The Sentinel (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Sentinel is a Canadian-produced television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 series that aired on UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...

 in the United States from 1996 to 1999. It premiered on March 20, 1996, and ran for 65 episodes (three and a half seasons). The series later reaired on Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

.

Plot and characters

Jim Ellison was a US Army Ranger who spent 18 months in the Peruvian jungle after his unit was killed. During this time, he developed hyperactive senses, but managed to repress them when he got back to civilization. However, they came back online five years later, when he did an extended stakeout in the forest as a detective in Cascade, Washington PD's Major Crimes Department. When he goes to the hospital to see a doctor, he finds instead Blair Sandburg, an anthropologist from Rainier University who tells him that he's a Sentinel. In ancient tribes, Sentinels protected the village. For Jim, Cascade is his village. Blair has been studying Sentinel mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

 for years, but he had never before found a person with all five senses enhanced, a true Sentinel.

Blair helps Jim control his senses and joins Jim as a police observer. To the surprise of many people, this unlikely partnership works and together they fight against crime in the streets of Cascade.

Jim's hyperactive senses mean he can see beyond what others see, even in the dark, and with more detail; hear sounds that are farther than normal range or too low for anybody else; sense what nobody else can with taste, touch and smell, in short becoming a walking forensic lab. But Jim's powers have a drawback: if he concentrates too strongly in one sense, he "zones out", becoming too focused to notice his surroundings or perceive anything else besides his target. Part of Blair's job is preventing the zone outs and watching Jim's back when he is focusing.

The only person who knows Jim's secret, apart from Blair, is his captain and friend, Simon Banks, and in the last half season, so does Megan Connor.

Regular

  • Det. Jim Ellison - Richard Burgi
    Richard Burgi
    Richard William Burgi is an American film and television actor. He's best known for the roles of Det. Jim Ellinson on The Sentinel and as Karl Mayer on Desperate Housewives.-Personal life:...

  • Blair Sandburg - Garett Maggart
    Garett Maggart
    Garett Maggart is an American actor. He is the son of fellow actor Brandon Maggart and half brother of singers Fiona Apple and Maude Maggart.- Filmography :* The World According to Garp - Kid in Gym...

  • Capt. Simon Banks - Bruce A. Young
    Bruce A. Young
    Bruce A. Young is an American television, film, and stage actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Capt. Simon Banks in the UPN science fiction police drama The Sentinel. Young had roles in the films Risky Business, Jurassic Park III, The Color of Money, Basic Instinct, Into Temptation,...

  • Lt. Carolyn Plummer - Kelly Curtis
    Kelly Curtis
    Kelly Lee Curtis is an American actress.She was born in Santa Monica, California, the elder child of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh and the sister of actress Jamie Lee Curtis. Kelly Curtis began acting at the age of 27, playing Muffy in John Landis' Trading Places...

     (season 1)

Recurring

  • Megan Connor - Anna Galvin
    Anna Galvin
    Anna Galvin is an Australian actress who appeared as Lex Luthor's assistant, Gina, in Smallville, and as Lavender Eyes in Tin Man. She also played Lady Marion Fitzwalter in the first season of the TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood in 1997.-Filmography:-External links:...

  • Bomb Squad Captain Joel Taggert - Ken Earl
  • Det. Brown - Henri Brown
  • Det. Rafe - Ryf Van Rij

Jim Ellison

Jim Ellison was born with hyperactive senses. During his childhood, he had a friend, Bud who helped him with said senses. Unfortunately, Bud was murdered at some point, one of many cases of trauma in his childhood. His mother also left, leaving him to live with his extremely wealthy father, William Ellison, and his brother, Steven Ellison. Jim's relationship with both characters is notably strained, and leads to both the repression of his senses and his joining the Army.

While in the Army, Jim achieves the rank of Captain in the US Army Rangers, working covert ops. His last mission takes him and his team of seven to Peru to stop a drug-smuggling campaign. Unfortunately, his ranking officer was corrupt and set him and his men up for failure. His helicopter crashes, killing his seven men and leaving him wounded. He is taken in by the Chopec, an elusive and secretive tribe in Peru, and learns to control his senses for the tribe's betterment under the tutelage of Incacha, the tribe's shaman, who calls Jim "Enqueri" ("Sentinel"). The following year, when a satellite photo shows seven tombstones at the helicopter's crash site instead of just a pile of scrap metal, the US Army sends in a team to find the sole survivor of the crash and bring him back home.

When Jim returns to Cascade, Washington, he represses the memories of his time in Peru. Nevertheless, his instincts as a Sentinel remain, leading him to "serve and protect" his "tribe," the residents of Cascade, by joining the police force. Eventually assigned to Vice, he is mentored by Jack Pendergrast, who helps Jim tame his temper and his rebellious attitude. Jim later marries Carolyn Plummer, another detective on the force. Jack then dies, and Carolyn and Jim divorce.

Shortly afterwards, Jim is sent on a solitary stakeout for a week in a remote woodland location, during which his senses start to re-emerge, primarily his sight and hearing. After his return to the city, his enhanced senses fully emerge, leaving him feeling disoriented, 'stressed out' and drugged. He can see, hear, and smell things that no other person could, he can only handle the blandest of foods, and any barely-coarse materials leave him wishing to claw his skin off. He checks himself into a hospital, where he meets Blair Sandburg posing as Doctor McCoy (as it says on the stolen lab coat he wears) or Doctor McKay (as he pronounces it).

During the series Jim falls in love with a handful of women but most of them end up dying in his arms. Several of Jim's old friends from the Army and police force also end up dead during the course of the show.

As a Sentinel Jim has several powers:
  • All 5 senses are strongly enhanced
  • Able to communicate with ghosts
  • Has a spirit animal, a black jaguar
    Jaguar
    The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...

  • Receives visions that guide him in the choices he makes and sometimes predict the future (Jim had a vision that showed Blair's death before Alex killed him)
  • Used the power of his animal spirit to bring Blair back from the dead

Blair Sandburg

Blair Sandburg is the genius son of Naomi Sandburg, an absolute flower child. In his youth, he was all about free love and the hippie spirit, and has yet to stop. Blair had little to no stability in his youth, always moving from home to home and never settling, but that was also what spawned his love of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

.

When Blair was sixteen, he moved to Cascade, Washington to begin his studies. An anthropology major, his advisor was Eli Stoddard, a major expert in the field. As he quickly moved through his education, he took many trips on grants to various parts of the globe. When he finally decided to get his doctorate, he became a teaching fellow. The topic of his dissertation was the Sentinel. This was brought about by a monograph by Sir Richard Francis Burton
Richard Francis Burton
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas as well as his...

 that described both the sentinels and their roles in their respective tribes, and their partners, acutely named by one villain: guides.

At twenty-six, Blair has an 'office' in the basement at Rainier, and an $850 a month, 10000 sq ft (929 m²) warehouse apartment.

During the course of the show Blair has several girlfriends, sometimes dating more than one woman at a time. One of his ex-girlfriend works at Cascade General, which is how he met Jim in the first place: she told him a man with complaints about all five of his senses had recently been admitted.

In Jim's visions Blair's spirit animal is a grey wolf.

Series summary

Jim doesn't believe Blair's explanation about his senses at first. In fact, at their second meeting, Jim throws Blair up against a wall and calls him a 'neo-hippie, witch-doctor punk.' Nevertheless, Jim's senses are a huge problem, as demonstrated when Blair has to shove Jim and himself under an oncoming garbage truck to save Jim from a zone-out. Jim later introduces Blair to Simon Banks, the chief of Major Crimes, and gets Blair a ninety-day observer's pass so that Blair can help with his senses. The excuse to the higher-ups? Blair is (supposedly) Jim's kid cousin, whom he is helping get his doctorate by allowing him to study the police force so he can write a dissertation on the 'thin blue line' and the closed society of the police force.

Soon after, Blair's warehouse apartment is blown up by the drug lab next door, and Jim invites Blair to stay with him at his loft apartment at 852 Prospect Ave., apartment 307. Blair temporarily brings with him Larry the Ape, the subject of a short-term sociology study. Although the arrangement is only meant to last a week, Blair stays for years.

On the job, Jim constantly reminds his wayward 'partner' to stay in the truck, although Blair rarely listens. Also, Blair is often the victim of kidnapping and abuse by various criminals. Blair also steadily serves to complete Jim's paperwork and soothe Jim's temper. The other detectives at Major Crimes think of him fondly, and Blair has many nicknames- 'Chief' from Jim, 'Hairboy' from Rafe and Henri, and 'Sandy' from Megan Connor.

At the end of season three, Blair meets a new sentinel, Ms Alex Barnes (Jeri Ryan
Jeri Ryan
Jeri Lynn Zimmermann Ryan is an American actress best known for her roles as the liberated Borg, Seven of Nine, on Star Trek: Voyager; Tara Cole on Leverage; and Veronica "Ronnie" Cooke on Boston Public. She was also a regular on the science fiction show Dark Skies and the legal drama series...

), and agrees to help her with her senses. Jim has a "nightmare" (actually a vision) about killing Blair, and is haunted by apparent hallucinations (actually more visions) of Barnes' spirit animal, a spotted panther. However, at this point Blair has not told Jim there's a new Sentinel in town, and Jim is confused over the Sentinel instincts he's experiencing. Unsure of what is going on, Jim throws Blair out of the loft. Alex attacks Blair and kills him. After Blair has been proclaimed dead, Jim uses the power of his animal spirit to bring Blair back from the dead. However, he's still haunted by spirit visions of Alex and is unable to control a strange attraction to her, leading to a kiss between them in front of Blair. Jim manages to regain control over his Sentinel urges. Alex, now rendered catatonic after experimenting with a drug meant to increase her sentinel abilities, is confined to a mental institution, and Blair returns to the loft.

The last episode of the series, "'The Sentinel' by Blair Sandburg", shows Blair finally finishing his dissertation. He's promised to allow Jim to read the paper before he turns it in but unfortunately his mother shows up at the loft, snoops on his computer, and e-mails the document to Sid Graham, a bigshot publisher in New York. Sid releases snippets of Blair's Sentinel paper to the press and the general public, who then hound Jim and Blair. To repair his relationship with his friend and fix his wrongdoing, Blair rejects a three million dollar publishing contract at a press conference where he declares his dissertation fraudulent, thus destroying his academic career. At the end of this last episode, Jim and Simon offer Blair a place in Major Crimes as a police officer should he choose to accept it.

Cancellation

The Sentinel was canceled after 3 seasons by UPN, with the last episode being a big cliffhanger with Blair's life in the balance. An intense fan campaign convinced UPN to give the series a further half a season to end the series properly.

DVD release

On April 18, 2006, CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount
Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video founded in late 1975.-History:...

) released The Complete First Season of The Sentinel on DVD in Region 1. It is unknown if the remaining 3 seasons will be released at some point.

International

Outside the US, the series has been broadcasted by the following stations under the following names:
Country Name Translation Station
Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

Ochránce Sentinel TV Nova
Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

Tunnimees The Watchman TV6
TV6 (Estonia)
TV6 Estonia is an entertainment television channel broadcasting to Estonia featuring series, music, fashion and sports. It was launched on 24 March 2008, as all of the current channels are obliged to have digital sister channels at the end of March 2008. On 9 January 2010 TV6 Estonia left...

Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

The Sentinel Vartija Nelonen
Nelonen
Nelonen is a Finnish commercial TV channel. It started out as Helsinki's local television channel PTV in 1989 on the HTV cable network, which name was changed first to PTV4 and then to Nelonen. It started on June 1, 1997. Nelonen, in Finnish, means the glyph of the number four. The channel is...

 and MTV3 Scifi
MTV3 Scifi
-External links:*...

France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

The Sentinel M6
Métropole 6
M6, also known as Metropole television, is the most profitable private national French TV channel and the third most watched television network in the French-speaking world...

Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

Der Sentinel – Im Auge des Jägers The Sentinel - In the eye of the hunter Pro 7
Pro 7
ProSieben is a commercial television station in Germany distributed to a large extent via cable and satellite along with DVB-T in larger population centres. It began operations on January 1, 1989. Since 2003 the station, as part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media, is owned by a group of investors led by...

Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

Άγρυπνος Φρουρός Sleepless Sentinel Mega Channel
Mega Channel
Mega Channel, also known as Mega TV or just Mega, is a major television network in Greece. Teletypos S.A. was founded in 1989 under the name Teletypos Television Programmes S.A...

Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

Sentinel – Az Őrszem The Sentinel TV 2
TV2 (Hungary)
TV2 is a Hungarian commercial television channel operating since 1997, providing a large variety of programming. It is owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG...

Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

סנטינל Sentinel AXN
AXN
AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America...

 Israel
Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

Sentinel Rai Due
Rai Due
Rai 2 is one of the three main television channels broadcast by Italian public television company RAI alongside with Rai 1 and Rai 3. Rai 2 first started transmissions on November 4, 1961...

Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

Sentinels The Sentinel LNT
Latvijas Neatkariga Televizija
LNT is a major private television company in Latvia. It was created in 1996, under the name Pica TV. LNT features shows such as Chuck, Dexter, The O.C. and Nip/Tuck....

Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

The Sentinel ?
Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

TV 2
TV 2 (Norway)
TV 2 is the largest commercial television station in Norway. Over 30% of the time Norwegians spend watching TV is spent watching TV 2. The station has 65% of the market for TV commercials in Norway....

Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

The Sentinel ABC 5
Associated Broadcasting Company
The Associated Broadcasting Company, Inc is a television network in the Philippines, with main broadcast facilities and transmitter located at 762 Quirino Highway, San Bartolome, Novaliches, Quezon City. The network was previously known as the , Associated Broadcasting Company remains the legal...

Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

Gliniarz z dżungli Cop from the jungle AXN
AXN
AXN is a Pay television, cable and satellite television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which was first launched on May 22, 1997. The network is now spread across several regions in the world, including Japan, Europe, other parts of Asia and Latin America...

Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

A Sentinela The Sentinel SIC
Romania Pericol iminent Iminent danger Antena 1
Antena 1
Antena 1 is a Romanian television network, and one of the three top networks in the country with a market share of about 20%. It covers most of the country and it is owned by Dan Voiculescu, who is the founder president of the Conservative Party....

South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

The Sentinel SABC 3
SABC 3
SABC3 is a commercial South African Broadcasting Corporation television channel that carries programming in English and, as of April 2009, Afrikaans....

Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

Sentinel
El Centinela
Sentinel
The Sentinel
Antena 3
Antena 3 (Spain)
Antena 3 is a Spanish terrestrial television channel owned by Antena 3 de Televisión. Some of the more popular programmes broadcast by Antena 3 include Aquí no hay quien viva, El Barco, Los Protegidos, Los Simpson and El Internado....


Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (Spain)
Syfy Universal is a Spanish digital satellite/cable television channel that launched on June 1, 2006 and specializes in science fiction, fantasy, and horror shows and movies...

Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

Spejaren The Scout TV4, TV4 Science Fiction
TV4 Science fiction
TV4 Science fiction is a television channel dedicated to the science fiction genre owned by TV4 AB. When the channel was announced, TV4 said that it would launch simultaneously in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, becoming the first TV4 channel to launched in all four countries. The channel was...

Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

The Sentinel TSI1
United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...

The Sentinel Showtime Arabia
Showtime Arabia
Showtime Arabia, as it was called to distinguish itself from its U.S. counterpart , was a subscription television service in the Middle East and North Africa. It was a joint venture between KIPCO and CBS Corporation , CBS Corp being a minor partner...

United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

The Sentinel Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi channel (United Kingdom)
Syfy is a television channel service specialising in science fiction, fantasy and horror shows and movies. It is available via digital cable, IPTV, satellite television and Top Up TV platforms. The channel launched in 1995 in the UK a sister channel to the US Sci Fi Channel , with a similar...

 and Zone Thriller
Zone Thriller
Zone Thriller was a television channel in Europe that launched on 3 July 2006. The channel aired a number of varying movie styles including psychological dramas and murder mysteries....

Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

El Centinela The Sentinel Radio Caracas Televisión
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