Dr. Helen Magnus

Info: For everyone who knows "Stargate" there will be a reunion with many familiar faces at "Sanctuary". Among others, you will meet Kavan Smith (Major Evan Lorne) and Christopher Heyerdal (Todd) from SG Atlantis, as well as Garry Jones (Sergeant Walter Harriman) and Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson) from SG-1.

What it's about
Dr Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping), doctor and scientist (born 1850 in Victorian England) and her daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup) run the "Sanctuary", a refuge for abnormal beings. Together with her protégé Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robert Dunne) and Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins), Helen fights evil and tries to make the world a better place. What is interesting is the fact that Helen Magnus is 157 years old and her comrades-in-arms John Druitt, Nikola Tesla, James Watson and Nigel Griffin are also very old and have special abilities.

Multitasking
Amanda Tapping stars in this series but also directed three episodes of Sanctuary: Veritas (S02E07), One Night (S03E13) and Uprising (S04E02). She was also one of the executive producers of the show!

Interesting to know
Sanctuary started out in 2007 as a series of 15-20 minute webisodes. A television company eventually acquired the series and commissioned 13 episodes for 2008. The series tried to be a low-budget production, but one that had to meet high standards. Since the producers retained their influence over the duration of the series, a demanding series could be made. Since "Sanctuary" was supposed to be an all-Canadian series - filmed, produced and performed in Canada by Canadiens - they looked for a Canadian composer for the soundtrack from the second season on and found him in Andrew Lockington.

Always there for the others
For Amanda, the show was all about giving people a sense of belonging and a safe place, no matter how "abnormal" they might look and act. Because Amanda has relevant, personal experiences with people who have been marginalized - including her own brother - she wanted to bring the spirit of inclusion to the set, trying to make each person feel welcome. She tried to give everyone the same conditions and respect. It didn't matter to her whether the person was cleaning the set, serving the food or producing the series.

English is not just English
Quite a few native English speakers criticized Helen Magnus' accent as a bad British accent. However, this "dirty" accent was deliberately chosen by Amanda because Helen Magnus not only spoke the English of the Victorian era, but due to her longevity was also exposed to the influence of other countries, other languages ​​and other, more modern times and this fact changed her accent accordingly over the years.

Brown instead of blonde
Anyone who had seen Stargate suddenly had to get used to it, because Amanda was suddenly dark-haired here. It was a very conscious choice she made with the coloring and length of her hair. She wanted to ensure that the character of "Helen Magnus" was completely separated from "Sam Carter", not only in character but also visually. However, her little daughter, who missed her mother's blonde hair very much, was unhappy with this decision. By the way, the photo of Helen Magnus with her daughter Ashley that you see in the opening credits is a photo of Amanda with her daughter Olivia.