Writer: P.J.Hammond

Transmitted: Tuesday, 10th July, 1979 at 7.00pm

What Happens?

The story begins in an isolated old house, where the Jardine family live. A boy, Rob, is doing his homework downstairs, whilst upstairs his sister Helen is being read nursery rhymes by her parents (the story could be set at any time, though Rob’s clothes suggest the late 1970’s). The house is unusually full of clocks, which suddenly stop. Everything goes quiet, and we soon find out that the two parents have vanished. Rob calls the Police (and expects them to have to come "across the bay in a boat" - so the house is on an island) but an impossibly short time later his call is answered by two strangers – Sapphire and Steel. They determine the cause of the disappearance – time is breaking through when an old nursery rhyme is recited – but as they sit downstairs Rob’s daft younger sister begins reciting the rhyme again and the forces once more attack

Rob Jardine – amazed by clocks

What Do We Find Out?

This episode is primarily concerned with the disappearance of the two adults in the house. Sapphire and Steel are introduced as strangers who have come to help with the problem. Notably, they have to knock to be let in (although they could just be following etiquette). The two immediately show differing personalities – Sapphire is kind and charming, while Steel is cold and uncommunicative ("like Steel… grey" as Rob puts it). Have the names been chosen to reflect the personalities of these beings?

Sapphire and Steel arrive

We soon find out that Sapphire at least has special powers – she can tell the age and history of the house simply by being in it, and of objects by touching them. Her eyes shine blue when she is ‘accessing’ information or using her powers. We also soon discover that the pair can communicate telepathically, and (curiously) Sapphire is heard with a ‘flange’ effect disguising her voice during these communications. Steel’s powers are less obvious at this stage, but he knows background information about the house (either via earlier research or, more likely, like Sapphire he can simply ‘detect’ the information)

Sapphire can also change her outfit and her hair, which suggests that perhaps the beings entire appearance is ‘chosen’ (although perhaps its significant that in this and every other adventure, the pair have the same faces and human-like appearance). This seems to be a tool to enable them to fit into whatever time they are visiting.

It next becomes apparent that the age of the house, and of objects, is especially significant to the series. "Old names… old house… old echoes" as Steel says. "A pressure point". It’s not obvious at this point what, if anything, the clocks have to do with matters, or why they stop (possibly the sheer volume of them is a coincidence, rather than a symptom, useful in narrative terms to display the effect of time breaking through).

Next, the key concept of the series is introduced – Time. Time seems to mean something different in "Sapphire and Steel" than it does in our world, where it’s a way of measuring ongoing and ever-moving events of our lives. In the series, it’s treated as a physical place, and is described thus:

"There is a corridor, and that corridor is time. It surrounds all things and it passes through all things, you can’t see it – only sometimes and it’s dangerous. You cannot enter into time, but sometimes time can try to enter the present. Break in. Burst through and take things. Take people. The corridor is very strong; it has to be. But sometimes, in some places, it becomes weakened. Like fabric, worn fabric and when there is pressure put upon fabric… Time comes in…"

Sapphire oddly mentions she has only seen the corridor of time once (and it was "just a glimpse"), on board a ship (this adventure will unfortunately be explained in more detail in later episodes). She describes it as "like looking through frosted glass". Has she only recently been investigating irregularities? Her relationship with Steel doesn’t shed much light on how long they have been working together, since it is very formal anyway.

Time breaking through

To add further detail, we are told that "creatures from the very beginning and very end of time" are moving along the corridor known as Time, looking for breaches (a spectacularly unsettling image). It’s curious that the creatures are said to only come from the beginning and end of the tunnel…

We are finally told that it’s the combination of the old objects and the old nursery rhyme (which is described as the ‘final ingredient’ or ‘trigger’) that causes the breach in the fabric of time. Note that the concept of new and old elements ‘combining’ is not noted here (as it would be later in the series), unless you interpret the ‘new’ reading of the old rhyme in the old house as being the combination.

The words and phrases Time, Pressure Point and Trigger form the basis for the concept of the series in later episodes.

What Is The Title Sequence All About?

The title sequence sets up the premise for the series:

"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."

On first hearing, it’s baffling (especially since it’s first played before we even meet Sapphire and Steel). With hindsight we can draw from it the following conclusions:

Sapphire and Steel are two of a number of ‘forces’ (later ‘agents’) distributed to handle irregularities in each dimension. The names being names of elements is not unrelated to our own understanding of the scientific elements (although slightly different, as not all of the listed are elements in our science) as somehow they reflect their properties too. These ‘medium atomic weights’ are the only ones allowed to be used around life. Do the ‘heavier element’ agents somehow patrol the dimensions where there is no (human?) life? The only other bit of information given is in the visuals, which show some kind of ‘gasmask’ like container from which each element tumbles. Is this a literal interpretation? It seems unlikely (but not impossible) that Sapphire and Steel’s true form is as glowing jewels in their own dimension.

Creepy Moments

The whole episode is shot splendidly oddly, for example in the opening shot we see Helen being read nursery rhymes, but don’t get to see the faces of her two parents, which for some reason makes the whole scene more creepy (unless it was just to avoid paying the actors). Later, Helen is sitting at the table when the camera pans unnervingly back from her and we hear loud, crunchy footsteps outside. It turns out to simply be Rob, returning from summoning the police, but the way the scene is shot to suggest something more sinister succeeds in freaking out the watching audience (or this one anyway).

Mystery Dissolved

"pictures, saw pictures!"

The young actress playing Helen is diabolical, and doesn’t seem to be able to speak most of the time. "Pictures, saw pictures!" she pipes up at random points. Elsewhere she smiles when she’s supposed to be scared. Sapphire’s comedy red wig and earrings when changing her outfit is a bit silly too.

Sapphire’s ridiculous getup moment.

The Bottom Line

The episode has dated hardly at all (bar Rob’s late-seventies garb) and is wonderfully shot and directed to send chills up the spine. It’s perhaps a little slow to modern audiences (Rob seems to spend about five minutes before the titles simply walking around looking at the clocks) but this is more than made-up for by the resulting tension. The ‘ghosts’ that come from the wall when the rhyme is recited are perhaps a little ‘BBC costume drama’-ish, but the simple deployment of lights and shadows for the special effects helps make them suitably spooky all the same.

Trivia

The "assignment" description was invented when the series was released onto video and DVD; none of the episodes are actually titled, though "Story 1" etc. may offer a more accurate title. I have kept with "Assignments" for the purposes of this guide, in honour of the format on which I discovered the series. Some fans have offered individual story titles, and for this ‘assignment’ the known ones are: Escape Through a Crack in Time, The Nursery Rhymes, The Clocks, The House That Jack Built, The House and House of Clocks

The series was shown in a 7pm slot, on a Tuesday and a Thursday. Given it ran between 1979 and 1982, did it influence the BBC’s decision to show the Davison seasons of Doctor Who in a similar twice-weekly teatime format?

Steven O’Shea, playing Rob, appears not to have worked on TV again for twenty years, then made a late nineties comeback in "Highlander". Tamasin Bridge never worked in television again, which is no great surprise.