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Sapphire & Steel
Assignment Four
"The Man Without a Face" Part 1
TV episode
Writer: P.J. Hammond
Directed by: David Foster
Original air date: January 27, 1981 |
Children from the past play in and around an old pawn shop.
Read the episode summary at the
Sci Fi Freak Site or
Watch it at Shout Factory
Notes from the Sapphire & Steel chronology
In this episode,
Sapphire finds a photo and says it was
taken in 1884 and Steele responds, "96 years ago." This
tells us the current year is still 1980. The previous
assignment,
"The Creature's
Revenge" took place in January 1980.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
parasol girl
Sapphire
Steel
H. Williamson (previous landlord of the building, mentioned
only, missing)
Liz Duprey (name not revealed until
"The Man Without a Face" Part 3)
Ruth Phillips (Liz's roommate, mentioned only, missing, name
not revealed until
"The Man Without a Face" Part 3)
Man Without a Face
Didja Know?
The children who come out of the old photographs were played
by child actors wearing sepia-toned clothing and make-up to
give the appearance living beings from an old photo. See the
interview about
Sapphire & Steel at the
Internet Archive.
Didja Notice?
At the beginning of the episode, the song sung by the
children is an old English nursery rhyme, "See-Saw Up and
Down".
At 8:23 on the DVD, volumes of
Encyclopedia Britannica are seen on the shelves of
the pawn shop as well as a copy of Lectures on Diseases
of Children (1925) by Robert Hutchison.
At 12:35 on the DVD, an old advertising sign for Spillers is
seen in the second-hand shop. This may be a sign for
Spillers pet food or Spillers flour (though I've been unable
to confirm the exact logo seen here). Spillers was a British
company of flour milling, bakeries, and pet food from
1829-1997.
At 14:40 on the DVD, the book Photography Today by
D.A. Spencer that Mr. Williamson has apparently been reading
is seen. This is an actual book, published in 1941.
At 15:56 on the DVD, a box of Mazda light bulbs is seen on
Williamson's shelf. Mazda was a brand name for light bulbs
used by General Electric from 1909-1990, named for Ahura
Mazda, the god of the Zoroastrian religion whose name means
"light of wisdom".
Sapphire finds a photo of a drinking fountain and realizes
there are four children missing from it. She says it was
taken in 1884 and Steele responds, "96 years ago." This
tells us the current year is 1980.
"The Creature's
Revenge" took place in January 1980.
Liz is suddenly more cooperative with Sapphire and Steel
after Sapphire places her robe on her and unfreezes her. It
seems that Sapphire's ability to lull men into cooperation
(as seen in previous episodes) also works on women!
It's never stated outright, but it may be that Liz is a
prostitute.
Memorable Dialog
this is the way to London town.mp3
so the place is haunted.mp3
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