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Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138
-at-popapostle-dot-com
Sapphire & Steel: Life Force Sapphire & Steel
"Life Force"
Look-In (1980) #12-14
Written by: Angus Allan
Art by: Arthur Ransom

 

Sapphire and Steel arrive too late to stop a train plummeting off a bridge, but can they still alter time to save the life of a young girl?

 

Notes from the Sapphire & Steel chronology

 

Read the story summary at the Internet Archive copy of Animus Web

 

Didja Know?

 

Comic strips in Look-In magazine were generally not credited to author and artist. According to the Animus Web site, the Sapphire & Steel strips were written by Angus Allan and drawn by Arthur Ransom.

 

All of the strips feature Sapphire and Steel dressed in the clothes they wore in the first television storyline, "Escape Through a Crack in Time". The artist must have had only photo references from those early episodes.

 

This story appeared in three issues of Look-In, a UK magazine geared towards kids. The story is told in comic strip form and appeared in two-page chapters of each issue.

 

The story itself is untitled. I borrowed the title "Life Force" and short description from the Sapphire & Steel Chronology on the Look-In wiki.

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode

 

Martin Brown

Anna Brown

Steel

Sapphire

Nana

Elsie Brown

Jemmy

Fred

 

Didja Notice?

 

On page 4 of the story, a lightning bolt destroys part of a railway bridge over a viaduct in the Heldon River Valley. As far as I can tell, this is a fictitious river. 

 

The artist seems to have used Sapphire's Edwardian dress from "The Railway Station" Part 1 as reference for her appearance in saving Anna from the train crash in the past on page 5 of the story (particularly, the hat).
Sapphire's Edwardian dress in "Life Force" Sapphire's Edwardian dress in "The Railway Station"
Sapphire's Edwardian dress in "Life Force"  Sapphire's Edwardian dress in  "The Railway Station" Part 1

 

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