LIFE ON MARS: SEASON 1, EPISODE 1 {SERIES PREMIERE} {U.K. VERSION} (TV)
Summary
The premiere of this series about a policeman who suffers a car accident and apparently travels back in time from the year 2006 to the year 1973. In the year 2006 Sam Tyler, Detective Chief Inspector for the Greater Manchester Police, apprehends Colin Raimes, a man suspected of being the culprit behind the kidnapping, torture, and murder of a young woman by means of strangulation. However, upon interviewing Raimes, his social worker claims an alibi: that on the night of the kidnapping, Raimes was at her center. Sam's co-worker and girlfriend, Maya Roy, believes that Raimes is still somehow responsible for the killings. She has a theory about his presence at the center and their discovery of synthetic fibers under Raimes' fingernails. However, Sam doesn't want to hear it, and she goes off. Later she calls Sam as she's following Raimes, believing that Raimes at least knows who the killer is. He tries to warn her against following Raimes, but she screams just before he loses signal. She is kidnapped near Satchmore Road; Sam visits only to find her slightly torn and bloodied jacket. Sam drives off, experiencing an emotional breakdown in his car. He stops to get out on the Mancunian Way and is run over by a speeding car. The last thing he hears before losing consciousness is the David Bowie song "Life on Mars," playing on his iPod. After hearing what seems like the sounds of medics attempting to resuscitate him with a defibrillator, Sam awakens in what appears to be a block of abandoned houses, wearing a different set of clothes. Sam is disoriented by the massive changes in his environment: his car has become an old model, and his iPod is now a cassette player, although it is still playing "Life on Mars." According to a nearby police officer, Sam is a Detective Inspector, recently transferred to the Manchester and Salford Police. The policeman attributes Sam's increasing distress to an injury from his accident. Sam stumbles about, seeing a billboard advertising the upcoming construction of the Mancunian Way. He walks around town, confused by the old cars and fashions he witnesses. He visits the police station to find it similarly changed and staffed by people he doesn't recognize. Sam becomes quite agitated and points out the area where his desk should be; the other staff members believe his behavior is the result of a concussion he sustained. He meets the local Detective Chief Inspector, Gene Hunt, who takes Sam into his office and beats him up. Gene informs him that it is the year 1973. As Sam is sitting in the police office he hears what seems to be the sound of doctors and medical equipment working around him, but it quickly dissipates. Gene reports that a murder victim was just found near Satchmore Road, the same place where Maya was kidnapped. When Sam hears that the victim, Susie Tripper, was found strangled to death, he realizes that she may have been killed by the same murderer that he was investigating in 2006. He goes over the case with the other policemen, including officer Chris Skelton. Sam tries to render assistance, but he is limited by the comparatively inferior technologies and investigative techniques of 1973 in comparison with his own time. Sam goes to see Susie's body and Chris tells him that the victim hadn't eaten in at least a day, consistent with the murder victim from 2006. Sam believing that he is experiencing some sort of vivid hallucination, asks aloud for it to end. Remembering the fibers found under Raimes' fingernails, Sam takes a sample of similar fibers from Susie's fingernails. Believing that there may be something physically wrong with him, the officers send Sam to see WPC Annie Cartwright, who inspects him. Gene sends Sam home, provided via an address in his files. Annie volunteers to take him home, and introduces him to a man named Neil. Neil cryptically asks if Sam can hear him, and Sam believes that he may represent the "real" world attempting to make contact with him. Annie shows Sam to his place, a small apartment. Annie listens as Sam theorizes aloud about his predicament: he feels he is either insane, in a coma, or has actually travelled back in time. He tries to explain about Maya's kidnapping to her, but she believes that his notions are a paranoid delusion brought about as the result of his accident. She also reveals that she has a degree in psychology. Eventually Annie excuses herself, leaving Sam alone. That night, Sam watches television, and an educational program soon takes a strange turn when the television host starts apparently talking about Sam, claiming that he's suffered cranial trauma and is in deep REM sleep. Sam yells at the television, trying to make himself heard, but has no success. The next day, Sam goes back to the police station. Gene has brought a young woman named Dora Keens, the last person to see Susie alive. She is hostile towards Gene, since he attacked her father in a picket line. Gene and Sam question her; she offers little information to Sam, and Gene soon grows frustrated and erupts with anger. They learn only that she was having a drink with Susie on the night that she was kidnapped. Sam, disgusted with Gene's procedures, excuses himself. Later, Dora is released and Gene informs Sam that he managed to get some information out of her: Dora witnessed Susie leaving the pub that night with a tall long-haired fellow. Sam tells Gene that the fibers on Susie's fingernails were some sort of synthetic material. Gene takes Sam to a nearby pub to get a drink, and he meets Nelson, the bartender. Sam theorizes that the killer was either wearing gloves or used some sort of bag of coarse material to muffle his victims, thus explaining the fibers. Soon Gene and Sam get into another argument and Gene says he doesn't care about Sam's delusions, and only wants him to help find the killer. Sam believes that given what he knows, he may be able to do so. Sam starts furthering the investigation: he gives Chris a list of names and asks him to search for them in the police files. He calls a meeting to discuss what the killer's motivations and mindset might be in order to predict his next move. Sam asks Annie to assist, using her expertise in psychology to help deduce the killer's modus operandi. Together they determine that the killer did not gag his victims since he had a fixation with their mouths. They offer a profile of a lonely killer who would bring women home and, finding himself unable to bring himself to kiss them, would become angry, irrational, and eventually murderous, and has done so with a number of women already. However, Sam still cannot figure out how the killer prevented his victims from screaming without a gag. Gene, believing the killer has recently moved to the area, puts out a search at various pubs. At Nelson's pub, Nelson cryptically tells Sam that "you are where you are." That night, Sam spends hours writing down detailed notes of the culture and current events of 2006. In the morning he gives it to Annie, hoping that the level of detail he has included would help convince her of his story. Gene starts to doubt Sam's investigative technique and thinks he's trying to show him up; they get into another scuffle. Sam, further frustrated by his predicament and still believing that he may be in a coma, plans to keep walking until his mind can no longer devise any more material to populate the "world" he finds himself in. Annie appears and tries to stop him. He notices a record store he used to frequent and goes inside. Upon seeing someone listening to a record in a listening room, he is struck with inspiration: he realizes that the killer prevented anyone from hearing his victims scream by soundproofing his walls. The fibers under Susie's fingernails came from soundproofing material. He reports this discovery to Gene, who tells him that Dora was just reported missing, and the same fibers were found on her jacket. Gene and Sam go door-to-door to see if anyone had seen Dora recently. Chris finds one of the names Sam instructed him to look for: Mrs. Farrell Raimes, Colin Raimes' grandmother. Sam has her brought into the station: she lodged a complaint with them three months ago, and Sam tries to get her to remember what it was. Gene, acting uncharacteristically polite, jogs her memory: she was complaining about her next-door neighbor, Edward Kramer, playing his records too loudly at night. However, she says that nowadays she doesn't hear anything coming from his house. Sam and Gene realize that Kramer must have soundproofed his house and immediately rush out of the station to get there. They reach Kramer's house and find a soundproofed room inside. They find Dora, alive but traumatized. Kramer enters and Gene beats him up and arrests him. As Kramer is being driven away, he waves goodbye to a little boy, who Sam soon discovers is Colin Raimes. He laments that in 2006 his team was only "one house away" from catching the killer. Kramer is brought into the station, and Sam discovers that a note from a mental health doctor was found in Kramer's place listing him as suffering from a mental disorder. Gene anticipates that a trial would only send Kramer to a high-security hospital, and that when he gets out he may kill again. Sam realizes that this may explain why another murder like this didn't occur again until 2006. He believes that if he disposes of the doctor's note, the jury will send Kramer to prison and he can prevent him from kidnapping Maya in the future. However, this would betray his principles as a police officer. Gene leaves the matter in his hands, and ultimately Sam decides to dispose of the note. Later, Sam sits alone in the police commissary as it closes. Neil appears to him again, seemingly from out of nowhere. He claims that he's a hypnotherapist communicating with Sam's subconscious, and that he is in a coma in the intensive care ward at St. James' Hospital. He tells Sam that nothing that is happening is real, and that he must take a "definitive step" in order to wake up to the real world. He also says that Sam's family and friends are waiting for him at the hospital, including Maya. Sam, excited at the prospect of returning to his life, runs out and goes to the roof of the police station, planning on jumping off and ending his life in the hope that it will wake him up. Annie climbs up there with him and tries to stop him from jumping, claiming that Neil is her ex-boyfriend who she studied psychology with in university. She also claims that Neil read Sam's notes and used it to play a sort of practical joke on him. Sam isn't convinced; he notes that Neil made mention of Sam's mobile phone even though Sam included nothing about it in his notes. Neil stands at the bottom of the building, admitting that it was a joke and pleading with Sam not to jump. Sam begins to question himself, believing that he is experiencing far too much detail than his mind would be able to create on its own. The episode ends as Sam stands out on the edge of the building with Annie, still pondering whether or not to jump.
Details
- NETWORK: BBC (United Kingdom)
- DATE: January 9, 2006 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:31
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 108354
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Drama, police/private detective
- SERIES RUN: BBC - TV series, 2006-2007
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Matthew Graham … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Jane Featherstone … Executive Producer
- Claire Parker … Producer
- Marcus Wilson … Line Producer
- Bharat Nalluri … Director
- Tony Jordan … Created by
- Ashley Pharoah … Created by
- Edmund Butt … Music by
- John Simm … Cast, Sam Tyler
- Philip Glenister … Cast, Gene Hunt
- Liz White … Cast, Annie Cartwright
- Dean Andrews … Cast, Ray Carling
- Marshall Lancaster … Cast, Chris Skelton
- Tony Marshall … Cast, Nelson
- Archie Panjabi … Cast, Maya Roy
- Sam Hazeldine … Cast, Colin Raimes
- Henry Cox … Cast, Young Lad
- Caroline Harding … Cast, Raimes' Lawyer
- Parvez Qadir … Cast, Raimes' Psychiatrist
- Orla Cottingham … Cast, Raimes' Social Worker
- Tom Charnock … Cast, Police Officer
- Christopher Harper … Cast, Neil
- Richard Sinnott … Cast, TV Presenter
- Jane Riley … Cast, Dora Keens
- Andy Abrahams … Cast, Sid
- Mags Gannon … Cast, Mrs. Raimes
- Rae Kelly … Cast, June