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Sapphire and Steel was a British television science-fiction series starring David McCallum as Steel and Joanna Lumley as Sapphire. Produced by ATV, it ran from 1979 to 1982 and was primarily ITV's answer to the BBC's Doctor Who. Most of the episodes were written by P. J. Hammond, who conceived the programme after a stay in a haunted castle.
Background
The programme centred on a pair of interdimensional operatives, the titular Sapphire and Steel. Very little is revealed about their purposes or backgrounds in the course of the series but they appeared to be engaged in ensuring time ran smoothly and nothing untoward happened with time itself. In the first serial, it is explained that time is like a corridor, but there are malignant entities on the outside of the corridor trying to get in. This can happen if there is a break in the corridor, most often caused by the presence of an anachronism, for example a child's nursery rhyme or an old photograph.
The stories were generally quite cryptic, raising more questions than answers, and had an eerie air to them. The programme's use of simple but effective staging and minimal special effects actually contributed to the uneasy atmosphere.
Sapphire and Steel were occasionally assisted by other operatives, including Lead and Silver. Each operative had special powers. Sapphire could manipulate time in small ways as well as divine the age of an item by touching it, while Silver was good with electronics and gadgets. Steel could freeze himself to absolute zero which gave him the ability to destroy "ghosts", or people who are remnants of time. Steel also possessed immense strength - in Adventure 3 he ties knots in elevator cables to prevent the elevator from being used.
The ambiguous nature of the programme extended to its main characters. While Sapphire was portrayed as more effable and "human" than the no-nonsense, grim Steel, it was clear that their prime concern was to ensure the safety of time - over the safety of the humans caught in the incidents they investigated. It is implied that Sapphire and Steel are not human, given their abilities and manner.
Each series of adventures would start with Sapphire and Steel materialising out of thin air, although often they were already present when the show started. Usually they would investigate and mingle with various humans, although it was nearly always the location the humans were in which was of the most interest - an old house which dated back to the English Civil War, an abandoned railway station, a motorway cafe, and so on.
Episodes
Each episode began with the following prologue:
- All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.
The six adventures were:
- Escape Through a Crack in Time (6 episodes) which aired in 1979.
- The Railway Station (8 episodes) which aired in 1979.
- The Creature's Revenge (6 episodes) which aired in 1981.
- The Man Without a Face (4 episodes) which aired in 1981.
- Dr McDee Must Die (6 episodes) which aired in 1981.
- The Trap (4 episodes) which aired in 1982.
Note: the titles used are unofficial. The British VHS release of the series names them as "Adventure 1" through "6", while the DVD releases replace the word "Adventure" with "Assignment".
Audio plays
In late May 2004, the audio production company Big Finish Productions announced that they had secured the rights to produce a new series of Sapphire and Steel adventures for release on CD. However, they confirmed that neither McCallum nor Lumley would be reprising their roles, which would be re-cast, with the stories being set sometime before the climactic final adventure of the television series. It has been announced that the roles of Sapphire and Steel will be voiced by Susannah Harker and David Warner respectively.
External link
The Anorak's Guide to Sapphire and Steel (http://www.anorakzone.com/SapphireandSteel/)
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