Life On Mars

[jackokent]

Originally Posted by Dave

I just saw the one where Sam and Annie go undercover to a wife-swapping party as Tony and Cherie Blair, and DCI Hunt turns up as their friend Gordon Brown. Great stuff!

I watched this for the first time last night and thought it was brilliant. Loved some of the one-liners and it was really interesting to see how our views have changed as a society, especially about things like sexism. Loved the line from the chiif copper "so he threw a bird out of a moving car... doesn't necessarily make him a bad bloke". It was so hilariously non pc.

[Talysia]

Admittedly, last night's episode was the first one I'd seen all the way through (after only seeing bits and pieces of the others) and it wasn't bad at all. I think I might watch it from now on, given that this series is going to be the last.

[SJAB]

The last show was superb! The way everything dovetailed together!!!


Highlight;

The way Sam's room number was the Hyde telephone number was just one thing, also the reason he went back..... great stuff.

[Kostmayer]

I loved it too. Haven't seen any of the first series but really loved the second one.

The last episode does raise an interesting question though - is it better to be generally unhappy, rather then content but not really feeling anything.

[Coolhand]

I loved the ending, but the more I think about it the more ambiguous it becomes. My first assumption was:

He was in a coma, but decided to go back there when he realises that real life sucks and that he abandoned his 1973 imaginary friends to die. The voices on the car radio imply that he’s dying in the real world and when the girl switches off the TV at the end it’s possibly signifying his death.

But then a few things came to mind that made me wonder if that’s actually the case.

Firstly, the line about knowing when you’re alive because you feel, and when you’re dead because you don’t. When he “returns” to the future, everything is drab and washed out, and he doesn’t feel any pain when he slashes open his thumb. So you could take that as a hint that the “future” isn’t actually real, and that the whole plotline about him actually being a 1973 undercover copper with amnesia is the real one. Therefore, when Sam jumps off the building, he does it because he realises that this “future” isn’t real, and that he’s still in the tunnel. So he jumps off the building to reject his delusions and later tunes out the radio as a further rejection of his 2006 “fantasy.”

Added to that is that, according to wikkipedia, the original name of the character was Sam Williams, before they changed it to Sam Tyler to be catchier. Now, the “1973 is real” plotline claims that Sam’s real second name IS Williams, and that Tyler is his cover name. His fake name. That would actually fit with the idea that he’s a 1973 copper with amnesia and a set of revolutionary police morals from the M.A.R.S operation, as opposed to a 2006 cop in a coma.

Ultimately perhaps, we were never supposed to know which version of events was real, and the goal of Sam was simply to choose the reality he preferred. For what it's worth, I think he chose the right one.

[Talysia]

And no sooner than the last episode finishes, they announce another sequel, this one set in the 80s, if this proves to be the case.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Life on Mars sequel jumps to '80s

[jackokent]

I hope they don't ruin this by doing it to death. So saying my favourite character was Gene thingy (I am so useless with names) so glad he'll still be in it.

Thought the last episode was a bit weird last night. If I were his mates / colleagues I would have been a tad more cheesed off with Sam. I think they were very forgiving.

[Kostmayer]

Am not sure that Sam not 'feeling' anything when he returns to the future means that his future life is imaginary. It could be that Sam realised that his life in the 70's meant more to him then he realised, real or not, and decided to return to the past. Not because it was any realer, but because he felt more alive there.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Kostmayer

It could be that Sam realised that his life in the 70's meant more to him then he realised, real or not, and decided to return to the past. Not because it was any realer, but because he felt more alive there.

That was my take on the final episode too, he no longer cared which was real, except that he preferred 1973. However I was disappointed with the deliberate ambiguity, and I thought it extremely muddled. I videoed this and watched it after the rest of my family did. They were very confused and still aren't sure which was meant to be the reality.

I always saw this along the same lines as Iain Banks The Bridge, so I always thought that he was in a coma, but the addition of the Vanilla Sky jump, the M.A.R.S. operation, and the lack of explanation about many other things - Annie's psychiatrist boyfriend from the first episode, the fact that Sam never attempted to speak to ex-girlfriend Mia before jumping off the roof, that he had met himself and his mother but also saw those gravestones - it didn't quite fit. And as jackokent said, his colleagues were very forgiving when he returned, too forgiving for it to have been reality.

Jumping off the roof, would no doubt lead to death rather than another coma, so as Coolhand said, the girl turning off the TV could well be the end of his life.

There is another possibility, that during the coma he went to that plane that exists between the states of life and death, and so he died and went there to stay.

It is all very philosophical, and I was looking for a straight answer with a yes or no. This ending will be long debated I'm sure. It will be like the ending to The Prisoner. I just hope the ending to Lost is clearer.

Best line:

Sam: Was she enigmatic?
Ray: No, she was from Barnsley!

As for a sequel, well, very predictable but unlikely to strike gold twice.

[Val Tyler]

I saw the last episode and felt it strangely sad. Sam chose to feel alive in his head because he did not feel alive in 2007. It got me to thinking. Is life in 2007 less fun than it was in 1973 (yes, I am old enough to remember!)?

Health care is better now, which is a huge plus for today but, other than than, I felt I was more free in 1973. How sad is that?

[Mark Robson]

Nice to see you here, Val. You don't hang around, do you? I hope you'll drop by the Introductions board so that the regulars can cheer you in through the door.

http://www.chronicles-network.com/forum/introductions/

Although the policy here is not to leap in and self promote, (you won't be able to post links to your website for a while, for example) I'm sure that the regular members will be glad to welcome in another professional writer of fantasy fiction.

[roddglenn]

Hi, Mark, long time no speak. Hope all is going well.

Here's a couple of links for fans -

YouTube - life on mars - Camberwick Green the muisc video

http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ianwylie/2007/04/life_on_mars_the_answers.html

[williamjm]

Originally Posted by Dave

That was my take on the final episode too, he no longer cared which was real, except that he preferred 1973. However I was disappointed with the deliberate ambiguity, and I thought it extremely muddled. I videoed this and watched it after the rest of my family did. They were very confused and still aren't sure which was meant to be the reality.

I think the most sensible explanation is that Sam never woke from his coma, and the 2007 bit is as much a dream as 1973, although judging from that interview the show's creator did, that's not what they intended.

I didn't really feel the ending was a very satisfying end to a great series. I'd have preferred them to either explain things conclusively one way or the other or just not explain anything at all. It did feel a bit like they were trying to do a big twist but it ended up seeming a bit too familiar - most obviously from Open Your Eyes/Vanilla Sky (not that that's exactly the same plotline), but their have been a lot of shows and movies and books that have used the 'character's reality isn't really real' plot device.