Infinity Magazine Issue 5

2017·36.8 MB·English

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48 08: ADVENTURES IN TIME
A look back at the TV cult classic Sapphire and Steel,
starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley.
14: A STUDY IN SCARLET
It has been 50 years since Captain Scarlet first
battled the Mysterons. Something to celebrate!
20: GORILLA WARFARE
Mark Phillips reports on the monkey business behind
the Planet of the Apes TV series…
38: DOCTOR WHO’S VINTAGE COMIC UNIVERSE
Giacomo Lee chats to a very special fanzine about
some of the Doctor’s lesser known adventures…
42 42: M IS FOR MOORE
That’s Alan Moore, the undisputed bearded
Northampton-based God of the British comics realm
52 56
46: A RIP IN TIME
The adventures of Rip Hunter… Time Master, a DC
comics hero from their Golden Age…
48: THEY’RE HERE!
50 years on from its debut, The Invaders still packs a
punch. Remembering a landmark sci-fi show.
52: AN ENTERPRISING ENDEAVOUR
Effects wizard Ken Ralston on organising the visual
excess of Captain Kirk and company...
60 62 56: NOT-SO-JOLLY GREEN GIANT
He was Marvel’s first big TV success and we loved him
when he was angry. The Incredible Hulk revisited…
60: THE JAMES BOND OF CRIME
Allan Bryce takes a look at Mario Bava’s swinging 60s
spy-fi classic, Danger: Diabolik…
62: THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.
The life and cinematic crimes of B-movie maestro
Bert I. Gordon, whose films were bigger than life!
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SCI-FI MOVIES AND
THE HUMAN TOUCH…
O
ne of the tricky things about doing a of strong laxatives all the time. We also wanted to see
magazine that only comes out every him in a proper punch-up with Rutger Hauer. Where’s
six weeks is it’s impossible to keep fully the fun if your villain can’t be arsed whether he lives
up to date with all the new releases. or dies? Blade Runner was judged the second greatest
For example, Blade Runner 2049 hit UK sci-fi film ever made in a Time Out poll earlier this
cinemas on October 6th, but it wasn’t year. Doesn’t surprise me with that lot. 2001: A Space
screened before we went to press at the end of Odyssey was their number one and I think that’s
September, so though we would love to have brought overrated and pretentious too. I saw it as a teen and
you a review we just never had a chance. I’m guessing wasn’t impressed. I quizzed my mum about the ending
it’s going to be good, but it does seem to be hellishly and she suggested drugs were involved. The original
long, a good forty minutes longer than the original Planet of the Apes movie followed it into cinemas and
in fact. Wouldn’t it be odd if this followed the it was a lot more fun. I saw that one twice. The
pattern of the original and was a big flop in Time Out mob also judged Terry Gilliam’s
2017 and feted in 2049? I bet the studios Brazil one of the top ten sci-fi films of all
wouldn’t see the funny side though… time. Yeah, sure, much better than War of
Infinity may be a mag about futuristic the Worlds (1953), Forbidden Planet (1956)
movies and TV shows but we do love to and The Thing From Another World (either
look back more than we do forward. It’s version). At least they got it right that The
a cosy nostalgic approach that is yielding Empire Strikes Back was the top Star Wars
dividends because five issues in and our picture, after The Ewok Movie of course.
sales are going from strength to strength. Yes, Blade Runner and 2001 are great sci-fi
Luckily there is not a shortage of great old TV shows films but for me they are too cold-hearted and lacking
and movies for us to cover, and we have some cracking in humanity, though they probably fit right in with
ones for you this time out, everything from Planet our modern world. But I recently rediscovered on
of the Apes and The Invaders to The Incredible Hulk YouTube one great little sci-fi film you won’t find on
and Sapphire and Steel. The latter was a particular Time Out’s list, namely Charly (1968), an intensely
favourite of mine back in the day, but kids nowadays moving adaptation of the Daniel Keyes novel, Flowers
would probably have a right old laugh watching the For Algernon. Cliff Robertson (pictured above),
show because the effects were very tacky - all the deservedly won an Oscar for his portrayal of Charly
budget went on the salaries of stars Joanna Lumley Gordon, a man with an IQ of 68 who becomes a genius
and David McCallum. overnight after taking part in a scientific experiment.
Getting back to the first Blade Runner, I must His advancement parallels that of Algernon, a
confess that I didn’t like it when I first saw it, and super-mouse who has been operated on, and when
that was back when it opened in the Leicester Square Charly sees that the mouse is regressing he realises
Theatre in 1982. My pal Gary and I came out enthusing that his super-intelligence will also be short-lived. A
about the amazing special effects but we were both really poignant and touching film with a great deal of
disappointed with the rather dreary storyline. We humanity, sadly an ingredient that many so-called
wanted to see Harrison Ford in chipper Han Solo sci-fi classics seem to lack.
guise, not looking like he was miserable and in need Allan Bryce.
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OUR VERY FIRST DARKFEST?
The Dark Side, The World’s Best-Selling Print Horror Magazine is now throwing
its first ever one day film festival. It’s Sunday For One Day Only - naturally - and
you are all invited - well, as long as you buy a ticket in advance of course!
Our very first DarkFest is being held on Sunday November 26th at London’s
fabulous retro Genesis cinema. It’s going to be a fun event. There’s an all-day
bar, decent parking nearby and you will get to meet all the Dark Side team and Sunday
a host of celebrities in between enjoying some classic vintage horrors on the November 26th
giant screen. We might even lay on some choc-ices and Kia-Oras! 12 noon - 11pm
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In association with CultFilms The first ever UK cinema Jacques Tourneur’s 1957 You have nothing to lose Tickets please for a Dark
we are proud to present screening of the Nucleus Night of the Demon needs but your mind. An Amicus Side favourite, and let the
the stunning new 4K Films 2K restoration of 1971’s no introduction. It’s one of compendium classic from train take the strain as you
restoration of the 1977 Dario Lady Frankenstein (1971). It’s the greatest horror movies 1972 on the big screen! We share a tense and terrifying
Argento classic, made in the most complete version ever made and we will be will be premiering the great big screen HD journey with
collaboration with Italian ever seen of this movie, and showing the longer HD new 2K restoration from Peter Cushing, Christopher,
partners Videa under the Sara Bay will look amazing version straight from the Severin/Second Sight. You’d Lee and a prehistoric version
aegis of Dario himself! on the giant screen! BFI National Archive. have to be insane to miss it! of The Thing!
MORE MOVIES TO BE CONFIRMED, AND EVERY FILM WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY TRAILERS AND SCARY SHORTS!
OUR VERY SPECIAL GUESTS* DARK SIDE BOOK LAUNCH
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VALERIE LEON CAROLINE MUNRO MARTINE BESWICK Dark Side contributor Denis Meikle!
(Carry On Girls, Blood From (Dracula AD 1972, Golden (Doctor Jekyll and Sister
The Mummy’s Tomb, Space Voyage of Sinbad, Captain Hyde, Thunderball,
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THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
The Infinity team bring you the latest news on your favourite TV shows and movie franchises,
including our exciting one-day film festival and brand new book on the history of Hammer!
COME TO THE DARKFEST to happen because the film hasn’t even started shooting yet. It also has a new
Let’s start with some personal news. As publishers of The director in Damien Szifron. Never heard of him? You’d better run, not walk, and
Dark Side magazine we are holding our very own DarkFest rent Wild Tales then, a work of sheer cinematic genius that has been the
on Sunday November 26th and we hope that many Infinity Argentinian-born filmmaker’s calling card to a big Hollywood career.
readers will also consider joining us for a day of fun and According to Hollywood sources the movie will be focused on the 1970s
fearful frolics. Aside from screening five great television series starring Lee Majors as a former astronaut who is
movies we are delighted to be able to host three of “upgraded” with bionic parts and employed by our government to embark
our favourite Bond movie glamour girls, Sister Hyde herself, on convert missions. The show, though, was also inspired by Martin Caidin’s
Martine Beswick, the lovely Caroline Munro of Starcrash fame novel Cyborg, and it has been suggested that the Mark Wahlberg movie
and Valerie Leon, famous for her Carry On film roles. It’s going HATHEM DARK SIDE PROMUDLY PRESENTS:ER may borrow from the pages of that book, as well. Chances are we won’t
to be a great day out and we’d love to see you there. You can THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR see this one until late 2018, because appropriately enough the production
THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF HAMMER FILMS – BY DENIS MEIKLE
find details of how to order tickets in our advert on page 5. seems to be running in slow motion…
Be sure to get in before the ordering cut-off date!
Also check out our brand new 180-page glossy, full colour
book: Hammer: The Haunted House of Horror. Those who
bought our earlier history of Amicus films will know what to
expect - pages and pages of gorgeous rare stills and posters,
plus entertaining and informative text by Denis Meikle, one of the world’s leading
authorites on Hammer. Go to our website at www.thedarksidemagazine.com for a
sneak preview and you can even get your name in it if you order a copy early!
THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO
The first annual Thunderbirds Day
took place on 30th September 2017.
To launch this historic celebration of
the beloved Thunderbirds franchise
and the premiere of new episodes
of Thunderbirds Are Go on CITV, ITV SIZE DOES MATTER
Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS In our book they really don’t make enough movies about people being shrunk to
GE) and Transport for London (TfL) are minuscule size, and we even love the likes of Attack of the Puppet People (which
partnering on a Thunderbirds Are Go you can read about elsewhere in this issue). So we are delighted to see that this
takeover of TfL’s iconic Emirates Air Line is the theme of a new sci-fi comedy called Downsizing, which is already being
cable car in east London. The activity will run until Sunday 29th October offering tipped as potential Oscar material.
families and visitors the chance to travel through the Tracy Island themed cable Directed by regular Oscar nominee Alexander Payne (Sideways, The
car terminal featuring large models of Thunderbird 1 and Thunderbird 2, and Descendants, Nebraska), Downsizing is set in a world where scientists have
take off in one of the themed cabins amidst the palm trees to the iconic 5-4-3-2-1 discovered a way of shrinking people down to the height of five inches as a
countdown. The cable car terminals and all the cabins will be fitted with plenty of solution to overpopulation. Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig star as a middle-class
selfie opportunities for all the family to enjoy. couple who decide to undergo the procedure after learning that their savings will
Emirates Air Line family tickets will be available at the discounted price of stretch further in this downsized existence, allowing them to live a life of luxury.
£27.50 for two adults and up to three kids. Christoph Waltz, Neil Patrick Harris and Laura Dern also star.
To complement the activity at the Emirates Air Line, InterContinental London, The film marks something of a departure for
The O2 will be hosting a Lady Penelope-themed Afternoon Tea. Visitors will be Payne, being his biggest budget movie to date
able to relax in the stylish and decadent surroundings of the Meridian Lounge and his first entry into the mainstream Hollywood
as they sample delicious themed treats fit for International Rescue’s most sci-fi arena. It premiered at the Venice film
stylish field agent including Tracy island coconut pineapple verrine, FAB 1 festival to a favourable critical response and after
pink bonbon torte and Lady Penelope macarons. Two specially created Lady a screening at this year’s London film festival it
Penelope cocktails will also be on offer providing the perfect finishing touch to opens in UK cinemas in early 2018.
a decadent afternoon. The event will also be attended by the Lady Penelope and
Parker puppets themselves, as seen on TV recently in the ‘Halifax Savers Are Go’ BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT
adverts. The Meridian Lounge will display bespoke prints from cult pop art studio “If only you could see what I’ve seen with your
Art & Hue. Guests will receive a welcome card with a special message from her eyes!” Well now you can see Blade Runner in the
Ladyship, signed by Rosamund Pike as Lady Penelope, her role in CITV’s reboot best ever picture quality with the release of the
Thunderbirds Are Go. movie on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. Now it is regarded
as a classic it is easy to forget how troubled a
MARK IS MR. BILLION production it was. Ridley Scott was
It was revealed at the end of 2014 that Mark Wahlberg fired and the film edited against his wishes, and it flopped on
was planning to make The Six Billion Dollar Man, an release in 1982. It found new life on home video and went
adjusted-for inflation movie of the classic TV show from strength to strength, going on to have a profound
The Six Million Dollar Man. He was originally going influence on modern cinema.
to make it with his regular collaborator, director Like Close Encounters, this has had lots of
Peter Berg (Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon, Lone different releases in various different cuts. The first
Survivor) and the plan was to get the movie in release of Ridley Scott’s Director’s Cut came on VHS
cinemas on December 22nd 2017. That isn’t going and LaserDisc in 1993. It was followed by a DVD
66 IINNFFIINNIITTYY
Name of feature
On the big screen, Stanton’s earliest, mostly uncredited work was in Westerns
and war pics, making his feature film debut in 1957’s Tomahawk Trail. He also
guested on many TV Westerns, including The Rifleman, Have Gun — Will Travel,
Bonanza, and Gunsmoke.
Genuine movie stardom of a sort came late in life to him. He was 58 years of age
in 1984 when he starred in Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas and in the cult hit Repo Man.
In 1986, Stanton enjoyed one of his biggest mainstream roles as Molly Ringwald’s
unemployed father in Pretty in Pink.
A close friend of Jack Nicholson, Stanton was best man at Nicholson’s 1962
wedding, and they lived together for more than two years after Nicholson’s divorce.
He was also a friend of Marlon Brando’s and appeared opposite both Brando and
Nicholson in The Missouri Breaks (1976).
Stanton also led his own band, first known as Harry Dean Stanton and the Repo
Men and later simply as the Harry Dean Stanton Band, and would play pickup
gigs in L.A. area clubs. He was friends with Bob Dylan, with whom he worked on
Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Hunter S. Thompson was
another close pal and Stanton sang at his funeral.
release in 1997, and then The Final Cut DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD release in 2007. A confirmed bachelor, he never married, but when asked about it he said he had
Now, on its 35th anniversary, Blade Runner: The Final Cut has landed on 4K Ultra “one or two children.”
HD Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers in a four-disc + Digital HD set. Let’s leave the last word to David Lynch, who wrote: “The great Harry Dean
Designer Kev is a masive fan of the film. He attended a screening of it recently, Stanton has left us. There went a great one. There’s nobody like Harry Dean.
and pronounced the sound quality amazing, though he and I saw a 2K version Everyone loved him. And with good reason. He was a great actor (actually beyond
projected at the BFI’s Stephen Street cinema and he tells me that he couldn’t see great) – and a great human being – so great to be around him!!! You are really
much difference between the two. I guess that’s a whole different debate, but if going to be missed Harry Dean!!! Loads of love to you wherever you are now!!!”
you are a Blade Runner fan who is lucky enough to own a 4K telly and a 4K player
then this is a must. FAREWELL TO OSCAR GOLDMAN
Extras include three audio commentaries with Ridley Scott, Hampton Fancher, We also recently lost Richard Anderson, a familiar character actor whose credits
David Peoples, Michael Deeley, Katherine Haber, Syd Mead, Lawrence G Paull, spanned more than 180 film and TV roles over six decades. He will be best
David Snyder, Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich, and David Dryer. We also get the remembered, however, for playing Oscar Goldman, the handler of the bionic duo
SD documentary: Dangerous Days which at 211 minutes is longer than the film! of Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers, played by Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner
And in case The Final Cut isn’t enough you can watch all three different versions in The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. The combined franchise ran
of the film: the original 1982 domestic cut, the 1982 International version, and the for more than 150 episodes from 1973-78 and spawned several TV movies, two of
subsequent 1992 Director’s Cut. There’s more, but we haven’t the space, just buy which Anderson produced. The Goldman character was so popular that Kenner
it already. introduced an action figure of him - complete with an “exploding briefcase” that
would “detonate” if opened incorrectly.
Anderson’s film credits include the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, Stanley
Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, Martin Ritt’s The Long Hot Summer, John Sturges’ Escape
From Fort Bravo and John Frankenheimer’s Seven Days in May. On TV he had roles
in Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, Dynasty, Dan August, Perry Mason, The Fugitive,
Charlie’s Angels, The A-Team, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Bonanza, Ironside, Daniel
Boone and Murder, She Wrote.
Born on August 8, 1926, in Long Branch, NJ, Anderson was raised in New York
City until moving to California at age 10. After serving in the Army during World
War II, he enrolled in the Actors Laboratory in
Los Angeles, which later became the Actors
Studio in New York.
Lee Majors paid tribute to him saying: “I met
Richard in 1967 when he first guest starred
on The Big Valley - we worked together on five
episodes. In 1974, he joined me as my boss,
Oscar Goldman, in The Six Million Dollar Man.
Richard became a dear and loyal friend, and
I have never met a man like him. I called him
‘Old Money.’ His always stylish attire, his class,
calmness and knowledge never faltered in his
91 years. He loved his daughters, tennis and his
SOMETHING ABOUT HARRY work as an actor.
We sincerely hope that there’s not a ‘No Smoking’ rule in heaven, but if there is He was still the same sweet, charming man
then they are sure to waive it for the great Harry Dean Stanton, who managed to when I spoke to him a few weeks ago. I will miss
survive to the grand old age of 91 despite seemingly puffing away on the old coffin you, my friend.”
nails from dawn to dusk. He was gaunt and bedraggled and nobody’s pin-up, but
as film critic Roger Ebert once said: “No movie with Harry Dean Stanton in it can be
altogether bad.
Though never a major star he was certainly up there as one of the greatest
character actors who ever lived, and boy did he have some great roles in his long
career. Sci-fi fans will remember him as Brett, one of the ill-fated crew members in
Alien (1979) and as Brain in John Carpenter’s Escape From New York (1981), as well
as the degenerate Bud in Alex Cox’s Repo Man (1984). Among my own favourites
are his unlucky gangsters Homer in Dillinger (1973), and Jerry in Straight Time
(1978), plus all the great work he did with David Lynch.
Born in West Irvine, Stanton served in the Navy during WWII. After the acting
bug bit he headed to California to study at the Pasadena Playhouse.
He made his small-screen debut in 1954 in an episode of the NBC show Inner
Sanctum. He was credited as Dean Stanton in most of his early roles to avoid
confusion with the actor Harry Stanton, who died in 1978.
IINNFFIINNIITTYY 77
This page:
Though Sapphire
and Steel was
originally planned
as a children’s
show, the signing
of big name
stars Joanna
Lumley and David
McCallum made
it too expensive
for a teatime slot.
The marketing
spinoffs, however,
were obviously
aimed at a
younger audience
Strange, enigmatic
and disturbing,
Sapphire &
Steel entranced
television
audiences in the
late 1970s and
early 1980s, as
Robert Fairclough
reports…
8 INFINITY
TWO ELEMENTS OF CULT TV GOLD
T
here was definitely something in the air they were named after.) with Hollywood star Tony Curtis to winning effect in
in the 1970s regarding the paranormal, Crucially, audiences could relate to them – The Persuaders! (1971-72).
possibly as a hangover from the interest and the series – because the investigators were McCallum was a blonde-haired, striking and
in mysticism that 1960s counter-culture essentially “good cop” (Sapphire) and “bad cop” sophisticated British-born actor who’d made his
had helped popularise. In 1971, David Bowie sang (Steel), Hammond being a prolific and experienced name in America opposite Robert Vaughn in the
about making way for “the homo superior” in ‘Oh! writer of police dramas: between 1969 and 1978, groovy TV secret agent caper The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
You Pretty Things’ and, throughout the decade, he wrote 33 episodes of the BBC’s Z Cars, and also (1964-68), and the rather more serious World War
advanced beings with powers such as telepathy contributed to New Scotland Yard (1973-74) and II BBC/Universal Studios drama Colditz (1972-74).
and ESP were a staple of children’s TV drama: Ace The Sweeney (1976). Despite the promising and The statuesque, regal Lumley, acting since the late
of Wands (1970-72), The Tomorrow People (1973-79) unusual scenario, however, Hammond recalled that 1950s in small and supporting roles, had become
and Sky (1975) all featured characters who could lay “(Thames) couldn’t see how good it was… Director of a household name in another spy show, The New
claim to being the heralded master race. Programmes Jeremy Isaacs said it had no mileage.” Avengers (1976-77), a revival of the stylish 1960s series
There was also a concurrent fascination with malign Undaunted, the author submitting the project starring Patrick Macnee. Both actors were perfect
supernatural forces in the chilling series The Changes to Southern TV, who had a reputation for quality casting as their respective characters: Sapphire
(1975) and Children of the Stones (1977), as well as in children’s programming with series such as The dazzling, beautiful and mesmerizing, while Steel was
adult TV fiction like Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale’s Black Arrow (1972-75, based on Robert Louis focused, enigmatic and, occasionally, threatening.
unsettling The Stone Tape (1972) and the series it may Stevenson’s adventure novel), but the company
have inspired, The Omega Factor (1979). apparently wanted to consider more episode PICTURE THE SCENE
Sapphire & Steel, arriving in July 1979 courtesy breakdowns before they committed to a series. A remote, windswept house, a variety of clocks
of ATV - one of the regional TV stations that, at When The Time Menders was subsequently ticking in the many rooms. A teenage boy does his
the time, made up the ITV network - was in many forwarded to ATV, it found an immediate ally in Head homework at the kitchen table while his parents
ways the culmination of British television’s 1970s of Drama David Reid; Hammond recalled that Reid play with their small daughter, singing her the
fascination with the paranormal. Peter J. Hammond, had been unable to sleep after reading the proposal nursery rhyme ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses’. Slowly, all
who had written for both Thames Television’s Ace of and, on the strength of the initial script’s unsettling the clocks wind down and stop ticking. The voices
Wands and the company’s supernatural anthology power, gave the green light for a full series without of the parents suddenly fall silent, replaced by an
series for younger viewers Shadows (1975-78), was hesitation. It was also Reid’s idea that the title be unearthly, vaguely electronic murmur…
asked by both series’ producer Pamela Lonsdale to changed to the more alluring Sapphire & Steel. Steel, who somehow knows the boy’s name,
devise another paranormal-leaning series aimed at arrives with a young woman, Sapphire. He says
a young audience. AURA OF MYSTERY they’ve been sent to help, speaking of “lots of
“I’ve always been fascinated by famous Adding to the aura of mystery, no individual story old, old echoes” in the house, while Sapphire
mysteries like the Mary Celeste and Bermuda titles were given on screen, and when the series cryptically mentions “a corridor… the corridor is
Triangle, and also by stories of time travel,” began in July 1979, ‘Adventure One’ betrayed time. It surrounds all things and it passes through
Hammond remarked. “I watched my children its genesis as a children’s series by having as its all things. You can’t see it – only sometimes, when
watching an old version of H.G. Wells’ The Time ‘audience identifiable’ characters the young Robert it’s dangerous… You cannot enter into time, but
Machine and they were riveted. So I decided to write Jardine (Steven O’Shea) and his younger sister Helen sometimes time can enter into the present. Break in.
a story about time from a different angle. Instead (Tamasin Bridge). Burst through. Take things – take people.”
of people going from everyday life into time, I had However, during production of this first six-part In the small girl’s bedroom, as Sapphire recites
time breaking into everyday life.” serial, Sapphire & Steel’s producer/director Shaun ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses’, ghosts from the past appear
In effect, time became the enemy: a mysterious O’Riordan quickly realised that, as Reid’s sleepless and one wall of the room telescopes alarmingly into
force attacking the present, personified in ghosts night suggested, “If (it) had gone out at 5.30 it would the distance…
from the past and creatures from the beginning and have terrified children.” Hammond’s powerful, adult In a time before convention-breaking dramas
end of its span. In Hammond’s new series, originally mixture of “suspense, mystery and unseen horror” like Twin Peaks (1990-91, 2017), Lost (2004-2010),
titled The Time Menders, these esoteric threats were was consequently promoted to an early evening slot, and Legion (2017- ), Sapphire & Steel really was
combated by the two title characters, a male and running for half an hour (with a commercial break) revolutionary. At the time, the only series that
female duo of mysterious agents with powers that, from 7.30pm for all 34 episodes, between 1979 and matched its deliberately ambiguous format was
in the trend for super beings in childrens’ TV of the 1982. Each episode ended on a cliffhanger. Patrick McGoohan’s paranoid, open-ended spy
time, possessed powers that marked them out as Another factor that may have promoted Sapphire thriller The Prisoner, made over ten years before (for
‘more than human’. & Steel to a primetime slot was the engagement of ATV’s international arm, ITC).
Steel, the man, could take his body temperature two stars in David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. Where that had combined the filmed action
down to zero. He also possessed great strength and Both actors were A-list and not the kind of artists thriller with surreal fantasy, Sapphire & Steel was
the ability to move objects and immobilise people you expected to see in a low budget children’s minimalist and sinister: recorded on videotape
through thought control. His partner Sapphire was drama. As O’Riordan noted, the “above the line” – as the majority of domestic British TV drama
able to manipulate time (to a limited extent), project cost of one episode of Sapphire & Steel in 1979 was between the 1950s and 1980s – it relied on
illusions and (somehow) discern people and objects’ was a modest £5,000, and McCallum’s fee added an ambience of menace and suspense, powered
biographical and background details. up to almost the same amount. He and Lumley by dialogue and usually confined to one, isolated
Stressing their separation from normal humans, were attracted to the series by the originality of location: Adventure One’s family house, followed by
there was also telepathic communication between Hammond’s writing, the discerning McCallum a railway station, a time machine berthed on top of
the pair. There was no more back story to them proclaiming the first story “great stuff,” while a tower block, a rundown boarding house, a country
than that, a striking departure for the TV drama of Lumley found it “a thrilling idea”. house and a motorway cafe.
the time (apart from the suggestion, in the solemn Their starring roles were brokered by ATV’s In this respect, it’s not pretentious to suggest that
opening voiceover, that Sapphire and Steel may charismatic chairman, Lew Grade, whose had Sapphire & Steel was the telefantasy equivalent of
have evolved from the “medium atomic” elements previously paired The Saint’s suave Roger Moore the British playwright Harold Pinter’s work.
INFINITY 9
NROamBEeR oTf FfAeaIRtuCrLeOUGH
Such ground-breaking plays as The Birthday of viewer tolerance,” as well as the programme’s saw the whole network off air between 9 August
Party and The Dumb Waiter (both 1957) defined carefully constructed air of mystery: “Who and what and 23 October, but Sapphire and Steel’s second
his ‘Pinteresque’ approach – a term he hated – to Sapphire and Steel are remains unclear. During the assignment gained more devotees when it was
drama: a tense atmosphere in a confined, claustro- production McCallum told me he thought he was an repeated from the beginning in November 1979.
phobic space; an ambiguous approach to time, place angel. I offer that titbit without any confidence that
W
and the characters’ identity; tense, long pauses and it will be in the least helpful.” ith such an enthusiastic response to the
a sense of threat expressed largely through what the Significantly, a more positive opinion could be first series, ATV commissioned two new
characters say. found in the broadsheet Daily Telegraph, with the stories which were transmitted in early
Sapphire & Steel incorporated all of these paper’s Sean Day-Lewis appreciative of the series’ 1981. Adventure Three’s attempt to do something new
Pinteresque touches, together with the binding creative ambitions: “It was… quite gripping in its with Sapphire & Steel’s ‘isolated location’ scenario
element crucial to the success of any drama mysterious way and though Shaun O’Riordan’s wasn’t entirely successful: the only location filming in
production – absolutely committed, convincing direction ensured performances unexcitable to a the series – on the top of a nondescript city building
performances. fault, the sinister atmosphere was well made and – didn’t add much to Hammond’s story of futuristic
McCallum and Lumley compelled the viewer’s maintained.” vivisection in a time capsule, while an increased
attention from the start, the latter easily winning Unshackled from the need to cater for children, demand for overtly science fiction-style effects
the trust of the Robert and Helen, at the same time Adventure Two is arguably the definitive Sapphire showed up the limitations of the series’ budget.
suggesting an alien otherness with her sometimes & Steel story. Set at night in a derelict railway The third serial did, however, develop the
blank expressions and blue, pulsating eyes. station and adjoining hotel, the unquestionably characters’ back story, with the introduction of
McCallum, meanwhile, conveyed focused intensity adult subject matter features the resentful ghosts Silver (the equally well cast David Collings), a
in underplayed, quiet phrases like “take (the nursery of a dead soldier, fighter pilot and submariners, Specialist Technician skilled in electronics, who was
rhyme) downstairs – and burn it.” O’Riordan’s belief recruited by time as a fighting force. Its eight parts also able to create new tools from the raw material
in a theatrical production style suited to atmospher- last for nearly four hours and are remarkable for of different objects (another agent, Lead, a strong
ically lit, shadowy video won a loyal following from demonstrating how a mood of unease and tension man played by Val Pringle, had appeared in the first
the start, with the first episode accruing 11.8 million can be maintained by a small cast, with only three story). Lumley and Collings played well off each
viewers as the fourth most watched programme, principal actors to the fore – McCallum, Lumley and other, implying a flirtatious relationship that Steel
nationally, of the week 7-13 July 1979. Gerald James as the naïve ghost hunter George Tully. was clearly jealous of.
The story also reinforces the agents’ ruthless side, At a concise four episodes, Adventure Four
PRETENTIOUS NONSENSE? as Steel brokers a deal where in exchange for letting challenged the duo’s second assignment for the
Despite the series becoming immediately popular, the wartime ghosts rest, time takes Tully’s life. accolade of the archetypal Sapphire & Steel story.
perhaps because of its designation as science Hammond recalled that the second adventure “Old photographs have always fascinated me,”
fiction – a genre frowned upon by critics at the time was made to a very tight schedule: “The first five Hammond revealed, “and the idea of sepia children
– reviews in the press were initially unenthusiastic. episodes were in production while I was still writing climbing in and out of them was exciting to write.
“I’m told that Sapphire and Steel, the twice-weekly the last three. In other words, no-one, including I also enjoyed creating ‘Mister Shape’, the first
sci-fi serial, is becoming a cult programme among myself, had any idea what the ending was going to identifiable adversary that Sapphire and Steel had
children,” noted Margaret Forwood in The Sun, be while the show was being made. A nerve-racking so far encountered.” The duo’s enemy in this story
going on to say rather more damningly, “The only experience but an exciting one, often bringing the was truly unnerving, a black suited, bowler-hatted
explanation I can think of is that the little dears best out of all those involved.” man with no face, a close cousin to the similar
are watching this pretentious nonsense strictly for There was some compensation for the author at characters portrayed in the paintings of the
laughs… It has no right to be hogging primetime the end of recording, when he spent an enjoyable surrealist artist René Magritte (1898-1967). Mister
once a week. Perhaps a time warp allowed it to evening “drinking with the railway station ghosts in Shape, or The Shape, features in Sapphire & Steel’s
escape from Children’s Hour?” the bar.” single most disturbing scene, when the screams of
In The Daily Mail, two different reviewers With the series now fully into its mature stride, a young woman trapped inside a photograph can be
grumbled at, respectively, “An unvaried, unrelieved the TV reviewer in The Scotsman praised Adventure heard as The Shape sets it on fire.
half an hour of… haunted stuff up and down the Two’s “genuine feelings of loss and waste and death.” The character was played by ingénue actor Philip
stairs (which) struck me as a conspicuous abuse The story was interrupted by an ITV strike that Bird. “The fitting of the mask to cover my face was
fairly frightening,” he remembered. “I just had a little
straw to breathe through, they slapped stuff all over
With the series ending, the Daily Telegraph’s Peter Knight
my face, and I felt very vulnerable and claustropho-
bic. I remember standing in front of a blue screen so
was on hand to pay tribute: “The end of the current series
that they could isolate me and slot me into various
photographs (the character I played, The Shape, was
will mark the end of one of the cleverest, most intriguing
a kind of Zelig who could hide in photographs) and it
was terribly important that I stayed on the mark and
little sorties into television sci-fi we have seen for some time
all the movements were exact. My eyes were opened
10 INFINITY