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Sapphire & Steel
"Cruel Immortality" Part 2
Audio drama
Big Finish Productions
Written by Nigel Fairs
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
January 2007 |
Steel finds that the retirement home is a cruel prison.
Notes from the Sapphire & Steel chronology
This story takes place in "current day", probably 2007, but the
retirement home in which it takes place is stuck in 1949. April
14, 1949 is the major date of the story, though a revelation
later in the story later says that time stopped at the
retirement home on December 31, 1949...515 years ago.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Stanley
female carer (unnamed)
male carer (unnamed)
Victoria
Harry
matron
Steel
Emmy
Sapphire (as Mrs. P)
Ted (mentioned only)
Enid (Stanley's wife)
Tommy Handley (mentioned only)
music man (mentioned only)
Beastie
Didja Notice?
The song sung by the old folks
at the beginning of this episode is an original for the
production. The simple lyrics are,
"What's the matter, Fido? Give the dog a bone. Stick it in
the kennel, he'll come home." An explanation of the
song and extended lyrics are provided in
"Cruel Immortality" Part 4.
Complaining about their time-locked retirement home prison,
Stanley remarks, "There's no V-E Day celebrations...just
them and us going on and on and on forever." V-E Day is
"Victory in Europe Day", the day marked to celebrate the
acceptance of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender to the
Allies, ending WWII.
The matron tells Steel the name of the retirement home is
Tivinus Home. This appears to be a fictitious retirement
home.
The matron implies that residents of the retirement home who are
being punished go to the Nowhere Place for a while.
Possibly, this is a nod to the Doctor Who audio
drama called "The Nowhere Place", also by Big Finish
Productions (written by Nicholas Briggs).
Trying to pry Mrs. P's favorite day out of her, Enid remarks
on a day walking on the beach at
Brighton.
Mrs. P sings "Fight the Good Fight", a Christian hymn
written by Rev. John Samuel Bewley Monsell in 1863.
Harry remarks to Steel that he believes in "three impossible
things before breakfast." This is a reference to the 1865
novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, wherein the Queen of
Hearts says, "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six
impossible things before breakfast."
Steel tries to remember something called the de Grey theory.
Presumably, he is thinking of the theory of English
biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey who has posited that
advances in medical technology may be able to prevent people
alive today from dying of age-related causes.
Memorable Dialog
a distortion in time.mp3
most unlike you.mp3
one and the same.mp3
trigger.mp3
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