Sapphire and Steel - The Complete Series
One of the oddest shows ever mounted for mainstream British television,Sapphire & Steelwas one of ITV's many short-lived attempts at grabbing the sci-fi cult status of the BBC'sDoctor Who. Ex-Man from U.N.C.L.E. David McCallum and ex-Avenger Joanna Lumley play human-looking incarnations of the eponymous substances, mysterious investigators working at the behest of an apparent God of Order and zipping about TARDIS-like to cope with anomalies in the time-stream that manifest as apparent supernatural forces in remote English locales like an isolated farmhouse (Adventure One), a deserted rural railway station (Adventure Two) and a high-rise block of flats (Adventure Three).McCallum and Lumley play their "medium atomic weights" with blank style and a few touches of baffled humor, not to mention visual flair in the case of Lumley's blue fashions and occasional glowing eyes. But the lengthy serial format, strictly limited guest casts, and claustrophobic confinement to studio sets tend to mean individual serials straggle on with a great deal of repetition, as six- or eight-part stories seem to take forever to get moving and then resolve. Shot on video, with a few strange 1970s effects (evil follow-spots, floating pillows), this remains prime cult material, though it's hard to sit still for more than one episode at a time.--Kim Newman