaction is – what a load of self indulgent twaddle.

From the bunny ears to the camping gear (the right stuff that won’t cause lower back pain), it looks to me like some members of the Sanctuary Off Screen Team have wildly compressed the process of production and technical staff seeking equal public/fan time with the on-screen actors. Normally, it takes the behind the scenes folks years to covet the attention of doting fans – but it looks like Sanctuary’s done it in mere months.

Wow. Overachievers!

Unfortunately for me as a viewer and more or less fan, every time I’ve come to note that the Off Screen Team was making more public performances than the actual actors on other shows I’ve liked, it’s been the death knell for quality in that show. There's apparently just something about the attention and/or exposure that seems to be detrimental to the parts of their brains that produce what I call a quality show. I certainly hope Sanctuary won’t go that way, and, given what I see as a drop in the quality of the story telling – concentration put in the boring places and inequitable distribution of characterization – in episode 2, I’m already worried on that front.

My next reaction to the first part of the interview is to wonder why the Sanctuary Off Screen Team seems to want rid of me as a viewer and a paying customer. I can understand why they want rid of me as a fan – it’s not 100% squeeing while fawning over here, and I do draw conclusions on the basis of what I’ve seen so far without waiting for someone to tell me what I ought to think, or that I’m allowed to think, period – but, as a paying customer? Maybe we do it wrong where I work, but we do make a point of trying to keep our customers. We even try to avoid turning them against our products via our own and our company’s actions. We try not to put ourselves out there, representing our product and our connections to our product, while doing things that cast us in a bad light, and our products into that same bad light, by association with our lameness of whatever variety.

And this interview was lame, imo. Lame, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, uninformative, boring, patronizing, self-indulgent twaddle. Lame enough to pretty much make me disinclined to bother with the rest of it.

In other words, since I’m neither a James Graeme nor a Damian Kindler fangurl, I felt this section of an interview was a thorough waste of my time. If I’m going to hear nothing but lame and predictable dreck like this in official communications, especially from cherry picked questions, why do I want to bother with those communications, let alone go to the trouble of listening to them? Maybe if I were fangurling James or Damian, I’d be delighted with the piece, can’t say, and I’m happy for those that are – but… What was the Official (Interning?) FanBoi’s name who let the cat out of the bag about Claudia Black timing her pregnancy to work out well with coming back for season 10 of Stargate long before the Stargate PTB had admitted that she’d been asked to be on the show? The tone of the Insider blog – and especially this video – remind me forcibly of that Stargate Fanboi. And… I’ve been getting frissons of that Joe Mallozzi deals with the fans vibe for a while now from the Sanctuary Official Interactions With The Fans, and this part of an interview gave me that vibe in a form measurable on the Richter scale, on top of the whole waste of time exasperation I experienced with it, too.

Massively unpleasant, embarassing waste of my time.

And then, there came part 2, wherein I parted ways with the status of 'fan' in regards to Sanctuary, probably forever.

“Will is the hero.”

So says Damian Kindler.

Well doesn’t that just line up seamlessly with the adventures and exploits of Helen Magnus, something different, things that can’t be done on television riffs that we heard repeatedly touted back in the beginning? Yup, just like the absolutely overwhelming majority of stuff out there, and especially on television, the hero of Sanctuary is the guy. /gags massively

It’s yet another, for the umptieth time, episode of The Hero Is The Male!

Ye Gods and little fishes, I may just stop supporting this whole endeavor right here and now. What a total example of lack of truth in advertising, bait and switch, completely unpalatable pandering to the adolescent males of all ages all the blurbs, teasers and descriptions of Sanctuary that Stage 3 Media issued turned out to be. They told us Amanda Tapping is starring and the show follows the adventures and exploits of Helen Magnus, 157 year old physician, first female member of the Royal College of physicians, as she studies and tries to help the Abnormals in the world. By the end of installment 8, Helen was a supporting character in terms of screen time and integration into the A plot line. The focus was firmly on the boring Dr. Zimmerman, but then, Damian explained:

‘Will is the hero.’

Not either of the two strong, mysterious women who actually know this world: the hero is the new boy who knows nothing about Sanctuary or its world, but doesn’t let that stop him from throwing his ego around.

Not either of the characters with the fascinating backstory – the 157 year old woman, the off-spring of Jack the Ripper – but the guy with the utterly laughable childhood trauma and the insistence that just being him somehow gives his views some unsurpassable value, him, him the mundane little dime a dozen in daily life stuck up shit. Him. He’s the hero.

Your pardon while I vomit. Would that I could do it all over Stage 3 Media.

I’ve just listened to part 2 of the interview with Damian Kindler, and, I have to say, it was a vast improvement over the self-indulgent twaddle that bloated part 1. Also, certain questions, like why did the Will Zimmerman character get the lion’s share of character development throughout all 8 installments, and how could it be that in installments 5 – 8 Helen Magnus was barely a part of the A story, in this series that was touted as being about her adventures – are, however, now answered.

And the answer is an abomination unto me.

Will is the hero. Damian Kindler said so. Not either of the strong mysterious women who actually know the world of Sancturary – not the character whose exploits and adventures the show supposedly chronicles. Oh, no. The hero is the egocentric guy with the laughable childhood trauma, the vast, perhaps insurmountable, ignorance of this world in which he finds himself, and the refusal to really internalize the idea that he isn’t in Kansas any more.

Oh, how heroic!

Not the ‘Amanda Tapping stars as 157 year old Dr. Helen Magnus, first female member of the Royal College’ yada yada – she’s not playing the hero. Not the ‘Sanctuary follows the adventures of Dr. Helen Magnus’ – Helen isn’t the hero. Nope. Will Zimmerman is. Add to that, after two flawed episodes, people are asking about, and the executive producer and creator is actually considering Will’s sex life! Ye Gods! (Who cares if he has a sex life – certainly not me! Please - imply he’s with Henry and be done with it – Sanctuary can capture the slash viewers and I won’t be faced with some version of that clichéd male fantasy of ‘two hot women, mother and daughter, want the same man’ that I’ve feared ever since someone said both Helen and Ashley were of apparent ages to attract Will’s interest and acted like that kind of a triangle would actually make good drama for Sanctuary. Revolting.) So much for something different, something that couldn’t be done on television – this is nothing but what is seen on television: no matter how fascinating the female characters are, the male character is always the hero, there will be sex, and we gotta get the hero’s sex life goin’. /gag. Sanctuary already has plenty of ‘sex life’ to deal with in terms of Helen’s relationship with Jack the Ripper, and the existence of her daughter to him. More is nothing but pandering – and yes, the pun is deliberate.

Bah.

I now fully expect to discover that Cameron Mitchell is Will Zimmerman’s cousin. And I think the character of Cameron Mitchell is one of the most disgraceful examples of writing ever to deface the collective consciousness of science fiction. Captain Plot Device written by a bunch of self-indulgent, self-gratifying boys hero worshipping the idea of being the Hero. Things like that character and the writers who made him what he is give science fiction, not to mention Stargate, a bad name. Why do I suspect that Will Zimmerman is going to be the character that gives Sanctuary a bad name?

Will Zimmerman looks to be poised to follow right along in Cameron Mitchell’s abominable little cheesy wake. What an incredible development from a production team whose insight, knowledge of the genre and the medium, integrity and shear expertise were repeatedly touted as major reasons to watch Sanctuary.

Watching Sanctuary had already shown me that the show was about the journey of Will Zimmerman, not the adventures and exploits of Helen Magnus – no matter what the press, blurbs, and advertising said. Unlike other fans Damian Kindler’s apparently been hearing from on this subject, this is Not A Good Thing as far as I’m concerned. I don’t like the character of Will Zimmerman. Not at all. All he’s done in two eps is get in the way, and be made into an obstacle between me and my ability to like Sanctuary. The character needs a hard, swift kick in the ass to knock some of his egocentric viewpoints out of him, and a huge reduction in his screen time in order to better integrate all the characters into the story and the flow of telling it.

Will Zimmerman is a viewpoint character with whom the audience is expected to identify, or, lacking that, to like, either for himself or his looks. I find viewpoint characters with whom the audience is meant to identify are very, very rarely more than writer’s conveniences (and/or pets) or personal surrogates, and they’re thoroughly unlikable to me on a regular basis. So far, this is the case with Will Zimmerman. He’s a writer’s device, and, apparently, a pet, if we’re going to worry about his sex life specifically. And, though Robin Dunne is a good enough actor, looking at him is an unappealing task to me. No, I wouldn’t say he’s attractive. Sue me – I wouldn’t bother with him on the basis of his looks in real life, and I see no reason to dote on him because of them in fiction. So, I don’t like the character, and I don’t like looking at him. I certainly have no desire to watch a show where he’s the hero and focus.

I think that the creators of Sanctuary need to wise up and start living up to the blab we heard repeatedly in the beginning about not underestimating the intelligence of the viewers. They’ve been underestimating the intelligence of the viewers ever since we hit ep 5, at least, by assuming those viewers know less about the genre they’re viewing than the creators of the show do, that they’re less educated and resourceful in researching the creators of the show, and that they somehow require a viewpoint character to explain the world of Sanctuary to them and lead them into it. Get over yourselves boys – and girl. Your audience has probably watched and read as much science fiction, fantasy, horror, and gothic works as you have, and, in many cases, they’ve watched, read, and studied vastly more examples than you have. You have everything out here watching, from primary school children through to multi-doctorates, and what they know, collectively, off the tops of their heads is stunning, and what they can come up with in a short span of research is astounding. And they will astound you again and again, in the worst possible way, that – ‘you’ve been shown up by the very people to whom you were condescending’ – way, over and over again unless you step up to the plate and get the same kind of educational experience and researching expertise for your own use that the fans command as a group. Ask around. You’d probably be surprised at the friends of friends who are experts in the damnedest esoteric disciplines and obscure topics, and most of them would be happy to help, gratis, simply for the love of their avocation. And lose the viewpoint character. Quite literally, in my opinion. Having heard y’all had all this expertise in genre tv, it was a thoroughly unpleasant shock to discover that most of that expertise seems to be in aping the clichés of the genre – such as that audiences require a viewpoint character in order to enter a world with its own alternate or sub-reality, that heroes are automatically male, that male characters are automatically more interesting than female characters, that female viewers need only be shown a good looking male actor or a pretty period costume to keep them watching, that trivial matters like continuity, plotting, and logical characterizations can safely be ignored in genre pieces. And the rest of their expertise seemed to be in ignoring the reality of the fan interactions they were courting: science fiction fans are notorious for their elephantine memories and absolute avidity for detail, discussion, speculation, and analysis, and on-line science fiction fans are famed for making off-line fen look as ditzy as the blonde in a thirties formula comedy by comparison. Yet, all things that were said to the on line fans that later proved inconvenient were… conveniently… forgotten. Wait and see was the mantra, and the gurus’ promised amazement has been consistently not appearing. No additional content and/or areas of the website opening up after or for each ep. No gaming. No easter egg functionality on the site. No additional scenes and / or entire eps. A forum where discussion, speculation and analysis had all better be positive, upbeat, and flattering, and egos from another fandom had better be indulged. Blog posts light on information and insight and heavy on condescension and advertisements for future amazement. Okay, but overpriced bits of minor swag. Not at all a good showing from the ‘experts’.

I am just not interested in a show that has Will Zimmerman as a hero. Helen Magnus, yes. Ashley Magnus – most definitely! Will Zimmerman – the chances of me parting with my money for additional episodes of Focus On The Journey of Will Zimmerman (formerly known as Sanctuary) have just gone down, way down – as in, power dived straight for the deck, throttles to the wall, and nobody’s even thinking about pulling the nose up – that kind of down.

I showed up to see what Sanctuary was all about because I’m a fan of Amanda Tapping’s work, and all the blurbs for Sanctuary made it sound like her character was the focus of the show. I’ve been sorely, horrendously and repeatedly disappointed in that aspect of Sanctuary. By the end of installment 8, Magnus seemed more like a fairly minor supporting character there to provide cleavage, legs, something for the mature male viewer in search of sex appeal, and, maybe, a modicum of vaguely medically related visuals, than anything else.

I stayed for all 8 installments solely because I was awed by the work of Emilie Ullerup, and the storyline – and potential story lines – of Ashley Magnus. And, by the end of episode 8, she was looking like a marginalized supporting character who’s there specifically to provide boobs and sex appeal for the males in search of a younger interest, and gunplay / action sequences.

As I’ve said before, elsewhere, the Will Zimmerman character is actually a deterrent to my interest in Sanctuary, and a detriment to my opinion of it. Will Zimmerman gets in the way of my ability to like the show, and the parts of it that focused on him bored the ultimate bejesus out of me.

If he’s going to be treated as the hero of the piece from here on out, I can only imagine that my worst fears for the series will be fulfilled. I do not want to spend more time with Will Zimmerman and I’m now nothing but dubious that I’ll want to spend more time with Sanctuary.

Thanks for bringing me some visuals that really were different, and a couple glimpses of potentially fascinating female characters. No thanks for bringing me yet another predictable piece of genre entertainment, complete with plastic, white, male ego, aka: The Hero Of The Piece.

A few thoughts on the 10 Bells, Whitechapel, and events thereabouts

2007-11-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

One thing I’m still trying to figure out about installment 1 of episode 1 of Sanctuary, is how Helen Magnus found Jack the Ripper outside the 10 Bells. Did he tell her “I’m headed down to the 10 Bells for a pint?” (It’s a working-class pub, and not the sort of place a swell like him would drop in for a drink and expect no one to think anything of it – not his (ex?)fiancée and not the people in the pub. He, and the incident, would be noted, remarked, and remembered. And, in his case, described to the police by the patrons of the pub. Nor would a gentleman tell his upper-class fiancée such a thing to start with – he’d probably be off to his club, if he had to give her any explanation at all. And he might not – since he’s not necessarily living with her, or even seeing her every day.) Did Helen invent a ‘teleportation tracker’? Sheer good, er, just luck? (For her, if not for Molly.) Whitechapel was not 10 meters square, and it was, and still is, a heavily built-up area with closely spaced buildings offering doorways, alleys, et cetera, into which to duck and hide. Add in a night in Victorian London (where the street lights were not that close together in this reality, and pea-soup fog was a common occurrence), and it’s practically miraculous that Helen might find Jack the Ripper by accident.

And there’s that perpetual question – why could she shoot to kill Jack the Ripper for cutting a woman’s throat back in 1888, but not even bring herself to shoot him to incapacitate him when he was menacing her own daughter, despite numerous (some down on their knees kissing her feet and begging her to take them) chances, including Jack the Ripper Druitt pushing his body right against the muzzle of her gun?

Hmm… Maybe an alternate universe Ashley inherited her father’s teleportation abilities, and went back in time to tell Helen where he’d be and when. If those powers were making her insane, too, going back and telling Helen might well have been an attempt to change the past, and destroy Jack the Ripper so he wouldn’t live long enough to destroy Ashley’s own understanding of her life and her world – her whole existence – which was the point where she started down the road that lead to learning those powers, and the insanity that followed. Ashley would essentially create the current version of the world of Sanctuary, in such a scenario… I wonder if she’d try again if this version of the Sanctuary universe lead to the same powers and insanity for her… Hmmm… I feel another fan-fic a comin’ on… /grin

Installment 1 of episode one also showcases some easily overlooked digital effects skills on the part of the Sanctuary team – building, er, building. Here we have the windows of the 10 Bells in a virtual flyby:

This is the public house's sign in the world of Sanctuary:

And here's some extraordinary windows across the way from the 10 Bells, in the world of Sanctuary:

Compare with these shots of the real 10 Bells on these Whitechapel and Jack the Ripper tour sites:

http://www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com/the_route.htm

http://www.geocities.com/basildonmusic/jack/tour/whitechapel/whitechapel.html

And Martin Wheatley's site, here:

http://thump01.pbase.com/u12/mpwheatley/small/3127316.0702DevonLondon417Enhanced.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/mpwheatley/london_england_canon_g2

Same plain windows on the top storey and the windows with two storeys of alternating arched and triangular pediments windows below, and the same pub sign! Obviously, someone’s seen the original before designing the Sanctuary version, and produced a very nice multi-window-paned version of it! Kudos!

And yet… there's some strangeness still lurking. Notice the elaborate panes of the pub windows in the real 10 Bells. Someone actually replicated them in the world of Sanctuary, not only replicated them, but, made them even more elaborate. Nicely done, overachievers! But, in Sanctuary’s London, those elaborated windows are on a building across the street from The 10 Bells!

(One wonders if the work on recreating the real 10 Bells’s windows was completed and too nice to scrap, but someone suddenly realized that a pub that’s open for business might include patrons who’d see the confrontation with Jack the Ripper through those fancy windows, come piling out and spoil the scene. /snort Of course, one then wonders next if they won’t come piling out when they hear Dr. Magnus’s pistol go off, and treat her like a mob finding someone with a bloody corpse on the pavement at her feet in the streets of Whitechapel during the Ripper hysteria /grin: i.e., she’d be lucky to get away with no more than having been beaten to within an inch of her life, and being ripped limb from limb is quite a real possibility. Run, Helen! Stuff the gun back in your reticule, pick up your skirts and run! /chuckle)

Nice building replication folks! Especially considering that it's said that the 10 Bells looks today much as it did in 1888. Kudos!

It's a Honda!

2007-11-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

Aha! Another small mystery of Sanctuary solved.

I could swear that one of the Sanctuary Beta Testers told me, back before the first ep of Sanctuary aired, that Helen and Ashley rode Ducati. But, I could never make the headlights look like Ducati lights in my mind’s eye.

Ashley's bike's main headlights are very rectangular, and the center light is triangular:

Real-life Ducati’s are right out of my realm of experience – my first three cars each cost less than the Ducati they gave away for a promotion for the show “Entourage.” Also, I happen to live in thorough-going Harley country (we have a Harley plant in the vicinity - therefore no surprise that it's Harley country) so there’re no regular opportunities to examine Ducatis in the wild, as it were – thus, I just figured that Ashley’s bike was a couple model years down, and that was why the headlights looked different from the current year models on Ducati.com. And I put the whole issue on hold.

And then, littlebabymonkeyhead over on RocketNation posted her pics of her new CBR, and… boy did that “CBR” logo on her bike look… oddly familiar. That B that looks almost like a D… I’d seen that on Ashley’s bike. So, off I went to pull screenshots. :) Step button in Media Player Classic, here I come. Again. ;)

And yes… there’s that CBR logo in this shot when Ashley’s off monster hunting in installment 5:

(One can also see Ashley handling the clutch? brake? (is her bike customized for her left-handed-ness?) just as they often tell riders to on sport bikes - with two fingers. Makes me wonder where they cadged the bike for Sanctuary, since that little action isn't something that seems likely for a non-riding director is likely to come up with on his own.) And, here ‘on the East Side’ in installment 3, one can even read the “NDA” of the Honda logo on the lower faring with a little color / contrast / zoom help from PhotoShop (it was obscured earlier in the scene and only becomes legible during this sequence):

And there’s that white and blue Icon helmet of Ashley’s, too – forgive me, guys, but, when it comes to Icon helmets, to me, Ashley seems a lot more like the Domain Decay, Perimeter, or Mainframe Skull type, than the Kitty type. /grin

But then again, what do I know? I think Icon's Mainframe Death From Above helmet is absolutely adorable in a 'Shiny Candy-Colored PowerPuff Girls With Skulls For Heads' kind of way (way too cute to be a guy's helmet, imo) - and if I ever rode a red bike on a regular basis, I'd definitely start scheming to acquire one. /grin

Maybe that Kitty helmet is Ashley's girlie side on parade? (Though I can't picture Ashley in the 'cat fight' Icon likes to reference in the marketing verbiage for the Kitty line - unless it's against a were-sabertooth, and even then I'd be feeling rather concerned for the cat. /big grin ) Or is this a case of good... um, guys... wear white hats? /makes 'I hope I don't need to check for sagebrush and rimrock' face, and backs away...

And here're the CBR600's and CBR1000's from the Honda website, with the same CBR logo, and HONDA stencil:

Even the lights match the profile of the lights on Ashley's bike:

It looks like Ashley has a customized color combination on her bike – Black Pearl, with some additional silver fairing.

I wonder if it’s a CBR600 or CBR1000? From the size of the 'font' in the "HONDA" stencil on the lower faring, and the headlights, I'm theorizing1000 (and would Ashley ride the lower-powered bike anyway? /grin ), but, it's only a theory. /grin

Yet More Assets / Promo Shots

2007-11-12T13:30:00.001-08:00

Still more promo shots... including some nice ones of Helen / Amanda Tapping, and Druitt / Christopher Heyerdahl. And I've given up the attempt to make enigmatic thumbnails for each shot - I am apparently enigma-impaired. :)

The two of them throw off some intriguing micro expressions in the frame by frame in their scenes together. Druitt and his storyline really made the pilot for me. (And yet, at the same time, I really do hope that Ashley gets to put a few dozen rounds through him the next time he reappears!)

Still More Assets à la Hooligan

2007-11-11T21:24:00.001-08:00

I don't think Sanctuary is perfect, far from it, admittedly - but I really do like it a lot. :)

Here's still more promo-shot, er... things.

Hmm. Looking at these shots, it's apparent my predilections are showing!

The Ill Effects Of Pulling Screencaps

2007-11-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

One thing that going back through image captures, and pulling new ones, to make logo shots has brought back to me is how... sometimes underwhelming… I regularly found the story lines, continuity and character development, and just overall focus, to be in the first two episodes of Sanctuary.

After the publicity buildup for Sanctuary - in which I was repeatedly told it was something new and innovative and different, something that couldn't be done on broadcast television, the first broadcast quality show developed for the Web, and always meant for the Web where its creators intended it to be a fully immersive experience with extra scenes, extras period, available only on the Web, gaming in the offing, that it starred Amanda Tapping - I was left with the strong impression that the product - the show itself - would be a lot less like episodic broadcast television than it clearly was in its first two eps. Those were pretty thoroughly like episodic broadcast television - even indistinguishable from it in terms of the way the subject matter of the stories is conceived, written, handled and presented.

We have the viewpoint character we’re supposed to relate to, a hoary old standby in the world of broadcast television (especially whenever the people making that television venture into the genre of science fiction), in the person of Dr. Will Zimmerman. One pictures the folks who make broadcast television looking at each other and declaring ‘We’ll have to help the viewers get it! There has to be a way for the viewer to relate to this! They’ll never relate to it themselves! We have to give a way to present a normal viewpoint! They won’t relate to it without a normal viewpoint! We have to give them a character that already has their viewpoint so they can relate to him, and relate to this whole world through him!’ Ye Gods.

Problem is, those viewpoint characters usually come off as twits, who have to have every new development extensively explained to them in the cause of supposedly covert explication (don’t want to confuse any of the slowcoaches in the audience by making them figure out anything for themselves), or prigs, who expect this fantastic world, so unlike their daily existence, in the midst of which they’re now living, to be just like their daily existence, with the same way, mores, etiquette, culture, social structure, respect for the glory that is them, etc., or, worse, that this other world ought to conform to their expectations on all of the above, and, so, they have to have not only each new development explained to them, they have to have everything explained to them repeatedly (don’t want to confuse any new viewers in the audience by making them figure out anything for themselves), and, even worse, they have to pontificate about what they’ve learned (even though they inevitably don’t recognize the same ‘lesson’ in a new form next ep) just as repeatedly. As a longtime science fiction and fantasy reader and fan, I detest viewpoint characters. Just write a real character who’s the way they are because that’s who they are, not because they need to be that way to sell the story / teach the story’s pieces to the audience – that makes them nothing but a marketing device. Plot, marketing, whatever, I hate devices masquerading as characters, and I think their presence is always a bad sign. Unfortunately, Dr. Will Zimmerman looks like a viewpoint character to me, with a ‘teach the story to the audience’ mission, and he seems to be tending toward being a ‘prig’, which means even more explanations / and pontifications than would be required by a viewpoint character of the ‘twit’ persuasion.

Considering that there were also things said about not underestimating the intelligence of the Sanctuary audience in the publicity buildup, it’d be wonderful if Dr. Will Zimmerman would grow a cerebral cortex and spare us the vast majority of the ‘Zimmerman background info dump’, ‘Zimmerman relating to this new world’ and ‘Zimmerman’s reactions inform our understanding of the world of Sanctuary’ writing and scenes. People are purchasing this entertainment, and can re-view it repeatedly, at leisure, if they have questions about what’s been going on in the past, and, thereby form their own understanding of the world in which it occurs, without having to have it explained to them by means of the designated viewpoint character. Sanctuary is more like literature in terms of copies of the series residing in the hands of those who view it, and they have those copies in a format that lends itself to re-watching, investigation, comparison, etc. I wish the folks who make Sanctuary would take that similarity to the function of the written work into account, rather than apparently basing their storytelling, explication methodologies, and press/fandom/marketing interactions and strategies on the model of broadcast television and extensions to that model.

We have the theory of mysteries keep the viewers interested, therefore we won’t tell them much at all about the main characters other than the viewpoint character. Apparently, the folks that make Sanctuary think this will keep the viewers coming back for more. And, it might work, if the viewers like the viewpoint character. However, for viewers like me, who are rubbed the wrong way by Dr. Will Zimmerman, turned off by viewpoint characters, period, find Will Zimmerman’s background and viewpoint jejune, mundane, and uninteresting, who showed up to see one or more of the actors portraying the other leads of the show doing their work, who were beguiled by storytelling that was advertised as different, something we wouldn't see on television, and done by a master of character – it might just drive them away. Frustration is a powerful deterrent to continued interest. I want to know more about Helen and Ashley Magnus and their world, the mission of Sanctuary, what makes that mission important in the world of Sanctuary, etc. But, I only get that info in dribs, drabs, and here and there insights, none of which have proved enough to give me an understanding of the Helen Magnus character as a person, and all of which has made me perceive both Magnus women to have been marginalized as characters. I reiterate: frustration is a powerful deterrent. The Will Zimmerman info dumps in ep 1, and the continuing focus on his character development in episode 2 (one might have thought he was the lead character and Helen and Ashley were just peripheral characters in ep 2) leaves me cold, bored, and not looking forward to more of the same in ensuing episodes.

Indeed, I found that with episode two – The Witches and The Psychologist (with minor mentions of peripheral issues and gratuitous prosthetic makeup and fight scenes – made it seem like another hoary old saw from television had proved to be too strong to be entirely ignored by the makers of Sanctuary: put your toys away after each episode) – I was both thoroughly bored and annoyed with the main story line (if one thinks one would like to do anything Arthurian, first, think again, it’s been done to death, and second, do good research so that your audience doesn’t end up with an enchantress who’s a diminution of a Goddess, creating that same Goddess in the form of a trio of witches – one can explain Shakespeare’s derivation if one needs to, but the above is just nonsensical when one already knows the derivation of Morgan le Fey and the history of the triple Goddess known as the Morrigan - and don't think the audience doesn't know that), and occasionally hilariously amused at Sanctuary’s expense (throughout history the feminine has always strived for balance, Helen? Then… would you please explain your daughter and her actions to me? Or is Ashley not an example of the feminine? \snort - Ashley is sooo an example of the feminine!). Frankly, the writing in episode 2 was a real let down from episode 1. Episode 1 wasn’t precisely stellar, imo, either (serviceable and fairly solid, yes, stellar – hell, no.), and the use of a cliff hanger to end ep 2 / installment 8 came off as egotistical, self-serving, deliberately coy, and more than a little over-confident. Look at us! We’re so clever! Hee hee – we get to save the footage we’ve already filmed, and make you wait at the same time! You’ll just come back for more; we know it! You have to, or you'll never know what happened!

Cliff hangers can turn off just as many viewers as they beguile – more, if they tune in for the resolution and it turns out to be mundane, humdrum, or rushed through to get to other things that end up being less interesting to those viewers. This possibility worries me with regards to Sanctuary because, after all the buildup for the scene when Helen ‘rescues’ Ashley from Druitt, that scene turned out to be short, rushed, illogical, and incomplete. (Either there was more shot, and it was saved for the ‘additional scenes’ up to and including entire episodes, supposedly to become available as some sort of easter eggs on the main Sanctuary web site as part of the ‘new things added every ep’ theory of interactivity that was once touted, or the scene as streamed has some pretty appalling continuity and characterization problems. Since those easter eggs and ‘new things/areas opening up every ep’ are no longer being discussed, I no longer know whether to expect there’ll be more of that scene – and many others – or I should just consign all those scenes and issues to the mental junk heap of poorly executed fiction, and move on).

It appears we have that ‘put your toys away after each ep’ broadcast television maxim in play, too, as seen in the way that the whole issue of Montague John Druitt fades quietly into the background and periphery as if it were old and unimportant news with the end of episode 1. The one time fiancé of Dr. Helen Magnus, father of Ashley Magnus, and always Jack the Ripper, incredibly bloody and brutal serial murderer, has been searching through time and space for his daughter, and there’s no guarantee he’s now dead. In fact, I’d be so shocked it’d require medical attention if he were. All that happened in episode 1, and, by episode 2, which happened long enough later for the Sasquatch butler to have healed from a wound that would have taken a human weeks to get to the point of being up and around, and Ashley’s long cut on her back to have healed without a visible mark of any kind (again, weeks), but, from all indications, nothing has happened on that front to the extent that Helen hasn’t even had a discussion with her kid on the subject. As far as we know, Helen hasn’t even told Ashley, or Dr. Zimmerman, that her dear ex wasn’t a common or garden variety psycho – he’s an overachieving psychopath of the first water: Jack the Ripper. All kinds of questions occur – how did Druitt find Alexei at the Sanctuary, much less get in and out of that camera-ridden place without being seen? And did he take Ashley with him to collect Alexei, and was she conscious when he did it? And how did that play out if she was? How did Ashley come to exist? Is she Helen’s only child and if so, why? How and with what (means, method, etc.) did Helen treat Druitt, and why did it seem to help? Was he playing her even then? If Ashley was created specifically to alleviate Helen’s loneliness, how does Helen feel about her now when she seems to ignore her and her trauma so much of the time in episode 2? How does Ashley feel about her mother after discovering she was engaged to a psycho, and she’s that psycho’s offspring? What did Ashley imagine about her father before she knew about Druitt? What happens to the Helen/Ashley relationship if Ashley Googles “Montague John Druitt” and finds out for herself that he’s Jack the Ripper? What happens if Will Zimmerman, former psychologist to at least one mass murderer in the present day, recognizes the Druitt name and spills his knowledge to Ashley – or lets on to Helen? Did Helen never have any inkling that Druitt was on her trail? Did anyone else, and what happens if they find her, too – and Ashley? Is Ashley avoiding talking to Helen because something happened between her and Druitt – perhaps involving her missing pendant and that upended crate with bits of straw packing scattered around it and a small, black, wooden box(?) still in it that’s under the bottom of the stairs in Druitt’s lair after he’s collected Alexei, but not before he goes off to do so? Did she, perhaps, find out something about herself besides being grabbed by a psycho gives her flashbacks? Like she has some version of her father’s gift, and she thinks she’ll inevitably go mad – or end up an inmate of her mother’s ghoulag? Is Helen waiting for the other shoe to drop and someone in her merry little band of monster-hunting misfits to tumble to the more famous identity of Ashley’s father before talking to her? (Why have two highly acrimonious discussions when you can have one nuclear-detonation-vicious discussion?) Is Helen avoiding talking to Ashley because she rediscovered feelings for Druitt that kept her from shooting him now, when she had no trouble shooting him then? How is that going to affect her, and her opinion of Ashley now, and until Druitt inevitably reappears? Meanwhile, Ashley is very clearly having some massive issues / problems, to the point of flashbacks and what looks like post traumatic stress as a result of discovering dear old dad is a murdering psychopath. The contrast with her mother who doesn’t seem to have a thought to spare for the matter in the face of new and interesting slime to analyze and Crypt Keepers to dissect is striking, and intriguing - what is going on with, and between, those two???? But… the main story line sticks with the Arthurian Witches and their amazing powers of inducing both boredom and snickers in me.

These interesting things and issues left over from ep 1 seem to persist only in the periphery of ep 2. Would that be because we don’t want to confuse the viewers during re-runs? Or would Will Zimmerman not have enough to do in a storyline that pursued the questions and conflicts in the mother / daughter relationship?

Or should I just expect to be bored by the plots of any ensuing Sanctuary episodes as a matter of course? If there’s little to no growth or progress or development in the issues that actually interest me in the world of Sanctuary, or if they continue to be treated as peripheral matters of far less importance than Will Zimmerman’s latest (pop) psychologist-on-the-case interactions with the Abnormal Of The Episode, will I continue to buy the eps and watch them?

The Question Of A Remedy

2007-11-06T18:30:00.000-08:00

Sanctuary fanfic! (Oh, please - you knew it was just a matter of time (and space? :) ).)

A moment with Dr. Helen Magnus and Mr. Montague John Druitt, back in the 1880's. A little foreshadowing, a hint of innuendo, no more. Suitable for kidlets, I suppose.

“…females tend to produce much more stable somatic cells, so we use cells from female embryos for the therapy.”

The smile she cast his way was utterly dazzling, and he blinked after her as she moved around the stone-topped table with its collection of polished glass vessels in fantastical shapes and sizes and combinations. Taffeta petticoats rustled like crisply starched bed linens under the rich, rose wool of her walking suit with her every movement.

“But – I thought you said they were meant to be my cells. How can they be my cells if they come from a female embryo? I mean – unless I know myself a great deal less well than I’ve ever thought I do – “

Helen Magnus – Dr. Helen Magnus – laughed, those fabulously blue eyes dancing in the light of the kerosene lamps, but then the humour fell away and something like reticence replaced it under his surprised gaze.

And was that - a trace of color pinking those high cheekbones? For just that little sally of his?

“Actually – when the embryo is young enough, these cells might be used to treat any person. You see – the cells themselves are neither male nor female, and – “ she began.

“No, no, no! Spare yourself the explanation, Dr. Magnus. It will be wasted effort, I assure you. It’s all too deep for me,” he said, shaking his head with a grin, so that she chuckled and gave him another luminous, dimpled smile.

Montague John Druitt shifted on the ancient oak chest that doubled as both extra storage and… guest… seating in Dr. Magnus’s laboratory. Usually, when he sat there, John Druitt found himself wondering if the medieval chest had come with these medieval cellars in which it currently rested, but this afternoon he found himself at some pains to find a position that would portray a nonchalance he most definitely wasn’t feeling.

“Though, I must confess to some curiosity as to where one might acquire such a thing,” he added, finally settling with one knee up, and his hands wrapped around it.

“’Such a thing’?” she repeated, glancing up from her careful measurements, her golden hair gleaming in the lamp light.

He knew that expression she cast at him – he’d seen it before when some trial produced results exceeding her expectations – and, of late, it had come his way, and more than once, too.

“An embryo,” John explained to distract himself from those blue eyes, and wondering that she had need to wonder. “It’s hardly stock in trade at one’s local chemist.”

“And thus you have your physician herself compounding your prescription for you, sir,” she teased, moving from one exotic glass apparatus to the next.

John Druitt hauled his brows down from his hairline with difficulty. By God – the woman was flirting with him! In very truth she was!

And then he found himself blushing, most pleasantly – a woman entirely unnatural enough to make herself a physician, and yet…

He looked at those shining, golden curls, that slim figure, watched her hold up a flask to the lamplight, eyes an impossible sapphire blue as she considered some swift mental calculation. Such a brilliant physician – as intelligent as she was beautiful, and extraordinarily congenial to boot. She’d already done him a great deal of good. The preparations she had prescribed so far had given him a far greater command of himself in daily situations, and this latest treatment she’d devised and proposed – and was even now compounding – promised the possibility that the side effects of his gift might be permanently alleviated.

And then, with those mental aberrations that so dismayed him a thing of the past, the whole of the world would stretch before him – the whole splendid panorama and reality of it, his to see and know, if he would.

And her in it.

Yes, a most pleasant blush indeed...

More Assets à la Hooligan

2007-11-05T10:09:00.001-08:00

More links to pics with the Sanctuary logo and web address!

Sanctuary Assets (à la Hooligan)

2007-11-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the idea, James! This is fun!

Each thumbnail is a link to the full-sized image. :)

I need more practice making enigmatic thumbnails, though. I hope it's just because I logo'ed all these images, but I can tell what each of them is from the thumbnail.

The Impressive Nature of Direct Renders and the Unsuspected Occurrence of Frame by Frame Viewing

2007-11-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

Okay… now if I can just snicker and type simultaneously, I may get this post finished!

So… I’m supposed to be extra impressed by direct renders from Stage 3 Media’s hard drives? (Sanctuary Insider 10: paragraph about the updates to the Sanctuary Assets Lab) (Stage 3 Media might want to consider giving the actual page a title that mentions "Assets" in addition to "Sanctuary Downloads" though - the first time I clicked the link, I wondered what the dickens was building in the new tab while I stayed in the current one, because the new tab didn't have the same title as the link, or even mention it. Eyebrows were raised before I decided to click into it, wondering if someone had futzed up the link. (I'm not quite paranoid enough myself to think the page had been hacked and hijacked, but, I know some who would - and, unfortunately, they're among the folks I'm trying to persuade to watch Sanctuary.) When I did click into the tab, I discovered the page content had the Sanctuary Assets as a header, but not as a title. Somewhat odd, in my view. But, then again, that's just me.)

I thought that the installments of Sanctuary were themselves rendered directly from Stage 3 Media’s hard drives! Or… were they carefully shipped off to someone else’s hard drives before they were rendered? (So, is it a case of: “Okay, guys – we can’t render this copy because it’s never been on a hard drive that didn’t belong to Stage 3. Put it on a portable drive, take it over to the library, save it on their hard drive, save it back to the portable, and get back over here pronto!”) (Or a case of “Give me a dollar so we can say this hard drive is yours and not Stage 3 Media’s before we render the images, okay?” “Do I get to keep the hard drive?” “No, I give you the dollar back after the images are rendered. That's the standard procedure." "Um, what?”) (\imagines the confused expressions on the techies’ faces :)) Am I supposed to set aside the images captured from the installments as being somehow less… worthy… because they transited servers and my own hard drives? Um, what? :) Especially when these ‘direct renders’ are transiting the www.sanctuaryforall.com servers, too, just like the installments transit the VitalStream servers.

And, BTW, just as a word to the folks at S3M, I always do end up watching the eps frame by frame after I've seen them a few times. (Go ahead and call me weird. You won't be the first, and I don't give the aft end of a rat, so it's quite all right. /chuckle) You see, Media Player Classic’s “Step” button is a wonderfully useful thing, and it comes with the software, so it seems a pity not to take advantage of it. I look for details, really pretty images, process artifacts, et cetera, et cetera - essentially, additional entertainment value out of the installments. (Haven’t found the King of Siam as yet – sorry. :)) Like I said - weird , but, then again, I had every intention of doing exactly so even before I bought the eps, so the behavior comes as no surprise to me, at least. ;)

Just to be certain no on takes this the wrong way: I'm not criticizing the effort or the images, folks. Any effort is appreciated, and, with this extended hiatus, quite frankly, damned necessary, imo, if the folks who make Sanctuary want to keep their audience, let alone grow it. And the images are pretty. That was just… some of the most entertainingly peculiar wording – and assumptions of the behavior of computer users viewing a file on their own computers, in their own software of choice – I’ve happened upon in a long time, on the Sanctuary website, or elsewhere. I obviously don't get out enough. :)

And, yes. Entertainment is always welcome – even unintentional entertainment. And, if these images are supposed to be of interest… Hmm.

Off to use that aforementioned ‘Step’ button, I suspect…

The Importance of it not being all about Ernest

2007-11-04T14:45:00.003-08:00

So, the (new? first? only?) Sanctuary For All, on-line comic / graphic novel is going to be The Importance of Being Ernest?

Oh, boy.

Nice art – very nice. Great, in fact. :)

I’ll have to work pretty hard to muster up two hoots so I have them to give about the project, though, if it’s going to be purely Ernie, and/or concentrate on Ernie’s backstory to the exclusion of the two Magnus women.

Since Ernie’s bleeding from the mouth after having his breast bone punctured by the spikes on a Morningstar, but, a shot of something or another revives him, I already figure he’s Abnormal, or he has a pipeline to some damned unusual pharmaceuticals.

A blow to the breast bone, like that, can interrupt the heart’s rhythm, or even stop it altogether. That would make epinephrine – which can be (and is, says the allergic-to-a-vast-array-of-things Hooligan) administered via a ‘pen’ that looks like Ernie’s – a logical, immediate treatment, in either case. But, if those spikes have penetrated enough to shred the underlying structures, or, the very impact shattered them – and something had to have happened to damage them, or he wouldn’t be bleeding from the mouth – deeper damage and internal bleeding make epinephrine a bad idea, because all the bleeding will happen harder and faster when the epi raises both the pulse rate and the blood pressure.

So, I figure Ernie either heals naturally at warp speed, and he was just speeding up the process even more with the epi (Ernie: the dorkie Wolverine), or the drug plugged the leaks for him (radiator sealant for the bloodstream), as well as regulating his heart, if it needed it.

I already know Ernie’s friends with Ashley Magnus, and Helen Magnus doesn’t like all of his operating methods, besides disparaging and dismissing his intel as ‘worthless’. [Which seems pretty odd to me, as Ernie Watts’ intel was worth about as much as Wexford’s, maybe more, as far as I can tell when I compare them, but, Wexford doesn’t get dissed. I guess Ernie needs to flatter Helen like the fish guy does if he wants a better rep with her.] I guess if the comic advances / enhances those relationships with the Magnus’s – or John Druitt (oh, I do so love to hate that brutal, serial-murdering psychotic Jack the Ripper, not to mention admiring Christopher Heyerdahl’s work!) I might be interested. But, I certainly won’t be if it’s just going to be “The Ernie Info Dump” – aka: “Yet more info about a character who doesn’t interest me.” I realize some of Sanctuary’s executive producers like working with Peter DeLuise, and he is a good actor, but… at this stage, concentrated story attention to a peripheral character doesn’t enrich or enlarge the Sanctuary universe for me – it just fractures it.

We already have one main character who’s gotten the lion’s share of the character development as far as I can see – Will Zimmerman. And he, and that lion’s share of the character development, are not making it any easier for me to see Sanctuary as anything greater than cool visuals combined with the usual clichéd TV storytelling – even though it was billed as being something different, something that couldn’t be done on TV. (Maybe that was just the visuals. Hmm.) I really don’t need to watch The Story Of Will Zimmerman Acclimating To The Amazing New World He Has Discovered, if that's the aspect on which Sanctuary will continue to focus. I’m a science fiction and fantasy fan of decades-long standing, and, I also know the Western Hemisphere was quite well known to the peoples who’d been inhabiting it for generations when Christopher Columbus "Discovered The New World" Egad. You don't have to worry about the explication - honest. Just drop me on into the lives of the established inhabitants of the Sanctuary. I'll figure things out for myself. I’ll do fine – in fact, I’ll do one hell of a lot better than I have been watching so much of Will Learning And Displaying His Unconscious Prejudices.

Helen and Ashley interest me. (Okay, and Steve.) Druitt interests me. Ernie only vaguely interests me, and Will Zimmerman actually disinterests me in all of Sanctuary.

I soooo do not need the folks who make Sanctuary to start concentrating on the next to the least interesting character in the comic book when they’ve spent so much time concentrating on the least interesting character in the series proper.

\hoping the comic has a better storyline than I fear it will…

The Rockstar...

2007-10-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

It's Sanctuary's very own Rockstar!

The one -

The only -

STEVE!

Now, if I could just decide if he's welcoming his fans with open arms - or keeping Will Zimmerman and Henry Foss from gawking at something that's none of their business. ;)

I hope we see more of Steve - it somehow strikes me that he and Ashley are friends. Maybe they grew up together. He'd certainly make a fascinating - and much needed confidant for Ashley Magnus, best ghoul hunter in 5 states...

Thoughts on one little PhotoShop image of Ashley...

2007-10-14T16:45:00.000-07:00

I really like this little pic.

I could blur out more of the induced artifacts, and make it look even more 'sketchlike' - but there's something almost... industrial... about it in this state that I find very appealing.

It's very atmospheric, and/or moody, for me, and I like that. Foreshadowing, perhaps, of how Ashley's encounter with the monster who sired her - I can't say he's her father; fathers are a part of a child's life, Druitt was just the sperm-donor here - will change her from the communicative, lively, bright-eyed, almost impish weapon we first meet to a much darker and harsher being, a weapon that kills to prove it still can; a weapon that rejects anyone who patronizes it, no matter how slightly, no matter who they are - techs, mothers, psychologists; a weapon that's in the process of becoming a real person...

I wonder what kind of person she'll be...

The Helen Meez

2007-10-13T18:51:00.001-07:00

The Helen Magnus Meez...

(Note the unexplained Abnormal behavior of the hair!)

The Ashley Meez

2007-10-13T17:18:00.001-07:00

Like Harlan Ellison, if you leave me all alone for 10 minutes, with nothing with which to amuse myself, I will find something to do, and, sure as shooting, it'll be something... different:

Latest example... The Ashley Magnus Meez:

Where is your helmet, Ashley???

Just because it isn't raining for once in Old City, doesn't mean it's a good idea to ride your bike without it!

The Ashley Magnus Art Fest

2007-10-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Ashley Magnus PhotoShop Art Fest...

(What can I say? She's my favorite Sanctuary character, and we share a name.)

By The Way: The images are links to their own larger versions on PhotoBucket.

I really like this screenshot - not that one can tell, or anything.

It makes great portraits...

In various styles, too.

Even glow in the dark graphics styles. :)

Ghostly Ashley...

Ashley in the cistern. (How did she get in there?)

Girls and some of their favorite toys...

If looks could kill, somebody'd be toast about now...

And their goose would be cooked, now. :)

Lovely screenshot, awful situation...

Looking back...

Unruly Sanctuary Thoughts

2007-10-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of the new Web Series, Sanctuary (variously known as):

Sanctuary
Sanctuary For All
That new thing with Amanda Tapping
Amanda Tapping's a Brunette!
That thing with the cool computer graphics
That weird thing with the monsters and all, that looks like a computer game
The hero's journey of Helen Magnus's protege Will Zimmerman
The occasionally ongoing story of Helen Magnus, ageless terologist
The memoirs of Bigfoot - the Butler Years
Did they just say "Jack the Ripper"?
She did WHAT with JACK THE RIPPER?
Who's the nasty little blonde?
What is that on your monitor?
Abnormal? Is that what you are if you aren't a "Normal" user?
Y'know, there's just not enough Steve in this...
Et Cetera, Et Cetera (in Thailand)

So, I thought I'd do everyone a favor and separate this from the main blog, so those who don't want to indulge in my mini-obsession with Sanctuary won't have to avert their eyes from a proportion of the posts, and those who don't care about the rest of my existence won't have to experience periodic surges of frustration.

A win / win situation. :)

Except, of course, if you're actually looking for the main blog - wow! someone who shares my sense of direction! how cool is that! - that blog's over here.

Fear not - the Abnormality won't stick. Just click the link and everything will be all nice and normal - as it ever gets... ;)