Life on Mars US Finale

[rusty_halo]

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2804

So apparently the Life on Mars US finale aired last night. I’d rather claw out my own eyes than watch that travesty of a show, but I did read the spoilers on Wikipedia, which says:

At the end of the series it is revealed that Tyler's 2008 & 1973 realities were both fictitious, created by the futuristic computer - named Windy - aboard a space ship that is carrying Tyler, Hunt, Norris, Carling and Skelton on the first ever manned mission to the planet Mars. Tyler's actual reality is the year 2035, and the crew he worked with in the past are just virtual reality versions of his fellow spaceship crewmembers. The reason why he had travelled back to 1973 was due to a temporary malfunction on board the ship: to sustain their lives, all of the crew were routinely kept active while asleep using virtual reality "neural stimulation" programs of their own choosing, but a meteor storm caused a momentary glitch in the program (Sam had chosen his 2008 identity as part of his VR program, but the program accidentally kicked him back to 1973). Frank Morgan is the Mission Control flight director, Annie Norris is the Colonel in charge of the mission, and Gene Hunt - "Major Tom" - is also revealed to be Sam's father.

In a final wink to its fans, the writers describe the mission as one of science; looking for evidence of life.... a "gene hunt".

To which all I can respond is... WHAT.

No, seriously. I can't even follow that with a snarky comment because it's too absurd. And stupid. And, as a Sam/Gene (UK) shipper, EWWWWW. It relies on a gimmick and a bad pun and utter nonsensical crack, and unlike the UK ending, says nothing meaningful about life or imagination or reality or about who the characters are.

Seriously, you guys, if you've never seen Life on Mars UK, it's not only a million times superior to the US version, but its ending is brilliant and dark and complex and moving and pretty much perfect.

Look, you can even pre-order it in the US now, or get it from Amazon UK (on sale for £9--that's like $13! and overseas shipping isn't bad, though of course you need a region free DVD player).

In other news:

* I sincerely have no attraction to Neil Gaiman. What's wrong with me?

* And I'm getting excited about DreamWidth, which looks wonderful. I'm pleased about the lack of ads, the code improvements, the ability to import your journal and comments, and the owners' friendliness toward fandom, but my favorite aspect is that you'll be able to separate "who can read your posts" from "whose posts you want to read." This has the potential to change the way (this corner of) fandom is structured, to get us out of our little bubbles of like-minded people and expose us to many more perspectives, since we'll be able to check out new and interesting people without having to allow them in to our personal locked posts.

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