Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Retro Cop Action! Options

[Raven]

The Return of Gene Hunt, good or bad, only time will tell . . .

[PrincessKate]

The Return of Gene Hunt, good or bad, only time will tell . . .

Oh that sounds... terrible.
That's a truly awful premise, I hope fervently its just idle speculation.

Then again, apparently Ray and Chris will be making the move too so I'll be watching regardless.

[maian]

The Return of Gene Hunt, good or bad, only time will tell . . .

It could easily go either way, but I think they'll really struggle shoehorning in the premise again. Though it would be interesting to see how Gene and the sidekick would get on.

[stinketta]

I'd much rather they followed it up with a conventional cop show, or at least Sci Fi with a different twist.

[melzilla]

Apparently the guys wrote that final episode in a hotel a couple of blocks from where I used to live....weird eh?

[sarkybarker]

The Return of Gene Hunt, good or bad, only time will tell . . .

A series with Gene Hunt = GOOD

Another cop coming back in time after an accident - BAD.

I agree with Stinketta. Forget the sci-fi element and make it a straight sort of 80's spoof if anything because it could end up devaluing Life On Mars if they stick to the same formula.

This post has been edited by sarkybarker: Apr 11 2007, 07:47 AM

[Starscream`s Gho...]

Though it would be interesting to see how Gene and the sidekick would get on.

I'm guessing badly.

If they get the casting right, this could work.

[Stella MM]

Viewers of Tuesday's finale finally saw the answer to his continual question: "Am I mad, in a coma or back in time?"

No we didn't!

I loved that ending. I haven't felt such tension watching a tv show for a good few years - probably not since the last episode of Buffy, series 5. I forgot how good John Simm is. He got a chance to show his skills again after Philip Glenister's masterful theft of the limelight.

[Jubei]

I like the idea that the test card girl turning off TV was them 'losing' Sam and that's it for him. I hadn't though of that at all but actually it really fits with the idea that the present day is real. He wouldn't survive the fall from the building, at least not for long. However, this again is quite depressing. Essentially, he was a man in a coma who's dreams were so vivid that he couldn't handle reality and so committed suicide shortly after waking up.

I think another series would be a BIG mistake. Think about it, if there is a second series, it means that every theory we've come up with so far has been a million miles away from the truth. They couldn't be Sams coma dreams if they turn up in the 80's with no Sam. And yet, it can't be that Sam has amnesia either, or it would be a hell of a coincidence if a second person had exactly the same kind of bizarre delsuion.

[Chapman Baxter]

Essentially, he was a man in a coma who's dreams were so vivid that he couldn't handle reality and so committed suicide shortly after waking up.

That's how I see it. A thoroughly depressing ending that, to me, renders the whole thing a bit pointless. Nothing that happened in either series actually mattered - it was all in Sam's head. Annie doesn't exist, and Sam prefers a fantasy woman he's made up to any woman he might meet in the real world. Bleurgh.

[Starscream`s Gho...]

See, I didn't find the fact that Sam could be dead depressing in the slightest. If he was happier in his dream world, then he 'died' happy, and the romantic in me quite likes that idea.

As for someone having the same delusion, well, people imagine a similar kind of alien in abduction fantasies, it's not completely outside the realms of possibility, and if this woman is supposed to be a psychological profiler, then maybe she studied Sam's case at some point, and read about the "Hunt Syndrome"?

[maian]

I like the idea that the test card girl turning off TV was them 'losing' Sam and that's it for him.  I hadn't though of that at all but actually it really fits with the idea that the present day is real.  He wouldn't survive the fall from the building, at least not for long.  However, this again is quite depressing.  Essentially, he was a man in a coma who's dreams were so vivid that he couldn't handle reality and so committed suicide shortly after waking up.

I think another series would be a BIG mistake. Think about it, if there is a second series, it means that every theory we've come up with so far has been a million miles away from the truth.  They couldn't be Sams coma dreams if they turn up in the 80's with no Sam.  And yet, it can't be that Sam has amnesia either, or it would be a hell of a coincidence if a second person had exactly the same kind of bizarre delsuion.

The only way I can see it working, assuming that Sam and the new cop ended up in different time zones for the same reason, would be that both lapsed into comas and created a life for themselves at a time that they remember fondly, childhood, and Gene just happens to be there. Or, 1973 could have been some sort of limbo for Sam before going to the afterlife, or it may have been the afterlife itself and he was just on the edge of it until the final episode. If this is true, then perhaps Gene and the rest of A Unit were some sort of spirits or angels who kept an eye on Sam. So it could be possible for both characters to end up in 1973 and the 80s respectively since both time periods would be their version of the afterlife, a nostalgic fantasy in which Gene Hunt could appear because he's sort of a heavenly escort.

Though that's probably all bollocks and it's not worth trying to reconcile both series. And I'd just like to point out that I don't believe this outlandish theory, though it was great fun to make up.

Edit: I don't find the ''he killed himself in order to be happy'' ending depressing. It's more or less the same as the ending of Brazil (except dying instead of going mad), he effectively wins and 'lives' happily ever after.

That's assuming that it was 1973 that was the fantasy.

This post has been edited by maian: Apr 11 2007, 09:08 AM

[Sostie]

I was listening to Bowie's Hunky Dory this morning and of course Life On Mars. At the end of the track you can just hear a telephone ring in the background...the same ring as the one in the show....spooky!

On the remastered version you can faintly hear Bowie shout "oi, Ronson you nonce". Double spooky.

[Chapman Baxter]

I don't find the ''he killed himself in order to be happy'' ending depressing. It's more or less the same as the ending of Brazil (except dying instead of going mad), he effectively wins and 'lives' happily ever after.

It's a matter of taste, I suppose. At least the ending to Brazil didn't undermine the reality of the whole film - instead, to me it underlined the tragic nature of Sam (Lowry)'s fate. It don't see it as a victory at all. And I don't think Sam (Tyler) 'killed himself in order to be happy'; my interpretation is that he killed himself, enjoyed a brief fantasy, then switched off permanently.

[Jimmay]

if this woman is supposed to be a psychological profiler, then maybe she studied Sam's case at some point, and read about the "Hunt Syndrome"?

Hang on a cotton picking second! Sam tape recorded what happened to him and said he was sending it to a police woman who was doing psychological profiles of police officers who have traumatic experiences. Something tells me this may be the first mention of our new 80's policewoman officer.

Also, talking to people at work, the general consensus is that as Sam couldn't feel in the modern day, that that was the dream world so he threw himself off the building to wake himself up back to where he belongs, in '73.

I think it just depends whether you decide you want a happy or a sad ending really. If you want to think he has died then it lets you think that. Otherwise, he is happy and alive and meant to be in 1973 with Annie. Ambiguity reigns supreme.