moon_custafer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
moon_custafer) wrote2012-09-23 03:43 pm
moon_custafer) wrote2012-09-23 03:43 pm
Entry tags:
All Fall Down
After years of hearing about Sapphire and Steel, I finally got through the first story of the series, up in 18 parts on Youtube. The show ably works around the even-lower-than-Dr.Who effects budget -- it matters not a whit that our heroes are basically battling spooky music, lighting effects and video overlays (and at one point, a wind machine) -- but I'm not sure the story needed to be six episodes long, and the children, Rob and Helen, are a little too realistic, in that they're scared, not always very bright, and get tricked/possessed by the entities thinly disguised as their parents several times each.
I'm trying to headcannon that Rob falls for it the second time because (a) his resistance is wearing down, and (b) the fact he can actually *see* something that looks like his Dad (as opposed to earlier, when it was only his Mum's voice from behind a barred door) is overriding all other warning signs (deathly cold hands, not recalling his sister's name, generally making illogical statements). As for Helen, given that the actress' line readings and expressions didn't always match the situation, I half-suspected she was either mildly developmentally-disabled, or a willing accomplice to the extradimensional entities.
Of course, it's more likely the scriptwriter originally conceived the character as four or five years old, and the casting director picked a seven- or eight-year-old actress to avoid trouble with the labour laws.
I also think this story was probably an influence on Nu-Who's 'Night Terrors' last season; and a quick search confirmed I'm not the only one to see 'Gabriel and Tanith,' villains from the New Adventures novel Falls the Shadow, as basically an evil version of Sapphire and Steel, though visually they probably also owe something to Enlightenment* and Persuasion in 'Four to Doomsday.'
* And, falling sideways, S&S are sort of like benevolent (but still spooky) versions of the Eternals in 'Enlightenment.'
I'm trying to headcannon that Rob falls for it the second time because (a) his resistance is wearing down, and (b) the fact he can actually *see* something that looks like his Dad (as opposed to earlier, when it was only his Mum's voice from behind a barred door) is overriding all other warning signs (deathly cold hands, not recalling his sister's name, generally making illogical statements). As for Helen, given that the actress' line readings and expressions didn't always match the situation, I half-suspected she was either mildly developmentally-disabled, or a willing accomplice to the extradimensional entities.
Of course, it's more likely the scriptwriter originally conceived the character as four or five years old, and the casting director picked a seven- or eight-year-old actress to avoid trouble with the labour laws.
I also think this story was probably an influence on Nu-Who's 'Night Terrors' last season; and a quick search confirmed I'm not the only one to see 'Gabriel and Tanith,' villains from the New Adventures novel Falls the Shadow, as basically an evil version of Sapphire and Steel, though visually they probably also owe something to Enlightenment* and Persuasion in 'Four to Doomsday.'
* And, falling sideways, S&S are sort of like benevolent (but still spooky) versions of the Eternals in 'Enlightenment.'