Sanctuary Reviews: “The Depths” and “Sanctuary for None, part one”

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The Space channel put the last three episodes of Sanctuary’s fourth season up on their website at once, so I can now catch up on my reviews. I’ll cover the first two today, including part one of the season finale.

Sanctuary logo“The Depths”

…Or, as I like to call it, “something horrible happens to Magnus and Will episode #24601.”

Seriously, why can’t something bad happen to Magnus and Henry for a change? Or Henry and Biggie?

To be honest, there’s little point in going in to the set up for this episode, as it’s largely irrelevant to the actual plot. All you need know is that Magnus and Will wind up trapped in a cave — Will nursing a bullet wound all the while.

I swear, Will’s like a red shirt from the original Star Trek, except he’s still there the next week.

Will Zimmerman and Helen Magnus (Robin Dunne and Amanda Tapping) in "The Depths"Now, to be fair, “The Depths” did have some very interesting interplay between Magnus and Will, and provided good character development for both of them. I’d say it’s one of the best “something horrible happens to Magnus and Will” episodes to date.

Unfortunately, this fails to fully compensate for the extreme feeling of having seen this episode several times already, so what could have been a great episode is merely a decent one.

There’s also a minor subplot with Henry that provided some good laughs, and even a heartfelt moment or two.

Overall rating: 7.6/10

“Sanctuary for None, part one” (Season finale)

“Sanctuary for None” brings to a head the main arcs of this season. Caleb, leader of the Hollow Earth Abnormal terrorists, has grown weary of fighting, and comes to Helen Magnus in the hopes of finding a peaceful solution. They settle on establishing a new Abnormal civilization on the surface.

But, of course, things are never that simple. This puts Magnus on a collision course with SCIU, the government’s anti-Abnormal division, who will accept no peace that doesn’t come over Caleb’s dead body.

At the same time, Magnus’s support is falling away, with the loyalty of her team mates crumbling and her allies around the world deciding they can’t handle the risk of associating with her.

There are also hints that there’s more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye. Clearly, SCIU knows more than they let on, and I’m not convinced Caleb is telling the full truth, either. Plus, Will keeps suggesting Magnus has some great secret from her century of vacation time at the beginning of the season.

As far as guest stars go, it’s a good news, bad news situation for “Sanctuary for None.” The bad news is Kate. The good news is Tesla. It took approximately ten seconds of time on screen for our favourite electromagnetic vampire to make me burst into laughter.

“Sanctuary for None” is epic and exciting, and doesn’t disappoint as a season finale — and there’s still part two to get to before the season ends.

But there is one problem I have with this episode, and that’s that a lot of it feels rushed. It’s not that I don’t buy that the Abnormals could turn peaceful, or that Magnus would side with them, or that some of her team would refuse to accept her decisions. It’s that I don’t believe it would happen so quickly. All these things happen overnight — sometimes literally, and sometimes faster than that.

Still, I enjoyed it, and the ending brought a revelation I’ve been hoping for since the first season. I cannot wait for the next episode.

Overall rating: 9/10

If you’re looking to get caught up, the first three seasons of Sanctuary are available on my Amazon Affiliate.

Catching Up: The Contest Aftermath, My New (Virtual) Home, and More

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Last post, I caught up with some of my reviewing. Today, I’ll discuss the writing and WoW-related developments that I missed covering during my mini-holiday from blogging.

The contest aftermath:

My finalist story from Blizzard’s writing contest, “The Future of Lordaeron,” went minorly viral, and I got to bask in my fifteen minutes of cyber fame.

The large majority of the feedback has been very positive, and I find that quite gratifying. A number of people have said that they hope the story is made canon, which I think is the highest praise that can be given to fan fiction.

But the story has not been without its controversy. The thread I started about it on the official forums has turned into an epic nerd argument about some of the ideas I put forth in the story, which is still continuing to rage at the time of this writing. I think the very fact that it’s stirred such strong emotions shows there’s some merit to my proposed direction for the plot.

Although to be fair, my own participation in the discussion has done a lot to stir the pot. Not that I’m doing so intentionally or anything…

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Normally, I’d find the experience of bashing my head against the more intractable members of the Alliance fan base frustrating, but in this case, free publicity is free.

Soon, things will die down, though. As I said previously, it’s best to keep this in perspective. As much a thrill as this is, it makes little difference towards my struggles toward success as a writer in the long run. I have a long way to go still.

My new (virtual) home:

My shaman in Vasj'ir after his arrival on his new realmThe holidays brought with them a major change for some of my WoW characters greater than anything I’ve done before.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this here before or not, but in recent times, I’ve grown thoroughly sick of the Horde side of my server. Antonidas is a lovely realm if you wish to play Alliance, but the Horde side is like some lawless western town  — hardly anyone’s there, and those that are tend to be pretty unsavory.

So I finally gathered my courage and ventured into the unknown. I server transferred. The three Horde toons I care about — my mage, my shaman, and my warlock — have moved to one of the larger role-playing servers.

My Blood Elf mage in Mount HyjalI’m sure to some people, this may not seem like a big deal, but I’ve played on Antonidas pretty much exclusively since I joined WoW. To finally leave, if only partially (my Alliance characters are staying put), feels like a big change.

As for why I chose my new server, part of it is just the higher population. No more being forced to do Baradin Hold with tanks in PvP blues because there aren’t any other options.

But partly, my brief vacations to Moon Guard have shown me I prefer the environment of RP servers. Whether or not I will participate in any role-playing myself is at best unclear, but at the very least, it’s a more colourful environment, and I’m among fellow lore fans.

My warlock in OrgimmarIt’s the little touches, like the way there are people in cities that aren’t Orgimmar. Makes the world feel more alive. Or that the players /cheer Nazgrim’s speech on the way to Vashj’ir. Or passing a Blood Elf couple walking the streets of Dalaran in their Sunday best — actually walking, not running.

Hell, even the Trade trolls seem a little more pleasant.