Sapphire & Steel: Assignment One- Escape Through a Crack in Time, Part 6

 "Goodbye, Rob."

Probably best not to analyse this last episode too much; some stuff happens and we're back at the beginning, courtest of "The House That Jack Built". It's an entertaining spectacle, especially with Rob in the past as the house is being built, and all the storytelling beats are there... but it makes no real narrative sense. This episode feels oddly as though it's not so much a final episode but just a series of events in the shape of a final episode.

Again, no new cool concepts are introduced; this is about finishing things rather than throwing new ideas around. It all feels dramatic enough but there's a real vagueness to what happens.

This first serial, overall, introduces a mindblowingly good concept and throws loads of equally mindblowing ideas at us... but at six parts it's about a third too long, and most of the cool ideas are focused in the early episodes. This is what prevents what was a promising story from being quite as good overall as the early episodes seemed to indicate.

Still, overall this is a promising start. On to the next serial...

Sapphire & Steel: Assignment One- Escape Through a Crack in Time, Part 5

 "They're the real danger, the real threat. Nothing else is."

I love this serial, as all the gushing I've done maks quite clear. But, unfortunately this episode, while it fills the time adequately enough, suffers from a fairly obvious case of Penultimate Episode Syndrome. It's far too obvious that it's just passng the time until the finale.

The main point is that all three patches of light are now loose, and there is much peril. Other than that, the main thing is Rob being persuaded into the cellar by something pretending to be hia dad, ending with Lead ripping the cellar door open so that he, Sapphire and Steel can venture in for the finale.

And that's it; no new fresh conceptual weirdness to stimulate our minds this time. There's a nice character bit about how Steel, being so stern and serious, is rubbish with kids (such as Helen, while both Sapphire and the big but cheerful Lead are much better in this regard- the contrast is basically me both before and after I became a dad.

So let's proceed to the finale...