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			    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.

   This episode guide was compiled by Ross Smith.  Comments, corrections,
and additions can be mailed to me (alien@acheron.amigans.gen.nz).


                            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 rest 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.

Ross Smith
Wanganui, NZ
alien@acheron.amigans.gen.nz
