SAPPHIRE AND STEEL

"All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Trans-uranic 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." (Opening narration from each episode)

"Sapphire and Steel" was an intriguing SF/fantasy series made by ATV in Britain from 1979 to 1981. It can be vaguely described as a cross between "Doctor Who" and H.P. Lovecraft. The premise of the show was that time is like a corridor; an immense, metaphorical corridor which surrounds and passes through everything and everyone. But the corridor's walls are imperfect, there are flaws, weak points and every now and then, *something* finds a way in...

Fortunately for us, there are powers opposing them. The agents of these powers are named after elements and minerals; Sapphire and Steel are two of these. They take human shape, but they aren't human; they have special powers - some common to all of them, some unique to each. They can all communicate with one another by telepathy, change their appearance to a limited extent (Sapphire enjoys using this power to change her style of dress; Steel disapproves of such a frivolous use of their powers), teleport over short distances (a few metres), and have some telekinetic power (enough to open locks and similar small tasks). They are also extremely strong by human standards.

Sapphire (played by Joanna Lumley) has some power over time - she can read an object's age, and some details of its history, by touching it, and shift time back a few minutes (hours if she stretches her strength to its limits) to "replay" an event. She's the friendly side of the team - the diplomat, good at dealing with humans, especially children. It's hinted at one point that she may be (or may once have been) a trainee, under Steel's instruction.

Steel (played by David McCallum) is the serious half of the team. His main power seems to be his strength - his ability to resist the efforts of the creatures from outside time, and sometimes even overpower them. He also has the ability to lower his own temperature almost to absolute zero, which can sometimes interfere with the enemy's powers. He's more experienced than Sapphire, and takes his job much more seriously. He has difficulty being polite to anything as unimportant as a human being; unlike Sapphire, he tends to see people as tools to help him complete his tasks.

We never find out very many details about their background - they're kept carefully mysterious, like "Doctor Who" in its early years. In some stories we meet other agents - Lead, a huge man of enormous strength (of the ordinary physical kind rather than Steel's psychic strength), and Silver, not an "operator" (a field agent like Sapphire and Steel) but a specialist, an expert on human technology. Sapphire tells us that there are 127 of them altogether, but Steel claims there are only 115 they can count on ("We can never trust the trans-uranics ... they're unstable"). In the final story we learn that there are also renegades, agents with similar powers but working for the other side and in this case, the "other side" really does mean the Other Side...

The series chronicled their adventures on six occasions, and we hear mention of others, such as what really happened to the "Mary Celeste". At times it could be genuinely scary - a perfect demonstration of the fact that you don't need expensive special effects to create a true horror story, just an intelligent writer, some good actors, and a production crew who know what "atmosphere" means.

Episode Guide

Rob : "But you must have heard of Cromwell! Don't you know your history?"

Steel : "I know *my* history, yes..."

There were three seasons of 14, 10, and 14 episodes; each episode was about 25 minutes long. Each season consisted of two serials. As far as I know, the stories have no official titles; the ones given below are my own inventions. All stories were written by P J Hammond, except Serial 5 ("The Party"), by Don Houghton and Anthony Read.

Serial 1 - "The House" (1979, 6 episodes)

A boy and a girl are left alone in an isolated house when their parents vanish into thin air right in front of their eyes. Instead of the police, two mysterious strangers show up, who call themselves Sapphire and Steel and seem to know a lot more than they're telling. Somehow an innocent nursery rhyme has summoned up something dreadful.

Serial 2 - "The Soldier" (1979, 8 episodes)

In an abandoned railway station, a psychic researcher has tracked down the ghost of a soldier who died in the First World War. He wants to talk to the ghost and help it est in peace, but Sapphire and Steel suspect that the ghost has other motives -- and perhaps some outside help.

Serial 3 - "The Animal" (1980, 6 episodes)

Time travellers from 1500 years in the future have set up house in the past, to study how their ancestors lived. They're not very impressed by the 20th century but, they have a few skeletons in their own closet, too, and one of them has come along for the ride. And now it's killing them, one by one.

Serial 4 - "The Photograph" (1980, 4 episodes)

A young woman living in a flat over a photographer's studio wonders where her friends have disappeared to, and who the mysterious children are who dance around the streets. Sapphire and Steel arrive to find that one of the building's inhabitants isn't human and that an old photographer's experiments have produced something a bit more substantial than optical illusions.

Serial 5 - "The Party" (1981, 6 episodes)

An aging industrialist made his fortune from a new invention fifty years ago, and Sapphire and Steel arrive uninvited to his birthday party. Something else also happened fifty years ago that night, something he doesn't want to be reminded of. But time is turning itself back, the guests at the party are regressing to their younger selves, forgetting everything that happened in the intervening decades and this time, history is going to turn out horribly different. For the whole world.

Serial 6 - "The Trap" (1981, 4 episodes)

Sapphire, Steel, and Silver find themselves in a service station. But they don't know why, they haven't been briefed and they can't get out. Something strange is happening to time, people are wandering in from different decades, and some of them seem to know a good deal more than mere humans should. The agents start to suspect that they've been set up but, it may be too late.