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SciFi and TV Talk [follow link for complete interview]
SCIFI AND TV TALK: Sanctuary Writers' Room - Alan McCullough
by Steve Eramo
In Sanctuary’s second season finale Kali, Part II, our heroes appeared to be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Dr. Helen Magnus’ leadership of the Sanctuary network was challenged when it was revealed that she allowed the most powerful Abnormal on Earth, nicknamed Big Bertha, to remain alive. A clever entrepreneur, Edward Forsythe, had his own plans for the creature, but after one of Magnus’s colleagues, Terrence Wexford, launched an attack on Big Bertha, the Abnormal created a tsunami that threatened to destroy the coast of Mumbai. When the series returned for its third year, it was up to series co-executive producer/writer Alan McCullough to figure out how to save the day when he penned the season opener, Kali, Part III...
Photo of Alan McMcullough courtesy of 2009 Leo Awards
... Having written the season three opener, McCullough was thrilled with the opportunity to bookend his contribution to Sanctuary‘s third year by penning the season finale, Into the Black. “This was another episode where we had to end the year strong but we didn’t have a lot of money,” he says. “We’d spent a fair bit on Normandy and Carentan, both big stories, which will be apparent when you see them. I mean, we built a French street for Normandy on the backlot of our studio just like we did with Mumbai, and it cost a fair bit.
“So when it came time for the finale we needed a strong episode that was going pay off events from the mid-season two-parter. This story is sort of Sanctuary’s take on [the movie] District 9, where we have to contain a group of Abnormals, and Magnus finds herself in a jurisdictional battle with the UN and this private security firm a la Blackwater that wants to seize control of the Abnormals and take over the project from the Sanctuary.
“Once again, there are some great performances in this episode, including some fantastic scenes between Druitt and Magnus, and we also learn that a character we thought was dead is, in fact, alive. The last thing I’ll tell you is that the finale’s cliffhanger is one of the greatest that I’ve been involved with in my career as a Sci-Fi writer,” enthuses McCullough. “I had originally written a much more expensive script that, again, we just didn’t have the money to produce, but Martin Wood came up with some extremely smart producing adjustments that really helped out and enabled us to make this episode.”
Sanctuary returns to Syfy with NEW episodes on April 15, 2011
