Sapphire & Steel (TV Series) Assignment Five: Part 1 (1981) User Reviews

Assignment Five: Part 1

[Prismark10 · 9/10 · 12 November 2020]

The only story not written by P.J. Hammond and I thought this was certainly an interesting opening episode which I liked a lot.

It is June 1930 and Lord Mulrine is having a party to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his company Mulrine International.

However when Lord Mulrine goes behind a green door, it transpires that the setting is actually 1980. This is a party where everything is accurate to the period setting of 1930.

The guests arrive and initially play along but soon get confused as what year they are actually in. Howard McDee wants to listen to the cricket score and find out how Geoffrey Boycott is doing.

When Howard turns on the radio, it is from the test match in 1930. Felix Harborough opens the back of the radio and notices a tape recorder is playing the commentary. Later when the same radio is playing vintage music, Felix again opens up the radio and notices the valves.

Sapphire and Steel arrive as guests James and Virginia Cavendish. They discover that everything is in the house belongs to the period, nothing is post 1930.

The setting is very much that of a murder mystery. A subservient butler, a painting that might come to live. It is as if the whole house might be alive. I really did like the set up and to see both Sapphire and Steel spruced up.

I like it despite what the naysayers think.

[sidjames-42134 · 7/10 · 20 October 2023]

There's a bit of a fan view with Sapphire and Steel that the odd numbered stories are a bit pony and it's the evens that are the ones to treasure. By and large I don't disagree although I do think the 2nd one is overlong. I do have a soft spot for 5 though. It departs from the formula a touch in that it has a larger cast and does feel less claustrophobic as a result, and is also an obvious pastiche of the Agatha Christie murder mystery type story but I think this works in its favour. Indeed, in the way that peak Doctor Who could take established gothic horror tropes and stories and put a distinctly 'Who' spin on them, so this shows that S&S could quite easily have done the same on a more regular basis.

The supporting characters are largely well drawn and acted and there is some wonderfully waspish badinage between them. It does really feel like a hellish party populated by a group of people who have to tolerate each other regularly at social occasions but can't stand the sight of each other.

The denouement is suitably oblique enough to confuse and put off the casual viewer while pleasing the die hards.

And to top it all it was largely written by Don Hougton who was responsible for one of the all time top 5 Doctor Who stories, Inferno.

Really, for enthusiasts of this type of thing, what's not to love?

Awkward, over-long (6 part) mix of pseudo-sci-fi, 'Upstairs-Downstairs', and Agatha Christie

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 22 March 2022]

Sapphire and Steel attend what is ostensibly a posh 1930s 'retro- party', only to discover that their nemesis 'Time' is shuttling events back and forth five decades with the intent of stopping a murder that ultimately saved the human race. The story doesn't make much sense as either sci-fi or as a murder mystery and, at 6 episodes, rapidly wears out its welcome. Unusual for the cryptic show, Steel admits that the pair of agents are 'extraterrestrial' but their 'new' ability to allow mundane mortals to communicate telepathetically begs the question of why they haven't used this incredibly useful skill before. The whole assignment feels a bit like a 'bottle episode' using leftover sets and costumes from some 1930s period-drama and a quickly thrown together story playing off Dame Christie's 'Ten Little Indians' shtick. Interesting to see McCullum without his characteristic 'Beatles mop-top' (but the mustache was definitely not a 'keeper') and odd to see Lumley in something other than Sapphire's signature 'blues' (unless her otherwise flattering dress was extremely dark indigo).