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Any Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes Fans?

299 replies

Eve4Walle · 23/03/2009 18:10

I wondered if anyone knows when Ashes is back? Can't be too long now surely?

Have been watching Life on Mars again on BT Vision and forgot how jaw-droppingly fab it was....

OP posts:
KayHarkerDoesNotSimper · 01/06/2009 22:31

All theories welcome. Unless your Dh is Matthew Graham or Ashley Pharoah, I think it's safe to throw a guess in

shergar · 01/06/2009 22:37

O.K. DH thinks the 'future' Martin Summers is not Martin Summers, but Chris! He thinks that the 'present' Chris needs Alex's help now to reintegrate into the team, get back with Shaz etc. (Alex being a psychologist and all) so that his present problem doesn't snowball into a massive affair with him leaving the force in disgrace in the future, with a ruined life. Remember that PC Martin Summers was not found by Shaz when she searched his name when Alex asked her to a couple of weeks back, and in the Martin Summers blog on the A2A website, he describes the young Martin as a 'woodentop' (this to me indicates some kind of unreal plant). If you can change the future, I think that this is Chris coming back to try to alter it.

Theinvisibleone · 01/06/2009 22:43

When Martin Summers first appeared my hubby said it was future Chris!!!! Must be a bloke thing!

KayHarkerDoesNotSimper · 01/06/2009 22:59

hmm, not sure about that. I mean, it's not the wackiest theory ever, but it's not dangling my bells.

I think Operation Rose is some sort of heist that the corrupt people in the force were hoping to cream the takings from, and that Summers in the original history first realized that he was better off joining in with it than fighting it.

So now, he's taken his young self out of the picture, set it all up and hopes to live the high life on the money.

And I'm hoping against hope that blondie-pants next week is someone he's sent to try and stick a spanner in the Gene/Alex relationship.

TigersChick · 02/06/2009 06:52

I think that 'future Summers' is Summers and, as Kay says, he has come back tostop himself from getting involved in something that he knows he comes to regret ... maybe he knows that he is going to die (in 20009) and so has nothing to lose by taking himself out of the picture early.

It's all too complicated for my little brain!!!

Why is it only Tuesday??

EightiesChick · 02/06/2009 12:30

OK, I have to admit now, I'm getting a bit frustrated with this series. They seem to have left it way too late to explain the construct properly and convincingly. How on earth are they going to get through a crime being solved, a revelation of exactly who and what Summers is, get Alex home and resolve the Alex/Gene relationship in one hour? And I've checked my series link on Sky+; it definitely ends next week, and IIRC it has been unequivocally said now there will be no third series.

In series one, the underlying narrative of Alex uncovering the process of her parents' death worked well and peaked nicely in the last episode without feeling too strained. This time round, they don't seem to have calculated as well, and have been struggling to make the underlying trajectory / deeper meaning to it all both clear and plausible. Have to say, that seems like the price of the rather indulgent period 'jokes' taking over on this run; it's been less coherent as a concept drama (sorry to go all Radio 4 but...)

And above all that, they have let the Gene/Alex flirtation drift badly. I have to differ from some other posters: I've thought for a few weeks now they have been phoning in this aspect of the script: a few 'suggestive lines' in each episode, usually in Luigi's, but no actual situations that might move the relationship on, like the getting trapped in the reseach facility (was it? It was the one where the both had to take their clothes off 'cos it got really hot and Green Door was the background music - brilliant ) or the Vienna-backed Gene striding through the window, shattering glass, to rescue Alex. Where have all those set pieces gone? They really made me feel that something was smouldering and about to happen. Lately it's all just felt like a damp squib.

I say all this in love, really I do, because on the whole I've really enjoyed the entire idea. But I am now worried it's fizzling into either something wildly improbably, or romantically disappointing, or both. I hope I'm wrong.

KayHarkerDoesNotSimper · 02/06/2009 14:08

No, you're not wrong - they've deliberately changed the Gene/Alex dynamic this time. I prefer it - they've made Alex more emotionally attached to Gene, but I agree, the high point connection-wise was most probably episode 2.

It's going to end on a cliffhanger, I can almost guarantee that - and I heard Mr Glenister himself say yesterday that there will 'almost certainly' be a third series, so I'm afraid it not going to be neatly resolved - one of the fabulous writers has said he always wanted to do an 'Empire Strikes Back' ending for the second series of LoM, but John Simm didn't want to do a third series. So they're going to do it for Ashes, I thinks, I do.

I've enjoyed the darker elements to this series, but I do miss the lighter moments and there haven't been as many iconic moments, that's for sure.

TigersChick · 02/06/2009 14:19

The only thing that makes me think that there might not be a third serise is all the suggestions that '2009 Alex' is about to wake up. If they do make another serise they'll have to be very careful not to let that aspect of it drag...

I agree that there do seem to be an awful lot of loose ends that need tying up and I'm not certain that they'll be able to do it well enough to do justice to the concept in one hour-long episode.

I don't really mind if they leave it hanging or wrap it up this time round - I just really really don't want to be disappointed.

Anniek · 02/06/2009 15:23

Unless Operation Rose is truly something horrific, I don't see Summers being future Chris.

Past Chris was gulliable and got in to something he couldn't control, but being a cold blooded killer as future Summers is . Don't see it, but willing to be proved wrong.

Agree that 1 hour does not seem enough to resolve all the issues.

EightiesChick · 02/06/2009 21:36

Well, it'll make me happy if there is a third series so that they can do things properly. This series would make a lot more sense as the middle part of a trilogy.

Tigerschick, I agree - I also really don't want to be disappointed in the show as a whole (I'm not called EightiesChick for nothing )though it is going to be a bit tricky to keep the coma conceit up without it dragging.

Do you think they'd move into 1983 (oh please do! ) if they do the third series, or stay put in 1982? The stuff about Diana and the significance of the year early on seems to have taken a backseat now, and I must admit I didn't manage to work out what they might be getting at there.

BTW Kay, I should have said how much I like your fanfictions with Gene and Alex. Wish they had employed you to spice up this series's scripts!

TigersChick · 04/06/2009 20:46

In case anyone hasn't found it Summers' diary makes interesting reading ...

JackieNo · 08/06/2009 07:00

Looking forward (mostly, with some trepidation in case it all goes cr@p) to tonight...

Eve4Walle · 08/06/2009 09:27

Can't wait for tonight's ep - just to see if Gene ended up staying at Alex's flat.

Just a thought, DH suggested last week that Alex is actually from 1982, but all these 'flashbacks' are actually 'flashforwards' and it's the present day stuff that she's constructed?

I don't know, too complicated really. We can't ever hope for a neat ending such as Sam Tyler deciding to stay in the 70's, as Alex has her daughter to get back to.

OP posts:
MrsMills · 08/06/2009 09:31

And can anybody remember the belts being caught in car doors at the beginning of this series, or was that something completely coincidental? Or have I missed something already?

JackieNo · 08/06/2009 14:13

Third series is ON! Yay.

TigersChick · 08/06/2009 16:13

Really excited about tonight

I'm in 2 minds about a third serise ... I really don't want it all to end but I don't know if I can wait another year to find out what the feck is going on (Also slightly worried that they won't be able to sustain it for another serise ...)

TigersChick · 08/06/2009 22:00

Oh my, oh my, oh my!

AngeChica · 08/06/2009 22:01

Ohhhhhhhhhhh

"Carnegie, you've been Quattroed"

procrastinatingparent · 08/06/2009 22:03

I'm still episodes behind ...

Just tell me it's worth keeping watching.

TigersChick · 08/06/2009 22:04

There were some good lines tonight, weren't there

Well, I guess that's how they're going to get 'round the whole thing about her being in/coming out of a coma in 2008 ...

TigersChick · 08/06/2009 22:05

YES, PP!!!

But you may want to stop reading this thread

Hassled · 08/06/2009 22:09

That was blooming brilliant

JackieNo · 08/06/2009 22:13

OOh - my brian's going to explode with all the timey wimey stuff! And Summers being a goodie after all (he was, wasn't he?).

Katisha · 08/06/2009 22:16

Hmm.

Feel a bit short-changed.

I suppose because it really feels like they were waiting to see if they'd get a third series commissioned and that rather shows.

TigersChick · 08/06/2009 22:17

LOL - was Summers a goodie? Erm, I don'tthink he was really on any side was he? Or was he? My brain is starting to melt

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