This past Friday while perusing Digg I came upon a story about a web only Sci-Fi series named Sanctuary and the distribution model instantly piqued my interest. As far as media distribution and consumption goes the Internet is still a in its infancy and though we are beginning to see companies dip their to in the water like Apple and Joost the majority of material being released is still in a physical space and format.

Stage 3 has jumped into the fray with what is arguably a very expensive investment of television production quality on an iTunes sales model of $2 per episode or $7 for a pack of four. I’m going to guess that they would have to move 25k units per episode to break even so it is very possible that Stage 3 could see a modicum of success with this venture but the challenge will be to get noticed amongst all the other things clamoring for their audience’s attention. From what I can tell, they are essentially doing it on their own with carefully placed PR and word of mouth with only the backing of a pile of VC.

Enough about the business side, how is the inaugural episode? Well, I purchased a 4-pack sight unseen and have to admit that I really enjoyed it. The editing was tight and the story opened at a brisk pace with fairly crisp dialog that was at times Made for Sci-Fi Channel cheesy but it was overcome by the hook of a mysterious characters that appear to move through time (Victorian London to what appears to be present day NYC) and a lurking horror in the body of a little boy that has quite the hankering for brains. Initially, I was apprehensive of the potential production quality but the show makes ingenious and very creative use of green screen work and CG graphics, painting a decaying city shrouded in darkness and rain, which allows it to appear as if it has a bigger budget than it really does. Overall, they have introduced a story that blends a sort of horror meets science fiction that at once feels like it was a collaboration of Lovecraft and Verne but has been slightly reworked for today’s palate.

In the end, I certainly feel as if I got my money’s worth and am looking very forward to watching each episode as it is released, every two weeks according to their blog, and would recommend it anyone remotely interested in Sci-Fi or horror, especially since the price is right for what they have delivered so far. For more information, check out Sanctuary’s blog or peruse the freebies over at their fan site.