Sapphire & Steel: Assignment Three- The Creature's Revenge, Part 5

 "I have impeccable origins."

This episode is no less full of padding- in essence it consists of Sapphire, with Steel, faffing around as they wonder what tricks in their armoury they can use to bring back Silver, who is their only ticket out of the capsule. This time, though, it's entertaining padding.

Partly it's that the ideas get some development- the mysterious creature behind all this seems close to omnipotent, and can prevent Sapphire reversing time a few minutes as she usually does. This sequence subtly allows our protagonists to review the story so far including the bits with Rothwyn and Eldred that they were not previously privy to. We also have an odd description of the creepy, nameless grown baby as the "Changeling" complete with a description of the folklore around the concept, which seems to have no bearing whatsoever.

It's weird but cool, too, to hear that Silver has been taken back to the "beginning". That's the thing about Sapphire & Steel; it doesn't half drag on a bit, but the concepts are frequently awesome. And we end on a high, even if again there's no real cliffhanger, as our protagonists finally meet a rather composed Rothwyn and a hilariously freaking out Eldred. It's nice how they used the baby as a loophole.

Let's hope the finale is good...

Sapphire & Steel: Assignment Three- The Creature's Revenge, Part 4

 "There are no others..."

Here we have... a rather uneventful episode. There's some fascinatingy touchy-feely stuff between Sapphire and Silver hinting at a present or former romantic relationship, much to Steel's jealous annoyance. There's a bit of a revelation that Silver is "just a technician" whose forte is transportation and machines. Aside from this there's just a lot of vague exploration to fill the time in which our now reunited proagonists learn various things about the capsule(s) that the viewer already knows or has probably inferred.

The former baby is creepy though. And there's a fascinating debate about whether it's a baby or just a machine. But that's literally it.

At least we get a cliffhanger next time. But can some stuff actually happen next time, please?

Sapphire & Steel: Assignment Three- The Creature's Revenge, Part 3

 "They wouldn't have gone back without us, would they?"

There's  not really anything like plausible deniability to the charge that this episode is blatant padding. Sapphire and Silver seem about to get entry to the capsule at the very end- fully halfway through the story as a whole. And the neat-total absence of Sapphire, after last episode's arresting cliffhanger, feels as though it may be influenced by non-diegetic factors.

Obviously, Sapphire being absent, we get to meet Steel, a charismatic, mysterious and rather camp individual. He and Sapphire flirt outrageously, amusingly causing annoyance to a jealous Steel, but he also supplies some exposition, confirming to Steel that the members of the other two expeditions from the future are dead.

The main event is, of course, where Rothwyn recognises the rather creepy young man walking towards her as "the Child", in a rathef effectively creepy scene. This is the suff of nightmares as the "Child" reaches out to Rothwyn, only for a terrifying voice to insist he use the other hand.. and something happens. Brr.

This one scene od pretty much worth the padding. But the padding really is outrageous.