All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver, and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.
Sapphire And Steel was a British science fiction series produced by ATV between 1979 and 1982. It brought together the talents of David McCallum (of The Man From UNCLE) and Joanna Lumley (of The New Avengers fame). Groundbreaking for its time, Sapphire And Steel has since passed into the realm of cult television, already made fleetingly available on video some years ago, now available on two sets of DVDs.
Sapphire And Steel was an original idea from Peter Hammond, who wrote the majority of the series; all but Adventure Five, in fact, which was written by Don Houghton and Anthony Read. The organisation of the series takes place in 'adventures', though the DVD refers to them as 'assignments'. Either way, each adventure was split into episodes of half an hour - some adventures took eight episodes, some as few as four. The majority worked out as six, which was, in truth, quite enough. The series was, at times, painfully slow, and even the brilliance of the dialogue and the ideas contained within it struggled to draw the series out into a state of 'adventure'.
The two main characters, Sapphire and Steel, are supposed 'elements', who work alongside a whole range of other such elements. (The fact that many of these elements are not elements at all, and that some of them are, in fact, the same basic element is a minor niggle, and ultimately unimportant to the nature of the adventures.) They are not human, but are instead paranormal detectives of some kind, working for an unknown agency to prevent breaks in time and deal with the inhuman and monstrous creatures that slip through into our reality.
Much of this work is shrouded in mystery, however. Little is revealed to us about Sapphire and Steel's origin, save that which is occasionally given away in dialogue, or that revealed by the initial voice-over. It appears that the agency operates on three levels: investigators, operatives and specialists. Occasionally, in certain episodes, other elements will appear: Lead is practised at handling force fields and Silver, portrayed as a smooth womaniser, is skilled at the manipulation of electronic devices. Steel reveals that there are a total of 127 active elements, though he is scornful of the transuranics, whom he describes as unstable.
There is no doubt that, for its time, Sapphire And Steel was a popular and well-made series. Now, of course, it appears dated beyond words, with special effects relying heavily on bright lights, smoke, and an awful lot of papiér maché. Other aspects worked well, however - Sapphire and Steel could communicate via telepathy, and this was cunningly interwoven with true spoken dialogue to enhance the viewer's experience of the story and provide a secondary narrative, helping to keep the viewer on track with what was often a convoluted and alien script. While it is true that the majority of episodes could be compressed to half their length and, indeed, would probably benefit from a little imaginative editing, it is clear that Sapphire And Steel had a certain something going for it. | 
