The End of Life on Mars
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:43 am
Many spoilers below if you haven't yet seen the final episode of Life on Mars...
So that's it, it's over. No more Life on Mars. No more Sam Tyler - or maybe there will be..?
What a downer of an ending! I didn't see that coming. It makes sense - what better way to conclude the series than kill off the man dreaming the whole thing up. Or did they? Yes - there is no doubt in my mind that is what they did.
It is interesting that they completely ignored the 'traveled back in time' theory and instead concentrated on the mad and in a coma scenarios. Obviously they intended to leave a smidgen of doubt in some people's mind that he was a 1973 native gone mad (and made great play of that with the Hyde DCI) but it doesn't really stack up. His future knowledge was just too accurate, too realistic. Yes, you could say he had a momentary psychotic break in the train tunnel due to the pressure of betraying his friends and experienced a fake 2006. I just don't buy that. The evidence all stacks up to say he was imagining 1973 and therefore really did commit suicide - that final scene being his last thoughts as the death figure of the Test Card girl signified his death. What a bummer!
Almost no setup to explain the spin-off series except the comment on the coach crash. Sam was 12 years old. We know he was born in 1969. That makes the coach crash happen in 1981 (if we believe Sam's memory/imagination). A coach crash is certain to involve a police investigation and there's more to that story than we know right now (namely the circumstances of the crash) that might make it even more interesting to a 1981 Gene Hunt. I quote from my own blog entry from a couple of weeks ago: "Perhaps Sam didn’t meet Gene Hunt until the early 80s and has just projected him back into 1973 as Sam needed to be there to investigate what happened to his father?" I pretty convinced of that now. At some point in Ashes to Ashes (probably fairly early on) we'll see a 12 year old Sam Tyler. No doubt he'll be disgusted by Gene Hunt's handling of the case and be inspired to join the police service to do it right. Will there be a character called Sam Williams in Ashes to Ashes? Perhaps taking the place of Sam Tyler as the 'voice of reason'?
I'm still somewhat stunned by Sam's suicide. I was a bit slow on the uptake of that one - I didn't realise he was about to do that until he started running. I'm sure I shouted 'No!' in my head (appropriately in my head!) as I realised. After all that time trying to get home he threw it all away for just a few more moments with Annie, Hunt and co. That's an ending that will forever colour my views of the series as I rewatch it!
So that's it, it's over. No more Life on Mars. No more Sam Tyler - or maybe there will be..?
What a downer of an ending! I didn't see that coming. It makes sense - what better way to conclude the series than kill off the man dreaming the whole thing up. Or did they? Yes - there is no doubt in my mind that is what they did.
It is interesting that they completely ignored the 'traveled back in time' theory and instead concentrated on the mad and in a coma scenarios. Obviously they intended to leave a smidgen of doubt in some people's mind that he was a 1973 native gone mad (and made great play of that with the Hyde DCI) but it doesn't really stack up. His future knowledge was just too accurate, too realistic. Yes, you could say he had a momentary psychotic break in the train tunnel due to the pressure of betraying his friends and experienced a fake 2006. I just don't buy that. The evidence all stacks up to say he was imagining 1973 and therefore really did commit suicide - that final scene being his last thoughts as the death figure of the Test Card girl signified his death. What a bummer!
Almost no setup to explain the spin-off series except the comment on the coach crash. Sam was 12 years old. We know he was born in 1969. That makes the coach crash happen in 1981 (if we believe Sam's memory/imagination). A coach crash is certain to involve a police investigation and there's more to that story than we know right now (namely the circumstances of the crash) that might make it even more interesting to a 1981 Gene Hunt. I quote from my own blog entry from a couple of weeks ago: "Perhaps Sam didn’t meet Gene Hunt until the early 80s and has just projected him back into 1973 as Sam needed to be there to investigate what happened to his father?" I pretty convinced of that now. At some point in Ashes to Ashes (probably fairly early on) we'll see a 12 year old Sam Tyler. No doubt he'll be disgusted by Gene Hunt's handling of the case and be inspired to join the police service to do it right. Will there be a character called Sam Williams in Ashes to Ashes? Perhaps taking the place of Sam Tyler as the 'voice of reason'?
I'm still somewhat stunned by Sam's suicide. I was a bit slow on the uptake of that one - I didn't realise he was about to do that until he started running. I'm sure I shouted 'No!' in my head (appropriately in my head!) as I realised. After all that time trying to get home he threw it all away for just a few more moments with Annie, Hunt and co. That's an ending that will forever colour my views of the series as I rewatch it!