Black screen. Beginning credits appear and disappear onscreen until finished or first interview footage.
MONOTONOUS VOICE
Warning: the following footage is classified information under orders from Doctor Helen Magnus of the Sanctuary Network. Under no circumstances is it to be released, unless under direct order from Dr Magnus. Extensive DNA, personality and proof of identity tests will be undertaken to ensure the identity of any person or persons claiming to be Dr Magnus. In the event of the death of Dr Magnus, two successors will need to authorize any use of this footage. These successors will be selected by Dr Magnus before death, or allocated via her next of kin, or in the event her next of kin is also deceased, the heads of the Sanctuary Network will allocate the successors, however only a unanimous vote will succeed…
OFF-SCREEN VOICE
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. Let's get to the good stuff.
[The sound of a recording being fast-forwarded is heard]
Visual signs of the recording being fast-forwarded match up with the sound above. FADE IN to WILL ZIMMERMAN sitting in his office uncomfortably.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
How would you, uh, describe Dr Helen Magnus?
WILL looks up at a person beyond the camera.
WILL ZIMMERMAN
Describe her?
WILL chuckles.
WILL
Well, do we have a few weeks?
They both chuckle. WILL then looks at the camera.
WILL
How would I describe her? Well, for starters, she's got so many mysteries surrounding her, she might as well be a shadow. Living for nearly 300 years, chronology notwithstanding, does that to you. Uh, what else…
FADE OUT as WILL begins to speak again. FADE IN to KATE FREELANDER walking along the hallway in the UNDERGROUND SANCTUARY.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
Dr Magnus obviously thinks very highly of you, having welcomed you into her home and her work, which is evidently, her life.
KATE FREELANDER shrugs and looks at a person beyond the camera, completely ignoring the camera
.
KATE
Evidently, huh? But really, she's a complete mystery to me. I mean, she's over 200 years old, and that's just cause she went back in time without a deLorean to get her back. Plus she's rubbed elbows with pretty much everyone I ever learned about in history class. What's not to be mysterious? She's not in any of those books, not mentioned by anyone's official records. If I didn't know any better, I'd call her either a liar, or a nutso.
FADE OUT. FADE IN to HENRY FOSS's back. He is sitting at a computer screen in his lab, checking the EM shield, perimeter alarms and other security features.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
How long have you known Dr Magnus?
HENRY glances over.
HENRY FOSS
Uh…let's just say a long time. She picked me up when I was an orphaned kid just wandering around Old City and took me in.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
Did she know about your underlying condition?
HENRY hesitates.
HENRY
My…condition? Oh. Uh, my being a, uh, HAP. I didn't think so at the time, but then again I didn't know I was one. The doc probably figured it out once she'd taken me back to the Sanctuary.
OFF-SCREEN
Why didn't she tell you if she knew then?
HENRY sighs.
HENRY
She was looking out for me. I was a scared, lonely kid and I really couldn't have handled another person telling me I was a freak.
FADE OUT to a black screen.
OFF-SCREEN VOICE
When is the juicy stuff, huh?
FADE IN to JOHN DRUITT standing in the UNDERGROUND SANCTUARY somewhere giving a person beyond the camera an intimidating stare.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
Now, you've known Dr Magnus since before she attended Oxford University in London, is that correct?
JOHN DRUITT
Indeed.
The OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER fumbles with his notes.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
Uh…how would you describe her?
JOHN chuckles.
JOHN
Describe Helen Magnus. My, you do ask the impossible. If I were to attempt, I would tell you that she is a force with which to be reckoned. She is, however, human, and not infallible. No matter how intimidating, invulnerable and strong she makes herself out to be.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
What is the nature of your relationship with her?
JOHN chuckles again, however there is a dark edge to this particular sound.
JOHN
The nature of our relationship. That is an odd phrase. It is not a conventional relationship.
The OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER fumbles with their words realizing JOHN didn't answer the question.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
…um…
FADE OUT. FADE IN to WILL in his office.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
How would you describe her associates? The particular ones that also attended Oxford alongside her.
WILL
Her associates? You mean the Five.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
Yes. Why don't you start with (pauses as though reading the name) Nigel Griffin?
WILL
Well, I've never met Nigel Griffin, but I did have a relationship with his granddaughter.
WILL pauses, as if remembering something. FADE OUT. FADE IN to HENRY in his lab.
HENRY
Uh, Nigel Griffin died about twenty years before I was born, so I have no idea. But if you want to know more about him, ask the doc.
FADE OUT. FADE IN to JOHN.
JOHN
Nigel was the one left out. His ability meant he was suited to different tasks than any of us and that pushed an underlying wedge between him and the rest of us. Not to mention he was the only one that didn't fall in love with Helen at some point. No, he found his own girl in France.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
And Nikola Tesla?
JOHN
Oh, Nikola…he was jealous of the attentions Helen gave to me. He felt that he was more right for her and that he loved her more than I did. We've tried to kill each other in the past, but like cockroaches, we just keep crawling back. I still maintain he stole ideas from Marconi and leeched off Edison.
FADE OUT. FADE IN to WILL in his office.
WILL
Uh…Tesla... He's always got at least one hidden agenda. If you're lucky, only one. But most of the time he's got at least three schemes up his sleeves. Uh, he drinks too much wine, and when he's at the Sanctuary he empties Magnus' wine cellar. But if Magnus really needs him, he'd do anything for her. I think he loves her to the point that if she were to smile, his day would be made. She doesn't feel the same.
FADE OUT. FADE IN to HENRY in his lab.
HENRY
Dr Me-me-me?
HENRY chuckles.
HENRY
Well, he can be a world-class jerk, but, you know discounting all the times he tried to kill the doc, he's got a soft spot for her. I think after a while of spending time with her and her staff, like me, he began to warm up. He did save me from another dimensional predator. But I think that was cause Magnus got mad at him for allowing it to take me in the first place.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
What about Dr James Watson?
HENRY
He was cool. I mean, with the apparatus he built to sustain his life? He built that thing in the late 1800s and it kept him alive til a few years ago. Even with tampering and stuff. Also…he's Sherlock Holmes! Man, that's cool!
FADE OUT. FADE IN to WILL in his office.
WILL
Watson? Uh, I knew him briefly before he died. He was remarkable. His pride was hurt and he felt betrayed when he found out Druitt had killed those prostitutes back in London, and they could barely be in the same room without bringing it up. But there was an underlying brotherhood to them and that's what kept them civil. That and if they argued too much or began to fight, Magnus would hit both of them.
FADE OUT. FADE IN to JOHN.
JOHN
James and I were close before Helen created the formula. We were close afterwards. The only thing that drove us apart was the creature feeding on my rage. I don't believe I am entirely without fault for my actions while under the influence of it, but it was the reason I began murdering. James resented me because I, his confidant, was the killer he was confiding in me about.
JOHN hesitates.
JOHN
James was always the most intelligent of us all. He could see things none of us realized, even before the vampire blood. The formula simply enhanced it.
His voice softens to a whisper.
JOHN
We were like brothers…once.
FADE OUT. FADE IN to NIKOLA TESLA pouring wine into a wine glass in the UNDERGROUND SANCTUARY library.
OFF-SCREEN INTERVIEWER
And John Druitt?
NIKOLA looks up as he brings the glass to his lips and drinks some wine.
NIKOLA
Well, Johnny and I never really got along. We both loved the same woman, and I believed I was better for her than he. Helen chose him over me, and although John is about as tough as I am, our conversations were…insulting. He may be able to manipulate Helen's emotions to his liking, but can he build an entirely new energy source that is pure and…never mind. Could he have outsmarted the holographic map Helen's father gave to her…never mind. Can he…oh, never mind.
FADE OUT. FADE IN to WILL in his office.
WILL
Druitt's a bit harder to explain. He was Jack the Ripper, and once I found that out, it was harder to believe how much Magnus trusted him. I know he had a parasite feeding on his emotions and that's why he killed, but he had that killer instinct. He was dangerous and Magnus knew it. She just chose to ignore it sometimes.
FADE OUT. FADE IN to KATE walking into her room.
KATE
Come on, I barely know the guy. He's scary and dangerous, but Magnus calls the shots. I can't really say anything about him except if I was ever alone with him, I'd get the hell outta there.