Sapphire & Steel

I watched this when I was at University and it held a cult status with my friends and I. I bought the tapes then the DVDs when they came out and I still enjoy watching it 25 years later. Some parts of it are still scary and it just goes to show that you don't need huge budgets to make fine TV shows.

The choices of David McCallum and Joanna Lumley for the stars was the hook that got a lot of people watching it but I stayed watching it for the stories - not the stars. There were only six miniseries made. My personal favourite was the one set in a deserted railway station. The ending was a real surprise.

Its a real shame it ended when it did.

I vaguely remember watching S&S on first broadcast, and clutching a handy sofa cushion. Watching it again, curtesy of the DVD collection (and at least 20 years older,) It still makes me shiver. Story is great, characterisation & acting excellent, and effects as expected (it works for me, and to see CGI implementations of `TIME` couldn`t be as effective as eerie pools of light).

Still, watching again as a fierce man (cough, possibly,) I still experience the same shivers I did first time round. Believe me, as a psychological thriller, it really works. Situations, and snippets of dialogue from the series, tend to surface when I try to get to sleep. This will soon pass, as it did 20-odd years ago...

Extras, they`re interesting - copies of TV times articles, and production stills related to each episode. Adequate, interesting, but not exceptionable.

As a teenager I lapped up every episode of this magnificent, highly informative and truly the most intelligent B.B.C. Sci.Fi. series.

The actors Joanne Lumley and David Mc Callum brought magic to the series as two investigators into the paranormal.The series was streets ahead of anything on TV in those days.

It was also educational, taking episodes from history and weaving them into the plotlines.

I'll admit it; I'm not the biggest fan sci-fi television. I'm not a Star Wars or X-Files fanatic. When I read about Sapphire & Steel, I wasn't expecting much. I figured that if I didn't like it, I could MST it. (MST stands for Mystery Science Theater 3000, read my comments about it if you've never heard of it before) To my surprise, I didn't need to use my fleeting talent for mocking films. I became hooked on Sapphire & Steel after I watched the first episode.

I was intrigued by the premise of the entire show. Sapphire and Steel, played by Joanna Lumley and David McCallum, are extraterrestrial beings (for lack of better explanation – none is ever really given or necessary as to who they really are) sent on different assignments including breaks in time, people being locked in pictures, and ghosts seeking revenge for their wrongful deaths.

I was wrong to write this show off as another X-Files. Sapphire and Steel is much more thought provoking, mysterious, and different from all the other shows floating around out there. The series finale was one of the best ends to a television show I've ever seen! If I had the money, I'd buy the entire six-season DVD set, but since I'm broke I'll have to live with repeatedly renting it from Netflix. It's a definite guilty pleasure of mine.

10/10 - I recommend it anyone with an open-mind who has a couple of hours to kill on a rainy day.

For a five year old, "Sapphire & Steel" was delightfully terrifying fare. I found it easy - then and now - to ignore the low-budget effects and concentrate on the fantastic scenarios and the eerie twists and turns of the plot. The entire series seemed almost claustrophobic at times, as most of the action took place in isolated or deserted places.

"Sapphire & Steel" was very much a product of its time, perhaps the last of a great line of 1970's British sci-fi such as "Blake's 7" and "Dr Who", with their eccentric characters, surreal scripts and ramshackle sets. As such, for someone of my generation it provides a great sense of nostalgia, and gives me something to look back upon...and smile about.