SAPPHIRE AND STEEL

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Review By Morgan Hart, 4 out of 5

Box Set 1 Assignments I,II,III

Box Set 2 Assignments IV,V,VI

Where as some people talk of hiding behind the Sofa watching the Daleks, I remember being disturbed by Sapphire and Steel. This is the only comparison that will be made to the other famous 70? Sci-fi dramas, as Sapphire and Steel was a very different animal. There are no Silver Clad Androids, or Swamp Monsters here, the enemy being time itself, which will ?reak through?at any opportunity. Consequently, though our Hero? have superpowers, the adventures are far more cerebral than say ?he Champions? The series also benefited from having two top notch leads, Joanna Lumley and David McCallum. Amazingly, both actors valued their parts of ?ime Travelling Extra Terrestrials? as being ?traight?escapes from their previous projects, ?he New Avengers? and ?he Man From UNCLE?

Box Set 1 contains the first three assignments (episodes, and series were not titled). The first being where nursery rhymes trigger an eruption in time resulting in the disappearance of a child? parents (like Dr Who, Sapphire and Steel was originally planned as a children? programme). Assignment II is set in a haunted railway station, whilst III involves strange goings on in an apartment block.

Box Set 2 contains Assignment IV, set in a junk shop, and commonly considered the best in the series. Assignment V is an ?gatha Christie?style country house mystery , and the only episode not written by PJ Hammond. Assignment VI completes the set, nicely bookending the series with a cliff hanger. No other episodes were produced, not through a lack of public demand, but due to TV franchise re-assignments in the early 1980?.

The disks are nicely presented with good cast biographies, and a nice overview to the series, but nothing earth-shattering. At around 7 hours each there is a good deal of material here, but at ?0-?0 per set it does not come cheap. In overview, if you remember seeing the series on transmission, it was as good as you remembered it to be. Also, unusually for television, the assignments really do require repeat viewing to gain full enjoyment. Consequently they do represent good value. Finally, there is very little chance of buying these disks only to find the same episodes filling the Saturday afternoon schedule of BBC2, or UK Gold.

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