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

[Starscream`s Gho...]

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.

Ah ha! See, I hadn't even thought of that.

[Jubei]

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.

I almost posted that exact same theory, then thought it was just getting too silly.

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.

Good spot, I think you may just have hit the nail on the head there. That's just enough of a link to make Gene Hunt feasible in another persons dream, and it was an odd thing for Sam to say/do unless you take it in the context of setting up another story arc. Brilliant!

[sarkybarker]

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.

Oh bugger. yet another possiblility and a feasable one. I prefer to believe his fantasy of 1973 lives on

...but if the test card kid switched his life support off then perhaps it doesn't....

This post has been edited by sarkybarker: Apr 11 2007, 10:56 AM

[maian]

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.

See, I don't think that's enough evidence to support the ''it really is 1973'' theory. He could just be referring to the general ennui that had settled over his mind after waking up, and it's fairly common for someone to cause a minor injury to themselves and not notice it if their mind is elsewhere.

If we go down a more Total Recall-esque route, it could just be that Sam's subconscious ignored the pain and he then saw this as proof that 1973 was real and that he could get back by jumping off the roof.

[Wife Of Rolex]

Most of what I've thought and theoried about the final episode has already been discussed so I won't repeat, other to add that it indeed was a truly brilliant ending. These things are usually anti-climatic, but I spent a good portion of the episode just sat with my mouth open. John Simm was just superb and the writing was astounding.

My immediate thoughts when it finished was that it was Sam's idea of heaven and his leaping off the roof was him going to the light. But the creation of his heaven was a result of his memories and so living gave him a home for his soul. To have heaven in death you must live. Or is that a touch too deep?

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.

But Annie did exist. She was the woman Sam saw his father brutally attack/kill in the woods when he was a 4 year old in 1973. A memory of her would've existed in his mind. By having her in his subconscious she's alive and well and he falls in love with her. By going back he allows her to live...kind of. Now there's a love story.

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.

It's funny but as the credits rolled I just remembered about the telephone ringing in the studio at the end of the track and thought, 'Ahhh, the telephone. Of course!' Shame they didn't play that bit right at the end. It would've tied in nicely.

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.

Give the boy a trophy. That is an excellent spot.

Going back to the subconscious thing, maybe this DCI Alex Drake falls asleep while listening to Sam's tape and while unable to imagine the 1970s - because she's too young - she instead imagines the 1980s. Though, whether she gets there through an accident or other means we'll just have to wait and see. After being initially iffy about the idea of Ashes To Ashes I'm now very interested to see it.


Wife Of Rolex

[Spider Dijon]

He can't hack living in 21st centuary Manchester so he throws himself off a building...does anyone else here think he's a bit of a fruit loop?

[maian]

He can't hack living in 21st centuary Manchester so he throws himself off a building...does anyone else here think he's a bit of a fruit loop?

It's not that he can't hack it, just that he was happier in the 1970s. Though 21st century Manchester may have been the delusion and the 1970s real, not the other way around.

[Spider Dijon]

It's not that he can't hack it, just that he was happier in the 1970s. Though 21st century Manchester may have been the delusion and the 1970s real, not the other way around.

Ah maybe you're right, personally though If it were me and I wanted to put myself into a comba and I wouldn't make a habit of jumping off buildings to do it. Reality or not, I'd start on the ground.

[Wife Of Rolex]

It's not that he can't hack it, just that he was happier in the 1970s. Though 21st century Manchester may have been the delusion and the 1970s real, not the other way around.

That doesn't really explain the names he came up with for him, Annie and Gene in the swingers episode. Tony & Cherie Blair and Gordon Brown. If he was a 36 year old man living in 1973 he wouldn't know those names.


Wife Of Rolex

[maian]

That doesn't really explain the names he came up with for him, Annie and Gene in the swingers episode. Tony & Cherie Blair and Gordon Brown. If he was a 36 year old man living in 1973 he wouldn't know those names.
Wife Of Rolex

Though he could have made it all up and it just happens to mirror our reality. Delusions tend to be very intricate and vivid in some cases, so it could happen. Besides which, they're all fairly common names.

[Wife Of Rolex]

Though he could have made it all up and it just happens to mirror our reality. Delusions tend to be very intricate and vivid in some cases, so it could happen. Besides which, they're all fairly common names.

But he knew Marc Bolan would die in a mini. He knew about Hillsborough. He knew about the Birmingham Six. He recognised Pulp's 'Disco 2000' on the radio.

Too much of a coincidence to be delusions, in my opinion.


Wife Of Rolex

This post has been edited by Wife Of Rolex: Apr 11 2007, 03:49 PM

[Raven]

I've been thinking about this on and off today, and I'm pretty much convinced now that he was from 2006/7 and that he's put himself back in a coma (or more probably that he died when the Test Card girl turned off the picture).

If there wasn't going to be a sequel I could more readily believe some of the alternatives, but the evidence now seems to support the above rather than him being from '73.

It's a bit of a bold move though, giving your character the happy ending, but in reality killing him off . . .

I wonder what the alternate ending they filmed was?

[Wife Of Rolex]

I wonder what the alternate ending they filmed was?

It crossed my mind that the alternate ending they filmed was purely for the DVD as an extra and what we saw last night was always going to be the aired ending.

Talking of the DVD, I'd love it to have a full Camberwick Green episode with all the LOM characters as an extra. With Brain Cant narrating.


Wife Of Rolex

[Chapman Baxter]

Oooh, here's a thought: what if the operation failed, Sam died ('When you stop feeling, you're dead'), and he got to choose whether to fade out to a sterile imagined present or a colourful past?

Still a bit of a downer, and still means 'it was all a dream', but not quite so depressing, perhaps.

[Raven]

It crossed my mind that the alternate ending they filmed was purely for the DVD as an extra and what we saw last night was always going to be the aired ending.

The alternate ending isn't listed amongst the extras on Play.com