SNS: The Passenger

The Passenger was the first of the Sapphire and Steel audios released by Big Finish. I reviewed it, sent it to an SNS list, but will also be putting it here, as well as the other SNS audios. Again, white text will be used.

THE PASSENGER

STEEL: I've been waiting.
SAPPHIRE: Hello, Steel. It's been a long time.


And with these words we start a brand new Sapphire and Steel adventure! (Well, okay, ignoring the opening teaser, that is.) But to finally hear a new story, to finally have our favourite agents brought back to life, how often does that happen? (We've had some wonderful fan fiction in the mean time, but you never get the opening theme tune to that. And that's the sound we love.)

But it's not the same, though, is it. They're back..and it's not them. No Joanna. No David. Well, not that David. Don't get me wrong, David Warner and Susannah Harker are great casting, but there is always going to be something missing. At least, and call me ageist if you will, I hope there is, because the idea of the same type of relationship Lumley and McCallum had being re-expressed by these two is just wrong...

Anyway, so what have we got? The story is pretty simple, really. There is a passenger on a train, and twelve people are set to see he doesn't make it to his final stop) or are set to see he reaches his Final Stop, however you desire to state it). This idea might seem a little familiar, but that's because Steve Lyons has decided to skip originality and rewrite a classic book (which is never named but is incredibly obvious).

We are also introduced to a new Element, namely Gold, whose powers are just as vaguely defined as the rest of them. I think Gold ends up with too much of a pivotal role, but it is given that a major plot point of this story is that Time is already aware of Sapphire and Steel and has taken them into account. This really undercuts the roles of our heroes, and from the trailer for the next epsiode, this looks to be a recurring idea, and not a good one.

David Warner sounds old. There, I said it. Steel shouldn't be old, but here he is. This is just wrong. This is no fault of David Warner's, and certainly an actor of his caliber is great for the role, but this just isn't going to work easily. (I was simply going to say 'this isn't going to work', but hey, there were moments when I did manage to relax and accept, so it isn't going to be all bad. It's just going to take a while.) However, one of the worst moments (and this speaks to the lack of ability of the writer) is when Steel is holding the doors shut. First, this is hard to believe David Warner doing, and secondly we have to have one of the characters tell us this is what happening in extremely unbelievable dialogue because this idea can't be easily presented in an audio format.

As for Susannah Harker...she does come across a little weak as Sapphire, a little too ready to back down, but (and yes, I am male) I think it is safe to say that many of us will fall in love with this Sapphire as we did with the first one.

Credit also to Mark Gatiss for a wonderful performance as Gold. No light comic role here, but he does bring in nicely dark comedic touches. Of the rest of the cast, the two worth mentioning are Hugo Myatt as Philip Burgess, and Jackie Skarvellis as Sheila Warburton, but for the latter let me just say 'shut up, woman!' and leave it at that. (That said, I will say she gets the best line of the story: "I hear the sound of Steel under pressure.")

Hugo Myatt's performance put me in mind of Adventure 2's Tully, very much a little man caught up in the machinations of something far larger. A decent performance, but I kept seeing allusions to previous Adventures in most of what Steve Lyons does and so this doesn't quite capture originality for me.


Which basically sums up the entire story. It might be my over familiarity with the series, but this story, whilst new in some ways, reminds me of so many plot ideas of what has gone before, I can only hope the next stories fair better.