^Remove the space between the underscore before (television) to link...
This is not REALLY sci-fi, and not ENTIRELY fantasy, but I'm putting this here anyway. Anyone seen this BBC crime drama?
For the uninitiated, "Life On Mars" is the story of Sam Tyler, a hip and modern London police inspector in 2006. Distraught after his actions indirectly result in the abduction of his partner/ex-girlfriend by a known killer, he's accidentally hit by a car... And wakes up as a hip and modern police inspector in the year 1973.
Mostly convinced that he's really in a coma in the present day (there are clues for and against various possibilities, including time travel, sprinkled through the episodes) and the he's just DREAMING he's in 1973, he carries on as a policeman in the past. Here, his 21st century crimefighting knowledge conflicts with the skills of the day, where sexism, rascism, and the interpretation and corruption of the law are very different than what we're used to in the present (and on modern crime dramas!). Sam is convinced that if he can figure out why he's in 1973, he can get back home...
This is a GREAT show. The whole idea of the outside observer character being a window on humanity is taken to the extreme here, and it works. Sam represents the audience, living in a world of political correctness and high moral standards at a job that is today under a very public microscope. This is in great contrast of the ways of the 1970s, where you wouldn't find a cop in the station who wasn't a white guy with an attitude. They're depicted here as believing in what they were doing, but were much more pragmatic about catching crooks than today's due process would ever allow. The science-fictioney idea of throwing a modern-day police inspector into this allows the writers to depict a gritty and violent world of 1970s policing as has never been done before. The 70s soundtrack rocks too, with interesting stories - apparently in one episode, MCA Records wouldn't allow the producers to use "Live and Let Die", so they sneakily sent Paul McCartney a tape of the finished show, and he approved it on the spot.
Oh, and in terms of SF relevancy, one of the lead writers was mulling over Sam's last name, so he asked his daughter. She suggested Tyler, and it flew. Only later did he find out that his daughter is a big Doctor Who fan, and picked Rose's last name because of it. Ironically enough, the writer ended up writing an episode for Doctor Who later that year!
Mark
[Edit - corrected spelling and MCA factoid]
[ August 11, 2006, 03:24 PM: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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Shik
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posted
I bet it gets cancelled. All the really neat quirky ideas always get cancelled. Now & Again, Good Vs. Evil....
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Registered: Jun 2000
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Nope - the eight episodes of this first series were very crtitically recieved in the UK, and a second series is being filmed now. However, the show's rights have been acquired for a US pilot for the 2007 season, which David E. Kelley is going to write and produce.
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: the show's rights have been acquired for a US pilot for the 2007 season....
Why do they keep doing this? I can understand to a point that American audiences aren't going to identify as well with a show set in England, but to me, it's no more foreign than one set in Los Angeles. All they'd have to do is broadcast it here since they don't have to pay for producing it. And no, I don't count BBC America as broadcasting it since that's a digital only channel, besides not being a "major" channel.
posted
Especially as American shows manage to be successful in other countries without being remade.
Having said that, there are different commercial pressures in the US- longer series, shorter episodes etc, plus different issues to be explored (I imagine race will play a larger part in the US series, for instance).
It is a little annoying though.
Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Oh, and in terms of SF relevancy, one of the lead writers was mulling over Sam's last name, so he asked his daughter. She suggested Tyler, and it flew. Only later did he find out that his daughter is a big Doctor Who fan, and picked Rose's last name because of it. Ironically enough, the writer ended up writing an episode for Doctor Who later that year!
I think there's some sci-fi/time travel relevance to his first name too. Observe. "Sam is convinced that if he can figure out why he's in 1973, he can leap home..."
posted
Very good show and it seems they knew they were onto a winner judging from the last episode. They left the story open for another series, rather than spoiling the fun and telling us what the frak was going on.
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