sir_guinglain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sir_guinglain) wrote2007-05-14 12:04 am
sir_guinglain) wrote2007-05-14 12:04 am
Entry tags:
Sapphire and Steel: Assignment Four
I have been distracted by work and by a job application in the last few days, and don't think I can manage a full review of the latest DocSoc offering...
...but it's been years since I saw any Sapphire and Steel, and was very impressed with how the fourth assignment stands up. Alyson Spiro's Liz has always been the most memorable human helped by our medium atomic weights, and watching the story again I understood a little more why she sticks in my mind. The suggestive background detail of her 'work' is just enough to evade accusations of immoral behaviour being alluded to before the watershed. Her response to the telepathic influence of Sapphire and that of Steel are different in ways which play to the established characteristics of the protagonists, as well as establishing them for newcomers, and also point to the standard modes through which Liz acts with men and women.
The Shape, antagonist in this story, is portrayed with eerie effectiveness. Both actors playing it seem to have worn a blank mask at some stage, an effect which would now probably be achieved through CGI, on the example of the similar blank faces in Doctor Who's The Idiot's Lantern last year. One wonders what damage the Shape could do if introduced to the internet, and how his properties might be changed by digital scanning.
...but it's been years since I saw any Sapphire and Steel, and was very impressed with how the fourth assignment stands up. Alyson Spiro's Liz has always been the most memorable human helped by our medium atomic weights, and watching the story again I understood a little more why she sticks in my mind. The suggestive background detail of her 'work' is just enough to evade accusations of immoral behaviour being alluded to before the watershed. Her response to the telepathic influence of Sapphire and that of Steel are different in ways which play to the established characteristics of the protagonists, as well as establishing them for newcomers, and also point to the standard modes through which Liz acts with men and women.
The Shape, antagonist in this story, is portrayed with eerie effectiveness. Both actors playing it seem to have worn a blank mask at some stage, an effect which would now probably be achieved through CGI, on the example of the similar blank faces in Doctor Who's The Idiot's Lantern last year. One wonders what damage the Shape could do if introduced to the internet, and how his properties might be changed by digital scanning.