"We might just lose this one."
This, unexpectedly, turns out to be a superb episode, fizzling with big ideas, and utterly gripping. Despite the fact that Sapphire and Steel are still not inside the capsule by the end of the episode there's plenty to stimulate the viewer.
It's interestng to ponder what a daring piece of television this is from a modern perspective: absolutely none of the four key characters are at all fit to be audience identification figures, none of them hailing from anything close to twentieth century Earth. All of them, too, are somewhat alienating personalities. Sapphire is at her most otherwordly here; Rothwyn is positively scary; Eldred is entitled arrogance personified; and Steel is... well, Steel. That wouldn't get past the script editors these days. Plus it's most odd to see something so cool and conceptual being directed so flatly with multiple cameras.
And yet it's riveting television, and it's riveting television because of the ideas. Steel's reaction at the start shows how much we should fear these alienating "invaders" and the ineffable power of time itself. The pillow is also a swan. Rothwyn is suddenly much weirder. There's some glowing thing in the wall- possibly the "crystal" of time that bought the couple back fifteen hundred years... and the baby grows to adulthood within mere minutes.
After all this weirdness we turn to a fairly normal ending, as Steel again urges Sapphire to poke a stick at the threat and see what happens- and it isn't good, as Sapphire promptly vanishes while talking of eternal pain. Lovely.
This is bloody good, and utterly of its time.
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