First broadcast 20th January 1981.
Sapphire and Steel subdue the changeling and find where the time source is hiding in the wall.
David McCallum ... Steel
Joanna Lumley ... Sapphire
David Collings ... Silver
Catherine Hall ... Rothwyn
David Gant ... Eldred
Russell Wootton ... Changeling
Sapphire and Steel subdue the changeling and find where the time source is hiding in the wall.
David McCallum ... Steel
Joanna Lumley ... Sapphire
David Collings ... Silver
Catherine Hall ... Rothwyn
David Gant ... Eldred
Russell Wootton ... Changeling
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00I'm afraid you've both fallen into the trap of attributing human characteristics to a
00:28simple flexible casing and a handful of circuits. They can easily program a machine to have a
00:34child's mind, a child's... Why would they do that? I don't know why, but I can soon find out.
00:40I'll open it up. No, you keep away from it. Look, steal, steal, steal, steal, steal. I am the technician.
00:50And there's no machine, past, present, or future that I cannot handle.
00:59No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
01:19All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension.
01:23Transuranic, heavy elements may not be used where there is life.
01:32Medium atomic weights are available.
01:35Gold, lead, copper, jet, diamond, radium, sapphire, silver, and steel.
01:47Sapphire and steel have been assigned.
01:52Let it follow you.
02:22I want to get behind it.
02:25Go on, make it follow you.
02:51You can't kill it, Stephen.
02:57You can't hurt it.
03:14No!
03:22I won't!
03:42It tried to resist something, did you notice?
03:44Yes.
03:45Whatever it is that's controlling you.
03:48The time source?
03:49It must be.
04:00What is it?
04:02A human transmutation.
04:04I suppose you could call it a changeling.
04:07A changeling?
04:09A substitute child.
04:11It's old folklore.
04:13Except that this child hasn't been substituted for another.
04:20He's been substituted for himself?
04:22Give or take thirty years, yes.
04:24I wonder what he did to silver.
04:26What he did to everything else.
04:28Like the door.
04:32I think he sent him back.
04:34To where?
04:35To the beginning.
04:36To his beginnings.
04:38Maybe even further than that.
04:44What is it?
04:47What is it?
04:49I was just trying to imagine, but it's impossible.
04:52Imagine what?
04:53Silver having any kind of beginning.
04:55Any kind of childhood.
04:57That's strange.
04:58My thoughts exactly.
05:00About silver?
05:01No.
05:03About you.
05:08He's the baby from this room.
05:11Yes.
05:15I have very positive origins.
05:18Inexpressible, maybe.
05:21But positive.
05:30Without silver, we don't stand a chance of getting out of this capsule.
05:34What about the parents?
05:35What are you going to do about it?
05:36Try to get him back.
05:39If he has sent silver back to a time when he never even existed...
05:43What did you say?
05:45What about the parents of that child?
05:48Well, he could hardly have sent them back into the past.
05:51If he'd done that, the child itself wouldn't exist.
05:53It wouldn't be here.
05:57Or maybe he sent them in different directions.
06:00Yes, the opposite direction.
06:03Do you remember the hands?
06:05Left hand?
06:06The past.
06:08Right hand?
06:09The future.
06:10Well, it could be.
06:12Yes, it could be, yes.
06:21There must be a power system somewhere.
06:28It must be the machinery.
06:35It must be.
06:54This room is very special.
06:58It's the only one that isn't pretending to be something else.
07:01A room from the future?
07:02Yes, but how does it work?
07:04There's no machinery, nothing.
07:06Nothing we can see.
07:07Well, how did it get here?
07:09How do we send it back?
07:11We can't send it back, not without its crew.
07:13All right, while we're waiting around, waiting for them to reappear,
07:16what do you suggest we do?
07:20I've no idea.
07:21Precisely.
07:25So get silver back.
07:27Now?
07:28Now.
07:31You're not forgetting the time source.
07:35I mean, I thought you were worried.
07:37Worried?
07:39That it's all gone too smoothly, that we got in here too easily.
07:43No, I'm not forgetting the time source, and yes, I'm still worried.
07:46Good.
07:47Now take time back.
07:50To when the three of us were together in the living room.
07:56See you back there.
08:01I have impeccable origins.
08:21No.
08:24No.
08:31No.
09:01No.
09:32No.
09:53Day 27.
09:55Experimental Project ES Stroke 5 Stroke 777.
10:00Urban examination and observation.
10:03Time of day.
10:058.27 a.m.
10:08I'd like to report a transference failure.
10:11Preparations have failed.
10:13Continuous existence without reference to extension in space.
10:18Absolute time is unrelated to matter or motion,
10:23and is continuous, unlimited, and infinitely divisible.
10:29Relative time, by which duration is measured with reference to events.
10:36Siderial time is based on the rotation of the Earth with respect to the stars.
10:43Silver!
10:44I'm afraid you've both fallen into the trap of attributing human characteristics to a simple flexible casing.
10:52Steel, steel, steel, steel, steel.
10:55Steel.
10:59Steel, steel, steel, steel.
11:01Time, as measured by clocks, chronometers, etc.,
11:05is computed on the basis of an average all-mean solar day,
11:11which is always the same length and has no real existence.
11:26What do you mean you can't work in there?
11:28It's impossible. I just can't operate. Not in that room.
11:31Then try another room. Try the screen room.
11:33No, it has to be the room that Silver was last in.
11:35What's stopping you?
11:37The room itself.
11:42It's a lie.
11:43With what?
11:44With time.
11:46You mean it knew your reasons for going into that room?
11:49Well, it must have done.
11:51What other reason would it have for setting up a barrier?
11:53What other reason would it have for setting up a barrier like that?
11:57So you are unable to take time back?
11:59Under these circumstances, yes.
12:07I haven't got the power.
12:11Yeah, but it has.
12:13Obviously.
12:19Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
12:21Yes, the same thoughts.
12:23You can't use your powers and I can't do what I've been sent to do
12:27and take this capsule back to where it belongs because the crew aren't here.
12:32We've lost our technician.
12:36The only one who can get us out and get us in.
12:42He's a useful sort of person, isn't he?
12:48I miss him.
12:59There's a time field outside this place
13:02and now apparently a time barrier within.
13:09What did you do?
13:11What did I do when?
13:12When you entered the room, did you prepare things? What?
13:16I just thought about what I had to do to take time back and to get Silver back.
13:20You only had to think it?
13:21Yes.
13:23Think it now.
13:38Steel?
13:40Yes, I saw that.
13:43Come back here.
13:49The roof.
13:50Yes, but the past or the future?
13:51I don't know, it could have been either.
13:53Try it here.
13:54Take time back here,
13:56when you and I and Silver first came out from the screen room.
14:00Try that.
14:13So, which one did you try?
14:16The master panel.
14:19Well, we usually get an instant signal back from that, don't we?
14:23Yes.
14:36That was people from the future.
14:39That was people from the future.
14:43Why were they dressed like that?
14:45It was part of their experiment.
14:47Did you expect something different?
14:48Yes.
15:02Some sort of transmitter, Silver said.
15:05Yes, and a monitor.
15:07Something that sees us, watches us.
15:10Well, there's probably one in every room.
15:30Maybe there is nothing tangible.
15:33Maybe there doesn't need to be.
15:37Let's go.
15:49Steel?
15:55It's here.
15:58It's here.
16:06I'm in line with it here.
16:08Do you remember on the roof?
16:11Yes.
16:12Here, I'm in line with it here.
16:15Yes, I remember.
16:23It's very powerful, Steel.
16:25Try to communicate with it.
16:27I can't possibly.
16:28Is it only a machine?
16:30Yes.
16:31Do you believe in doing anything at once?
16:35Yes.
16:37Capable of everything?
16:39Yes.
16:55It's here.
16:57It's here.
16:59It's here.
17:24Those clever people of the future with their brilliant minds.
17:28They harnessed it and used it, whatever it is.
17:31Oh, oh, oh, no!
17:35Oh, the pain!
17:39It's all right. It's all right.
17:42It's all right.
17:46Wait here.
17:58Wait here.
18:15It moved.
18:18Good.
18:29Anything now?
18:31No.
18:34If only we knew how these walls were constructed.
18:37It could be anywhere.
18:39Yes, it has a right to be anywhere in this capsule.
18:47It could have access to any part of it.
18:51Built in.
18:59What were those noises?
19:01Sounds of pain.
19:05What's that?
19:09The whole capsule is built like that.
19:13Let's see if...
19:17It'll never shift.
19:21It's all about good.
19:24Silver could.
19:27Yes, silver probably could.
19:32Maybe there is a way of getting him back.
19:34Steel?
19:35A quick way, a swift way.
19:36Look.
19:38Blood.
19:40It's animal blood.
19:43Animal blood?
19:47What exactly are they guilty of?
19:50And what if they use it as a time source?
19:52That's capable of everything.
19:54Yeah, well, there's one thing it hasn't been capable of doing.
19:57Something decided to disobey it, remember?
20:00The left hand the past, the right hand the future.
20:03I mean, what would happen if...
20:04Steel, it's dangerous.
20:05I know. I live dangerously.
20:07Well, what would happen if you disappeared as well?
20:09You'd just have to cope as best you can.
20:11You know what it can do.
20:12I know very well what it can do.
20:13Steel, remember, it's watching you. It's listening to you.
20:15Don't you see? That's what I'm relying on.
20:17You cannot take that chance.
20:18All right.
20:19All right.
20:21I'm just going to talk to it.
20:32What is your name?
20:39Name?
20:40Yes.
20:42You must have a name.
20:44You must have a name.
20:52We want to help you.
20:57We want to give you back
21:00the things you need.
21:09Sleep
21:12and warmth
21:17and food.
21:22Those are the things you want.
21:26Aren't they?
21:31Well,
21:33we're going to help you
21:36to get those things back.
21:42You'd like that, wouldn't you?
21:46You'd like that a lot.
21:54We're going to give you everything you want.
21:59And you know what?
22:02We're going to send you back.
22:06Send you back
22:08where you belong.
22:12No!
22:16We will hurt you.
22:21No!
22:41No!
23:11No!
23:41Rothwilliam!
23:43Rothwilliam!
23:46The past again.
23:48This is the present.
23:51The present?
24:11Your child.
24:13He's quite safe. He's unharmed.
24:15We've brought him back for you.
24:16Brought him back from where?
24:18Don't ask them anything.
24:19I want to know what happened.
24:20Don't even talk to them.
24:22I believe you now.
24:24The things,
24:25the things you said you'd seen.
24:27Well, now I believe you.
24:28We're both imagining things.
24:29We're not imagining anything.
24:30Well, of course we are.
24:31These people are real.
24:34Well, aren't you?
24:35Yes, we're real.
24:37What are your names?
24:38How can they possibly be real?
24:41How can we possibly not be?
24:52What are your names?
24:53You might as well tell him.
24:54We can't.
24:55His name is Eldred.
24:56Mine is Rothwilliam.
24:57Names from the past.
24:58Oh, yes.
25:01But you're from the future.
25:04Am I right?
25:05You're right.
25:08And there's only the three of you.
25:12Well, tell me.
25:17Yes.
25:19Yes.
25:20There's only the three of us here.
25:21But it's impossible.
25:22What's impossible?
25:24Them being here.
25:26No one can enter this place.
25:28No one can get in.
25:29No?
25:32No one from this time period.
25:34Where are you from?
25:36Please wait here until you're needed.
25:41All right.
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