Life On Mars

A superb finish ( the 'Test Card girl' at the very end - ) , and plenty of twists leading up to it as well, really enjoyable from start to end.

The way I see it, the present day was indeed real, and 1973 was him in a coma.

He spent so much time trying go get back home, only to realise that when he awoke and got back to his life, he didn't really feel alive in the modern world, in his modern job as DCI, which seemed mundane and cold (hence the reason why the voice of his colleague faded away as he was too busy thinking of other things, which in turn caused him to not realise he had cut his hand).

So he decided to go outside, run and jump from the building to try and get back into the coma state, to '73 where he truly did feel alive - He succeeded, and when back with Annie, made the decision to ignore the possibility ever returning to the 'empty' present day - tuning the radio to get rid of the doctor's voice showed this.

It may have just been me, but it looked like different filters were applied to the present day scenes and the 1973 scenes to reflect the mood in each...

When he awoke, everything in 2007 looked to have a rather cold and clinical tint, which gave those scenes a similar mood - whereas in 1973 the colours looked to be a lot warmer.

I was hoping if he did stay in 2006/7 we would have seen Gene doing something in it, but glad he went back to 1973.

It would have been good if when he woke up he had a time device and the test card girl materialised in the room and told him she was the time girl and with that time device he can travel to any time.He goes back and the 1973 car drives to 2006.

Maybe there was a hidden ledge/roof just beneath where he jumped. Enough to knock him into a coma but not kill him...

It would have been better for him to have swallowed a load of paracetemols or confiscated narcotics at the police station, something that would probably make him go into a coma. Or maybe crashing his car in Hyde for dramatic irony.

Jumping from a building that height to the ground below would certainly kill you!

I too noticed that everything in 2006 was grey-tinged, where everything in 1973 seemed more colourful some how.

I think the Test Card Girl at the end was a humorous breaking of the fourth wall, to let viewers know that Life on Mars had finished once and for all, by switching the screen off.

I think that would have ruined every single bit of intelligence, wit and plot twists created in the show.

would have been good to have seen the central characters in 2007, Annie could have been a nurse Ray and Chris doctors and Gene a porter or something.

bit like the dream ending to 'The Brittas Empire' where Brittas is dreaming on the train and Colin is the ticket collector and other characters are passengers

great ending though, like the twist that he had a fake identity in 1973 and he was orphaned in 1950 etc.

that test card girl was creepy, reminded me of the evil twins in the league of gentlemen

A bit like Crossroads , where Jane "Angel" Asher woke up, and she was in actual fact a daydreaming supermarket checkout girl-- all the other characters were various supermarket customers/workers

[quote="stevek"]would have been good to have seen the central characters in 2007, Annie could have been a nurse Ray and Chris doctors and Gene a porter or something.[/quote


Makes it seem like a remake of The Wizard of Oz.

I'll give you a plot twist if you keep on.

Well I'd been looking forward to the conclusion since the very first episode and wasn't disappointed. It was brilliant and personally, a great way to end it (can't be many programmes that have the lead character committing suicide moments before the end of the series!). The acting, writing, photography all superb and made for two great series. The fact they've only done two is also a testament - I'm sure the BBC would be more than happy to have it for a few more series but this way, it didn't outstay its welcome - kudos to Kudos!

The show is up for 3 Bafta Television awards, and I hope it wins all three.

They are:

Actor
John Simm - Life on Mars (BBC One)

Drama series
Life on Mars (BBC One)

Audience award
Life on Mars (BBC One)

However seeing that the last catergory also has Celeb BB in the list I bet the stupid morons vote that instead of LOM, infact I might actually vote for the first time round in this for LOM to stop Celeb BB winning

True enough. I think the writers realised there was only so much mileage they could get out of Sam's predicament, so they wisely ended it after the second series. The proposed Ashes To Ashes series a good comprise in terms of keeping the show going.

I liked the interview Phil Glennister did with POG on Tuesday. He opined that the writers wanted to do a series that stuck two fingers up to political-correctness that now pervades modern British TV. They felt the only way to do that, was to do a 70s copshow in the same style of The Sweeney -- but with a modern twist.