The Sentinel

The Sentinel is an 65-episodes over four seasons American television. Follows Jim Ellison is a cop with super-heightened senses in the fictional United States Pacific Northwest city of Cascade, and Blair Sandburg an anthropology student who can teach Jim how to use those senses to his advantage. Together, they (live) and fight crime! 
The show is generally considered to be a fairly classic buddy cop fandom, though one with extra added science-fictional and/or mystical canon. The Sentinel also attracted many slash fans because the big hot chemistry between the main characters Jim and Blair, in addition to the canonical connection of both throughout the show and the evolution of their close coexistence.
==Canon Overview==
Jim Ellison was a US Army Ranger who spent 18 months in the Peruvian jungle after the rest of his unit was killed. He developed hyperacute senses from surviving in the wild, but repressed them when he returned to civilization. His sensory abilities re-manifested five years later, while conducting an extended stakeout in the forest as a detective in the Major Crimes Unit of the Cascade, Washington, police department. He went to a hospital for an examination where he met Blair Sandburg, an anthropologist from Rainier University, whom Ellison initially mistook for a physician. Upon hearing Ellison's story, Sandburg declares that Ellison is a "Sentinel": in ancient tribes, Sentinels used their enhanced senses to protect their village. For Jim, Cascade is his village. Blair had been studying Sentinel mythology for years. While he found many individuals with one or two hyperactive senses, 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. Their unlikely partnership works, and together they fight crime in the streets of Cascade. The only person aside from Sandburg who knows Jim's secret is his captain and friend, Simon Banks.
===Characters===
 
* Jim Ellison
* Blair Sandburg
* Simon Banks
* Henri Brown
* Megan Connor
* Carolyn Plummer
* Rafe
* Naomi Sandburg
* Blair's Father
* Steven Ellison
* William Ellison
* Incacha
* Jack Kelso
* Larry (the ape)
* Carolyn Plummer
* Eli Stoddard
* Daryl Banks
* Alex Barnes
* Cassie Welles
==The Fandom==
From a fan in 1997: 
===Awards===
*Cascade Times Awards aka Burton Awards
*Golden Guppy Awards
*Light My Fire Awards
===Conventions===
In terms of conventions, there were two types: the "official" for-profit conventions, including the first all-Sentinel con Sentinel '98, that had actors and writers as guests and the more traditional fan-run convention with fan produced panels and activities. SentiCon was one of these fan-run conventions and ran from 2000-2006, although in later years the convention organizers broadened the convention's focus in an attempt to attract and retain membership. 
There were also informal 'gatherings' held in 1998 and 1999 by Nightowl in which fans would meet at a pre-arranged hotel and rent a party suite. These were also called "house parties," or 'relax-a-cons" and were held in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, where the Sentinel TV show was produced. These more informal gatherings became "A Weekend with The Nightowl" in 2000 and continued until 2003.This evolution and meld of the events can be seen in the way they are referred to: the first "Weekend" in 2000 was referred to as the "4th annual," and the official "Weekend" in 2003 was referred to as the "3rd annual."
* The Bash at the Loft, held in Maryland between 1997 and 2000 
* SentiCon, a fan-run series of Sentinel cons held between 1998 and 2006 in Michigan
* Couver Con, a multi-fandom con with a Sentinel focus, held in October 1998 
* Sentinel '98, official, Pet Fly-approved con held April 3-5, 1998 at the Vancouver Renaissance Hotel
* A Weekend with The Nightowl, 2000-03
* A Fan Odyssey was a Highlander and Sentinel con that took place June 7–9, 2002
===Fan Campaign: Support Our Sentinel===
The Sentinel was cancelled after 3 seasons by UPN, with a last episode ending with Blair's life in the balance. An intense fan campaign Support Our Sentinel (SOS) was a coordinated effort conducted in late 1997 through June 1998 via mailing lists and a SOS website to save the show from permanent cancellation. Ads were placed in industry magazines such as Variety and TV Guide with financing from fans to help garner continued interest in the show, which had been one of UPN's highest rated shows, both in the US and internationally. Fans with websites were urged to put SOS banners on their sites, linking back to the SOS website.
The show suffered from a lack of promotion and badly targeted ads which failed to promote its strengths or its sci-fi/fantasy angle. SOS outlined a detailed plan for fans, set up a mailing list, raised funds, placed ads and successfully convinced UPN to give the series a season of eight episodes to end the series properly -- for which SOS promptly thanked them in ads in the same forums as the previous efforts.
Looking Out For The Sentinel is an article about the successful campaign.
===Pairings and Relationships===
Jim/Blair is by far the most prevalent pairing.
Other pairings are Blair/Rafe, Jim/Other, Blair/Other, Jim/Alex, Simon/Jim, Blair/Megan and Jim/Megan, and Simon/Blair. 
The fandom is split between gen and slash, for the most part amicably; while some gen lists (such as Cascade Times) have strict no-slash policies, a lot of fans are bi-fictional -- possibly because a lot of what was called genfic in Sentinel fandom would have been read as g-rated slash in other fandoms. The earliest Sentinel non-fiction discussion list, Sentries, had a no-slash policy and forbade adult discussion posts with more than a PG-13 rating in the common fandom setup of the time to keep both adult and slash content contained in separate, usually age restricted, forums. 
__TOC__
The now-defunct Guide Posts gen archive included het fic in among its 3,000 stories, but there was no category for it, and how many stories, it's hard to say now. Most of the fic and vids in the fandom is generally focused on Jim and Blair in some fashion, and while canon put them with different women throughout the course of the show, the relationships tended to end in failure. As a result, there's remarkably little het fiction; as of October 2008, the 852 Prospect adult-fiction archive search engine returned only 119 stories containing m/f pairings, out of 6,437 total stories.Search results choosing the warning "m/f" on 852 Prospect, accessed October 10, 2008. The introduction of Megan as a regular on the show resulted in a small following for both Blair/Megan and Jim/Megan, and pages like Megan's Room.
===Tropes and Sentinel-Specific Glossary Terms===
Sentinel fandom developed its own tropes and glossary terms, some of them variations on familiar fanfic themes. See also: :The Sentinel Fandom Glossary.
* Blair as a Cop
* Blair's Compromised Lungs
* Blair's Father
* Blair's Hair
* Blair's Heartbeat
* Blairbabe
* Blairscent
* Blessed Protector
* Guide Voice
* Sentinel and Guide - Note the capital letters. In Sentinel and Guide fic, the terms aren't just descriptions, they're an almost mystical calling, with Jim and Blair destined to find each other and be together. Sometimes they're the only Sentinel and Guide; sometimes it's a societal institution. When it's institutionalized, one is usually higher-class than the other, who may be little more than a slave. The trope appears in both gen and slash fiction, and may or may not include a soul bond. The role of "Guide" stems from episode 7 of the first season, when Blair is referred to as Jim's guide. This trope has become a popular fusion one in other fandoms.
* Sentinel and Guides are Known, closely related to the above, has also widely spread to other fandoms.
 
* Spirit Animals, This one has its roots in the show. Canonically, both Jim and Blair have spirit animals (a black panther and a wolf, respectively). Fanfic plays with that, and with the soul-bonded nature of the pair (again based in canon -- canonically, their spirit animals merged while Jim was saving Blair's life). This is often another soul bond trope.
* Post-TSbyBS (The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg, the series finale) the finale introduced some massive changes to the characters' lives, massive enough that many fans weren't sure how the characters could move forward. So they wrote fanfic. Lots and lots of fanfic. 
* Historical AUs
* The Sandburg Zone - a phrase used to denote the amazing confluence of strange happenings that occur when Blair Sandburg is around -- a kind of shorthand method of saying Murphy's Law applies
* Elves-- Blair Sandburg was frequently written as an elf.
* Bestiality Due to the above-referenced spirit animals, bestiality fics became a part of the fandom, although still relatively rare.
* Shapeshifting Canon has the spirit animals shapeshifting into human form. Some fans extended this to Jim and Blair.
* Domestic discipline (DD) This isn't specific to TS fandom, but it was the first place a lot of fans came across it. It's almost always gen, and consists of a story where one of the men (usually Jim) decides that the other one (usually Blair) isn't capable of running his own life properly, and begins making decisions for him. This is with the second man's consent, in a negotiated situation where the first man has the right to punish the second man for "infractions" of the agreed-upon rules. The stories are based on a RL lifestyle (where, most often, a woman obeys a man who tells her how she should be behaving, and "corrects" her if she fails to live up to his expectations). Despite DD fans' protests that the trope is not a sexual one, and that it has nothing to do with BDSM, it's rare to find a story where the punishment is, say, writing lines; most often in TS fanfic, it's spanking. In a June 2001 update, the Cascade Library site stated in reference to DD: "The Library has chosen to no longer archive stories involving domestic discipline or corporal punishment. For the Library's purposes, domestic discipline/corporal punishment includes relationships involving physical punishment or discipline (spankings, etc.) between two adult characters." 
===Warnings===
As Senad developed a list culture that tried to keep from offending anyone, Sentinel slash fiction developed a growing list of warnings. The trend peaked in late 1999 or early 2000, when during a Senad discussion about warnings -- with many people suggesting things that should be warned for -- one fan asked that people warn for stories where Blair cuts his hair, which she personally found traumatic. The idea was quickly shouted down and the fan withdrew her request, but it was such an extreme one that word spread out to other fandoms, cementing Sentinel fandom's reputation at the time as the most-warned-for fandom ever.
Some comments on the history and context of warnings in "The Sentinel" fandom, with a focus on Blair's hair as a flashpoint: 
 
==Fanworks==
====CDs====
See A Senti-mental Christmas.
====Fanart====
Traditionally, Sentinel fanart has focused on story illustration, with a few artists such as Jean Kluge also creating art for sale. 
 
====Fanvids====
Sentinel fans have been vidding since the first season, but most of the vids are still offline, available only on tape or DVD. Notable producers of Sentinel fanvids include GloRug Productions and Media Cannibals. There is no central source or list of Sentinel vids - either from the VCR or the computer era. In 2007, one fan attempted to encourage more recent vidders to list their vids at the Cascade Library: 
A notable fanvid was Possession by Remi d'Brebant; after premiering at Escapade in 2002, it was featured in Vividcon's "Breaking the Rules" and "Experimental" vidshows, among others, for its use of still shots combined with video, creating what some fans at the Escapade Vid Review panel called a "video painting"Email sent to the Vidder mailing list, March 3, 2002. Accessed October 15, 2008.. It also used a song, "Possession", that at time was strongly associated with another fandom, due South.
* Best Friends Forever by Fatooma92
* Coffee Time by Sally
* My Loverman by oneofaradia
* This Kiss by Diane Williams
* The Man Song by Media Cannibals
* Hippie Boy by Media Cannibals
* The Case of the Birthday Present by Banbury McBurg
* The Geek Chorus by Illuminati Ink and Spirit Guide Productions (The Sentinel and Supernatural songvid collection)
* The Sentinel Music Videos by Lady Dragon
==== Fanzines ====
: See the following categories:
* :Category:Sentinel Gen Zines
* :Category:Sentinel Slash Zines
* :Category:Sentinel Zines for non-fiction zines
* The Sentinel/Fanzines
====Virtual Seasons====
"The Sentinel" fandom has more virtual seasons than any other show.
Gen
*Cascade Virtual Tales by Black Panther Productions (1999-2002)
*Faux Paws Productions Virtual Seasons (1999-2000)
*Novation Productions Virtual Seasons (2002-2004)
*The Sentinel Special Edition Project
 
Slash
*Sentinel Slash Virtual Season by Five Senses (2000-2002?)
*The Sentinel Slash Movies Project by Thin Blue Line Productions (2004-2007) 
* The Sentinel Slash Stories of the Month (2005-2007?)
====Fanfiction====
For pages about individual stories, see :Category:Sentinel Fanfiction. 
While there are many Sentinel print zines, this is a fandom that was born online.
The first Sentinel story posted was by Laura Schomberg and called Sacrifice. It was posted in July 1996. It is a gen story in which Blair worries about finishing his thesis, and then meets Richard Burton's great-granddaughter, Jessie, who offers to help him with this thesis by giving Blair all of Burton's journals and research. The story ends with Blair taking her up on her offer, and moving back in with Jim.
The first season of "The Sentinel" resulted in mainly upbeat stories, matching the tone of the show. One major exception was the slash story The BS Factor by Jen Riddler, which was posted toward the end of the season and which had a much darker tone, and ended on a horrifying note. The reaction on Senad was immediate and shocked, not just because of the story itself, but because Jen had woven it seamlessly into canon, making what at the time were logical assumptions about the characters as they had been seen to date. The story was a plausible explanation for everything that had happened in first season.
 
As "The Sentinel" fandom hit its peak before the advent of Livejournal-based fandom and the popularization of RPS, there is almost no real-person-based fiction in the fandom, with the exception of the mostly unserious Garrettverse.
 
Kristine Williams was a very early and influential Sentinel fan fiction writer, one of the first to have posted her fanworks to the Internet. Her fiction was posted sometime prior to January 1997, which was sometime in the first season.
====Gen Fandom====
Gen fandom as a whole tends to focus in on the friendship and other canon aspects of the characters. There is a subset of the fandom where Jim and Blair are seen as "brothers". It also includes any traditional relationships the characters may have or develop, i.e. a long-term romance with a female character.
One of the influential series in TS gen fandom are the alternate universes created by Susan Foster, in which Dark Sentinels, Dark Guides, and a Guide Development Project (GDP) exist -- and in which Sentinels and Guides are not only known, but studied, controlled, and in some cases, feared due to the presumed/documented primal nature of Sentinels and Guides. The concept of a reality in which Sentinels and Guides are known has since become a staple of the fandom in both gen and slash.
Sentinel gen fandom also became semi-infamous for the proliferation of smarm.
====Slash Fandom====
A fan's comments (2004): 
A fan's comments (2004): 
Some fannish drift:
When a small group of slash fans on Senfic grew too large for the side email loop they'd been using among themselves, two members started up a new slash mailing list, Senad , in late 1996. It was originally for discussion and fic, but by February 1997, there was enough fiction to merit a separate fic list, and on February 16, 1997, Senad's listowner (James Walkswithwind) launched SXF , a companion over-18 list that accepted both het and slash erotica Saved copy of the original email, accessed August 27, 2008.
By 2000, Senad had been handed over to Ann Teitelbaum and developed a list culture that, in many people's opinions, stifled fic discussion (other than praise), and the pressure cooker that resulted caused the nearly simultaneous creation of two new slash-focused lists, both allowing critical discussion of fanfic, albeit to different degrees: SaFicDic and Prospect-L .
This was more fraught than it might sound. At the time, fandoms tended to congregate around one main discussion list (or two, one gen/het and one slash). New lists were generally small and very focused -- on a character, a pairing, a kink, crossovers, etc. -- and generally served as additions to the main list, rather than replacements. Splitting off a main list -- or two -- from Senad was effectively splitting the slash fandom, and there were a lot of arguments both leading up to and after the split about that as well as about fic discussion.
==Fan Comments==
===2000===
===2003===
===2006===
===2007===
===2020===
==Communities & Resources==
===Archives and Websites===
The original gen archive was Guide Posts, which closed down in 2002 when the archivist moved on from the fandom. The secondary gen archive, Cascade Library, started up in 1999 and is still actively adding stories.
The original slash archive started up in 1996. After a long period of inactivity, a backup/interim archive, 852 Prospect, was started, and eventually became the primary adult (accepting both slash and het) archive when server issues took down the defunct original. It has changed hands and moved servers a few times since then, but is still active and accepting submissions. In May 2012, 852 Prospect and the Archive of Our Own jointly announced that 852 would be moving to the AO3 later that year as an active collection to keep it stable, since the standalone archive was difficult to maintain under its old code.
 
Some archives:
* 852 Prospect (slash and het adult)
* Artifact Storage Room 3 (gen, het and slash)
* Cascade Library (gen only)
Personal websites for fanfic and small multi-author archives were common in the late 1990s when Sentinel fandom was in its heyday. Here are some collections of links:
*Sentinel Slash Links - assembled by werecatmoon and updated until 2002
*Slash - The Sentinel, last updated September 15, 2000, listed approximately 155 sites.
*Sentinel Fic Find - LJ Community gathered Geocities links in advance of the site's shutdown.
*The Sentinel Fan Domain - Mystic Retreat Entrance.
*THE SENTINEL DUNGEON Fanfic by Killash
* Brothers in Arms (all ratings and types)
* Wonderful World of Makebelieve (all ratings and types)
* Archive of Our Own (all ratings and types)
* Krewe of Amazonas - Home of Senta Nahll (slash only)
* The Forest (Sentinel Slash Fanfiction)
* Laura's Lair (slash)
*Wolfpup's Den (Sentinel gen fiction, multiple authors)
The Nightowl's Nest: The Sentinel Resource Site has been a resource website since 1997, that collected both show and fandom information in a central location. Often referenced in discussions was its "Canon or Fanon?" page. See: .
Other places to find fic:
* The Sentinel Slash Page (small slash index)
* The Sentinel *Slash* Virtual Season (fan generated episodes)
* Watchmen of the Great City (Sentinel adult fan fiction)
*Radio Free Cascade
See also The Sentinel/Fansites for a longer list of Sentinel fansites and GeoCities/Fansites for a list of Sentinel fansites specifically hosted on GeoCities.
===Rec Sites=== 
See also :Category:Sentinel Websites
* Focus: The Sentinel Fanfiction Review
===Mailing Lists===
See List of Sentinel Mailing Lists.
As a fandom of the 1990s, Sentinel was most active on mailing lists, although it also has a small, active livejournal presence. The fandom also has a long zine tradition, although fewer zines are being published now than in the fandom's heyday.
The original TS mailing list was Senfic , for both gen fiction and discussion.
Another early list was The Raft, a list for "in depth discussions on all sorts of subjects related to The Sentinel -- the characters, the "subtext" of the episodes, series trends, the science and history of the show, fandom and fanfic". It was moderated by Ursula and Kaz, and existed until 1999, when it was succeeded by the Rainier list on Onelist, created by Nightowl in October 1999 until she discontinued it in May 2002, because there was little discussion anymore and the list traffic mostly announcements. However, even before Rainier had been not very active.
===LJ Communities===
Because many fans used to mailing lists were initially wary of LJ and its growing popularity in fandom, and because the activity and popularity of Sentinel fandom itself was waning by the time LJ became one of the fannish online centers, there isn't as big a Sentinel fandom presence on LJ as it used to be on mailing lists.
Possibly the earliest popular Sentinel LJ community was Sentinel Thursday, a weekly flashfiction challenge community, founded in July 2003 by castalie aka. mouse and turps33 aka. Terri in addition to the related archive.
*ts_newsletter (newsletter)
*ts_news (noticeboard)
*sentinelficfind (fic finding)
*ts_talk (discussion)
*sentinel_thurs (flash fic)
*ts_secret_santa (secret santa fic exchange)
=== VHS Tapes and Tape Circles ===
Episodes: During the heyday of TS fandom, 1996-1999, when the show was still running, the only way to get back episodes of the show was fan-made VHS cassettes; several fans would send you the back episodes for the cost of tape and shipping.
Bloopers: The Sentinel had a particularly famous blooper reel, which was also distributed via fannish tape circle. These bloopers featured not only many hilarious outtakes by all cast members, but was particularly known for its slashy vibe. The two main actors near-kissed and flirted a lot, often breaking up laughing during the show's homoerotic scenes or making the show's subtext into text. For instance, in one notable outtake from "Dead Drop," in which Blair and others are trapped in a sabotaged elevator, Richard Burgi abandons his script to ask, "Blair, honey? Is that you? I don't care about the others, let them all die, crushed like little ants, but are you okay?"See Sentinel Bloopers on Youtube, clip posted by rodneyscat. (Accessed 15 August 2009) 
Con tapes: Fans circulated VHS footage of the A Weekend with The Nightowl 1998 and Couver Con 1999 tapes, which contain including hilarious question-and-answer sessions with Richard Burgi and Garett Maggart as well as auctions where the actors auctioned off props (Blair's vest from Switchman, Jim's badge, etc.) for charity. See MegaRed's Sentinel Con 98 Footage.
CPAC Tape -- A ~2 hour Canadian documentary about producing a TV show was made using The Sentinel crew, sets and actors during the production of Foreign Exchange (3rd season). Most of the crew, Danny Bilson, Richard Burgi, Garett Maggart, Bruce A. Young, and Anna Galvin are interviewed.
The Loft Tape: This was a pimping tool, made by slash fans, that edited together all the scenes where Jim and Blair were at home in the loft onto one tape, cutting out the rest of the show.
===Fan Clubs and Charity Auctions===
Sentinel fans, particularly superfan Bert Hayling, also established the The Official Richard Burgi Fan Club.
A fannish charity auction at Moonridge supports the Moonridge Wildlife Park in Garett Maggart's name. 
A scholarship in anthropology was established by fans at the University of British Columbia, where the show shot the university scenes.
==Meta/Further Reading==
* , satirical, "'The opportunities for confusion in fanfic are boundless. It was as I was reading the Cosmo quiz that the solution came to me... So, here, without further ado, is the answer to all my, and I hope your, Sentinel fanfic problems." (not dated)
* Keeping Secrets: What Sentinels and Gay Men Have in Common by Annabelle Leigh (not dated, probably late 1990s)
* , described by "Regina Moore AKA Charlotte Frost" (April 1, 1996)
* (1997)
* , a visit to the set described by "Regina Moore AKA Charlotte Frost" (March 16, 1998)
* It can be done! by The Divine Adoratrice (May 1998)
* Misery Loves Company or WHY Do We Want It Back? (November 1998)
*GARETT MAGGART'S TSbyBS SET INTERVIEW, described by "Regina Moore" (December 1998)
*RICHARD BURGI'S TSbyBS SET INTERVIEWS, described by "Regina Moore" (December 1998)
* This'll hurt you more than it hurts me. by The Divine Adoritrice (March 1999)
* To publish or not to publish. by The Divine Adoratrice (May 1999)
* Ten Things I Hate/Love About TSBYBS by Besterette (August 3, 1999) 
* Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow by The Divine Adoratrice (December 1999)
* , a fan discussion at alt.tv.sentinel (December 1999) 
* * The Friend in Jim (Late 1990s?)
* , caarianna in which many fans explain what they like, and don't like, about the show and its fiction (2005)
* by carodee (September 2005)
* So What's a Real TS Fic? (2006)
* Jane Davitt (2007)
* , presentation about fanon by mab_browne (2013)
* ; archive link with expanded comments, written by Lamardeuse and Misanthrope (2004)
* :Category:Sentinel Meta (lots of essays)
* Jen Riddler's "The BS Factor" (essay)
* The Gratuitously Detailed Episode Guide by Zelempa
* The Women of Cascade, or how a shoot-em-up show about a superhero treats its female characters. by magician113 (2010)
==Notes & References==
===Notes===
===References===
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