Sapphire and Steel - Assignments 4 - 6 [DVD] [1979]

 

 

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Perhaps the reason that Peter Hammond’s creation succeeded was that the series never really tried to explain the concept behind its plots. Sapphire and Steel arrived ghost-like from no where and Time simply did what it did. The only clue the viewer got was from Sapphire in Adventure One, when she used the metaphor of Time being like a corridor, walled by thinning fabric. This at least warned us that this series was not going to rely on the ideas of H. G. Wells for its concept of time. Instead, Hammond perceived of Time as a sentient malevolent entity, with the title characters assigned to keep that force from spilling into the corridor, consuming the space - and us - within.

On transmission the stories were not titled and the episodes not numbered. Even the "TV Times" could not tell you when a story was in its final episode. When the videos were released (and we found that the memory did not cheat on this series) the tapes used chronological numbers for the adventures. However, the name Adventure One is a bit of a misnomer. Sapphire and Steel had had a number of un-transmitted adventures before this which they referred to in this story. These references were given to establish that Time was evolving mentally to meet the challenge that it faced against Sapphire and Steel. Time was learning how they worked and evolving its tactics to defeat the duo.

I must have been nine when I first saw that story. After the first episode I was not allowed to watch the series in the living room because my parents did not like the supernatural overtones of the series. So I was sent upstairs to watch it alone on the black and white telly in my parents room. I loved the atmosphere of the episodes, built from the shadowy sets and eerie music. When watching I never put the light on, because I knew that with it off the atmosphere would be that bit more electrifying.

Nowadays, I can see why my parents found it too frightening for themselves but would let me watch it. Sapphire and Steel would often describe what was seen, rather than what was happening. This protected the young naïve viewer but implicitly telegraphed what was going on to the older viewer who would intellectually struggle to make sense of it. This telegraphing is what appeals to me about the programme nowadays. The programmes ideas have genuinely horrific qualities - it can take an object we think we know, and challenge this understanding by making the object seem malevolent. This idea then grows over the episodes, brooding on our imagination.

Perhaps it is just as well that my parents never saw Adventure Two. While its predecessor had child characters and nursery rhymes, its sequel had little that a worried parent would give the benefit of doubt to. A disused railway station had become a recruiting ground for the dead, and the companion-like character was a sad old ghost-hunter. While Time in story one was physically represented by lights, here it was a plague-like darkness spreading out from shadows; consuming everything. Worse still, the resolution to the story demonstrated just how clinical Steel could be. While there were never any cosy denunciations or big bang solutions to Sapphire and Steel stories, this one was the most chilling.

Adventure three had people from a future time coming back to the present to investigate what life was like in the 1980’s. Their invisible time capsule was furbished with products from that by-gone time. However, the by-products of dead animals were attacking these people with a mix of hallucinatory and physical attacks. It transpired that Time had let the mental energy of these animals exact revenge on a generation who had exploited their various species to extinction.

Perhaps the subject matters of such a series are too controversial for today’s television producers. In the six stories that formed Sapphire and Steel, children are the enemy in A4, eating meat will most certainly kill you in A3 (without the aid of BSE), while Steel, the hero, has a horrifyingly heartless method of resolving the crisis in A2. Innovative yes, but not safe, never stereo-typical, and always pitched higher than the average programmes intelligence threshold. What programmes made today, "innovative" or otherwise, can claim to be all those?

After languishing in the backwaters of grainy VHS for several years, one of the UK's most innovative shows finally comes to DVD...
Sapphire & Steel starred David McCullum (The Great Escape, Man From Uncle) and Joanna Lumley (The New Avengers, Absolutely Fabulous) who played two non-human detectives sent from an unseen higher intelligence to investigate breaks in the fabric of time on Earth.
It already sounds like the creator PJ Hammond was on acid when he first conceived this series, but the idea apparently came to him during time he spent in a haunted house. Throughout the series, just a few cryptic hints were given as to what Sapphire & Steel actually were. It was a neat little plot device that fuelled the imagination.
The series was commissioned by a commercial TV network in the UK whose normal output was cheap games shows and other brain dead programming, and was designed as ITV's answer to the BBC's long running sci-fi series Dr Who.
Sapphire & Steel contained complex theories and amazing amounts of imagination on the part of its creator and not surprisingly, audiences were confused and dumbfounded when the show began a four-year run in 1979. In many ways, the audience reaction was similar to that of The Prisoner some 10 years earlier on the same channel.
Relying more heavily on suspense, dialogue and sparsely lit sets than special effects, the series managed to create a unique sense of menace. Each episode would begin with a disembodied voice against a background of stars telling the viewer 'all irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension - Sapphire & Steel have been assigned.'
A show as ambitious and subversive as this could have been a complete disaster had it not been down to the unique on screen chemistry between actors David McCallum and the stunningly beautiful Joanna Lumely.
Steel was cold and not content unless he was in complete control showing little concern for the human victims, whilst Sapphire conveyed compassion and was fully aware of her sensuality.
The breaks in time that formed the source of the investigations, would often be caused by entities or creatures from alternative dimensions and though some were not evil in the simplistic manner that regularly befalls most drama of this genre (Trek etc), the entities very presence was simply enough to threaten time in the dimension where Earth exists. Steel's lack of empathy for humanity was evident every time the duo were assigned to Earth, whilst Sapphire seemed to enjoy interaction with simplistic humans. Both actors were superb in playing non-human leads, and you really got an impression that the characters were from somewhere else other than this reality.
Despite having abilities such as telepathy and being able to move time backwards briefly, the characters were not superhuman such as Star Trek's Q for example. There was some hard bargaining to be done with the entities and some sacrifices were made. In the second assignment, the 'detectives' are sent to investigate a haunted, disused railway station. A parasitic entity known as The Darkness is feeding from the resentment of dead World War 1 soldiers, and it provides an epic eight-part story with superb direction that never fails to retain the interest of the viewer. Viewed late at the night, this atmospheric tale still manages to send a chill down the spine. The series contained no cosy answers or heart-warming endings, just relentless menace and a fear of the darkness.
Despite Kim Newman's above review that gives the impression that the series lacks the gloss of other ITC shows and is difficult to sit through, Sapphire & Steel has higher production standards than many of the Dr Who episodes made during this time, and to anyone who prefers character driven TV that doesn't rely on simplistic plots or quick editing, Sapphire & Steel is the 'I Claudius' of TV Sci-Fi.
Finally, much has been said about the picture quality of the DVD's but given the poor condition of some of the master tapes themselves (reportedly damaged during transmission), the overall image sharpness is very welcome compared to the VHS copies. Whilst nowhere near as good as the Dr Who DVD presentations, episodes of Sapphire & Steel are comparable to the recent BlackAdder DVDs.
Some of the problems are partly due to how the series was filmed with darkly lit sets that highlights blur effects on moving objects. Despite some picture flaws, the series still deserves a five star rating whilst the DVD presentation would just be worth three. Younger viewers may bemoan the lack of flashy CGI effects and vampires.
Their loss.

It's been a pleasure revisiting this series. Yes, it's studio bound and severely budget limited, and this means that performances and stories have to compensate, which they most definitely do.

At a time when Dr Who was degenerating into pantomime farce, this series is a darker, more eerie twist on the time travel theme.

The duo are agents of a vaguely defined authority who are called to intervene in situations where 'time breaks through.' Time is here a malevolent force, seeking to undo life and creation bound within its laws.

In the first episode a literally faceless character uses photographs to move around and imprison people in the photographic world. There they share the fate of whatever happens to the photo', and in one chilling scene, the 'man who wasn't there'disposes of characters trapped in a photo by setting it alight. This is a chilling, nightmarish moment, typical of the jolts the series can deliver. The atmospheric location (junk shop in this case) is also typical of the series.

The second assignment concerns the machinations of time in taking advantage of a 1930's period dress party to turn the clock back and change history so a terrible plague, averted in real time, occurs. This assignment is adveresely affected by 'padding' (the string of 'whodunnit' murders seem almost superfluous) being 6 instead of 4 episodes in length, but still builds to an effective denoument.

The third assignment brings the series to an abrupt close, with an ending that pulls the rug out from under you, and haunted this reviewer during a sleepless night. It leaves you wishing the writers rescued the pair for a further series, but alas...

The pairing of Mcallum and Lumley is inspired. An understated, effective, fire and ice performance.
Having seen these tales, Ive ordered the first lot. Recommended.

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5.0 out of 5 stars This is BRILLIANT
The best british sci fi you will see. Deeply atmospheric all the time and actually quite frightening, the story lines and concepts are excellent and the acting is always good, buy... Read more

Published 12 months ago by micro man

5.0 out of 5 stars Golden Age of TV
Some shows don't stand the test of time when you watch them again after all the years but Sapphire and Steel is just brilliant - great stories, cliff-hangers and characters (the 2... Read more

Published on 6 Jan 2010 by R. Green

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic tv.
My childhood memories of this show neglected to remind me that this show actually ended. And by that I mean ended properly. Read more

Published on 20 Mar 2004 by Russell Tit Davies

4.0 out of 5 stars Years ahead of it's time.
I remember watching 'Sapphire & Steel' as a youngster, and I also remember that it scared the **** out of me! Read more

Published on 20 Mar 2004 by Russell Tit Davies

5.0 out of 5 stars Dated yet still Brilliant.
Sapphire and Steel is, in my opinion, one of the best acted productions ever to come into public view. Read more

Published on 3 Aug 2003 by Mr. P. Tanner

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow
For years in my mind, I could see a spider web which then burned up. I didn't know where I had seen it. Read more

Published on 1 Jun 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars A TV Sci-fi Gem
"Sapphire and Steel" was an interesting attempt by Lew Grade's ATV Network to capitalise on the (initial) success of the rescheduled "Doctor Who" on the BBC during weekday early... Read more

Published on 26 April 2003 by Stevo

5.0 out of 5 stars The work of a brilliant and bonkers brain
It's tricky to know what to say about this. It left a huge invisible cartoon-like question mark above my head when I watched it as a young lad, and now as a grown up fellow, it's... Read more

Published on 15 Feb 2003 by carl iredale

3.0 out of 5 stars Sapphire and steel: memories vs reality!
I watched these as a child, and they are no less enthralling now! The special effects are a little less spectacular than I remember, but I imagine that's because the technology... Read more

Published on 1 Dec 2002 by Mrs. G. M. Armstrong

5.0 out of 5 stars Along the corridors of time...
With a princly sum of £30 in gift vouchers I scoured the shelves, reticent to add yet another volume of yet another sci-fi series to my already overgrown collection. Read more

Published on 20 Nov 2002 by jedik

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