So, Farewell
Then Sam Tyler.

I mean,
“You were, actually.”

(with apologies to E.J. Thribb, 73)

And that’s the end of that. I really, really enjoyed Life on Mars; I may be a bed-wetting Liberal on the surface but deep down I yearn for the politically-unsound days of 1973 when men were men, birds were birds and a slap on the arse was a form of banter, not harrassment. Gene Hunt: women want to be with him, men want to punch him. And then “be” him.

Jumping on the internet straight afterwards to post all sorts of OMFGWTFBBQ messages, I discovered a craftily-timed BBC press release which revealed that the much-discussed spin-off series Ashes to Ashes would also involve a time-travelling theme; this time, it’s a high-flying female psychological profiler who is caught in an accident which casts her back to 1981 to lock horns with Gene and co. This means that Gene Hunt is, in effect, Jack Regan crossed with the Doctor, only it’s the companions that travel in time and space, not him. I for one cannot wait for the 1967-set The Laughing Gnome, in which a high-flying black Police offer winds up in an accident which sends him back to Hunt’s hippie days, complete with heavy-handed references to smoking dope and, I dunno, kaftans or something.

But back to Life on Mars; was that the best way to end it? In my mind it was, simply because it explained enough (ie. 1973 was all in Sam’s head) without giving away too much — did he really wake up in 2006 or was that just another part of his coma? Satisfying but inviting speculation; nice.

Or at least, that’s what I thought until I thought until I read this blog post which features an interview with Matthew Graham, co-creator and lead writer of the programme in which he comprehensively spells out exactly what the end was about. Great. Thanks Matthew. There’s nothing like explaining a seemingly-ambiguous final episode to show that you have total faith in your writing. If only Donald Bellisario had been on hand to tell us just what the fuck was going on in that last episode of Quantum Leap, it would have saved us, oooh, minutes of playground speculation. Perhaps the only thing stopping Patrick McGoohan from writing an essay on the meaning of the final Prisoner episode was the fact that he was as baffled as the rest of us; if it wasn’t for that I’m sure he would’ve shared his thoughts with us, maybe in the form of a series of diagrams written on the back of a sheet of acid tabs.

Next time, Matthew, please please please resist the temptation to explain all the whys and wherefores of Ashes to Ashes; a little enigma goes a long way. Thanks.