Sapphire & Steel: Assignment 5- The Dinner Party, Part 5

 "Are those cultures...?"

It's rare for a fifth episode of a six parter to be interesting in its own right, or for it to introduce or develop new ideas: usually it's all just about moving the pieces on the board into position for the finale. Not this time.

We break the pattern a bit as Annabelle (the youngest remaining guest) is killed halfway through, while Felix- the last guest standing to have been born after 1930- dies at the end. Everyone believes by now that this is 1930. There's a rather clever scene juxtaposing a game of bridge with some telepathic exposition as Steel telepthically discusses things with Felix, now brough into the confidence of our titular couple.

Yet what makes this superb is not only the masterly progression of the plot but the concepts. George opens and walked through a door that is locked for everyone else, but not him. The guests quockly forget the deaths. There was a fire in which George was killed, as reported in the press- yet the physical evidence shows there wasn't.  We begin to see what the bacterial culture does to people as Felix's face is horribly dissolved.

This is a superb episode within a superb serial, easily the finest so far. I'm excited for the finale.

Sapphire & Steel: Assignment 5- The Dinner Party, Part 4

 "You can't depend on servants at all these days..."

We get another fascinating episode in which the murder mystery plot is developed- Emma may, in 1930, have been having an affair with George, while Howard was blackmailing George, who had been embezzling from the company. And the structure is maintained with the ciffhanger being another death- in this case Howard, who hasd earlier come under suspicion, as seems to happen to the next to die.

Yet things are, of course, working on another level. Sapphire casts doubt on whether the dead are truly deceased. The secretary, in another room (and another time period) sees text on her screen about a fire at the house. And whatever presence is there almost makes Sapphire stab herself- and shoot Steel.

This is brilliant stuff. Yet it also finds time for little things like Steel not knowing which way to pass the port, or the difference between cynical womanising and love. And then there's the playing with murder mystery tropes, and the sly digs at the idle rich of the early twentieth century. This is quietly brilliant.

Sapphire & Steel: Assignment 5- The Dinner Party, Part 3

 "And then there were nine..."

And, with the third episide, things get even better. I'm loving the conscious Agatha Chrustie spoofing here- an isolated country house, suspiciously cut off from the outside world; yet another cliffhanger ending with a murder (Tony), intrigue as Sapphire reads suspicious behaviour in Tony's recent past, and Steel soing his very best Poirot impression in the most Agatha Christie setting possible- and in 1930, the time of peak Christie.

And yet the weirdness ramps up too. The collective amnesia seems to deepen, and it seems the house is on a ley line- and on the Summer Solstice too. And yet, as Sapphire explores, there seems to be something about the late George McDee at the root of it. He was working on a vaccine when he died (very topical), and he died just before unleashing a deadly virus or bacteria (the script has it both ways!) which would have destroyed humanity. This may be scientific nonsense, and in 2021 is comes across as more anti-vaxxer than was probably intended, but this is fascinating. I'm enormouly impressed with the writing here.

There's even an unusually fancy camera shot here, as we are drawn back through a linear tableau of all the "suspects". This serial becomes more and more impressive.

Sapphire & Steel: Assignment 5- The Dinner Party, Part 2

 "I think his Lordship's taking this joke a bit too far, Greville, don't you think?"

In a departure from Sapphire & Steel tradition, an intriguing episode shows promise in developing a seemingly lacklustre first one. Suddenly I'm hooked, despite very little happening other than the appearance of two more guests. I'm not even bothered by the fact that the announcement of a game of sardines makes it perfecty obvious that poor Veronica is going to be killed while hidden. This seems to be getting good.

And I can't really say why; I think it's just that this episode succeeds more in leveraging the increasing confusion between 1980 and 1930, with everyone's memories getting increasingly foggy- until the sudden appearance of a very alive George McDee shocks everyone. It's an effectve scene.

Interestingly, too, and despite my not spotting it last episode, this story is written by someone other than P.J. Hammond- Anthony Reed and an uncredited Don Houghton, both well known to us Doctor Who fans. Suddenly, this serial has become rather interesting.