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Sapphire & Steel
"Death of an Officer"
Look-In (1979) #46-51
Written by: Angus Allan
Art by: Arthur Ransom |
An anchor provides the key to the untimely death of a Napoleonic
officer.
Read the story summary at Animus Web
Didja Know?
Comic strips in
Look-In magazine were generally not credited to
author and artist. According to the
Animus Web site, the
Sapphire & Steel strips were written by Angus
Allan and drawn by
Arthur Ransom.
All of the strips feature Sapphire and Steel dressed in the
clothes they wore in the first television storyline,
"Escape Through a Crack in Time".
The artist must have had only photo references from those early
episodes.
This story appeared in six issues of Look-In, a UK
magazine geared towards kids. The story is told in comic strip
form and appeared in two-page chapters of each issue.
The story itself is untitled. I borrowed the title
"Death of an Officer" and short description from the
Sapphire & Steel Chronology on the
Look-In wiki.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
David Rochester
Mrs. Rochester
Lee Rochester
Sapphire
Steel
Napoleonic French lieutenant (unnamed, vision only)
parson (Mrs. Rochester's brother, unnamed, mentioned only)
Lead
Didja Notice?
The opening narrative of the story refers to a place called
Keeper's Cottage, the site of a lighthouse on the southeast
corner of England. There does not appear to be a site by
that official name, "keeper's cottage" being a general term
used for the home of lighthouse keepers in England and its
colonies. There are a number of lighthouses in the southeast
corner of England this could indicate.
Young Lee finds an old anchor in the mud in Ouze Field. Ouze
Field appears to be fictitious.
After the anchor is mounted to the wall of his bedroom, Lee has
a nightmare about the death of a Napoleonic French naval
officer. The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of
European conflicts of France, ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte,
against most of the other nations of Europe and the UK.
On page 3, panel 2 of the story, Sapphire seem to refer to
Steel as Steve!
On page 8 of the story, Sapphire is seen to have the ability
to see how the timeline would change if events in the past
were altered. This ability is not seen in any of the TV
episodes. Here, she sees that if the Napoleonic French
officer does not die in the war as he should have, his
influence would result in Britain losing the war and being
conquered by French forces.
On page 9 of the story, Sapphire holds time still except for
herself and Steel so that Steel can intercept the French
naval officer before he grabs Lee. Sapphire also
demonstrated the ability to hold time in
"The Railway Station" Part 8.
Steel grabs a hold of the French naval officer and freezes
him down to a simple ice cube! Steel demonstrated an ability
to freeze himself to absolute zero in
"Escape Through a Crack in Time" Part 4.
On page 10 of the story, Sapphire places the ice cube inside
the Rochester family's Electropak freezer. As far as I can
tell this is a fictitious freezer brand, though there are
companies using the name Electropak for other sorts of
devices.
Still physically exhausted from freezing the French naval
officer, Steel is unable to assist Sapphire directly with
the errant British troops, but is able to call for help
telepathically from Lead. Lead previously appeared in
"Escape Through a Crack in Time",
parts 4-6.
When the British troops rush him, Lead tells them, "Fools!
Waste your Satanic energy, then!" This is the first time the
evil minions of time have been referred to "Satanic".
Lead changes the errant soldiers into toy figures! These are
presumably lead figures, which may also explain why he tells
young Lee they're not the sort of toys he'd want to play
with; lead is toxic to living organisms when a sufficient
amount accumulates in the tissues and bones.
Lead knows Lee's name, seemingly without having been told
it. It's possible Steel filled him in telepathically on the
participants of their latest assignment.
The end of the story states that Steel leaves with the ice
cube, Lead with the toy soldiers, and Sapphire with the old
anchor that started the whole time incursion. But on page
10, Sapphire had told the Rochesters to simply bury the
anchor again well away from their home. I guess she thought
better of it!
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