Plot: The story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin was no legend - he was an agent of Evil Time, vanquished long ago by Sapphire and Steel themselves. But come 1980 and London pop group Tarquin play a Midlands night club. Jason Jackson, a foster child, is among the audience transfixed by lead singer Evil Eric - clasping Eric's hand the singer is revealed as the Pied Piper. The Piper spirits away the whole audience into another dimension. As the Piper continues to spirit away youngsters at concerts around the world, Sapphire and Steel travel back to ancient Hamelin in search of an answer. Time has altered Hamelin's past and the Piper is nowhere to be found - but Sapphire uses Jason's book containing the Piper poem to track down Evil Time's envoy and destroy him using a metronome set in reverse.
Comments: I wonder if Angus Allan
recalled The Tomorrow People story
The Heart of Sogguth when writing this one? The strip ended
here (TV's Assignment Five would air in August 1981 and the
final TV story would be held over until August 1982) to be replaced
by a strip based on HTV family drama Smuggler.
Arthur Ranson moved on to provide more superb artwork for a
surprisingly elegant strip series of Buck
Rogers in the 25th Century - Allan probably scripted
this series, with one story about a baby mutating into a fearsome
monster owing something to Sapphire and
Steel's TV Assignment Three.
