An Author's retrospective: Sapphire & Steel

Image source: David McCallum’s X Files: how Sapphire & Steel chilled the nation (Telegraph)

Yes, I know it's the Sunday after my second book's release, but I felt the need to talk about this series. A forgotten sci-fi relic from an age long past.

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.

With this intro...nothing really happened. But I ran into it by accident, and I've decided to write about it. This is one that I'm almost certain no-one will remember outside of niche sci-fi fans. A series broadcast by ITV between 1979 and 1982, Sapphire & Steel is basically a high-concept science fiction where interdimensional beings represented by atomic "elements" investigate violations of the flow of time and reality. Due to low budget and ratings, production struggles, scheduling mishaps, executive shifts, and the lead actors moving on to other things, the series ended on a cliffhanger, and remains something of a lost oddity. Not as much as that K9 spin-off that didn't happen.

Each story follows Sapphire and Steel, and potentially a third operative, during investigations where malevolent forces attempt to break into or disrupt reality, which can be something related to "Time" or some other non-physical being which can fatally disrupt reality. The first and seemingly most iconic for some reason sees a family disappear in a house full of clocks. The second adventure, my personal favourite, focuses on the ghosts of people who died unfairly being exploited by a dark entity. The third is a pretty bleak one about travellers from the 35th Century. The fourth is a chiller about photographs coming alive. The fifth, my second favourite, is a very interesting time-bending tale where a fancy dress party begins replaying events from thirty years before. The sixth features a diner where time has stopped, and a final trap for the protagonists.

This series treads an interesting and fine line between sci-fi and fantasy. If we're being strictly scientific here, it definitely falls into the fantasy camp. I mean, we're following two non-humans with telepathy, teleportation, and other powers as they face extra-dimensional threats which can cling to the dead, revive memories, and bend the flow of time and history among others. But then you get small obfuscations of these events, pseudoscientific explanations such as it not being an actual "ghost" ghost, but an after-image like an emotional imprint, which is something vaguely tied into the fact that pheromones exist. Plus almost every non-human character could fall into the category of being an alien. It's similar to how Lovecraft's works are technically sci-fi, but fall apart under any kind of scientific scrutiny. But the show's biggest pro is that it inhabits this liminal space, and so it can use these haunting ghost story-like set-ups to create compelling slow-burn mysteries about the intrusion of greater powers into the living world.

The major cons of this series are its active cliffhanger, which was supposed to be resolved in the next series, and its clear lack of budget. Not that this is much of an issue as suspension of disbelief exists. It actually puts a lot more on the sound design and cast to carry the series, which they do. The soundtrack and sound effects are genuinely unsettling, and the acting as a whole is very good. Joanna Lumley and David McCallum are standouts throughout as the otherworldly agents Sapphire and Steel.

There isn't a lot to say about the series, and it's become rare. It's available on ITV, there are commercial releases floating around, and there was a Big Finish sequel series for CD/audio that I haven't experienced myself. But there's nothing like the originals. Those odd, creepy originals.

Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.