| I loved Sapphire & Steel as a kid, the creepy British sci-fi fantasy TV show. Joanna Lumley and David McCallum played a pair of interdimensional agents, assigned to keep order in time and space. They were elements in human form, repairing weaknesses in time. In the series, "time" is like a corridor that surrounds everything, and in places malignant forces can break through. Some of these creatures are from the very beginning and ends of time itself, and the eponymous heroes would do battle with these forces in each of their "assignments". Turning up in the most random, and often deserted of places to solve the time crisis. Often "deserted" due to budget constraints, more than anything. |
| The thing that made Sapphire & Steel so creepy, and intense, and therefore awesome, was its minimalism. Due to its small budget, special effects, cast and settings were kept to a minimum. Which only added to its uneasy creepiness, and forced the show to be story driven, rather than relying on all the production bells and whistles that most sci-fi shows had. There were 34 episodes made, divided into 6 "assignments". The one that stands out the most is the assignment that featured the "faceless man", in the second series. |
The man that has appeared in every photograph ever taken anywhere in the world! Wow that freaked me out as a kid. The guy looked like he'd just stepped out of a René Magritte painting. Even to this day, if I'm honest with myself, I look for the faceless man in photographs sometimes.
| | The over-dramatic introduction to each show, explained a little of what the series was about. Showing the time corridor, running through space. The show would later explain that there were 127 operatives in total, including 12 transuranic heavy elements, which cannot be assigned where life exists. Although they are described as elements, many of the code names are non-elements, such as Sapphire, Steel, and Jet. But hey, who cares, this sci-fi not science! |
Even though the show was very dark, the merchandising and spin-off material was aimed directly at kids. There was a regular comic-strip in the TV show based kids magazine / comic book Look-In, and two annuals were produced, both aimed firmly and squarely at children. Back then, they didn't patronise us, they just wanted to scare the life out of us.
