SNS: Wall of Darkness

And so we come to what could charitably described as an "ignominious end". This is the last Sapphire and Steel play by Nigel Fairs (as producer), Wall of Darkness.

Steel: Hello?
Sapphire: Steel!
Steel: Who are you? What have you done to Sapphire?

To be brutally honest (and, at this point, why not?), skip the first three parts and just go straight for the fourth. That's where all the interesting stuff happens, and the real meat of the story finally comes out, not to mention the ending... but I'll get on to that later.

The bulk of the story is about a shopping arcade and those beneath it. It appears there was a nuclear war, and now the survivors are trying to get by. Only, the war happened years ago, which comes as a surprise to most people. This reveals straight away that we are dealing with differing timelines, but the full extent of the matter isn't revealed until the aforementioned episode four. I don't want to give away that part of the story, but I like that Nigel decided to deal with that subject matter, without making it seem like exploitation (which so many other narratives around that
idea have been).

But, ultimately, when the real ending comes out, it reduces the previous stuff to all just padding. I'm sure Nigel was aiming for a (if I may be allowed to say) "big finish" to the series, and indeed it harks back to the very early audio stories as well as the TV series itself. However, I'm not entirely sure what he was aiming for. What exactly is the audience supposed to infer was going on? It could erase the entire season, it could erase the entire audio series, it could... just be really
annoying and vague. I have no idea if there will be a series four, but if so then there's a hell of a corner surrounded by paint to jump out from. (And, indeed, this does make all those "impending war with the Transients" moot.)

Moving away from the story, Louise Jameson (whom I recognised before I saw the credits) gets the bulk of the play as has to be the emotional core, which she does well. The rest of the cast are good as well, although we are treated to yet more dodgy accents. Susannah Harker is almost not in the play, so no wonder David Warner is on the cover (and he is his usual sterling self).

We are also given a selection of Nigel's "Best of" moments from his time as producer, which do start to wear, but one can forgive his indulgence given this is his swansong.

This story does tie off the Sapphire and Steel series (although technically so did The Mystery of the Missing Hour), but in many ways I hope there is a series four just to negate the end of series three. We'll just have to see if the Corridor of Time tries to break through again.

[END]