The creative brainchild of Damian Kinder, Sanctuary is a Canadian hard science fiction/fantasy televisions series. It originally started as a free internet show in 2007, where Kinder released Sanctuary in a 8 webisode series. It quickly rose in popularity among the online science fiction communities, which lead to an initial 13 episodes per season contract with SyFy. The 2008 premier of Sanctuary commanded the attention of a 3 million person audience, making it the largest watched debut of an original SyFy series since Eureka. The show's third season was extended to 20 episodes, with it being renewed for a 4th in January of 2011

Sanctuary is about the works of the somewhat eccentric, but brilliant Dr. Helen Magnus, played by Amanda Tapping. The Sanctuary is a place where paranormal beings go for safety, or are confined for being too dangerous. While some volunteer, most are hunted down with the focus not on killing, but the safe capture and study of these oddities. This is often made incredibly difficult, and her team is constantly put in serious peril by the more powerfully dangerous abnormals, while having to circumnavigate government interference.

The main core members of Sanctuary are her daughter Ashly (Emilie Ullerup), who's the teams main muscle, Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne), a forensics psychologist who's deductive mental prowess resembles a modern day Sherlock Holmes, and Henry (Ryan Robbins), their main technical expert. They are also ocassionally aided by some of the residents of Sancuatry; including Bigfoot, played by Christopher Heyerdahl.