Sapphire & Steel

[narration in opening credits]

Voice-over in titles:
All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

[someone knocks on the door]

Robert Jardine:
Who is it?

Steel:
Robert Steven Jardine?

Robert Jardine:
Yes?

Steel:
You asked for help.

Robert Jardine:
I did, yes!

Steel:
Then unlock the door.

Robert Jardine:
[unchaining the locks] That was quick. I'd only just phoned.

[Sapphire and Steel enter]

Robert Jardine:
I don't know you! Only... the policeman at the Point!

Steel:
The policeman at the Point isn't coming. I contacted him and told him that everything down here is under control.

Robert Jardine:
But it isn't!

Steel:
No. That's why we're here and not him. [He walks off toward the kitchen]

Sapphire:
[amusedly] He's a shade too serious but you'll get used to him.

Robert Jardine:
But he's got no right to tell the policeman...

Sapphire:
Your parents have disappeared, right?

Robert Jardine:
Yes!

Sapphire:
And you want them back?

Robert Jardine:
Of course I want them...

Sapphire:
Safely?

Robert Jardine:
Yes.

Sapphire:
[pleased] Well then, your policeman at the Point with his idiot notebook and his idiot questions stands no chance of getting them back for you. But we do.

Sapphire:
The first nursery rhyme derives from the time of the plague; and the second one which Rob was made to say also has historical reference. It refers back to the Parliamentary Wars.

Steel:
Parliamentary Wars?

Robert Jardine:
When Cromwell's troops searched houses looking for people who wouldn't pray.

Steel:
Wouldn't pray?

Sapphire:
[smiling] Unbelievers.

Steel:
[affirmatively] Ah.

Robert Jardine:
Don't you know your history?

Steel:
I know *mine*, yes.

Steel:
We know that Tony Purnell was in love with Anne Shaw, Mullrine's secretary.

Sapphire:
Not necessarily in love, he was... using her.

Steel:
There's a difference?

Sapphire:
On this planet, yes.

[Rob, sitting at the table, realizes the house has been returned to normal. He races upstairs to find the bedroom empty, his parents and Helen still missing. Disappointed, he turns to see Steel, Sapphire, and Lead standing on the steps]

Lead:
We forgot something.

Robert Jardine:
What?

Steel:
This.

[tosses Helen's teddy bear up to Rob]

[immediately upon catching the bear, they disappear and the sound of Rob's parents and sister singing can be heard coming from the bedroom]

Mother:
[singing] The king has sent his daughter, to fetch a pail of water, A tissue! A tissue! We all fall down! The bird upon the...

[sees Rob standing in the doorway]

Mother:
Yes what is it? You're supposed to be doing your homework!

Robert Jardine:
Yes, Mum.

[thrilled, he continues to stand in the doorway]

Mother:
Well?

Robert Jardine:
[gesturing to the toy in his hand] Helen dropped this on the stairs.

Mother:
All right, well give it to her then!

Helen Jardine:
Becca! [hugs the bear closely]

Father:
Have you really finished it?

[Rob doesn't reply]

Mother:
Well, get on with it then.

[Rob grins at her and they continue their song as he starts back downstairs]

Sapphire:
[a voice from thin air] Rob!

[he stops and looks around for her, finding nothing]

Sapphire:
Goodbye.

[Rob smiles and heads back downstairs]

George Tully:
They tried to kill us!

Steel:
Not quite, they encouraged us to die.

Sapphire:
My name is Sapphire. That's Steel... He's a bit serious [she smiles], but you get used to it.

Robert Jardine:
But you *must* have heard of Cromwell! Don't you know your history?

Steel:
I know *mine*.