Genre: Sci-Fi | Mystery | Crime
Air Date/Time: October 7th at 10/9c
Network: Syfy
Creators: Damian Kindler
Director: Martin Wood
Writer: Damian Kindler
In the season opener entitled “Tempus,” Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) pursues Adam Worth (Ian Tracey) back to 1898 London as he attempts to save his daughter. If successful, Magnus knows he will destroy the natural order of history and must stop him from irreparably altering the world’s future at whatever cost.
Sanctuary also stars Robin Dunne as forensic psychiatrist Dr. Will Zimmerman, Ryan Robbins as tech wiz Henry Foss and Christopher Heyerdahl as the sinister John Druitt.
As you can see, one of the benefits of going back in time is that we get to see old friends again, and Dr. Watson (Peter Wingfield) was a terrific character. IMDb lists creator Damian Kindler as the writer on the episode, so there’s no danger of Watson being unrecognizable in the hands of someone new.
On the other hand, as all sci-fi fans know, there are – or more accurately, there can be – issues with time travel. Just like with vampires and werewolves, time travel is something that various authors/shows/games/movies deal with in a variety of ways. They can vary from something as strict as the butterfly effect, that something as tiny as a butterfly fluttering its wings in the Amazon affects things all the way across the world, to the mostly-casual view that Doctor Who and his companions have, that time travel is not a problem except for certain fixed points in time that must not be altered.
After watching this episode, the Sanctuary team seems to take a middle road. I’ll be really interested to see where they take it next week, considering how they left it, which I won’t spoil for you. Sorry. There is still a notable lack of abnormals in this episode, as there were in several episodes last season, but they’re not entirely absent. There is definitely a promise of more abnormals in the future, since reference was made in this episode to the fall of Praxis and what is happening now that the abnormals are leaving Hollow Earth.
I always love timey-wimey storylines, and this show does well when it highlights its steampunk aspects, but I’m really hoping they’ll soon return to the show’s abnormals story-lines and spend less time – see what I did there? – time traveling. Though I wouldn’t be averse to more time spent in the Victorian times WITH the abnormals… There was also a notable lack (read: total absence) of Will, Bigfoot, and Kate (Agam Darshi), and I was startled to see that the new group pic at the opening credits was also missing Kate. Well, we’ll see, and hopefully we WILL see, next week.
Overall a good opening, and a plus for all fans of the Victorian-era Sanctuary. Just please bring back Will, Bigfoot, Kate, and more abnormals soon.
I give Sanctuary Season 4 Episode 1 “Tempus,” Four out of Five Stars.
