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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
-at-popapostle-dot-com
Sapphire & Steel: The School Sapphire & Steel
"The School" Part 3
Audio drama
Big Finish Productions
Written by Simon Guerrier
Directed by Nigel Fairs
July 2006

 

Sapphire and Steel begin to fall under the spell of the school.

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Headmaster Leslie

Mrs. Leslie

Steel

Sapphire

Chatura

Max Ireland

 

Didja Notice?

 

    At about 6:55 in the episode, Chatura and Steel argue about the meaning of the linguistic terms homophone and homonym. Steel is the one is actually correct here, not the teacher! Homonyms are words which sound or are spelled alike, but have different meanings. Homophones are words that are pronounced alike, but have different spellings. He is also correct when he goes on about homographs, words that are spelled the same but may be pronounced differently and have different meanings. Steel is also loosely correct in his understanding of the term "metalepsis" when Chatura asks him about that, trying to stump him. Metalepsis is the use of a part of an existing figure of speech to create a new figure of speech, such as borrowing the metaphor of a leaf from "turn over a new leaf" and saying "The leaf I turned over had a spider under it." 

    Chatura's question to Steel about the difference between tapinosis and meiosis is left unanswered. Meiosis is the use of a term to understate the importance of a subject. Tapinosis is a type of meiosis where the subject is understated (as a sort of irony) in order to increase its importance, such as referring to the Mississippi River as a stream.

    Other obscure linguistic terms are hashed out through the episode by Chatura and Steel. So obscure in fact, I began to have difficulty finding them in reference sources, possibly because I don't know how to spell them!

 

Headmaster Leslie remarks to Max, "Imagine Chatura having to explain string theory." String theory, very reduced, postulates that all known elementary particles and their interactions emerge from the vibrational states of one-dimensional strings.

 

When Steel telepathically communicates with Sapphire that he is in the boiler room with Max because "there is a grid in the wall that looks in on the female changing rooms," Sapphire retorts, "I don't know why I'm surprised. Ever since that thing with Jet..." Jet is one of the "elements" sent on missions to investigate irregularities in this dimension, as mentioned in the opening narration of each episode of Sapphire & Steel (though we've never met her). In "Escape Through a Crack in Time" Part 4, when Lead showed up, he told Steel that Jet sends her love.

 

Under the spell of the school, Sapphire complains she wasn't picked for the netball team. Netball is a game similar to basketball, played in the UK and Commonwealth nations, mostly by women and girls.

 

Memorable Dialog

 

a musk of death.mp3

time breaking through.mp3

such a tease.mp3

I'm the art teacher.mp3 

 

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