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LIFE ON MARS |
Series Overview 
Sam Tyler - John Simm Gene Hunt - Philip Glenister Annie Cartwright - Liz White Ray Carling - Dean Andrews Chris Skelton - Marshall Lancaster 
OTHER LIFE ON MARS SERIES Series 1 SPIN OFF SERIES Ashes to Ashes Series 1 Ashes to Ashes Series 2 OTHER TIME TRAVEL SHOWS Doctor Who Journeyman Goodnight Sweetheart Timecop Daybreak 
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Series OverviewSam Tyler, the copper who was hit by a car and found himself back in 1973 is back for a second, and final, season. He is trying to settle in a bit more with his situation, but now is receiving phone calls from a mysterious number that is promising that he will get out. Whilst we wait for that to happen, there are killers to be caught and a number of 70s backdrops to be looked at. One might question why a show as good as LIFE ON MARS should only last for two seasons, but there are signs in this second season that the writers don't have anywhere to go with the show and don't want to spoil it. The police plots are fairly straightforward and even start to rely a bit on cliched situations, so perhaps going out on top is the right thing to do. That said, the characters are still brilliantly entertaining, the dialogue up to scratch and the performances top notch throughout. There is more of an underpinning of science fiction as Sam's voices take on a more solid form and it all comes together in Episode 8, which is one of the best pieces of science fiction drama that you are likely to see this, or any other, year. TopEpisode 1 - First broadcast 13th February 2007In the present day, Sam's life is being threatened by a man he put away, a man who is now able to wreak revenge on his comatose body. In 1973, Sam meets the younger version of the same villain and has to try and find a way to lock him up for good in order to save his helpless future self. This is a very clever episode that takes the two major characters and switches them. Gene Hunt is caught in the glare of the media spotlight and decides to do things by the book for once, whilst Sam is slowly driven by desperation to the point where he is using the same tactics that he has berated Hunt for throughout Season 1. The gradual manner in which this is acheived is a measure of the quality of the writing and promises that things in season two are going to be as good as they were last time around. TopEpisode 2 - First broadcast 20th February 2007When Harry Woolf, the ideal police officer, comes to ask help of his protege Gene Hunt to take down his last collar, the team rally round, but the robber that was sprung from their custody is recaptured and accuses Harry Woolf of being a bent copper. Sam must also deal with the young version of his mentor, a man in need of some lessons of his own. Apart from the fact that Sam is now mentor to the young black police officer that will someday mentor him, there is no science fiction element to this episode at all. One brief snatch of voices and someone on the other end of a phone telling him that the rules say that he has to follow the rules is it. The rest of the episode is excellent character stuff, but nothing that we haven't seen before. Bent coppers is meat and drink to cop shows, so there are absolutely no surprises here for us. That said, it is very nicely written and played out by characters that we have come to have a lot of affection for. TopEpisode 3 - First broadcast 6th March 2007When a bomb goes off injuring one of the team, the IRA are immediately blamed (not least because someone with an irish accent phoned in a warning), but Sam recognises that the bombing doesn't have the usual hallmarks that would come to denote their bombing campaign. Whilst Gene Hunt tears apart the Irish community, Sam looks somewhere else for the bomber. Apart from the reappearance of the test card girl (she is so creepy) and a phone call from the mysterious voice from his own time that can talk to him, there is nothing here that denotes this as a science fiction show. It is the usual polished police procedural and character drama, but barely fits into the sci fi genre. That said, the writing and acting remain uniformly excellent. TopEpisode 4 - First broadcast 13th March 2007When cosmetics girl turns up dead, the investigation leads to a rich businessman with a penchant for wife-swapping parties. As Sam tries to introduce the concept of surveillance to a sceptical department, he and Annie go undercover as swingers. Wife-swapping was a cause celebre of the 70s so it's no surprise that it shows up in this show. It gives a chance for some raised eyebrows humour and another good police investigation drama. It also gives a chance for the relationship between Sam and Annie to deepen. It does, however, rely on the most ridiculously convenient happenstance (a girl is thrown out of the killer's car right in front of Sam) to get the investigation rolling, but then if it is all in his mind then that's quite understandable. TopEpisode 5 - First broadcast 20th March 2007A man walks into the station and threatens to kill himself if a child killer isn't let loose. His own wife and child have been kidnapped and will die in a few hours if the man is not released. With no idea who the kidnappers are, Sam (who is suffering the effects of a drug overdose administered in the present) re-examines the murder case and finds a few flaws in the investigation, but will that be enough to lead them to the kidnapper before the deadline. Another fine police drama that takes its lead from RASHOMON, looking at the same events from different angles to; uncover the truth. When Sam collapses in the middle of the case, he is relegated to watching the progress of the investigation through a television set. Visions inside visions. It's a brilliant conceit and works well. TopEpisode 6 - First broadcast 27th March 2007An asian man is murdered and implicated in heroin dealing. His brother is brought under suspicion and Gene Hunt wants to leave it to a local hood called Toolbox to find out the truth for him. Sam still thinks it might be a race hate crime, especially when he learns that the young white woman involved with the asian men is, in fact, the mother of his present day girlfriend. The casual prejudices of the past were never so much at the heart of the show as in this episode. Truth is, though, that nobody comes off very well in this story. Hunt is humanised a bit further, but refuses to give up his hard man image and Sam is made just a little bit more desperate when he hears his girlfriend's voice announcing that she is going to leave him because she can't take it any more. This is a much more straightforward police procedural which is less effective than other episodes despite the truths coming out about Gene and the connection with the present. TopEpisode 7 - First broadcast 3rd April 2007When Hunt gives evidence of an assault that is thrown out of court, he gets a bit drunk and then ends up in the house with the accused who is now very dead with bullets from Hunt's gun, blood all over Hunt's shirt and Hunt with no memory of what's gone on. An open an shut case for the new DCI Morgan, but Sam isn't about to let it go at that. He will either prove that Hunt is innocent or else he'll prove that he's guilty. Boxing is the backdrop to this week's story and it provides some local colour to what is the standard police story of the copper coming under the scrutiny of his own colleagues with a case that seemingly screams his guilt, but that you know he's going to get off when all is revealed. Where this one differs, however, is in the presence of the new DCI. Is he who he appears to be, or is he a shade of Tyler's past/future - the surgeon who is actually preparing to get Sam out of 1973 and the man behind the mysterious phone calls? Either way, it's a terrific episode however standard the plot. TopEpisode 8 - First broadcast 10th April 2007With Hunt exonerated of the murder charge from last week, DCI Morgan tells Sam that the only way out of his dream is by destroying Gene Hunt and his department. When the dossier is completed, Morgan reveals that he is not the mythic surgeon and that Sam is, in fact, an undercover officer working to bring down the real Gene Hunt and his team. That means that Sam is going to have to make a decision between what's real and what's not and lives will depend on the outcome, not least his own. The last episode of Season 1 proved to be a stunning drama built out of the situation that Sam found himself in. This is the last episode of the second, and last, series so it comes as no surprise that it is an absolutely stunning piece of work. It starts off simply enough, but then the twist with Morgan convincing Sam that he really is in 1973 is accompanied by some very fine acting from John Simm, capturing the sense of a man whose world has just come crashing down around his ears and he really has no idea as to what reality is any more. Finally, it comes down not to what is actually real, but to what is more important. There is a whiff of VANILLA SKY/OPEN YOUR EYES about the final resolution, but that doesn't matter because the ending is the ending that ought to be and an ending that has been worked for long, hard and never less than excellently over the two short seasons. The girl off the test card has been creepy throughout, but this time around she is bloody scary. LIFE ON MARS wasn't with us for very long, and only rarely bordered on the science fiction, but it was always ace. Top |
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