A "SANCTUARY" IN EARTH PRIME-TIME

For the first hour and fifty minutes of the 'Sanctuary' series premiere, I thought it had a good shot at finding a home on Earth Prime-Time, that main alternate reality in which most TV shows are located. (Those series that can't "play nice", because of something trivial that contradicts established patterns in other shows - like different Presidents of the United States for example - or where everybody is animated or stupid or evil, must be banished to alternate dimensions. Like Earth Prime-Time MOTW, Earth Prime-Time Bartlet, Earth Prime-Time BET, or the Tooniverse or the Evil Mirror Universe.)

So for awhile, it looked like a shoe-in for 'Sanctuary'. I could see working on posts about mermaids in Toobworld, the connection between 'Sanctuary' and GEICO ads, about the two-faced man, and the intriguing possibilities in Dr. Helen Magnus being 157 years old (and having the last name of Magnus as well).

But then I thought it all went to ruin when they revealed the backstory for Dr. Magnus and for John Druitt as well - implying that he was the perpetrator of the Jack the Ripper serial murders.

I can pretty much reconcile the accounts for the White Chapel Murders in Toobworld, as seen on 'Star Trek', 'Babylon 5', 'Timecop', 'The Others', and 'Kung Fu: The Legend Continues'. All it takes is a little dancing about the truth with technobabble. Any TV movies about the Ripper case can be sown among the many alternate TV dimensions. Obviously any appearance in cartoon shows like 'Time Squad' are relegated to the Tooniverse.

So I was a little disappointed that John Druitt was so distinctive, in personality and appearance (as played by Christopher Heyerdahl), because that meant I couldn't claim he was Sebastian (from 'Babylon 5') or Ian Pascoe (from 'TimeCop').

I began formulating other TV dimensions in which I could place 'Sanctuary' and decided upon the same one that houses 'Birds Of Prey' and which seems as though it blends with that part of the movie universe in which the Tim Burton 'Batman' films take place. It has that kind of feel in the architecture and mood of the show. 'Sanctuary' even comes with the location of Grayson Avenue, so I could have made the claim that it was named in honor of that dimension's version of Dick Grayson, Batman's ward (who would be an ancestor to Amanda Grayson, Spock's mother*).

But then I figured I should give the history of Jack the Ripper a cursory look-through because we did see John Druitt kill a prostitute named Molly.

And that's when I realized I could leave 'Sanctuary' in Earth Prime-Time - Jack the Ripper is not on record as ever having killed any prostitutes named Molly.

His five official victims were:

Polly Nichols
Annie Chapman
Elizabeth Stride
Catherine Eddowes
Mary Kelly

Therefore, Druitt was just a copycat and not the original, and so 'Sanctuary' - for the time being - can remain in the main Toobworld.

BCnU!
Toby O'B


BCnU!
Toby O'B

*If 'Sanctuary' did remain in the same TV dimension as 'Birds of Prey', perhaps we could have considered it to be the Evil Mirror Universe, and so this Amanda Grayson would have given birth to the Spock we know who had the Van Dyke beard......