marianne's World of The Sentinel

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History and Background

Plot Summary

After spending years in the Peruvian jungle during his tour in Army Special Forces, Cascade PD Detective James Ellison developed hyperactive senses, which came back to him five years after his return to the US. He can see people in darkened windows at night from two hundred yards, hear the music playing on the radio of the car he's chasing after he's lost sight of it, and can distinguish between wood and plastic after both have been in a three thousand degree fire. Blair Sandburg, a local anthropology student, tells Ellison that he is a "Sentinel," who in ancient tribes would protect the village and seek out game using such hyperactive senses. Sandburg becomes Ellison's back-watcher and teacher of how to use his new powers as Ellison brings a whole new edge to the war on crime in Cascade, Washington.

Still working on this. I never saw a single Episode, but someone of the States has just kindly told me she will send me tapes in NTSC. Yuppie... then I hope I will be able to make the background and History here in this space... I can't wait to recieve the tapes. But I read already over 1200 Sentinel FanFictions, but that does not mean I know the real background as in the episodes.
I loved almost all the fanfics and sure hope to see finally the episodes.
What I know until now is:

The Sentinel [TV-Series: 1996-1999] was created by Pet Fly Productions (Executive Producers Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo). Detective Jim Ellison is a police officer in Cascade, Washington who was a former US Army Ranger, is the only survivor of a covert mission in the jungles of Peru.
As Captain Ellison he is the only survivor of the team of 7 when their helicopter crashed by sabotage it seems.
And during 18 months he survived at the jungle and was with a isolated local tribe called the Chopec, before he was rescued an army rescue party.
After some time leaves the service.
He was also a covert ups.
He enters the Force to become a Cop.
The pilot episode begins five years later after that event, at Cascade PD, where Jim Ellison is now a detective in the Major Crime division.
He regains his senses during an extended and isolated stakeout. What that means is that he has all the five hightened senses. At first Jim thinks he has hallucinations and goes to a hospital but the dctors say that the can find no medical evidence to explain his symptons. While he is there am enfermary there tells a former lover of hers who she knows is interested in heightened senses for his tesis subject of Jim. Blair Sandburg, a grad student at the University of Rainier, working for his PhD of anthropology and a teaching fellow goes to the hospital and in disguise as a Dr. McCay hands Jim a card and tells him that the only one who knows what is happening to him and who can help him is a Blair Sanburg at Rainier.
After some time Jim goes to the university, to meet this Blair Sandburg. He gets raged when he sees that it is the same man as Dr. McCay in that cluttered basement office.
He slams the grad student to the wall and tells him what he thinks at being a potential study subject then lets go and storms out of the office.
Blair follows him quickly and just in time to rescue him to being smashed by a garbage truck, as Jim zoned out on a frisbee. Blair explains that Jim is a Sentinel, a real throwback in reality and sees him as his Holy Grail. He offers to help Jim understand and work to control his senses, in return for a subject for his thesis.
A Sentinel is a Watchman he is something like a lookout who with his heightened senses in the past could call out when he saw enemies approaching from far aw3ay and other things with the adventage of his heightened senses. The Sentinel thery Blair found in some old manuscipts of an explorere called Richard Burton and from some tribes. A ZONE OUT is because a Sentinel can become so focused on using one sense that he becomes oblivious from all the others, leaving him vulnerable to danger. Like when he zoned out on that frisbee at the park and almost got run over by the truck.
A Guide is who is usually with a Sentinel to prevent those zone outs or can bring him back from a zone out.
In this series Blair functions as Jim's Guide and ater both solved the case of the serial bomber in the first episode called Switchman, Jim tells Simon Banks, his friend and captain in Major Crime, about his heightened senses as a secret and Blair accompanies the cop as a ride along as Jim's unofficial partner and gets a batch as police observer to be able to ride along. As disfarce Blair claims that he is working on a thesis about Closed Societies, Like the Police Force.
Jim and Blair become the Major Crime's finest and with the highest resolved rate team.
A friendship developes.

The Executive Producers

Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo

Directed by

Paul Abascal (episode "Spare Parts")
Greg Beeman
Bruce Bilson (II)
Danny Bilson
Scott Brazil
Richard Compton
John J. Connor
William Gereghty
Gail Morgan Hickman
Don Kurt
Michael Lacoe
James Marshall (III)
Scott Paulin
Jeffrey Reiner
Oley Sassone
Gus Trikonis
Timothy Van Patten
Michael Vejar
Tony Westman
Scott Williams (IV)