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

[pauljholden]

Ah come on Gary, that's piss easy to rationalise away ... maybe he flicked his eyes open briefly and saw the surgeon (which, happily, explains why he doesn't see Frank until well into the second series) - who knows in the coma time may be travelling much faster for him than in real life - allowing him to include all sorts of outside stimula into his entire dreamscape.

The question is: how did he know he'd slip into a coma by jumping off a roof - why didn't he just die?

Who cares... it's not about that ... it's about the Gene Genie...

- pj

[Queen Firey-Bou]

ARGHHHH !

magic, and if it was all the 70's how come he knew modern stuff like stingers and PC, but then if it was... oh hell i gave up trying to work it out, it was magic.

i have a brain ache now.

[I, Cosh]

I find myself in Dr X's canoe. I think I understand but it doesn't make sense.

The thing that's been colouring my whole idea of what' going on is that Gene must be real for the proposed follow-up to work...

Oh, the roof thing is a reference to the episode in the first series where Cartwright's boyfriend tells him that's how he can wake himself up.

[Rob Spalding]

As I see it - he was in a coma.
Woke up.  Realised 2006 is a bit drab compared to the madness of Gene and co.  Decides to jump off roof to die in the now and live his afterlife in the then.
Loved the "He's slipping away."
"God I hate that station."

[VisibleMan]

"More to the point, how did he change time and save Maya?"

Maybe that was as much a hallucination as seeing his own grave?

Or maybe there was some real trouble with a psycho in the ward and his comatose senses rationalised it as himself saving the day because that was better than being utterly helpless?

[SamuelAWilkinson]

Enjoyable as the episode was, my flatmate and I seem to be alone in yelling 'what the hell?' at the TV following the last ten minutes. I don't know why, but I was still disappointed in the ending.

[Leigh S]

Any answers they'd have given would have been beside the point, and diminished the whole hing... thought it was quite bold of them to pin their colours to the Gene Hunt mast so fully

Tat said, surely there are more effective ways to put yourself abck in a coma than that?

[Tiplodocus]

I had to MAKE myself like the ending (never a good thing - like when you buy a record and force yourself to like it 'cos you've just paid £15 for it).

The twist with Morgan saying he was really undercover with amnesia didn't work at all. Mainly because he'd quoted ROBOCOP about five minutes earlier. And had made lots of future refs (not just police procedural ones) in other episodes. So we knew that was rubbish.

I like to think he was really back in time - the tumor was some kind of thing (next stage of evolution) that allowed him to travel in time. The accident activated it and sent him back the first time. His choice to leap off the roof sent him back the second time.  

Sadly, that's all about as rational and logical  as "the power of words" or "time travel DNA" or "the heart of the Tardis".

Also, the second he talked with Nelson, you could tell exactly how the series was going to end and how he was really "a man out of time".

And Ray's "Poof" after the Hamlet line was brilliant.

Is JUST JUGS a real magazine?

But I did like the lovely pause as he leapt off the roof - just long enough for you to think the titles were going to come up.

And there were three cracking scenes with Annie - particular loved how she stayed in character despite me (and I imagine most of the male hetero population of the country) wanting to see her kit off.

My lovely wife (sorry, 'er indoors) didn't like the ending. She thought they'd just made up the first thing they could think of.  I sort of agreed with her and then thought "Your a burd, get yer fancy knickers off and get my dinner on the table".

[Leigh S]

Yeah - any explanation would have been in danger of veering into heart of TARDIS territory... best to leave it unexplained, as any "answer" is gonna be picked to shreds

[Buddy]

Dissapointed in the ending and it's left open for a continuation. (even though they say it's the last, money talks).

Why was the modern so drab to him?

He'd just spent 2 series trying to get back to his friends and family and when he does, he just want's to get back to living in the sweeney.

Didn't make sense to me.

I enjoyed it but just left me unimpressed.

[IndigoPrime]

::  why didn't he just die?

Who's to say he didn't? All we heard was a voice saying that Sam was "slipping away". He could easily have been dying when he turned the radio to another station.

[paulvonscott]

Well... not what I expected.

Better to go with that, and perhaps be unsure of how you feel about it than go for something with more of a short lived sugar high.

[Bart Oliver]

Yeah, not what I was expecting either, hence the 'WTF'.

Not sure I liked it.. all.

++ Did the bit with Sam on the roof of the police station in "2007" remind anyone else of the end of Open Your Eyes? ++

If you've not read Brubaker and Philips 'Sleeper' and want to, stop reading now-

Both seem to finish in a similar manner.

[Byron Virgo]

Surprised no one's yet posited the idea that Sam's return to 2006 was actually just another level of his coma rather than actual reality, what with the odd looks from Morgan and the dream-like editing (the bit when he turns from the window after recording the tape, and then he's in his mum's house).

Or, what about the concept that the reason that Sam knows all this stuff about the present day is because we, the viewers, are also part of his delusion - hence we are 'switched off' by the Test Card girl at the end.

'Course, that's all just bollocks. Doesn't really matter - the thing about an open ending is that it's up to you, the person watching the show, to interpret it in whatever way you see fit. Some people'll like that, and some'll want something a bit more clear cut.

Roll on 'Ashes to Ashes', I say.









But anyone that cried at the end is a great... soft... sissy... girlie... nancy... French... bender... Man United supporting POOF!!

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6542633.stm" target="_blank">Funk To Funky...

[Mike Carroll]

> But anyone that cried at the end is a great... soft... sissy... girlie... nancy... French... bender... Man United supporting POOF!!

Byron: I'm sorry, but I've tried to respect you these past few years, but this time you have gone too far.

Just because some people are in touch with their emotions and not afraid to express them does not give you grounds to insult them, however "humorous" the insult or light-hearted the comment.

There is absolutely no justification for calling anyone a Man United supporter. Please apologise immediately, you poof.