life on mars
 

sounds like a very Intrusting idea to me better than the normal .... we get on tv now a days :) i for one i'm going to watch.

Re: life on mars
 

Linky?

Re: life on mars
 

Dunno what the info's like, but here you go:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/lifeonmars/

:)

Re: life on mars
 

Lots to see there, thanks :tu:

I did see a trailer for this the other day ... it's just the show's title doesn't easily connect with the idea of a copper sent back in time to 1973 (the year of my birth! :spin: )

I will definitely be tuning in.

BTW there is a handy video clip on that page that sets the scene nicely.

Re: life on mars
 

SFX has done a few odds and sods about it over the last couple of months - I thought it was going to be a full series, but I understand that it's just a 3-parter? Hopefully, it'll be a success, 'cos the premise sounds great :)

I have to agree that I can't really tie the title in with the idea - all I can think is that, to someone living in 2005 / 6, maybe life in the 70s would be like living on Mars :shrug:

Re: life on mars
 

'73 was the year Bowie released "Life on Mars" as the second single from Hunky Dory.

Re: life on mars
 

This is from the lyrics...
link

That's a theory from the Daily Mirror as to why it's called life on mars. :shrug:

The program looks like it could be good...

Re: life on mars
 

I'm going to watch tonights episode :)

Re: life on mars
 

Yea I saw the trailer on xmas day while settling down to watch Dr Who. It does look really good and totally different.

Re: life on mars
 

Auto-tune reminder has been set. :)

Re: life on mars
 

Is it a series or a one-off drama?

I thought it was a series but my Sky+ box doesn't give it a series link option.

Re: life on mars
 

Supposed to be a series, but I was wondering the same thing, can't get my regular digibox to do a series link.

---------- Post added at 14:27 ---------- Previous post was at 14:25 ----------

Definitely a series, in eight parts according to radiotimes.com. Dunno why the series link doesn't work. :confused:

Re: life on mars
 

I had Sky Installed last Wednesday, gonna try doing one of these and setting my PC to record it when the time is right, fingers crossed (I'm at work tonight).

Re: life on mars
 

I liked the music for the soundtrack :)

...and it wasn't bad either. :)

Re: life on mars
 

Thought it was pretty good! Will def be watching the rest of the episodes. C5 at 8 was pretty good too.....the building of the channel tunnel. I'd hate that tunnelling as a job!

Re: life on mars
 

Is it going to be repeated? Missed it.

Re: life on mars
 

One thing is great so far is all the music of the era [img]Download Failed (1)[/img].....Ahhhh takes me back.

Re: life on mars
 

Fri 13 Jan, 12:25 am - 1:25 am, according the bbc website.

---------- Post added at 23:13 ---------- Previous post was at 23:12 ----------

Do you know what track was playing when he walked into the record shop?

Re: life on mars
 

nope, sorry......I enjoyed the prog though:)

Re: life on mars
 

It was The Who, but hubby can't think of the name of the track!

Re: life on mars
 

Rather clever how the title linked to the soundtrack linked to the timewarp.

I just wait for the debate to start about policing methods :disturbd: :Sprint:

Re: life on mars
 

Thanks. At least I know where to look now :)

Re: life on mars
 

[QUOTE=Mal]Fri 13 Jan, 12:25 am - 1:25 am, according the bbc website.

what channel?

Re: life on mars
 

It's on BBC1

---------- Post added at 23:42 ---------- Previous post was at 23:20 ----------

Baba O'Riley by The Who :)

Re: life on mars
 

good soundtrack, good acting, quirky story - well worth another look :tu:

Re: life on mars
 

I enjoyed it a lot. A clever idea, well implemented. Now, let's see how they develop it.

Re: life on mars
 

I really enjoyed it, can't wait to see how the story gets developed.

So who thinks he is really in 1973 and who thinks he is just in a coma?

Re: life on mars
 

I suspect the answer is 'both'. When the series finishes I hope he goes and looks up the WPC, that would be an interesting sequence.

Re: life on mars
 

:gpoint: And no matter how good a series this turns out to be, given the starting point it does need to properly finish rather than keep the ending in never never land.

Re: life on mars
 

Thanks Mal - won't miss that one :)

Re: life on mars
 

I just watched the (recorded) first episode. It's magic - particularly if you remember the 70's :) - which I do, vividly. The female PC in it has her hair in the same style mye first (serious) girlfriend had around that time. he he.

And I just love the Sweeney connection. How did they get all those period accesories, the cars, furniture etc. The set designers and buyers must have been VERY busy for this one!

Re: life on mars
 

Has the repeat been cancelled? According to my Sky planner - Michael Hesteltine the Uncommon Gardener - is on at 12:25

Re: life on mars
 

Hi,

Dunno if it's a help - but you could always go to www.uknova.com and download the episode, I did and watched it last night.

It was fresh, new and I enjoyed it. My wife hates sci-fi and she enjoyed it.

There are lots of quirks like they didn't call WPC's until mid 70's etc., but hey its a drama!

Someone suggested a bit of cross of Quantum Leap meets The Sweeney ... but definatly something I haven't seen before

Re: life on mars
 

Thats what I'm worried about--that I invest x hours watching this series till the end and to find it ends inconclusively.

Re: life on mars
 

John Simm (who plays DI Sam Tyler) said it was a cross between Back to the Future and the Sweeney ... and he has a point, the scene when he first arrives in 1973 and the camera pulls back to show an architect's poster of the forthcoming dual carriageway is almost a direct lift of the scene when Marty McFly arrives at his estate to discover it's under construction, and has a large poster showing what it's going to look like when complete.

I can't wait for the next ep. :)

Re: life on mars
 

Mandy, my wife is positive the sets and props are closer to mid to late 60's than early 70's....

we especially liked the sounds.....little touches like the sound of a 70's milk float outside his bedsit window or the sound of a 70's car exhaust....takes us right back to childhood. :)

Re: life on mars
 

But then a common mistake of any 'period' drama is to load the sets with everything that is totally contemporary to the minute. Real life's not like that. A five-year-old car in 1973 would be from the late 1960s. And any shop that was last decorated 10 years previously would actually have been from the early 1960s. We replace our PCs every few years because they become obsolete. But a typewriter made in 1960 would be pretty much as useful as one made in 1973.

Re: life on mars
 

I know that it's too late now, but I got that info from the BBC website :shrug:

Re: life on mars
 

although the limit has been exceeded and not accepting any new members!

Re: life on mars
 

Don't forget--it's on again tonight! :)

Re: life on mars
 

Another excellent episode. The Testcard sequence would have done any horror film proud. But, they have now begged the million-dollar question: why don't you see white dog turds any more? I am googling right now but no luck as yet. Does anyone know? :D

Re: life on mars
 

Yes - dog food of today no longer contains some chemical which turned it white. Something to do with being biodegradeable or some such tree-hugging nonsense.

Re: life on mars
 

I think its something to do with the formulation of dog food changing. They used to use ground bone in it to bulk it out and now its a lot more 'meat' (well bits of animal anyway)

Re: life on mars
 

Agree on another excellent episode......and I remember white dog turds too........:D

Re: life on mars
 

And these days you can't find any for love nor money.

Re: life on mars
 

I think it is down to "dog bins" and the "scoop the poop". It doesn't hang around long enough to go white.

Re: life on mars
 

Remembered to record it this time - had to, ahem, resort to alternative methods to get the first episode after the BBC so considerately swapped the repeat for something dull about Heseltine :)

Re: life on mars
 

glad you could.......still cant register!!

Re: life on mars
 

Let me guess...you have a cousin in America.....

Re: life on mars
 

That'll be it ;)

Re: life on mars
 

re. the dog turd thing......doggydoos have traditionally turned white (as far back as the early 1900's anyway) so I would guess that many dogs diets today are deficient in whatever they ate a lot of in days of yore......bones probably....
Or possibly it's as simple as Anguas explanation.....

Re: life on mars
 

i need new pants she just came back and she is not nice . :Yikes:

Re: life on mars
 

This is rapidly becoming my favourite show

Re: life on mars
 

any one know what a party 6 is ??? some thing to do with drink ??

Re: life on mars
 

Party 7 I always thought, and a bit of an event just to get into the can.

Really needed one of these

[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]
The pointy end (above left) made a hole in the can

Re: life on mars
 

IIRC one of them was the ultimate party 'gate crasher'

- how naiive we were ;)

Re: life on mars
 

You were really sophisticated if you got a little CO2 gas powered tap thingy to keep it from going flat. Those were the days (before daddy would let me have a 'neer [TM Lemonybrainaid :D]

I'm really surprised this program hasn't started a whcih is the best policing method type debate :erm:

Re: life on mars
 

Another excellent episode!!

Re: life on mars
 

god this programme is the absolute dogs balls.... brilliant

Re: life on mars
 

Agreed!!

Re: life on mars
 

10/10 . and the sound track must be on a cd some where .

Re: life on mars
 

the music is great.timed well to bring out emotions.... brilliant acting, good wholesome programme, no gratituous sex or violence, and no shying away from real life un pc stuff...like i said before, brilliant

Re: life on mars
 

Look through your parent's record collection, you never know your luck:)

Re: life on mars
 

wot u mean it's my record collection, all on vinyl at that :D

Re: life on mars
 

I love the authentic orange GMT buses :)

Re: life on mars
 

Are you watching the same programme as me. Every episode there is some sort of scrap - usually between the coppers, and as for the handcuffs scene last night :shocked: :D

OK maybe it is just essential to the plot then, rather than gratutious :erm:

Re: life on mars
 

essential to the plot lol

Re: life on mars
 

Plus nipples, and gay oral sex. It was all the more shocking because until this week there had been no sex of any kind in the programme. The sex was essential to the plot (although the nipples weren't), but there is no way they had to show the club owner caught in flagrante at the end. It had already been spelled out what his preferences were some minutes earlier.

Re: life on mars
 

Another good episode this evening.

I was a bit shocked at the price of a ticket to enter Old Trafford though. 35p :erm:

Re: life on mars
 

another excellent episode!!.....will it run on after episode 8 for a new series?.....i hope so!!

Re: life on mars
 

From twice the price of a pint to nearer 20.

Re: life on mars
 

An other cracking episode. I really can't think of how its going to end.

Re: life on mars
 

Yep, an excellent series......and people complain about the licence fee, tut tut I dunno........sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Seriously though, it is a good watch :tu:

Re: life on mars
 

Yep, cracking again last night. :tu:

Re: life on mars
 

Indeed, it is really good.

One thing though that I find really great about it, is seeing what it was like living in 1973. I've heard people say bits before (like my old man, "when I was young we didn't..."), but to see it come alive is brilliant. It was like being on a different planet. Like ambulance drivers not being paramedics. Smoking in hospitals.

Re: life on mars
 

There are I'm afraid some errors in the "sets" that they use. They do well to find buildings that look 1970s or earlier in their architecture. They then excel at clearing an office and refitting it with period furniture, typewriters, desk lamps, etc. Just a shame about the modern cat 2 flourescent lighting in the suspended ceiling :oops:

But I'm nit picking - the whole concept of the programme is excellent, and it's well put together. I just hope it's not too expensive that it can't go on to more series.

Re: life on mars
 

The producers commented on how hard it was to get 1970s locations in Manchester. If you look at the terraced houses they often use as a backdrop, most of them have uPVC double glazing (although they look like they have had old front doors re-hung on them), and whenever they visit a large industrial or office building, there are air-con units all over them, which AFAIK would have been a bit of a luxury in 1970s England. They are pretty good at setting up their shots to keep these sorts of things out of focus and in the extreme background as much as possible.

TBH you can spot inaccuracies, bloopers and anachronisms in some of the best films Hollywood has made. If they can cock it up with a budget in the hundreds of millions, I reckon this lot are doing pretty darned well! I have never felt my enjoyment of the programme to be dulled by any anachronisms. It is far too engaging.

Re: life on mars
 

Check out the pavements, looks like ntl have been laying cable in some of the streets.
Good show all the same but a bit sparing with the music this week.... last week was great, THREE Hawkwind tracks in one episode!

Re: life on mars
 

another excellent episode!

Re: life on mars
 

Man, I can't believe next week's is the last. This is a superb series. Monday nights won't be the same.

Re: life on mars
 

how about this.....DCI Hunt is Sam's dad?

Re: life on mars
 

Nooooo ... that would be a seriously convoluted twist. Besides, Hunt is too old, and they have already alluded to Mr Tyler senior who is 'away' a lot. I think we're going to find he's a crim who is in and out of jail.

Re: life on mars
 

Well, I guess that you didn't see the trailer for next week's episode then, at the end?

We will meet his dad next week...

Re: life on mars
 

Indeed I did see the trailer, which is partly why I don't think Gene Hunt is Sam's dad. This show has been extremely clever throughout. Making Gene Hunt his dad would be tremendously sad, convoluted, and, as a 'twist', really very obvious indeed.

Hunt has talked about his wife plenty of occasions. Sam has visited his own mother at home. Sam's dad, in 1973, would have been the same-ish age that Sam is now. It just doesn't fit with what has already been revealed.

Re: life on mars
 

Also, nice scene in the coroner's office ;)

Re: life on mars
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/lifeonmar...episode8.shtml

guess my theory is out the window

Re: life on mars
 

I'm a bit behind everyone... thank God for UKNova! I got to the footy match episode last night, so I think I'm only a week behind everyone now.

One question I have about one of the earlier episodes (the one where the WPC is hospitalised), is whether those little troll things with the crazy haircuts existed back in '73. I can't remember any of my friends having them when I was a kid, and I always thought that they were more 80's than 70's.

It was so predominantly placed by her bedside, however, that it wasn't unintentionally placed there or unavoidable like the uPVC windows. Can anyone remember if they did exist back then?

Re: life on mars
 

According to this they were in production from the 1950's onwards so they did exist.

I was under the same impression that they were an 80's thing as well.

Re: life on mars
 

http://collectdolls.about.com/librar.../aa120100a.htm

I love the internet. :D

Re: life on mars
 

I think they first showed up in the late 60's, so definitely NOT an 80's thing.

---------- Post added at 09:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 ----------

I love being able to remember stuff :D

Re: life on mars
 

the thing with the last episode is that if he gets back to 2006 there can't be a second series..

don't think this will be solved next week as then the programme can't continue

Re: life on mars
 

Not strictly true, if he is in a coma or even actually back in '73, they will probably come up with a way for him to get back or even get to another point in time.

As it looks like he might be there to save his dad, judging from the trailer last night.

Re: life on mars
 

...as long as it's not another "shower" scenario a la Bobby Ewing :rolleyes:

ps - thanks all for the Trolls info :D

Re: life on mars
 

didn't watch the trailor as prefer to see what's going to happen for myself when it comes on

yes i guess they could move him to another point in time for second series or take him back again but that will just end up getting abit stupid in a series as well written as this i think they will either leave him there or if he gets back there might not be a series two

Re: life on mars
 

Now you're going all Quantum Leap on us.

Ziggy says theres a 78% chance you're here to turn your dad's life around, Sam. :D

Hey, did anyone notice that coincidence? Is it a coincidence?

Re: life on mars
 

Yep, I spotted that one in episode 1 ;)

---------- Post added at 10:32 ---------- Previous post was at 10:31 ----------

/me was a huge QL fan at the time. Saw some old episodes not too long ago, however, and they were quite cringeworthy

Re: life on mars
 

I was off work with a done-in neck recently for a week and had a chance to watch a lot of the old favourites courtesy of Bravo and UK Gold. It was surprising to see which shows have aged like good wine and which have turned to vinegar. QL doesn't look too clever now. The Dukes of Hazzard, on the other hand - now that is timeless. Makes you wonder how it was possible for them to balls up the feature film version as badly as they did.

Re: life on mars
 

I did notice, thats what made me think of that. The ep description on the BBC site does give quite a bit of info.

I still have the first ep of QL sitting on my PC:)

Re: life on mars
 

unless it develops into a kind of 'Goodnight Sweetheart' scenario, where he is able to travel backwards & forwards in time, at will.

Re: life on mars
 

Oh, I hope it doesn't turn into another Goodnight Sweetheart.

It might work if he travels to a different period in time, although can you imagine it set in '88 with yuppies wearing stripey shirts with braces, or Don Johnson type suits with loafers :Yikes: I think it wouldn't be as difficult to recreate, and by extension, less impressive for the viewer. Possibly going back another decade to the 60's would've been pretty cool, but I think anything earlier than that would be too stiff upper lip and too reserved to be funny.

In a way, I hope that if he does get back to the current day, then there isn't a 2nd series. As much as I enjoy the current series, ending it on a high note would be good, rather than dragging it out beyond its sell by date.