The BEST episodes of Sapphire and Steel

Every episode of Sapphire and Steel ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Sapphire and Steel!

Complex, involved science-fiction series about a special force of interdimensional operatives whose task is to protect the universe from evil forces trying to gain a foothold by disrupting the timeline. The strange energy beings are assigned to cases, when and where needed, and materialise on Earth as humans, each with specialist abilities to ascertain and then solve the problems. The mysteries encountered by Sapphire, Steel and their colleagues include people trapped in photographs, ghosts lost in time, and a dinner party of guests who are all long-dead. Their most-dangerous challenge, innocuous-seeming at first, is a petrol station whose time-line is repeating endlessly - and which turns out to be a major hazard, set by unknown forces, to trap Sapphire and Steel in a closed time-loop forever...

Last Updated: 3/28/2024Network: ITV1Status: Ended
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Assignment I: Escape Through a Crack in Time (6)
star
9.11
44 votes

#1 - Assignment I: Escape Through a Crack in Time (6)

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/26/1979

Lured by a vision of his father, Rob walks into a trap in the basement. A pool of light has taken him back in time to the 1700s when the house was first being built. Sapphire and Steel fear the worst when they discover that all three pools of light are there in the trap with Rob. However, Steel figures out that the creature that controls the pools of light has made a mistake and decides to gain the upper hand by using Helen as bait. Sapphire objects but follows through with the plan because it is their last chance to save Rob, bring back his parents, and return ...

Directors: Shaun O'Riordan
Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment II: The Railway Station (6)
star
8.20
15 votes

#2 - Assignment II: The Railway Station (6)

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/1/1979

With Sapphire unconscious, Steel is unnerved by the appearance of her ghost on the railway platform with the other spirits. After Tully agrees to watch over Sapphire's body, Steel has a chat with her ghost to determine if she is real or a trick perpetrated by the darkness. The soldier is not through with trying to get rid of Steel, however, and snares him in barbwire. Meanwhile, the darkness makes a deal with Tully: he can escape the station unharmed if he leaves Sapphire and Steel while they are unconscious and vulnerable.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment II: The Railway Station (2)
star
8.14
14 votes

#3 - Assignment II: The Railway Station (2)

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/2/1979

Sapphire and Steel discover the ghost is a young World War I soldier who died in battle. They begin to suspect the railway station might be a recruitment ground for the dead. The appearance of a second ghost and the discovery of a recording with the last words of three dying submariners all but confirm their suspicions. The investigation becomes even more difficult and dangerous when the ghost of a fighter pilot forces Steel to experience a deadly plane crash.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment IV: The Man Without a Face (3)
star
8.14
7 votes

#4 - Assignment IV: The Man Without a Face (3)

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/3/1981

The missing shop owner and missing former roommate of the tenant are found in an unexpected place. Sapphire tries to contact the missing roommate. The faceless man intervenes.

Directors: David Foster
Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment IV: The Man Without a Face (4)
star
8.14
7 votes

#5 - Assignment IV: The Man Without a Face (4)

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/5/1981

Trapped Sapphire and Steel must use their wits and the help of the tenant to escape their prison and trap the faceless man and keep him from causing more harm.

Directors: David Foster
Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment II: The Railway Station (8)
star
8.06
17 votes

#6 - Assignment II: The Railway Station (8)

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1979

Sapphire succeeds in making contact with the darkness at a great personal risk. Steel negotiates with it by promising a powerful source of resentment in exchange for a return to present day. The solider finally reveals what it is the darkness has promised all the ghosts but Steel gives them a better offer. The darkness follows through with its part of the bargain and Sapphire and Steel must uphold their part as well, even if their actions damage time itself.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment IV: The Man Without a Face (2)
star
8.00
8 votes

#7 - Assignment IV: The Man Without a Face (2)

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/29/1981

Who is the new Landlord? He confronts Sapphire and Steel but his face is not what it seems. He warns them to leave or suffer the same fate as the missing shop owner.

Directors: David Foster
Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment IV: The Man Without a Face (1)
star
7.91
11 votes

#8 - Assignment IV: The Man Without a Face (1)

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/27/1981

Sapphire and Steel investigate strange happenings at a pawn shop. Children from the past are appearing, but how are these children connected to old photographs? What does the single tenant in the upstairs room know?

Directors: David Foster
Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment III: The Creature's Revenge (1)
star
7.85
13 votes

#9 - Assignment III: The Creature's Revenge (1)

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/6/1981

Sapphire and Steel receive a puzzling assignment at an apartment complex where time is poised to attack. However, their inspection of every room in the complex reveals nothing suspicious. Even the abandoned top floor reveals no indications of trouble. It is only after investigating the roof that Sapphire and Steel discover an invisible time-capsule from 1500 years in the future. A couple and their new baby are living inside the capsule as an experiment, but they are in grave danger because of a horrible figure hidden inside the capsule with them.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment II: The Railway Station (3)
star
7.79
14 votes

#10 - Assignment II: The Railway Station (3)

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/7/1979

After Sapphire narrowly saves Steel from meeting the same fate as the doomed fighter pilot, Steel becomes determined to figure out why the ghosts are being recruited at the station. Since the ghosts have such strong emotions, Steel tries to anger the soldier into appearing by singing an old military marching song with Tully. Steel's tactic works a little too well and the soldier takes out his anger on Sapphire and Tully.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (3)
star
7.75
8 votes

#11 - Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (3)

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 8/18/1981

The party guests begin to realize that they are trapped, but their memories are beginning to fail and confusion is taking over. Then there is another death. But is there really?

Directors: Shaun O'Riordan
Writer: Don Houghton
Assignment II: The Railway Station (1)
star
7.74
19 votes

#12 - Assignment II: The Railway Station (1)

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/31/1979

For their new assignment, Sapphire and Steel arrive at an abandoned railway station haunted by supernatural figures. Paranormal investigator George Tully has been observing the station for several weeks because he has an interest in speaking with the ghost of a young man often heard whistling in the hallways. Sapphire and Steel indulge Mr. Tully by allowing him to help their investigation but Steel warns him that the apparition is something far more dangerous than a ghost.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment II: The Railway Station (7)
star
7.71
14 votes

#13 - Assignment II: The Railway Station (7)

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/6/1979

Sapphire and Steel awake to find they have been shunted forward in time twelve days. In that time, the darkness has gone and so have all the ghosts with it. A frightened Tully tries to convince Sapphire and Steel that he needs to leave the station for personal reasons, but they can guess he wants to leave because he made a deal with the darkness. While Tully's bargain failed, Sapphire reluctantly agrees to make contact with the darkness so that Steel can make his own deal with the enemy.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (4)
star
7.70
10 votes

#14 - Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (4)

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/19/1981

Two of the party guests are dead. Who will be next? This is no traditional murder mystery, and Sapphire and Steel cannot agree on who would have a motive to commit this crime.

Writer: Don Houghton
Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (5)
star
7.70
10 votes

#15 - Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (5)

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 8/25/1981

Writer: Anthony Read
Assignment III: The Creature's Revenge (2)
star
7.69
13 votes

#16 - Assignment III: The Creature's Revenge (2)

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/8/1981

Rothwyn and Eldred, the couple living inside the space capsule, begin to realize they might be in serious danger when they cannot make contact with fellow study groups or with their superiors. The evil creature inside the capsule begins an attack by using time to transform the couple's infant into a grown man. As Sapphire and Steel deepen their investigation, Sapphire discovers that the mechanism which transported the capsule is no ordinary machine.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (2)
star
7.63
8 votes

#17 - Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (2)

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 8/12/1981

A game of hide and seek is played before dinner but one of the guests will be murdered, there is something evil hiding in one of the guests but which one?

Directors: Shaun O'Riordan
Writer: Anthony Read
Assignment II: The Railway Station (5)
star
7.60
15 votes

#18 - Assignment II: The Railway Station (5)

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/30/1979

With Sapphire as a medium, Tully and Steel are able to communicate with the ghost of a woman who was once the soldier's schoolteacher. As they prod the spirit with questions, she reveals that the force helping and controlling the ghosts is a terrible, living darkness. She also gives them the name of the soldier and the details of his untimely death. Satisfied with the information, Tully and Steel finish up the séance but an enveloping darkness creeps through the room and threatens to devour them all.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment II: The Railway Station (4)
star
7.57
14 votes

#19 - Assignment II: The Railway Station (4)

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/9/1979

Steel continues to taunt the ghost of the solider but pauses when he finds Sapphire and Tully unconscious. A hallway in the railway station has become a re-creation of a submarine where three young men died from lack of oxygen. Sapphire and Tully nearly suffocate but Steel manages to carry them to safety before the three of them meet the same fate as the young submariners. Afterward, Sapphire and Steel agree to give Tully's methods a chance by holding a séance to find more information about the solider when he was alive.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (1)
star
7.50
10 votes

#20 - Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (1)

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 8/11/1981

A wealthy business man holds a party in a 1930s period reconstruction for his guests, but all is not what it seems. Sapphire and Steel invite themselves to investigate.

Directors: Shaun O'Riordan
Writer: Don Houghton
Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (6)
star
7.44
9 votes

#21 - Assignment V: Dr McDee Must Die (6)

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/26/1981

Lord Arthur Mullrine organises a party to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary since his business partnership began with the late Dr George McDee. During the party, time rolls back fifty years and guests who were not alive at that time are systematically murdered. The late Doctor McDee arrives at the party and Sapphire and Steel realise that the events of the night of his death are beginning to recreate themselves. It transpires that McDee had invented a lethal virus that could destroy all humanity. However, before this could happen he was shot by a jealous lover. Time has occupied the body of the lover and is attempting to arrange events such that McDee survives to accidentally unleash the virus. Sapphire and Steel ensure that he is, indeed, killed by the lover and his body and the virus are consumed in a fire.

Writer: Anthony Read
Assignment VI: The Trap (4)
star
7.40
35 votes

#22 - Assignment VI: The Trap (4)

Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/31/1982

Beings from the past that are like Sapphire and Steel but working for a higher power are revealed and the trap is sprung, a deception is underway but for who?

Directors: David Foster
Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment III: The Creature's Revenge (3)
star
7.40
10 votes

#23 - Assignment III: The Creature's Revenge (3)

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/13/1981

After Sapphire disappears while trying to contact the creature inside the capsule, Steel must figure out where she has gone and how to proceed with the investigation. Luckily, technology specialist Silver arrives to lend a hand with getting inside the capsule. Rothwyn and Eldred discover their child has gone missing and are at a loss for what to do next. Meanwhile, their adult-sized infant wanders the capsule under the control of the creature hidden inside the wall.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment III: The Creature's Revenge (5)
star
7.40
10 votes

#24 - Assignment III: The Creature's Revenge (5)

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/20/1981

Sapphire and Steel subdue the changeling and find where the time source is hiding in the wall. Without their technician, however, they have no way to deconstruct the wall and defeat the creature hidden inside. Steel's decision to resort to drastic measures pays off when the couple reappear in the capsule and the changeling becomes an infant again. But the creature inside the wall still thrives and presents a larger threat than anyone could have imagined.

Writer: P.J. Hammond
Assignment I: Escape Through a Crack in Time (2)
star
7.30
50 votes

#25 - Assignment I: Escape Through a Crack in Time (2)

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/12/1979

Sapphire and Steel determine that Helen's bedroom is the location of a time break caused by the recitation of nursery rhymes. After narrowly avoiding a disaster, Steel boards up Helen's door to prevent the creatures inside from breaking loose. Rob begins to distrust the mysterious agents and sees a chance for escape when a policeman finally arrives in the morning. Sapphire is one step ahead of him, however, and traps the policeman in a time loop to prevent interference.

Directors: Shaun O'Riordan
Writer: P.J. Hammond