Writer: P.J.Hammond

Transmitted: Tuesday, 17th July, 1979 at 7.00pm

What Happens?

Rob runs away after only saying three lines of the nursery rhyme, but a small 'puddle' of light escapes from under the door. Sapphire detects its presence as a "visual refraction" or "ghost". Sapphire and Steel discuss what happened, then notice that every time they pass the stairs, seven minutes are lost. Sapphire is explaining this when she suddenly disappears, and finds herself in a small cottage. She explains that Time is trying to trick her into thinking she is inside the cottage in the painting on the top of the stairs. Steel persuades her to take time back ten minutes to free herself, but it doesn't appear to work, and before long the soldiers are breaking into the cottage, seemingly trying to execute her. Steel has an idea and rushes to the freezer in the study. He emerges minutes later and orders Rob and Helen not to touch him. Clasping the picture frame, he appears to freeze it and Sapphire re-appears. However, the soldiers then appear on the stairs and march towards them as Helen screams...

Confused?

Rob has as much idea about what's going on as we have...

What Do We Find Out?

Sapphire calls the 'pools of light' "refractions" or ghosts, and she can detect them without seeing them. Not for the last occasion, Time seems to target Sapphire (perhaps because she has the most useful powers, and is therefore the greatest threat).

Intriguingly, when Rob asks Steel "don't you know your history?" he replies "I know mine, yes". This implies that wherever Sapphire and Steel come from, they have some kind of history or culture (unless it's taken literally; Steel knows his own past). Steel appears genuinely scared when Sapphire is "taken". He appears to be able to "help" Sapphire take time back, but it seems much more difficult for him; merely helping causes great strain. We'll deal with Steel's "special power" seen at the end of the episode in the next column, as it's not fully explained until then.

Steel has special powers too!

Sapphire says that this case is "history gone wrong" and then notes "we've never had that before", which lends further weight to this being an early adventure in the pair's working relationship.

Sapphire indicates that the 'phantoms' that march from the room have based their shape on the nursery rhyme that Rob chose (although bear in mind it was placed in his head to start with). She reflects that she's glad he didn't pick "Oranges and Lemons" (because it's about people having their heads cut off).

At one stage the 'puddles of light' which escape under the door join with the ghost soldiers and make them more solid. So perhaps the soldiers are zero mass 'projections' (Sapphire at one point says they are harmless) and only become tangible (and therefore dangerous) when joined by the pools of light. Or something.

Creepy Moments

Sapphire in the creepy attic with the noose and the meat cleaver is a haunting image indeed.

Mystery Dissolved

There is nothing obviously embarrassing in this episode, but it is somewhat difficult to understand. There seems some confusion over the barricaded up door. Why does it change into a different door when the force (partly) escapes? Rob notes it isn't barricaded up any more, but later it is again. How does the second pool of light escape when nobody has recited the rhyme again? It's also fairly ambiguous whether or not Sapphire has actually left the house when she vanishes; Steel tries to convince her she's still in the house, and Sapphire confirms the force is trying to convince her she's in the cottage in the picture. But if she's not, why does Steel removing the picture at the end bring her back? And just what is all that about the seven minutes lost on the landing in aid of?

Was Sapphire inside the picture or not?

The Bottom Line

A quite leisurely paced but interesting episode, which Sapphire and Steel spend most of trying to figure out what's going on. Drama is added by Sapphire getting trapped in the picture, and the soldiers marching her towards the dangling noose while she's unable to move is absolutely terrifying, as is the suggestion she's re-enacting an execution. But lots of this is baffling, notably explanations given for the 'spotlights', the soldiers and precisely what the force is up to. The 'torch lights' are a charmingly simple (and cheap) special effect that today come over as rather more cute than frightening.

A cute pair of ghosts - man with torches just out of shot