Television Stories
None of the stories had on-screen titles, or any official titles assigned by the writers. The Region 1 Complete Series DVD release gives the titles "Escape Through a Crack in Time", "The Railway Station", "The Creature's Revenge", "The Man Without a Face", "Dr. McDee Must Die" and "The Trap", respectively. These titles have often been cited as having been created by science fiction magazine DreamWatch Bulletin. Further reading reveals that in the booklet for the series, written by Tim Worthington, and included with the most recent DVD box set, on page 7 there is this quote regarding titles from creator P.J. Hammond "I never gave titles to the stories. Neither did the production department. I think certain fanbases may have made up their own titles in order to discuss and analyse various stories"
The booklet also says, on the same page, "some sources have claimed that these were taken from the original scripts, whereas others dismiss them as an invention on the part of a science fiction fanzine, although the editor of the fanzine in question denies that they were ever used within its pages" and furthermore that "the show's distributors have never knowingly used them"
| Serial # | Episode # | Original air dates (UK) | Writer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1-01 to 1-06 | 10 to 26 July 1979 | P.J. Hammond | |
|
A happy family lives in an 18th century house filled with clocks and antiques. One night, a nursery rhyme ("Ring a Ring o' Roses") read aloud to Helen, the little girl, triggers a time fracture that takes away her parents. As Rob, Helen's older brother, tries to understand what has happened, two mysterious strangers appear, promising to fix things. Sapphire and Steel eventually gains Rob's trust and work out a solution to the problem. Lead also arrives to provide assistance. (Note: P.J. Hammond novelised this story for Star Books in 1979. It was simultaneously available in both hardback and paperback) |
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| Val Pringle as Lead, Steven O'Shea as Rob Jardine, Tamasin Bridge as Helen Jardine, Felicity Harrison as Mother, John Golightly as Father, Ronald Goodale as Countryman, Charles Pemberton as Policeman | ||||
| 2 | 1-07 to 1-14 | 31 July to 8 November 1979 | P.J. Hammond | |
| In an abandoned railway station, ghost hunter George Tully conducts an investigation. His solitary task is interrupted by the two interdimensional operators, who have an investigation of their own – a sinister, growing darkness that feeds on the resentment of the dead, using Private Sam Pearce, the apparition of a World War I soldier shot and killed eleven minutes after the armistice had been signed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 as a focus. The darkness 'recruits' from other resentful shades from the past who also died 'unfairly' as a result of a coming or completed conflict – such as the crew of an experimental submarine whose air-pumps failed, and a World War II fighter pilot killed in a crash just one flight away from being demobbed. It is up to Sapphire and Steel to decide if the life of one living human is worth the price of the danger presented to Reality.
(Note: This story's transmission was interrupted by a strike on ITV, and instead of resuming transmission from the next episode the decision was made to transmit the story from the beginning.) |
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| Gerald James as George Tully, Tom Kelly as Private Sam Pearce (The Soldier), David Cann as Pilot, David Woodcock as Submariner | ||||
| 3 | 2-01 to 2-06 | 6 to 22 January 1981 | P.J. Hammond | |
| Rothwyn and Eldred, a couple living in a modern apartment, are not what they seem. In fact, they are from the 35th Century, the apartment is their time capsule, which is situated on the roof of a modern day tower block, and the experiment is to live as 20th Century humans. But trouble starts when the couple discover that they can neither contact their controllers in the future nor two other similar time capsules in the present day. The biomechanical system that runs the capsule has experiments of its own that it plans to perform on the occupants – resenting the fact that in the 35th century, Mankind is the only animal not extinct; all other creatures, flora, fauna and even germs having been ruthlessly eradicated in order to preserve the purity of the human race. This time, Sapphire and Steel have help in the form of Silver, an interdimensional technician. | ||||
| David Collings as Silver, David Gant as Eldred, Catherine Hall as Rothwyn, Russell Wooton as Changeling | ||||
| 4 | 2-07 to 2-10 | 27 January to 5 February 1981 | P.J. Hammond | |
| Phantom children with sepia-toned skin play in an almost deserted apartment building. Both the landlord and a tenant have mysteriously disappeared. A man without a face appears on the stairs. Something has emerged from a photograph; something which has appeared in every photograph ever taken anywhere in the world and is powerful enough to turn Sapphire and Steel into literal two-dimensional versions of themselves. | ||||
| Alyson Spiro as Liz, Philip Bird and Bob Hornery as the Shape, Shelagh Stephenson as Ruth, Natalie Hedges as Parasol girl | ||||
| 5 | 3-01 to 3-06 | 11 to 26 August 1981 | Don Houghton and Anthony Read | |
| Dressing up and pretending that it was once again the 1930s seemed to be a novel idea for a dinner party hosted by Lord Mullrine, a wealthy industrialist, at his country mansion to celebrate fifty years since his company was founded with the late Dr. George McDee. Mullrine has even gone so far as to have every room in the house, with the exception of his office, put back to its original style. Then, strange things start to happen: McDee himself turns up at the party along with other anachronisms, and then, one by one, the guests begin to be murdered – their bodies vanishing shortly afterwards. Secrets and lies involving McDee from fifty years before are resurfacing, Time is trying to rewrite history, and the only ones who can stop it are two uninvited guests – Sapphire and Steel. | ||||
| Patience Collier as Emma Mullrine, Davy Kaye as Lord Mullrine, Nan Munro as Felicity McDee, Jeffrey Wickham as Felix Harborough, Jeremy Child as Howard McDee, Jennie Stoller as Annabelle Harborough, Peter Laird as Greville, Stephen MacDonald as George McDee, Christopher Bramwell as Tony Purnell, Patricia Shakesby as Anne Shaw, Debbie Farrington as Veronica Blamey, Valentine Dyall as Radio Broadcast Voice | ||||
| 6 | 4-01 to 4-04 | 19 to 31 August 1982 | P.J. Hammond | |
| The scene for Sapphire and Steel's latest investigation is an abandoned roadside café where time has stopped. However, they find that Silver has arrived before them – which is against normal procedure. The interdimensional operatives remain uncertain as to exactly what they are supposed to be investigating. The key may lie in two humans in the café who claim to be from 1948.
(Note: Many regional editions of TVTimes wrongly billed this story as a repeat. This was possibly due to confusion caused by the changeover from ATV to Central on 1 January 1982, when an ITV contracts change in 1980 resulted in the Midlands ITV region's franchise ended up going from the first company to the second.) |
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| David Collings as Silver, Edward de Souza as the Man, Johanna Kirby as the Woman, John Boswall as Old man, Christopher Fairbank as Johnny Jack | ||||
Each episode begins 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.
For episode three of assignment 4 and for all of assignment 6, Lead's place in the prologue is replaced by Mercury (who was mentioned but never seen). If the series had continued, Mercury could have made an appearance.
The final television story ends on a cliffhanger. Apparently resentful of Sapphire and Steel's independence, a higher authority sends entities known as Transient Beings (similar to the operatives but until now trapped in the past), to set a trap for them in a motorway café. The serial concludes with Silver dispatched to an unknown fate – and Sapphire and Steel being trapped in the café, floating through space, apparently for eternity. The cliffhanger has never been resolved, although Hammond has stated that vague plans existed for further adventures. This was also stated by Joanna Lumley in her autobiography, who remembered that they were told that this was merely an end-of-season cliffhanger, and that Sapphire and Steel would be freed at the start of the next series. However, in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine (#329, cover date: 30 April 2003), David Collings recalled that although another series was planned, Joanna Lumley and David McCallum both decided that they'd had enough and didn't wish to do any more.
Read more about this topic: Sapphire & Steel
Famous quotes containing the words television and/or stories:
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“A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress, by his tastes, by his distastes, by the stories he tells, by his gait, by the notion of his eye, by the look of his house, of his chamber; for nothing on earth is solitary but every thing hath affinities infinite.”
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