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Sapphire & Steel
"The Passenger"
Part 1
Audio drama
Big Finish Productions
Written by Steve Lyons
Directed by Jason Haigh-Ellery
May 2005 |
After a lengthy absence, Sapphire and Steel return to work
aboard a steam train bound for murder.
Notes from the Sapphire & Steel chronology
The carriages of the train in this story exist in different
times: 1919, 1938, 1962, 1982, and 2004. 2004 seems to be the
"current" year.
Didja Know?
From 2005-2008,
Big Finish Productions released a number of
audio dramas of
Sapphire & Steel, set well after the
events of the TV series. The story of how Sapphire and Steel
escaped from the trap in which they were stuck by Time at the
end of "The Trap" Part 4 is
never told, though at the beginning of our current episode, the
pair do remark to each other that it's been a long time since
they worked together, and in the later "Cruel Immortality" serial
it is mentioned that they were freed by Silver in some way not
described.
The characters
Sapphire and Steel are not portrayed by the original television
actors David McCallum and Joanna Lumley, but by David Warner and
Susannah Harker.
The audio dramas use the same opening theme and narration as the
TV series.
Sadly, the
Sapphire & Steel audio productions
are no longer available from Big Finish. The CDs can
occasionally be found for sale on the web by third parties.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Phillip Burgess
the Princess
Steel
Sapphire
Phillip Burgess' daughter (unnamed, mentioned only)
the Conductor
Mrs. Sheila Warburton
Lord Rothmore
Lady Rothmore
John Andrews (identified as a Flight Sergeant in the RAF in
"The Passenger" Part 2)
Didja Notice?
The story opens with Phillip Burgess using his cell phone to
call the train service in an attempt to find out why his
train has not arrived for a return trip after a business dealing. The use of a cell phone helps to establish early on
that we are in a setting 15 or more years after the 1980-ish
events of the last known
Sapphire and Steel adventure,
"The Trap". Later in the episode, Sapphire indicates
that the carriages of the train exist in different times:
1938, 1982, and 2004, suggesting 2004 is the "current" year.
The lateness of his train prompts Burgess to remark, "If
this is where privatization gets you..." British Railways
was under state ownership from 1948-1994 before being broken
up and operations sold to a number of private companies. The
change has been controversial ever since, with the benefits,
or lack thereof, of the privatization being hotly debated.
At the end of the opening theme music, the tune merges into
the whistle of the steam train. The TV episodes also
occasionally had the entrance or exit of the opening theme
melded to a sound from the teaser or first act.
After the teaser, Sapphire and Steel are introduced aboard
the train. They are apparently meeting for the first time in
quite a while. Sapphire sounds pleasant, but Steel is sullen
and strictly business. He doesn't even greet her as she does
him except with "I've been waiting." While Steel has always
been the colder of the two, he was known to have moments of
warmth with Sapphire if no one else. Since they've been
separated for some time, you'd think he might be warmer
towards her in this moment. Is there a particular reason he
gives her a cold shoulder? Does he blame her for the trap
they were caught in at the end of
"The Trap" Part 4? Were the
pair deliberately separated by the higher power with the
suggestion that their "closeness" had become a problem and
resulted in their failure in
"The Trap" Part 4?
Burgess tells Sapphire that the old train they are on is a
5700 class. This is a real class of steam locomotive used in
Great Britain from 1929-1956.
The Princess intones a rhyme to Steel: "This is a
choo-choo train, puffing down the track. Now it’s going
forward, now it’s going back. Now the bell is ringing, now
the whistle blows. What a lot of noise it makes everywhere
it goes." This is a variation on an actual children's
rhyme, "Here is the Choo-Choo Train". The full verse is
normally read as:
Here is the choo-choo train, chugging down the
track.
Now it’s going forward, now it’s going back.
Now the bell is ringing,
Now the whistle blows,
What a lot of noise it makes everywhere it goes. |
When Steel tries to touch the Princess, she crumples like
paper. It is implied in later chapters that this is because
she is dead and was resurrected aboard the train based on a
character in Burgess' old book. In
"The Man Without a
Face" Part 3, children would also crumple like paper, as
they had been brought to life out of old photographs.
Though Burgess' book is never named, the clues suggest it is
Murder on the Orient Express by British author
Agatha Christie. Both books are murder mysteries aboard a
train, both were originally published in 1934, and both feature
two detectives trying to solve the crime.
Unanswered Questions
It's established at the beginning of this episode that
Sapphire and Steel have not worked together for quite some
time. Is that because they were in the trap they were caught
in at the end of
span class="style39">
"The Trap" Part 4 all this
time? Or were they freed a while back but not allowed to work
together? Have they been idle since being freed or
have they worked apart?
Memorable Dialog
I've been waiting.mp3
where and when.mp3
I didn't mean for you to die.mp3
she's a ghost.mp3
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