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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
-at-popapostle-dot-com
Sapphire & Steel: Escape Through a Crack in Time (Part 3) Sapphire & Steel
Assignment 1:
"Escape Through a Crack in Time" Part 3
Writer: P.J. Hammond
Director: Shaun O'Riordan
Original air date: July 17, 1979

 

Sapphire becomes trapped in a room in a painting.

 

Read the episode summary at the Sci Fi Freak Site or Watch it at Shout Factory

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Robert Jardine

Sarah Jardine (mentioned only)

Steel

Sapphire

Helen Jardine

 

Didja Notice?

 

Sapphire remarks to Steel that the nursery rhyme Robert had spoken that brought the spirit soldiers ("Goosey Goosey Gander") refers to the Parliamentary wars, when Cromwell's troops searched for people who wouldn't pray. This is a reference to the English Civil Wars under Oliver Cromwell from 1653-1658.

 

Twin Peaks note: Sapphire becomes trapped inside a room of a painting of a cottage in the Jardine house. In Fire Walk With Me, Laura enters the Black Lodge through a painting on her bedroom wall given to her by Mrs. Tremond.

 

At 20:54 on the DVD, Sapphire, trapped in the room of the cottage painting with a rope hanging from the ceiling and a meat cleaver, tells Rob she's glad of the rhyme he chose, because he "could've settled for 'Oranges And Lemons'". The rhyme he chose earlier was "Goosey Goosey Gander", which has as its most violent line, being thrown down the stairs. "Oranges And Lemons" is another traditional English nursery rhyme, with a line at the end about a chopper come to chop off your head!

 

While stuck in the painting room, Sapphire remarks, "...if roundhead soldiers belong anywhere, it's in this hellhole." "Roundheads" were the supporters of the Parliament against the King of England during the English Civil War.

 

The "upstairs and downstairs" that the spirits are heard chanting are words from the "Goosey Goosey Gander" nursery rhyme.

 

Memorable Dialog

 

ghosts.mp3

upstairs and downstairs.mp3 

 

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