Great Old Sci-Fi TV that Inspired My Imagination

Sapphire and Steel

This had to be one of the creepiest TV series I remember. Even back then I liked scary stories and science fiction. The programme centres on a pair of inter-dimensional operatives, Sapphire and Steel. Very little is revealed about their purposes or backgrounds in the course of the series, but they appear to be engaged in guarding the continuing flow of time. They are two of several elements that assume human form and are sent to investigate strange events; others include Lead, who takes the aspect of a jovial, friendly giant, and Silver, a technician who can melt metals in his hands, there is also Jet and Copper.


Sapphire's special powers is to manipulate time in small ways as well as determine the age or historical details of an object by touching it. Her most prominent ability is to "take back time," literally rewinding it in a localised area to see or replay the past. Steel can freeze himself to absolute zero which gives him the ability to destroy 'ghosts', which are remnants of Time. 
Theme Tune Intro


He possesses immense strength  and is telekinetic, freezing people with a look or unbolting or welding metal objects.

The scariest series I thought was assignment four where the man with no face controlled people in photographs and all the children were dressed as Victorian children, but when Sapphire touched them they turned to paper. The worst bit was the shop keeper setting fire to a photograph with a woman in the window of the building screaming. Horrible, but as a child I found fascinating and glued to the box.



Space 1999

The series is set in the year 1999. The crew on moon base Alpha are sent hurtling in Space when a nuclear waste storage unit explodes, knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it, as well as the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, hurtling uncontrollably into space. The runaway Moon, in effect, becomes the "spacecraft" on which the protagonists travel, searching for a new home. Not long after leaving Earth's solar system, the wandering Moon passes through a black hole and later through a couple of "space warps" which push it even further out into the universe. 

During their interstellar journey, the Alphans encounter an array of alien civilisations, dystopian societies, and mind-bending phenomena previously unseen by humanity. Several episodes of the first series hinted that the Moon's journey was influenced  by a "mysterious unknown force", which was guiding the Alphans toward an ultimate destiny.
I loved this series so much and used to pretend I was on the spaceship and was some kind of alien like Maya, with special shape shifting powers.
Theme Tune and Episode


Blakes Seven

The TV show is set in the third century and at least 700 years in the future. Blake's 7's premise concerns the exploits of political dissident Roj Blake, who commands a small group of rebels against the forces of the totalitarian Terran Federation that rules the Earth and many colonised planets. The Federation uses mass surveillance, brainwashing and drug pacification to control its citizens. 

Blake is arrested and tried on false charges then deported to a remote penal colony. En route he and fellow prisoners Jenna Stannis and Kerr Avon gain control of a technologically advanced alien spacecraft. It's central computer, Zen informs them the ship is called the Liberator. 

Theme Tune and Episode



Liberator's speed and weaponry are superior to Federation craft, and it also has a teleportation system that enables transport to the surface of planets. Blake and his crew begin a campaign to damage the Federation, but are pursued by Space Commander Travis – a Federation soldier – and Servalan, the Supreme Commander who used to seriously scare me. Secretly I fancied Avon and used to play Blake's 7 on my local park many times. 


The Tomorrow People


The premise was about the emergence of the next stage of human evolution (Homo novis) known colloquially as Tomorrow People. Born to human parents, an apparently normal child experience a process called "breaking out" during adolescence and develop special paranormal abilities. These abilities include powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation. However, their psychological make-up prevents them from intentionally killing others.

Weirdly I don't remember much about this programme, but I do remember the Theme Tune and it still gives me goose bumps today. It also gives me a sense a nostalgia for the old house I was born and brought up in.

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