5 posts tagged “time travel”

Keeley Hawes gave an excellent performance in the final of Ashes to Ashes last night—best I’ve ever seen her in anything. And the story—wow (spoiler alert).
   I know some fans are dismissing it as “not as good as Life on Mars” but I say the series was redeemed in that one episode, penned by co-creator Ashley Pharoah.
   Because Ashes finally gave a good mindf*** that makes you now wonder if it’s all inside Alex’s head as ‘constructs’—or is it now her memory?
   That finalé, where it was Gene, not Evan, who takes young Alex’s hand, was a total surprise to me. Her Dad turning into the evil Pierrot clown—amazing. It is better than Sam finding out that his Dad could have killed Annie. It also becomes very apparent why the première’s director, Jonny Campbell, was called back to do this episode.
   Geoffrey Palmer’s guest role as the real-life Lord Scarman, the comic turn of Alex in the tank, the two sides of Gene, the two ages of Alex in the police station—all these were brilliant elements in an episode that finally sees all eight outings of Ashes to Ashes come together. Talk about nicely tied together in a story arc.
   I can now say, ‘I told you so,’ when I said that Alex’s predicament is different from Sam Tyler’s and that Gene, Ray and Chris exist in another timeline—which brings back the validity of Soozanne’s theory penned this time last year.
   We were promised more of the ‘Gene Hunt mythology’ from Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah—and we got it. Fantastic! Best episode ever.
   The scene is now well set for the second series, which, after this, should do incredibly well.

More news is emerging on the American remake of Life on Mars, which may come in the fall break there on ABC.
   But here’s the humdinger. Should we get ready for blog commenters who say Spaniards always mess up British shows though? From Variety:

Spanish terrestrial broadcaster Antena 3 TV will reversion the BBC’s high concept cop drama "Life on Mars," transferring the action from Manchester to Madrid.
   This pioneering remake of a U.K. TV fiction series for Spain, tentatively titled “Vida en Marte,” will be produced in 2008 and aired next year in primetime.

   It’s to be set in 1978. No word yet on the character names but you can be Santos Tyler and Geraldo Hunt won’t be them. But 1978—will they dash around in a Chrysler 150, 180 or Seat 132?

Any theories from our British friends on Ashes to Ashes? Last year, I was speculating like crazy on Sam Tyler’s predicament, telling people that if you freeze-framed a scene in series two, episode five where Sam touches Ray and sees different characters that DCI Frank Morgan was among them, and how there must be some spiritual reason beyond ‘He’s in a coma.’
   I have watched Ashes but not with the fervour and speculation of the earlier Life on Mars. I do believe Alex Drake’s situation is different, for starters, and that the opening speech that she is living one second in her life in 2008 is not far off the mark.
   But the idea that she has assimilated Sam’s fantasies doesn’t totally ring true to me.
   Last year, some people believed that Gene Hunt et al were spiritual figures or that the Geneverse is Purgatory, while a more complex theory put forward by one netizen, Soozanne, still “fits” (about two lives, one called Sam Tyler and another called Sam Williams and how their accidents forced the time travel).
   I would not be surprised if there is more than creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah are letting on—especially when they said the new series explores a bit more of the Gene Hunt ‘mythology’.
   Mythology? Reading too much into one word, or is this a clue?
   And if Pharoah has written the series finalé for Thursday with a potential second series in mind, will we actually get closure?
   I don’t think we will, though Alex confronts her parents’ death just as Sam confronted the disappearance of his father at the same point in Life on Mars. Sorry, everyone: I don’t think Alex Drake is going home. The calendar she has in her room, which we have been counting down, won’t mark the total number of days she has to stay in 1981.
   She’s likely to stay stuck in 1981 but finds that no matter what she does, she can’t create a time paradox—either because she is back in 1981 or her logical mind won’t allow it.
   That’s my prediction rather than a theory—largely on the premise that there probably will be a second series as the viewer numbers are healthy and not far off what Life on Mars was doing.

If you had a time machine, which year would you travel to and why?
Submitted by Michelle.

Probably 2015. Jennifer and I turn out fine, but it’s our kids, Marty. Something’s gotta be done about our kids.

After débuting some crap shows—and continuing others well beyond their sell-by date (Prison Break and Lost are, in my household, the shark-jumped Hogan’s Heroes of the 2000s)—the Americans have cranked their TV into high gear for fall 2007.
   While I am going to reserve judgement on the new Bionic Woman till it’s out (where is Oscar Goldman?), Journeyman is one of the strongest débutantes of the season. Starring Kevin McKidd—he was young Father Deegan in a Christmas episode of Father Ted, where they get stuck in the lingerie section of a department store—it might smack of Quantum Leap and joins Doctor Who, Life on Mars and Day Break as a mid-decade time-travelling stories, but is in fact a very well written series that is additionally blessed with a good timeslot Stateside (following the incomprehensibly daft Heroes). McKidd even got rid of his Scottish accent to be a Yank this time, and pulls it off.
   Like Day Break, Moon Bloodgood co-stars (why are all her on-screen boyfriends time travellers?). There’s the return of Gretchen Egolf (formerly of the network-tinkered and vastly inferior season of Martial Law), too.
   Here’s my review from TV.com. Someone mentioned his review was deleted, so I had better put mine here in case it meets the same fate.