Although there is some video noise, the picture quality is generally acceptable. Its slightly better than the VHS release but does not really offer much incentive for anyone still reluctant to leave VHS behind.

The sound quality is reasonable, however, the background "silence" seems to roar at the listener in some scenes. The soundtrack is in its original mono, but the main thing is that the both the score and the sound effects are very effective. Cyril Ornadel's incidental music is very good and was a memorable component of the series. I'd rather have a genuinely chilling mono soundtrack than a 6.1 soundtrack which allows you to hear an offscreen passerby sneeze behind you while a car explodes somewhere in the foreground. In short - an acceptable transfer and soundtrack, but it could be better! Overall, I would rate the sound and picture quality at 75%

The extras are not only quite basic, they are fairly static. To put it simply, all you get are a series of transribed notes with the odd still (and some of those aren't relevant to the story). Overall, I would rate the extras at 25%.

• INTRODUCTIONS
  Press Release for Season One: this explains the concept of the series, citing the story of Assignment One as an example; it also gives some background on the main cast and those behind the scenes.
• TV TIMES ARTICLE
  Another introduction to the series, published in the ITV television guide magazine of the time. Also features a short interview with P.J.Hammond.

A boy, Rob, sits at a kitchen table, doing his schoolwork. Nearby, a number of clocks mark the passage of time. There are more clocks throughout the house, all ticking away. In an upstairs room, Rob's parents are reading out nursery rhymes to Helen, his sister. A clock near Rob stops ticking. Then each clock throughout the house stops and there is a strange silence, followed quickly by a strange sound. Rob dashes upstairs to his sister's room and finds her all alone. Of their parents - no sign.

Rob and Helen wait for the arrival of the police but it is not long before someone arrives to help. Expecting the police, Rob is surprised when two strangers - a man and a woman enter the house with an offer to help. Introducing themselves as Sapphire and Steel, the two strangers soon reveal that Rob and Helen's parents have fallen foul of something quite sinister. As Steel explains "There is a corridor. And the corridor is Time. It surrounds all things. You can't see it - only sometimes. Perhaps a glimpse. And then its dangerous. You cannot enter into Time. But, once in a while, Time can try to enter into the Present. Break in. Burst through. Take things. Take people. But sometimes, in some places, it becomes weakened. Like fabric. And when there is pressure upon the fabric, Time reaches in."

Towards the end of the first episode, Steel explains further about the foes they fight: "There are things, creatures if you like, from the very beginnings of time and the very end of time. These creatures have access to the corridor. They're forever moving along it. Searching, looking, trying to find a way in. They're always searching. Always looking...But they must never be allowed in. Never ever..."

Slowly but surely, whatever entities have used time to snatch Rob and Helen's parents, they are taking over the house. Can they be stopped and will Sapphire and Steel be able to retrieve the children's parents?