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Sapphire & Steel - Assignment One: Escape Through a Crack in Time
episode 1
UK 1979
produced by Shaun O'Riordan, David Reid (executive) for Associated Television/ITV
directed by Shaun O'Riordan
starring David McCallum, Joanna Lumley, Steven O'Shea, Tamasin Bridge, Val Pringle, Felicity Harrison, John Golightly, Ronald Goodale, Charles Pemberton
written and created by Peter J. Hammond, music by Cyril Ornadel
TV-series Sapphire & Steel
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Pretty much out of the blue, the parents (Felicity Harrison, John
Golightly) of young Robert (Steven O'Shea) and Helen (Tamasin Bridge)
disappear into thin air while singing a nursery rhyme for Helen. Robert
does the right thing to call the police, but instead two interdimensional
operatives tasked with fixing ripples in time show up, Sapphire (Joanna
Lumley) and Steel (David Callum). It seems the nursery rhyme has opened
some time portal for some entity to escape, but Sapphire and Steel can
close the portal for now and try to make up a plan to get the kids'
parents back, but unfortunately three fragments of the entity have already
escaped into our world, and somehow one manages to capture Sapphire and
send her to the past where she's almost executed before Steel freezes
things to get her back. Enter Lead (Val Pringle), strongman with a heart
of gold and one of Sapphire and Steel's associates, who offers his
assistance. And Sapphire and Steel can use all the assistance they can get
because these fragments of the entities are cunning, and eventually they
take the form of Robert and Helen's dad and somehow lure him back into the
18th century - which is where they make a mistake, as once there they're
somehow lured into a brick in the foundation of the house which Steel
freezes and Lead then crashes. Then Sapphire turns time back half a day
and everything for the kids and their parents goes back to normal. There
are two ways to watch this: Taken on its own terms, this doesn't make a
lot of sense, as whatever is happening is just explained away by esoteric
gobbledegook which allows the makers to get away with pretty much
anything, the budget and thus production values are too low for the
story's high concept, and the occasional very atmospheric scene - like
when the young girl walks the house like in trance reciting a nursery
rhyme to lure out the entity's fragments - is outdone by repeated
outbursts of camp. On the other hand, this is also an interesting piece
of esoteric science fiction with eccentric and not necessarily likeable
lead characters that puts an original spin on essentially a horror premise
for a primarily young audience - primed for exactly this sort of TV
entertainment by classic Doctor
Who of course -, and seen from a nostalgic vantage point, this
is actually pretty good fun to watch.
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