all irregularities will be handled

[raven]

If you wanted to be charitable, you could say I spent this week doing grown-up, house-hunting assessing-relationship things - or you could just say I spent this week lying on Shim's bed watching Sapphire & Steel. (And occasionally taking a deep breath and closing the laptop and not watching it, especially just before bed.)

I am at a loss to explain why I have suddenly fallen in love with a faintly clunky British sci-fi show from the seventies. Because, okay, I have watched lots of classic Doctor Who and lots of Star Trek TOS. And I love them both - I do love them. I love them because you watch TOS and think, huh, this is pretty derivative. And then you think: no, actually, everything else is derived from this. I mean. I love "Amok Time" and "Mirror, Mirror" and "The City at the Edge of Forever". And I love old Who - I love, love, love that here is this show that people, not just sci-fi fans sort of people, watch, and it's full of warmth and sweetness and oh yeah it's been going since 1963. In both of them, I love the scale of imagination - the way they set out to draw on these huge canvasses, these layered and multi-layered plots (Caves of Androzani, anyone? Does everyone else understand it, or am I not the only one?) and quite often they don't have the budget or technical ability to match, but they have the vision.

But... I'm a child of the nineties. Very sad and unfortunately true. Somehow my suspension of disbelief never quite works out when faced with matte-painting alien worlds and monsters made of bubble-wrap. And I think it's perfectly okay, actually, to love shows not just because they are of great cultural import but also because they are camp and fabulously endearing and sometimes the sets fall over. Red Dwarf would have been no fun at all if they'd not, you know, filmed on Crosby beach in the winter time and invited you to believe it was a tropical paradise.

But Sapphire & Steel is different. It didn't have the money or the technology for alien worlds or monsters, so it didn't have them. Instead it has.... well. It has whole serials against the background of one set, with three or four-member casts, with nearly no specical effects. It's entirely PG-rated. And somehow, through the writing and the acting, it's compelling and it's also seriously fucking scary. I mean. Okay, so in one episode there's some sort of evil presence moving things around. A coat drops off a peg, cushions fall off sofas. One of the characters gives voice what the audience is thinking and says, big deal, what harm can that even do?

Behind him, almost unnoticed, a pillow falls into the baby's crib.

That's it, that's what it does. It has a kind of deathless creepiness that I really, really like. And, okay, one of my issues with really getting into old Who is the veeeeeeery slow pacing. I know it was a serial, it's how it was done, but I just... I flag. And this is the same format, and someone on tvtropes describes Sapphire & Steel as having the pacing of "Star Trek The Motion Picture on thorazine", which is probably true - but it works. It really does work. It builds up the tension and foreboding that way until by the last episode you're properly jumpy.

And couple that with the fact it makes a religion of never telling you what the fuck is going on - who are Sapphire and Steel? Well, they wander the universe fixing stuff that's gone wrong. They are not futuristic detectives, as Amazon apparently thinks they are. They are not Time Lords. They are "medium atomic weights" - but no one ever seems to point out that neither sapphire nor steel is an element. They're telepathic between themselves, but not generally. They don't sleep and they don't age. They're very aware of and tied to time. And, while I'm at it, they're played by David McCallum and Joanna Lumley and it's 1979 and I am so grateful for my own bisexuality sometimes I can't even tell you. I mean. Come on. Just. How is this quantity of preternatural beauty even possible.

And they're not human. I really love how well that's done, too: through a mixture of good writing and acting, you're really made to believe that while they look human, they're not. They're alien and amoral and kind of sinister and the relationship between them definitely consists in something but not something you can understand. It's loving and alien and sexually charged and kinky as all-get-out in a lot of ways - okay, obscure, but even so I was amazed to discover that no has ever written it for kink_bingo.

And, there is a fair bit of fic on the AO3 but no actual Sapphire/Steel, which baffles me. The funny thing is, I wanted to find a fic that gets at this whole kinky-sexually-charged-but-inhuman dynamic - and I didn't find it, but I did find a vid, of all things: Ground Beneath Your Feet (on youtube - couldn't find it anywhere else) and I totally love it and have watched a redacted number of times in the last couple of days. (And me, you know me, I'm vid-illiterate, there's a tiny handful of vids that have had enough of an effect on me for me to watch them more than once.) But it's amazing - gets at all that, the relationship between them, the way-creepy-cool vibe the show has, and gives it some actual pace and as a bonus it's very pretty to look at.

And yes. It's Britain in 1979. Sometimes the haircuts remind you of this fact. Sometimes the interior decor does. But, it impresses me by having a non-white character - Lead, who neatly subverts the stereotypes - and by doing interesting things with gender power dynamics. On first gloss, Steel is the dominant half of the pair... but it's not actually quite that simple. I like it.

On the whole this isn't an unreserved rec - if you're not me, for example, and thus maybe don't have a thing for deserted underground stations and urban ghost stories and understated creepiness and all of those things together, it might not be to your taste, and I should mention again that it can be really very disturbing - but. But, I like it better than old Who. Shush. Don't tell anyone.

The DVDs can be had for not that much, so I was going to get them, but on second thoughts, I think I will wait till the house-move is over and then get them delivered to a new address. It is a little ridiculous how exciitng I find this. Hi I am grown up honest.

Comments

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually been following georgiesmith's journal of late, but I know she's written Sapphire/Steel. (I don't know if it's anything like what you'd be looking for... *shrugs* I am such a genfic reader.)

The motherlode of all S&S fic is at sapphirensteel - just a heads-up in case you hadn't found it yet. ;-)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I shall go and see. :)

[highfantastical.livejournal.com]

Just curious: what do you think of Blakes 7? It's one of my all-time favourites, but I am not generally a classic scifi person at all, so I wonder if B7!love correlates or inverse-correlates or is unrelated to wider preferences...

Coincidentally, I am looking at your article E'EN NOW. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I have never seen it! I actually meant to mention above that it's the part of the whole old-Who/Sapphire & Steel/Blake's 7 trinity that I haven't touched, and then forgot. Do you think I would like it? (I find I can't tell you if you'd like Sapphire & Steel, because of the things you like and I like, I can't actually figure out what they have in common.... :P)

[highfantastical.livejournal.com]

Generally I think of you as someone with rather cheerier tastes than I (all my favourite media are my favourites because they shred me), but then again you are a big fan of S&A, which is devastating despite its humour. It depends what you go to the classic scifi for, I suspect - if you need some happiness, then B7 is not for you (there is comedy, both intentional and unintentional, but the basic set-up is unrelentingly grim). OTOH, it is really quite wonderful, if you can bear the misery! It sounds from this review as though the "warmth and sweetness" you get from some scifi is not actually a prequisite, so I'd probably give a qualified recommendation that you try it out. B7 very much benefits from being watched in order, and in large quantities.

(I know what you mean; the overlapping bits of our interests are diverse, but not easily explicable.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, it's definitely worth a try, sounds like. And re: S&S, one of its themes does seem to be the immense illogic and inhumanity of existence. So, you know. :)

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Sapphire and Steel (and I have just watched the first few minutes of Assignment One) drew its stories in tighter location settings than Doctor Who or Blake's 7 did. ATV were a company who generally did grand scale adventure on film through their sister firm ITC; ATV itself was usually for smaller scale productions. Sapphire and Steel took what could be told on one or two sets representing a confined location to extents ordinarily associated with the single play, but added minimalist sound effects, absolute star presence, and scripts where so much has to be inferred by the viewer from chosen words and gesture.

(I am, as I like to tell people, a child of the 1970s, and I had a zip-up cardigan very like Rob's in Assignment One.)

The Caves of Androzani is difficult to follow - there's almost too much incident and cutting between different settings and it's a challenge to work out who is working with who at any given time. Since 2005 I've been struck by how incredibly bleak it is.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, the one show that reminds me of is Frasier, of all things! Another show I absolutely adore, but for what I thought were completely different reasons. That said, television that pulls down to writing and acting, like a stage play - that always works for me.

(I am, as I like to tell people, a child of the 1970s, and I had a zip-up cardigan very like Rob's in Assignment One.)

awwwwww!

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

I love Sapphire & Steel!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

yay! I wish to know why my entire flist has not told me how much I'd like it.

[cscottd.livejournal.com]

To be honest, it never even occurred to me that you might not already be watching it.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

A fair point, my friend. I mean, it does seem to have actually been written FOR ME.

[ghostrunner7.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I read this whole thing because I got hooked in by the fact that you were listening to The Civil Wars and now I am tentatively interested in watching Sapphire and Steel. So, you know, well done with this post.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heee! I have just discovered the Civil Wars, too, and have been getting acquainted with them at the same time as Sapphire & Steel. They go together surprisingly well. :)

[ghostrunner7.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing them in concert soon. Should be a good time.

Just finished Assignment One. God, this is a harrowing show.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oooh, lucky! I found out too late about the London show a couple of days ago.

If harrowing is good, and we like harrowing and we're on board with the harrowing, well, hurrah - but if not Assignment 2 may not be the very best idea. Y'know. It is.... yeah. :)

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

Crumbs - I always imagined Sapphire and Steel was a detective show... What am I thinking of? Something with a married couple, or possibly the people who played them were married. I shall investigate it...

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

You might be thinking of Remington Steele?

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly...maybe in combination with The Avengers... My 1970s tv show knowledge covers MASH in great detail and then tailors off...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I recommend "Name and Name (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NameAndName)" for this problem!

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

TV Tropes is a great website but swallows up huge chunks of time...dangerous stuff...

[tau_sigma]

That's what I thought! I am kind of relieved to find it's not just me...

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

And, while I'm at it, they're played by David McCallum and Joanna Lumley and it's 1979 and I am so grateful for my own bisexuality sometimes I can't even tell you. I mean. Come on. Just. How is this quantity of preternatural beauty even possible.

This, this, a thousand times this!
xx

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heee! Isn't it AMAZING.

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

Before I was pointed in it's general direction (P either got me the series or flat out told me to get it :D) I was already very into Ms. Lumley, and of course... DMC. I still find it really funny thatdespite not remembering watching him in A night to remember when I was about ten, when I heard somebody say he was in it I went "OMG HE WAS THE RADIO OPERATOR!"
There aren't words for how lovely and pretty and wonderful they are but you've got it pretty on the nail there :D
xx

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

they're played by David McCallum and Joanna Lumley and it's 1979 and I am so grateful for my own bisexuality sometimes I can't even tell you.

I have had this exact thought about this show. I need to do a complete series watch of S&S, I'm sure I haven't seen half of it.

[marymac.livejournal.com]

You haven't, I think, you kept wandering off to finish your thesis when I was watching it.

PROJECT.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh my god the PRETERNATURAL BEAUTY. And I don't even know if it's an actual casting choice - that elemental beings should be blonde-haired blue-eyed and beautiful - or it's just one of those things. I am sort of assuming they did not sit down and think, how do we make lots of bisexuals REALLY REALLY HAPPY.

Nevertheless. I am. :)

[marymac.livejournal.com]

I love S&S a ridiculous amount. It's the same terror in the everyday that Moffat does with Who. Only on a much creepier scale.

I treasure the night we made E watch the first serial in Sinking Boy's creepy old flat. She wouldn't talk to us for days.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yes, that! It's a really clear influence on Moffat-Who - creepy photographs, creepy old houses, creepy railway stations, all very mundane, all horrifying.

(I started watching it in the States and that was okay, because nothing around me was really old. Now, though.... :P)

[tau_sigma]

I think I am going to have a watch of some Sapphire and Steele. I have no idea when, since I seem to be acquiring new TV to watch rather a lot recently, but. It sounds good.

But, I like it better than old Who. Shush. Don't tell anyone.

I have no words, Iona. No words.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Come and see me, or I will come and see you, and we will watch it, it is AWESOME. Also, if it helps, there is very little of it - 34 twenty-min episodes, that's it. But yes.

I have no words, Iona. No words.

sorry sorry sorry sorry.

[kowarth.livejournal.com]

bekkypk pointed me to this post and may i just say Huzzah!
I was fortunate enough to see some of the late S&S on airing and have always loved it.

The story doesnt end with adventure 6 however. Look In Comics ran a full watercoloured strip weekly throughout the series original run and Big Finish Audio ran 4 series of superb audio adventures (although S&S were recast with David Warner and Sussanah Harker the chemistry was absolutely still there. And just like classic sns the recasting is not explained)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I've got a few of the audios to listen to, and so far I like them, I think. But, I am shallow, the RIDICULOUS BEAUTY of the cast...

[kowarth.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm with you all the way.
of course the cast are the primary reason theres very little of anything else. And why it was broadcast in the evenings rather than its original childrens slot.
Thankfully PJ Hammond is superb enough that all trappings of the kids show origin vanish after story 1.

Makes cast reunions easier mind ;)