Life on Mars time travelling vs. coma

[burntcopper]

Okay, I say Sam's time travelling, not in a coma. The coma stuff is hallucinations.

I reckon that Sam is in fact reinforcing history every moment he's there, and several events of Young!Sam's life (ie, his memories) were actually caused by Sam. (this shall now be referred to as the Twelve Monkeys theory of time travel)

The serial killer : Sam caught him in the first place, but he still gets out to kill again because of that whole 'life doesn't mean life' thing. Plus, possibility that the wee nutter that lived next door is somehow helping the killer in current day. (fixated on him after the hand wave we see)

Last ep : Sam told his mum what to say to Young!Sam.

Responsible for Vic going on the run. Also responsible for Annie turning up in the first place, because if Sam hadn't been with Vic pre-and-post shootings (and let him get away), Gene would've locked him up or kept him in custody - either way, not have been present at the wedding, and Annie wouldn't have been put on surveillance at the wedding.

Also? Sam was the one that found the evidence that led them to the Victoria Park. Vic probably wouldn't have run at the time he did if it wasn't for the law closing in on him. Sam's fixation on Vic only helped Gene build a case against him, thus law closing in, etc.

The Warren ep : Sam brought Warren down, thus creating the vacuum for 'The Morton brothers', aka Sam's dad.

Annie involvement : Sam's first fixation on Annie - thus bringing her to Gene's attention and fixing her place in the CID mob - meant that she's on more ops with the CID lot. Ups the chances of her being used on any of their cases, which includes the plainclothes stuff.

There is other stuff and other ramblings, but suffice it to say that I don't think that even Sam's brain-in-coma would have got so many little things to gel and culminate.

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<lj/cut>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

<lj-cut text="trust the Gene Genie">
Okay, I say Sam's time travelling, not in a coma. The coma stuff is hallucinations.

I reckon that Sam is in fact reinforcing history every moment he's there, and several events of Young!Sam's life (ie, his memories) were actually caused by Sam. (this shall now be referred to as the <i>Twelve Monkeys</i> theory of time travel)

The serial killer : Sam caught him in the first place, but he still gets out to kill again because of that whole 'life doesn't mean life' thing. Plus, possibility that the wee nutter that lived next door is somehow helping the killer in current day. (fixated on him after the hand wave we see)

Last ep : Sam told his mum what to say to Young!Sam.

Responsible for Vic going on the run. Also responsible for Annie turning up in the first place, because if Sam hadn't been with Vic pre-and-post shootings (and let him get away), Gene would've locked him up or kept him in custody - either way, not have been present at the wedding, and Annie wouldn't have been put on surveillance at the wedding.

Also? Sam was the one that found the evidence that led them to the Victoria Park. Vic probably wouldn't have run at the time he did if it wasn't for the law closing in on him. Sam's fixation on Vic only helped Gene build a case against him, thus law closing in, etc.

The Warren ep : Sam brought Warren down, thus creating the vacuum for 'The Morton brothers', aka Sam's dad.

Annie involvement : Sam's first fixation on Annie - thus bringing her to Gene's attention and fixing her place in the CID mob - meant that she's on more ops with the CID lot. Ups the chances of her being used on any of their cases, which includes the plainclothes stuff.

There is other stuff and other ramblings, but suffice it to say that I don't think that even Sam's brain-in-coma would have got so many little things to gel and culminate.

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Comments

[hackenbacker.livejournal.com]

I thought the wee nutter next door was the killer in the current day? Or at least the suspect? ie. Copycat through association (of course, this was 2 months ago, so my brain barely remembers a damn thing about it).

The rest you can read into in other ways, and there are a couple of flies in the ointment. Ambiguous stuff - Sam telling mum what to say, she could have asked anyone and got the same advice in the original timeline, with him just repeating it because that is what he remembers, because that is the kindest thing to say in the circumstances.

Gene may well have banged Vic up earlier, but that could just mean that the shootings never took place. Ultimately, you can't be sure of events that would otherwise have taken place, so whilst he may have been held, that doesn't prevent him from being free at the time of the wedding.

The biggest problem is Sam's memory of his Dad and Annie - the memory is (apparently?) clear of the level of the assault, however Sam's intervention distinctly alters that. (Not to mention that young Sam didn't go into the park after adult Sam tells him to go back inside). In fact, that also contradicts the memory of being told his Dad has gone away - why would his Mum be saying that at the wedding, when young Sam was/had been watching his Dad kicking Annie and escaping? Yet this 'memory' has been consistently seeping into the series.

Hmmm. At this point I need to sleep on it. It would seem that Sam has changed history by being instrumental in his Dad's escape (at least according to his own memory of it), but then that memory doesn't seem entirely consistent. And if he hasn't changed history, then his 'memory' never existed in the first place, so where has that come from? (I'll buy hallucinating the coma, but hallucinating the assault on Annie doesn't make sense.)

[mrslant]

Don't buy it. If Sam was really there, he changed history so he didn't see his dad kicking the policewoman in the red dress (he told his younger self to go back inside). So how would he then have the memory of it? Time paradox!!! So not allowed. Also the discussion with Vic seems pretty much premised on his being a figment of Sam's imagination - the real Vic would have said, "What the bloody hell are you going on about? I'm not your dad!" Ditto comments to Gene, "Why are you here?" (points to own head).

I definitely prefer the coma theory. Which is why (and this may a little controversial), I think the series should have ended there, and Sam should have woken up: remember, "If I can find out the reason, maybe I can get home." Well, he's found out the reason: his unconscious brain is exploring the buried memory of the day his father left. Now he can go home (with perhaps a final pay-off of some consequence of all this in 2006).

What we'll now get instead is second-season slide into a poor parody of The Sweeney, since there's no longer a coherent reason why Sam is lost in 1973 or a goal in sight that will explain it all. Just lots of "Shut it, you slag!" (but in a Mancunian accent).

Unless, of course, the writers have something more up their sleeves. I reserve judgment, but the ending of season 1 - he's still there because he likes it there - leaves me worried about a possible future descent into crapness. I hope I'm wrong. :-)

[hackenbacker.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of problems with calling it a coma - why the test card girl? And why have so much other stuff that is not directly related to either the serial killer (his initial coma reason), or his Dad?

Even if it is a coma, it doesn't make a great deal of sense that his brain would go to a point with the serial killer and invent a consistent timeline up to the point of his Dad's departure (and seemingly make that inconsistent with his own memory). For that reason alone it would be right to extend the storyline beyond that point.

I'm still not sure where it all leaves me... I can fit bits of the puzzle into a variety of consistent chunks, but not the whole. A coma probably is the most down-to-earth explanation that fits the most pieces, but it still needs a bit more work.

[mrslant]

Hopefully all will be explained in season 2, and my pessimism shown to be unjustified!