Monday, May 31, 2004
The Return of Sapphire & Steel
"Sapphire & Steel" has long been one of my favourite sci-fi/fantasy series. I can remember watching the original run in 1979-82, bought the ITC videos back in the early 1990s and the Carlton DVDs a couple of years ago. At the time of the DVD release I thought it was pretty unbelieveable that the series had been released at all - after all, it was over 20 years since the only terrestrial TV run and the number of fans was surely steadily decreasing. Of course, these days all manner of series are getting the DVD treatment, so virtually nothing surprises me.
However, the news that Big Finish were to produce audio adventures did come as a surprise. At the time there was no news on the casting, or the format of the stories, but they are now.
Frankly, I'm disappointed. The chances of getting David McCallum or Joanna Lumley were always going to be remote, but their decision to recast the roles in strange given their decision not to use soundalikes for the First, Second and Third Doctors in their "Doctor Who" releases.
One possible reason is that those actors are no longer alive, but Big Finish haven't recast the Fourth Doctor either following Tom Baker's decision not to take part. So on one hand we've got them recasting the roles of Sapphire and Steel, but not the First to Fourth Doctors.
It's also slightly disappointing that we're effectively getting prequels to the TV series, rather than discovering what happened to them at the end of Assignment Six. Personally, I would have preferred a series on ongoing adventures, rather than ones set before the TV series.
So, on one hand, we've got recasting of the "Sapphire & Steel" leads, but not the "Doctor Who" ones. Yet both offer plenty of potential even with the unavailability of the first four Doctors or the two "S&S" leads.
While regeneration allows Big Finish to still use four of the eight TV Doctors, "Sapphire & Steel" also allows for other lead actors. It's spelt out in the credits and dialogue of the show: there are other 'Elements' who could just have easily been used.
Keeping the "Sapphire & Steel" title would have made sense from an identification and marketing viewpoint, but we could still have had other 'Elements' as the main characters. And with McCallum's absence apparently due to scheduling, utilising other 'Elements' would have enable Steel to make a guest appearance (Lumley apparently does not wish to return to the role).
We're getting new actors anyway, so why not give us new characters as well?
"Sapphire & Steel" has long been one of my favourite sci-fi/fantasy series. I can remember watching the original run in 1979-82, bought the ITC videos back in the early 1990s and the Carlton DVDs a couple of years ago. At the time of the DVD release I thought it was pretty unbelieveable that the series had been released at all - after all, it was over 20 years since the only terrestrial TV run and the number of fans was surely steadily decreasing. Of course, these days all manner of series are getting the DVD treatment, so virtually nothing surprises me.
However, the news that Big Finish were to produce audio adventures did come as a surprise. At the time there was no news on the casting, or the format of the stories, but they are now.
Frankly, I'm disappointed. The chances of getting David McCallum or Joanna Lumley were always going to be remote, but their decision to recast the roles in strange given their decision not to use soundalikes for the First, Second and Third Doctors in their "Doctor Who" releases.
One possible reason is that those actors are no longer alive, but Big Finish haven't recast the Fourth Doctor either following Tom Baker's decision not to take part. So on one hand we've got them recasting the roles of Sapphire and Steel, but not the First to Fourth Doctors.
It's also slightly disappointing that we're effectively getting prequels to the TV series, rather than discovering what happened to them at the end of Assignment Six. Personally, I would have preferred a series on ongoing adventures, rather than ones set before the TV series.
So, on one hand, we've got recasting of the "Sapphire & Steel" leads, but not the "Doctor Who" ones. Yet both offer plenty of potential even with the unavailability of the first four Doctors or the two "S&S" leads.
While regeneration allows Big Finish to still use four of the eight TV Doctors, "Sapphire & Steel" also allows for other lead actors. It's spelt out in the credits and dialogue of the show: there are other 'Elements' who could just have easily been used.
Keeping the "Sapphire & Steel" title would have made sense from an identification and marketing viewpoint, but we could still have had other 'Elements' as the main characters. And with McCallum's absence apparently due to scheduling, utilising other 'Elements' would have enable Steel to make a guest appearance (Lumley apparently does not wish to return to the role).
We're getting new actors anyway, so why not give us new characters as well?
