 |
Sapphire & Steel
"The Spirit of Cawdroc"
Look-In (1980) #33-37
Written by: Angus Allan
Art by: Arthur Ransom |
A dog falls into a cavern, and when the boy who owns him tries
to rescue the animal, he awakens an evil spirit.
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 three 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
"The Spirit of Cawdroc" and short description from the
Sapphire & Steel Chronology on the
Look-In wiki.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Andy Ellington
Mr. Ellington
Mrs. Ellington
Porridge
Sapphire
Steel
Cawdroc
Sir Nerovens (9th Century, dies in this story)
Didja Notice?
The boy Andy and his dog Porridge stumble into the Cave of
Cawdroc in the English countryside, which holds the spirit
of the evil wizard Cawdroc. Sapphire seems to be familiar
with the legend of the wizard and his cave, but both seem to
be fictitious aspects of English history.
On page 3 of the story, Andy thinks Cawdroc has killed
Porridge, but we see later that the wizard simply teleported
the pet back outside, where Andy's parents find him.
Andy gets transported to the 9th Century by Cawdroc.
The knight killed by Cawdroc is revealed to be named Sir
Nerovens on page 7 of the story. A character by that name is
known in Arthurian legend.
On page 8 of the story, after finding Sir Nerovens'
desiccated body in the forest, one of the knights exclaims,
"By my halidom, this is Cawdroc's work!" "Halidom" is an old
English word for "church" or "holy place".
As they did in
"The Great Fire of London",
Sapphire and Steel travel back in time in this story, this time
to the 9th Century.
Though they fought the forces of time, in the TV series, the pair did not have the
ability to travel back in time beyond Sapphire's ability to
rewind time up to about half a day.
Back to Sapphire & Steel
Episode Studies
