Overclocked On Caffeine v.1.1

Sapphire and Steel Seasons 1&2

14 30 minute episodes

Back in the 1970s and 80s, the differences between sci-fi TV in the US and the UK couldn't be any greater. Compare if you will, the original Battlestar Galactica, with it's shiny chrome and disco music, with the haydays of Doctor Who, with it's wobbly sets and crap monsters. Or the hopelessly optimistic Star Trek with the none-more-grim Quatermass serials. What they lacked in (literal) shininess, however, they more than made up for in atmosphere and setting. Sapphire and Steel was, in many ways, the ITV's answer to Doctor Who which, in the 70s, had become a lot more playful and *shudder* campy. There was still the occasional story to make you cower, but when you've got talk of Venusian kung fu and jelly babies... well, it's a little hard to take seriously. Even for Doctor Who.

Sapphire and Steel couldn't be any more different. Over six series - one story or 'assignment' per series consisting of between 4 and 8 episodes - we follow the adventures of the titular duo. We never really find out anything about them beyond what we're told in the opening titles: that all 'irregularities' will be handled by the 'forces' controlling each dimension. Heavy elements may not be used where there is life, but medium-weight atomic elements may. Of all the elements - Gold, Jet, Lead and so on - Sapphire (Joanna Lumley) and Steel (David 'I've been in almost every genre show from 1965-1998' McCallum) have been dispatched to deal with this particular case. We never find out who is behind these assignments (and one or two of the elements mentioned aren't even elements in the strictest sense) but as an intro, it's damn effective and sets the tone nicely. The characters live up to their names: Steel is hard and unrelenting, both in his tasks and his dealings with people, while Sapphire is warmer and, as people keep pointing out, incredibly beautiful. In each assignment, they show up without warning to deal with... something.

Their main foe is Time. In this show, Time is a malevolent force, capable of taking things. Once again, we're never told precisely why it's so... hungry, but that just adds to the atmosphere. It's so alien, so outside our realm of understanding, we simply can't understand it, even if we tried. The best you can do is hope to survive it and minimise the damage, help those affected by its need. The idea that Time is a sentient force, and that it can be triggered by something relatively small and benign - a train station waiting room, a children's nursery rhyme - is on a par with the greatest of Lovecraftian horrors. You're not safe. You never were safe, you just didn't know it. And you can't run. No matter where you go, Time will always be waiting right there for you. And even those who know how to deal with it don't always win.

For a show made in the 70s, it's aged pretty well. Sapphire's hair and dresses are of the time, and one of the kids in the first story has a very unfortunate haircut, but on the whole, it's nothing too jarring. You're never left rolling your eyes at the dialogue or the plot or the acting. It's occasionally a little stilted, but again, nothing unforgivable. The only really objectionable thing in the show is the kid in the first story who, in addition to being a gigantic tool, has the most unfortunate accent, sounding not unlike Little Britain's parody of Dennis Waterman. When Steel tells him he needs him to do something important, you almost expect him to reply "What, write the feem toon, sing the feem toon?" It's all a little unfortunate.

The one thing Sapphire and Steel excels in, however, is the setting and atmosphere. There's an ever-looming sense of dread in every dark corner of the screen, in every doorframe. The series uses shadow and mood as a weapon against the viewer, and it works well. The jolts are used sparingly, and while you'll be sitting laughing at them after the fact, that one moment where Sapphire's eyes are pitch black while communicating with the Dark will linger in your mind for just a little longer than you'd expect.

Sapphire and Steel never reached the same level of recognition Doctor Who achieved, even though they're very similar. The show received one run on TV at the time, and was then forgotten until Bravo picked it up some 15 or so years later, with a DVD release only coming out relatively recently. It's likely because the series was so dark and grim. The title characters aren't particularly nice people when you get down to it: any help they give is often a side-effect of their actions, rather than the intended outcome. The mission, for Steel at least, is often the only important thing, and when you consider the forces they regularly encounter, it becomes a real "needs of the few/many" dilemma. Considering how much sci-fi and fantasy in the 70s was about the Shiny Jetpack Future, about jetting off into space to make new friends and have fantastic adventures, the slow-burning darkness of Sapphire and Steel probably stood out a mile off. Ironic, considering the 80s was undoubtedly the age of the anti-hero. In this case, Sapphire and Steel were as much out of time as the menaces they so often encountered.