...LIFE ON MARS, 9pm TONIGHT, THE LAST EVER EPISODE...

[IndigoPrime]

Exactlyâ??the point is that the 1970s are Sam's idealised view of the world, his Wonderland. With that in mind, the close of the series was his version of that world as he wanted it: exciting, vibrant, with the people he wanted around him and the comradeship he craved.

[paulvonscott]

"Though Ashes to Ashes will probably screw up everything..."

A female cop travels back in time from 2008 apparently...

Hmm. Okay.

I have my own ideas as to how the show ends, and they aen't the same as the writer's, but then it's not as if a writer always knows what's going on in their stories anyway.

[The Adventurer]

So ultimately the Sam's situation ends up being the third option. Sam is completely Mad.

[paulvonscott]

Heh, or all three.

[Byron Virgo]

More info on the new series here - apparently the 'sexy new female detective' is going to be the one that Sam was recording the tape for:

Link: http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ianwylie/2007/04/life_on_mars_the_answers.html" target="_blank">â??Ray, fire up the Quattro!â??

[Lobo Baggins]

I thought it was going to end up like 'The Black and Blue Lamp', this TV play from the eighties that no one but me remembers - two coppers, one from the forties and one from the eighties, 'swap over' lives somehow.

Enjoyed that, though - sufficiently ambigious ending to keep everyone happy.

[Quirkafleeg]

>'The Black and Blue Lamp', this TV play from the eighties that no one but me remembers

No, I remember it, it was great... I seem to remember the modern CID called themselves Bastard Squad or something equally fantastic.

[paulvonscott]

Heh, like the sound of that, and I really must watch 'Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown' again.

[Matt Timson]

"I know my rights- I want a cup of tea and a sticky bun"

Was that the one?

[Steve Green]

Well, I'd recorded it and had to avoid spoilers 'Likely Lads' style yesterday.

I liked the ending, and I agree about Sam's waking from the coma was a false one.

The only thing that bothers me slightly is where it leaves the storylines where he was affecting future events by his actions in the past. If it was just a coma, then that would have meant Maya was likely still kidnapped or dead (maybe the scene of her leaving was Sam accepting that)

Good to see more Oz references, like the Rainbow after Sam returns, and the desaturation of the modern day. I was even thinking Ray and Chris looked a bit Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow respectively.

Not sure what that makes Gene though, a flying monkey?

- Steve

[IndigoPrime]

::  If it was just a coma, then that would have meant Maya
:: was likely still kidnapped or dead (maybe the scene of
:: her leaving was Sam accepting that)

Or she got rescued, but this was nothing at all to do with Sam.

[Steve Green]

True,

not sure where it leaves the 'Tony Crane' storyline though, I guess the delusional Sam just imagined that his actions had resulted in Crane being detained in a secure unit, and that the man who tried to strangle Sam in 2006 was not Crane.

As for the fake 2006 awakening, the Ashes to Ashes promo piece suggests that Sam did awake from his coma after all and committed suicide to return to 1973.

- Steve

[paulvonscott]

"that would have meant Maya was likely still kidnapped or dead"

In the episode where he met Mays's mum, Maya came to visit Sam in hospital and said she was moving on.  So she was alive.

I would say that Sam helping to find the killer somehow changed events so that the '07 killer was either caught or never committed the crimes in the first place.

[The Adventurer]

But if the crime was never committed, then Mia wasn't kidnapped, and Sam wouldn't have been out of his car being distraught when he was hit by the other car.

TIME PARADOX!

[paulvonscott]

In that case he must have been caught in time.