Forever Knight

Series Background

1993-1996

Forever Knight chronicles the life of Nick Knight / Nicholas de Brabant (Geraint Wyn Davies), a 13th century vampire living in present day Toronto, Ontario Canada, a modern metropolis.

The problem is, Nick does not want to be a vampire.  Knight seeks to regain his mortality and rid himself of the savage bloodlust that has consumed him for the past 800 years by once again embracing the mortal world. Because he was a knight (read: emissary of the Church) during the Crusades, Nick is not comfortable with the idea of killing people. He has tried to rationalize this by only killing - and drinking the blood of - people that he did not think were deserving of life (murderers, thieves, etc.).   His master, Lucien LaCroix, (Nigel Bennett) through a brutal trick, taught him that this was hypocritical. He now drinks only cow's blood, which he keeps in wine bottles in the fridge.  Still, the search for redemption goes on. 

His "condition" is also a cause of low self-esteem for our "indigenous vampire". He feels that he is inherently evil and therefore not worthy of love or salvation. He has spent centuries trying to find someone who can cure him from the curse of vampirism

In this life, that "someone" is Doctor Natalie Lambert (Cathrine Disher), the chief forensic pathologist for the City of Toronto. They meet when Nick tried to break up a robbery and "someone threw a pipe bomb at him for his trouble". Nick wakes up on Natalie's autopsy table and proceeds to wolf down a bag of blood. Natalie, rather than being afraid of him, decides that she could help him to regain his mortality. She is the only mortal who is aware of his dark secret. Because they work so closely together, the relationship has blossomed into a love, which they dare not consummate. The vampire act requires the taking of blood.  On numerous occasions he has pulled away from her, afraid that he will take too much and accidentally kill her. They insist to everyone who will listen, though, that they are "just friends".

She repeatedly describes his condition as Porphyrism, a severe allergy to sunlight, combined with numerous food allergies.  As the Coroner, she is able cover up vampire attacks when the bodies are discovered.   This makes her a valuable asset to the vampire community and she is more or less under their protection.

Nick met the beautiful vampire, Janette DuCharme, (Deborah Duchene) after returning from the Crusades in 1228.  She seduced him, then turned him over to her master, Lucien LaCroix to make him a vampire (bring him across).   She is another of LaCroix's "children", brought across in about the year 1000.  Through the centuries, Nick and Janette have been companions, lovers, and even lived as husband and wife for 97 years during the Renaissance.  Now their relationship is friendly, if not complicated. In this lifetime, she owns a nightclub, The Raven. This is a meeting place for both vampires and mortals, although the human patrons are not aware of their companions' dark secrets. Nick comes here often to see Janette, for both personal and professional reasons.

He takes his first steps toward reentering the world of the living by joining the city's police force.  Serving as a homicide detective permanently assigned to the night shift, Nick sets out to clean up the crime ridden city.  He is assisted by Donald G. Schanke (John Kapolos).  Schanke is a street wise but personable cop.  Unfortunately, one of his basic passions is for Souvlaki, a Greek sandwich heavily laced with garlic.  He has no idea that his partner is a vampire, even though they are the best of friends.

For the first season, they are assigned to the 27th precinct, with Joe Stonetree (Gary Farmer) as their Captain. 

For the second, they are transferred to the 96th precinct.  Amanda Cohen (Natsuko Omaha) is their chief.

In the third season opener, Schanke and Cohen are killed in an airplane bombing.  Tracy Vetter (Lisa Ryder), an attractive 25 year old by-the-book cop, and incidentally, the Commissioner's daughter, is paired with Nick.  Joe Reese (Blu Mankuma) becomes their new Captain.

Janette, meanwhile, has left Toronto.  She feels that she had been strongly influenced by Nick's search for mortality and must find some meaning to her life. (unlife).  In Montreal, she meets Robert (David Keeley), a mortal, whom she falls in love with.  By some miracle, they are able to make love without harming each other.  Janette claims that because of their love, she was able to take only a small amount of his blood to complete the act.  When he is murdered, she tries to bring him across, but is unable to do so because she is now mortal as well.  She theorizes that it is also because of their love that she is "cured".  She returns to Toronto and finds his killers, but they kill her too. (Although some argue that Nick brought her back across, and that she is now in Paris.)

Tortured by his past, Nick begins to distance himself from the vampire community as he slowly rediscovers his mortal thoughts and feelings.   Some in the community though, are not pleased by his flight from the shadows.  

Most notable is Lucien LaCroix his "master" and the one who gave Nick his immortality.  He wants his "son" to return to "his true nature".  Over the centuries, LaCroix has bullied Nick, tortured him, eliminated or disgraced any mortals that he has become close to, and in general, made Nick's life (Or is that unlife) a living hell.  All in the name of love.  He claims he is allowed to do this because of a pact that he and Nick made when LaCroix fell in love with Nick's mortal sister, Fleur (Claire Rankin).  LaCroix could take any woman Nick fell in love with in exchange for not bringing Fleur across.

Javier Vachon (Ben Bass) is a 16th century "Lost Boy" type vampire who also searches for greater meaning in his life. A Spanish Conquistador, he was brought across 500 years ago by a Peruvian vampire known only as the Angel.  He was abandoned along with his vampire "twin", an Inca known as Amaru (Damon D'Oliveira). Vachon has spent most of that time running away from any responsibility.  Amaru died helping to capture the bomber of the plane that took Schanke's and Cohen's life. Unlike Nick, though, Vachon is happy and content with being a vampire.  Although he believes Nick is crazy to want to be mortal, they are still friends. To further complicate things, Vachon is enamored of Tracy.  

Vachon's best friend is Screed (Greg Kramer) a Cockney carouche who prefers animal blood to human.  He was probably brought across by Vachon.  Screed falls victim to a fever that ravages the vampire community and dies the "True Death". 

Vachon is staked and killed by Tracy after Divia (Kathryn Long), LaCroix's mortal daughter and an evil and depraved vampire in her own right, attacks him and drives him nearly insane.  Divia was the one who brought her father across during the destruction of Pompeii.  Nick manages to destroy Divia when she attempts to kill her father after attacking and / or killing all those close to him.

Nick, still relying on blood to sustain him, faces a constant struggle to suppress his savage hunger to feed.  With each passing day, however, he learns to deal with the rage that torments his soul. Each day brings him one step closer to mortality. 

In the final episode, Tracy is killed when she takes a bullet that was meant for Nick.  She sees him in vampire mode.  Her last words were "You could have trusted me."  Distraught by this, Nick prepares to leave Toronto and start life anew in some other locale.  This is nothing new to him.  He has left hundreds of lives behind in his centuries of existence.  This one, though, is the hardest because of his love for Natalie.

Natalie, meanwhile, learns of the suicide of a dear friend.  The friend's life parallels Natalie's to a disconcerting degree.  She goes to Nick for comfort and consolation but finds him preparing to leave.  She begs him to make love to her.  He refuses.  She says they can "try Janette's cure" that he should only take "a little bit". Against his better judgement, he finally agrees, and, true to his fears, he is unable to stop himself in time.  Natalie is drained.

In anguish, he begs LaCroix, who has come to the loft to leave with him, to kill him by staking him with a shillelagh, so he can be with the one he loves for all eternity.  In the final scene, LaCroix stands over his "Son" who is lying across the body of his lover.  "Damn You, Nicholas!"  LaCroix cries as the scene fades to black.

The series mixes police drama, fantasy, and a strong historical sense into a uniquely powerful metaphorical framework.  Nick's vampirism and his quest for humanity represent, in various levels, an addict's efforts toward recovery, a victim's survival and growth beyond abuse, and at the core of all the metaphors, mankind's search for salvation.

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The End?

Only the beginning