Life on Mars (2006) s02e01

Series two starts with S.J. Clarkson directing, which is good, and Matthew Graham writing, which is middling. Graham’s leaning in on the “present affects the past,” with a villain terrorizing comatose John Simm in the hospital and the only way Simm can save himself is confronting the bad guy in the past.

Marc Warren’s actually really good as the bad guy, he’s just not really in the episode very much. He has like three or four scenes—he’s a casino owner who comps the cops, so everyone but Simm loves him—and in the present it’s all voiceover and ominous imagery. Clarkson can make “Mars” work as it skips between locations and tones in the past, but making the ominous present-day imagery work? Nope. No one could.

Because even though Graham’s all-in on the Simm is in a coma in the present… the show itself isn’t, because then there’s no actual drama.

It plays out fairly well in the episode (there’s nothing more frustrating than a script with good scenes but bad, albeit occasionally inspired plotting), even if the whole episode does serve as a lengthy setup to the new series two ground situation.

For instance, there a couple promotions in store for the cast members, which finally brings the team together.

Simm’s got a rougher part than he should this episode, as he continuously harasses Warren’s girlfriend and future wife and victim Yasmin Bannerman, including telling her all about what’s going to happen to her unless she listens to him. Again, Graham’s really lazy about the other characters when Simm’s having one of his outbursts because having them actually address it would entirely change the show.

Though Liz White does warn Simm multiple times he’s on his way to being involuntarily committed this episode, something they must’ve decided one somewhere between series one and series two. Apparently Philip Glenister can get anyone committed at any time.

Again, it’s a solid but problematic (more than actually bumpy, as the procedural stuff is strong) episode in a good show. Even with an iffy arc, Simm’s good, Glenister’s great, and nice support from White, Dean Andrews, and Marshall Lancaster.

Maybe the most galling thing in the episode is Simm being pointlessly cruel to Noreen Kershaw because it’s socially acceptable for him to be pointlessly cruel to women.

The big setup finale, with Starman accompanying the end credits, promises the season’s going to be good. And have an actual season subplot—Simm gets a mysterious call saying he can go home once he finishes his “assignment”—instead of it being shoehorned in….

“Life on Mars” is the odd example of a really good show with a whole bunch of problems. Though maybe that situation’s just the case for any genre mashup.

Doctor Who (2005) s01e02 – The End of the World

This episode is so much better than the previous one. So much better. And the only difference, besides setting and it not introducing a new lead character (Billie Piper), is a different director (Euros Lyn). Or maybe writer Russell T. Davies just had much better ideas for this one? Though the special effects are also “better,” quotation marks because it’s a bunch of exterior space shots, which don’t involve the main characters. It’s just pragmatic exposition shots of the sun about to Krypton Earth.

The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) has brought Piper to the end of the time, at least as far as time goes for planet Earth; they’re going to watch its destruction some five billion years in the future. It’s a seemingly budgetary choice, with Eccleston teasing Piper with possible stops in the future—but she never gets to get out of the TARDIS (okay, weird thing about “Doctor Who,” the absurd jargon is catchy). Instead, they go way way into the future so they don’t need to do exteriors and instead the action takes place on this spaceship—viewing platform—where a bunch of rich future people (people meaning aliens) have paid to watch the Earth get zapped by an adjusting sun. There’s a lot of exposition about how the future works, but it’s mostly just blather, some of it amusing, some of it diverting, all of it usually amiably delivered by Eccleston.

Eccleston’s a lot better this episode—Piper’s the main improvement, acting-wise, as she goes from a very low middling to fantastic as the weight of the reality she’s experiencing hits her. She’s five billion years in the future. She’s meeting all these alien races—Eccleston calls her a racist in response to her pointing out he had the TARDIS change her brain chemistry to allow her to understand alien languages, so it’s good to see the Doctor’s a man—and the Earth is about to die. Even though everyone she knows is five billion years dead. Though Eccleston does outfit her phone with a new SIM card (taking her off AT&T?), allowing her to call through time and space and talk to mum Camille Coduri.

The main plot, involving sabotage, is rather nicely executed and quite winding. Eccleston gets a love interest—an excellent Yasmin Bannerman—and Piper makes her first alien friend, Beccy Armory, and her first future human enemy, Zoë Wanamaker.

It’s really quite good. If they were all like this episode, I’d be closer to understanding the “Who” enthusiasm.