# Sapphire and Steel (1979-1982)



## Guttersnipe (Sep 23, 2021)

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						Sapphire & Steel - Wikipedia
					






					en.m.wikipedia.org
				




Any fans? I watched the series on YouTube, being much too young to have caught it earlier (Also, I don't think it was ever popular here in the States). This show is genius, and I recommend it to sci-fi and fantasy fans alike. I like the idea that the origins of the main characters are pretty much just as mysterious as the in-universe entity of time itself. I believe it was made to compete with Doctor Who. Steel is memorably Spock-like, and  Joanna Lumley (Sapphire) is lovely. All the episodes, as well as a documentary about the series, can be found on YouTube.


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## BAYLOR (Sep 23, 2021)

I had a  chance to buy the whole series on dvd and I didn't do it.


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## Danny McG (Sep 23, 2021)

The final episode truly shocked me, as they realised how they were trapped forever


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## HareBrain (Sep 23, 2021)

It scared the crap out of me as a kid. If it's on YouTube I might take a look later.


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## Dave (Sep 23, 2021)

I only remember it being excellent, nothing more. It was shown at a time and a period when I was too busy to always catch it, and long before VCRs (or even catch up TV for the youngsters) so I don't think I saw every episode. It would be good to watch it again in full, and I have seen the boxed set DVD in shops before. If it's on YouTube then I might also take a look later.


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## Jo Zebedee (Sep 23, 2021)

HareBrain said:


> It scared the crap out of me as a kid. If it's on YouTube I might take a look later.


Me too. One with a station where they whistled ‘pack up your troubles‘ haunted me for years


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## Dave (Sep 26, 2021)

Dave said:


> I only remember it being excellent, nothing more. It was shown at a time and a period when I was too busy to always catch it, and long before VCRs (or even catch up TV for the youngsters) so I don't think I saw every episode. It would be good to watch it again in full, and I have seen the boxed set DVD in shops before. If it's on YouTube then I might also take a look later.


I watched "Assignment 1" last night. It isn't quite as excellent as I remember, but I do now remember things from seeing it before. I think we can say that it has aged somewhat. I may watch the rest too as I don't remember this shocking final episode.


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## HareBrain (Sep 26, 2021)

Ben Miller in today's Sunday Times Culture Magazine says it was one of his favourite shows. "There was an episode where David McCallum's face went blank -- that was the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen in my life."

I'd managed to suppress that memory, but now it's returned I'd be inclined to agree. It's some comfort that Miller is a year older than me but found this show just as scary. I don't know if it was meant as a show for teenagers, but I think that must have been the audience it was most suited for.


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## Matteo (Sep 26, 2021)

I remember it scaring the hell out of me as a kid.  I watched the series on DVD a while back and thought it stood up quite well.


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## paranoid marvin (Sep 27, 2021)

Great series, assignment 2 being my favourite. The ending of this assignment also shows S&S to not necessarily be the benevolent beings they appear to be.


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## Guttersnipe (Sep 28, 2021)

Just finished Assignment 1, and I'll have to say, it's a lot scarier than I remembered. For one, there's the ghosts and Time's evil Horcruxes (I had to), and then there's Lead, who's likable, but who grins broadly and laughs in the gravest situations. Apparently he was played by a singer from the States, Val Pringle.


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## paranoid marvin (Sep 28, 2021)

Guttersnipe said:


> Just finished Assignment 1, and I'll have to say, it's a lot scarier than I remembered. For one, there's the ghosts and Time's evil Horcruxes (I had to), and then there's Lead, who's likable, but who grins broadly and laughs in the gravest situations. Apparently he was played by a singer from the States, Val Pringle.




I think many sci-fi shows of the period were quite spooky/scary back then, certainly in consideration of today's family audience. I'm not sure tv shows know how to be scary any more.


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## Danny McG (Oct 1, 2021)

Guttersnipe said:


> then there's Lead, who's likable, but who grins broadly and laughs in the gravest situations


Whoa - You got my memory spinning now with other element characters!

Was there not one guy, who was a bit bitchy, called Silver?


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## Dave (Oct 1, 2021)

It always annoyed me that they were not actually elements. It still does! Just not as much as I've come to realise that the teaching of science really is that poor..

(Sapphire is aluminium oxide: corundum. Steel is a carbon-iron alloy. Why is it diamond and not carbon? Is there also a graphite with a sibling rivalry?)

Those trans-uranic elements that cannot be used in the presence of humans - they must be real bad asses!


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## paranoid marvin (Oct 2, 2021)

They are more elementals than elements.

I thought it was quite chilling how they ended assignment 2; it shows they were/are not the benign beings they appeared to be in assignment 1.

In fact with both actors still living and still working, there is no reason why another assignment couldn't be produced. Although the ending was both chilling and memorable.


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## HareBrain (Jan 3, 2022)

I've started watching this again, and it's just as unsettling as I remember. In fact I'm amazed I sat through it as a kid, scaredy-cat that I was.

It's interesting that they didn't feel the need to bung in a load of supposedly creepy incidental music, or any incidental music. The best TV shows seem to share this trait.


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## paranoid marvin (Jan 5, 2022)

HareBrain said:


> I've started watching this again, and it's just as unsettling as I remember. In fact I'm amazed I sat through it as a kid, scaredy-cat that I was.
> 
> It's interesting that they didn't feel the need to bung in a load of supposedly creepy incidental music, or any incidental music. The best TV shows seem to share this trait.



The only way to get decent scifi back then was to sell as kids/family tv. And that's before you mention the scarier Dr Who episodes.

When you look back on it, there are loads of kids scifi/fantasy/drama tv shows that were quite spooky and very watchable (and rewatchable today). Children of the Stones, Into The Labyrinth, King of the Castle, Chocky etc etc.

Sapphire & Steel was definitely more 'adult' and some of the things going on were very unnerving for a family tv slot. I reckon that most kids who watched it back then can remember the haunted train station, or the people with no faces. And apart from the episode with the children in it, there were few happy endings (the train station being one of the most chilling). Sapphire & Steel were not particularly benevolent beings. If someone had to suffer for 'time' to be adjusted , then it was a sacrifice they were prepared to make.

And I agree about the incidental music. There is a time and place for it (eg Jaws) but it has to be relevant to the show, and if you can do it without the incidental music having to tell us 'this is a scary bit' then when the fright happens, it's far more effective.

I feel the same about comedies with laughter tracks. If the show has to tell us when to laugh/what is funny, then it obviously isn't doing its job. And whoever thought up having a laughter track on MASH - I find it unwatchable with the canned laughter turned on.


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## Matteo (Jan 7, 2022)

paranoid marvin said:


> I feel the same about comedies with laughter tracks. If the show has to tell us when to laugh/what is funny, then it obviously isn't doing its job. And whoever thought up having a laughter track on MASH - I find it unwatchable with the canned laughter turned on.


I remember that one time it was shown with the laughter track by mistake (can't remember the reason) and the BBC had loads of complaints.


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## paeng (Jan 15, 2022)

Same: Assignment 2's great.


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## Guttersnipe (Apr 19, 2022)

Danny McG said:


> Whoa - You got my memory spinning now with other element characters!
> 
> Was there not one guy, who was a bit bitchy, called Silver?


Silver was outgoing and liked to hit on Sapphire.


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## Rodders (Apr 19, 2022)

I vaguely remember it, but I only ever saw one or two episodes when i was a kid. 

Saw it on Britbox and I'm looking to catch up on some genre viewing, so I might watch it in the coming weeks.


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## svalbard (May 4, 2022)

Jo Zebedee said:


> Me too. One with a station where they whistled ‘pack up your troubles‘ haunted me for years



Was that the one with the dead WWI soldiers in it. Scared the hell out of me.


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## Jo Zebedee (May 4, 2022)

svalbard said:


> Was that the one with the dead WWI soldiers in it. Scared the hell out of me.


That was it. Terrifying


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## paranoid marvin (May 5, 2022)

Jo Zebedee said:


> That was it. Terrifying




And the ending is chilling, showing that Sapphire and Steel are not 'good guys', they are there to do a job.


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## svalbard (May 5, 2022)

I still have the odd nightmare about that. Amazing what sticks with you over the years.


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## paranoid marvin (May 5, 2022)

Anyone who enjoys this show should also check out  Children of the Stones, The Stone Tape, The Clifton House Mystery and Into The Labyrinth. Family tv programmes that could send a chill down the spine


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## paranoid marvin (May 5, 2022)

svalbard said:


> I still have the odd nightmare about that. Amazing what sticks with you over the years.



I think that my most memorable story was the one with people with no faces. You don't see that kind of thing on tv nowadays - well, not before the watershed. It's amazing how times of changed, because back then you could have scary tv shows at teat time, but no swearing at all. Nowadays there doesn't seem to be any restriction (within limits) with swearing after about 7pm.


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## svalbard (May 5, 2022)

Yes. I watched the show as it was broadcast at the time. Think it was a 7.30pm start time. Before my bedtime anyway. I also remember the faceless people. They would be part of that same dream sequence ai occasionally have.

Streaming has changed TV forever.


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## svalbard (May 5, 2022)

paranoid marvin said:


> Anyone who enjoys this show should also check out  Children of the Stones, The Stone Tape, The Clifton House Mystery and Into The Labyrinth. Family tv programmes that could send a chill down the spine



I remember Children of the Stones.


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## paranoid marvin (May 5, 2022)

svalbard said:


> Yes. I watched the show as it was broadcast at the time. Think it was a 7.30pm start time. Before my bedtime anyway. I also remember the faceless people. They would be part of that same dream sequence ai occasionally have.
> 
> Streaming has changed TV forever.




The recurring dream I had was floating through a series of caverns. I had only the vaguest notion that it had anything to do with a tv show. With introduction of the internet and after much trawling , I found that it wasn't a figment of my imagination but the intro to 'Into The Labyrinth'. I was very pleased to have been able to buy it on DVD (starring the late great Ron Moody no less and a deliciously evil Pamela Salem). The first series is definitely worth a look.


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## HareBrain (May 6, 2022)

paranoid marvin said:


> teat time


I'm really, really hoping this was a typo.


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## Rodders (May 6, 2022)

I remember it, but only vaguely as it was something my parents watched. Perhaps i'll binge it after Space 1999.


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## Vladd67 (May 7, 2022)

paranoid marvin said:


> Anyone who enjoys this show should also check out  Children of the Stones, The Stone Tape, The Clifton House Mystery and Into The Labyrinth. Family tv programmes that could send a chill down the spine


Into The Labyrinth, was that the one with Ron Moody?


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## paranoid marvin (May 7, 2022)

Vladd67 said:


> Into The Labyrinth, was that the one with Ron Moody?



Yes that's the one. A great actor.


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## Vladd67 (May 7, 2022)

I remember watching that after school.


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## paeng (May 12, 2022)

Check out the audio plays from Big Finish. I also think shows like _Archive 81_ are inspired by it.














						Archive 81
					






					www.archive81.com


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