Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Quorum Leap

Thanks to Tony Collett for both reminding me that I wanted to at least note a new show on BBC America and providing a link to some more info on the same.

This past Monday (10 pm EST; it's set timeslot) BBC America began to run a show titled Life On Mars, centering on a modern, British detective who finds himself time-shifted thirty three years into the past (following being hit by a car) still the same name and biological age, and still a detective, but coming in as the new transfer to the 1973 version of his police unit.

Here's a video intro for the series. (The narration's somewhat arch and cliche' to start, but it loosens up.)

Tying this first episode together is the mystery a serial killer baffling the police in 2006 who, as it turns out, is operating in 1973, too. The series itself ties the islands, 33 years apart, together both by the culture and tech shocks Sam Tyler (the central character) being dumped in 1973 provide, and by the knowledge that he's lying in a coma in 2006. The 1973 setting and events seem real enough, have consequences and make sense, but all of that could still be purely Sam's imagination. What actions Sam will take to break himself out of 1973, and how attached be becomes to the people there, will likely provide most of the dramatic drive for this series. The humor will likely derive almost entirely from anachronisms -- not to say that's a bad thing.

While it's new to us, it debuted over on the actual BBC back in February. As Tony wisely did, I'll defer at this point to someone who wrote about the new series back in February: DonBoy. (Complete with some pics.)

As much as I enjoyed the first episode this is a series I'd feel far better about were I to know it's a mini-series with a set ending in mind, but all indications are otherwise. It bothers me to think that the situation and the situations it leads to will likely become strained in terms of entertainment value as it's artificially extended increasingly just to keep writers and actors employed if it extends into a second and third seasons.

Adding a little something to this, I was interested to find out some detail behind the David Bowie song the series is named for.

I wish they would have chosen a better song to build the promotional material around than The Sweet's Ballroom Blitz, though it was new to the scene in 1973 (though it didn't get on an album until '74) and has a fast beat. I'm presuming it was chosen largely because it's a fast-paced piece that's easy to run a montage of scenes to, and probably didn't cost them much to play pieces of over and over again.

Oh, damn.

I see that in what appears to be almost record-setting time, US tv is set to do its own version of this next year. The only bright spot in this is that David E. Kelley is behind the US version.

For now, though, I'm wondering if in one of the unpacked tubs of albums I actually have a copy of Bowie's 1971 Hunky Dory album...