Oh yes, for some reason, DH making coffee sticks in my mind!

K

I wish i was an alien - then i would have an excuse to look at a women having a bath

Aah but, IIRC, he wasn't an alien, just from the future...

wasn't he?

K

I dunno about lighter - BBC3's "Bodies" was hardly light.

I was mainly interested in your worry that "Torchwood" may have had its thunder stolen. I don't think the subject matter will be in any way similar, so I don't think they'll be too worried...

That reminds me. Why are BBC Wales and BBC Scotland making dramas set in England? I remember 55 degrees north, set in Newcastle being made by BBC Scotland, and now BBC Wales have made LOM set in Manchester!?
Aren't their jobs to make programmes about their own countries? Why couldn't BBC Manchester have done this?
Did BBC Wales come up with the idea and does this mean practically everyone involved in the programme apart from the actors are Welsh? Im getting really worried now, we might have to thank the Welsh for two decent dramas.

Life on Mars is very good but, because of the concept, it cant really last more than 1 series since there needs to be some kind of resolution to the coma thing. I dont think any other time period would work as well because the reason LoM is good is because of the whole sweeney/wah-wah funk 70's thing.

A second series has already been confirmed, I just hope they've got enough good stories left to maintain the quality and entertainment. Part of me worries it might get a bit samey in the second series but then I said that about this series at episode one and was proved wrong.

Dr Who is great but there are a few BBC shows that are better, despite the hype. Mars is one of them, Spooks and Hussle are others.

I think 2 pints of lager is a great yoof show. I haven't seen a lot of it as I'm a touch too old for that sort of thing now but if I was 16-24 then I think I'd like it a lot.

And I think Torchwood is now a BBC1 show, not BBC3 as it was originally commissioned. I hope this means a bigger budget and better production so it can be added to the list of world class dramas to recently appear on BBC 1.

Correction made!

Yes they're all friendly chavs, that's what makes the situation comedic

I think they should get the woman who wrote it to pick up the pieces over in Hyperdrive and turn that into a sitcom too.

Can't see the attraction of Hustle personally (to be fair to it, I've never given it a chance), but Doctor Who, Mars and Spooks are all instant classic of their particular genres, for me. Doctor Who, of course, was an instant classic twice over, in '63 with 'An Unearthly Child', and again last year ....

LoM is the best show on TV at the moment.

The only similarity to Who that I can see is that they are both on BBC1?
Why try and compare to entirely different shows?

I agree, they are different types of show so it's no good comparing them.

I doubt that LoM, Hyperdive, Eleventh Hour etc. would have been comissioned though were it not for the success of Doctor Who last year.

I thijnk they must have been on mind-altering drugs when they commissioned Hyperdrive (and not very good ones, at that).

Either that or the writers were a bit 'glug glug' and the BBC Comedy Commissioners were even more 'glug glug' and maybe a dash of 'sniff sniff' - its common fact that excessive drinking will make you laugh at almost anything, even a pencil.

Surely it needs two pencils, nasally inserted. (or was that a wheel on the second ark?)

K

Actually, I was thinking that if they reckoned Hyperdrive was great then they must have taken some *fantastic* drugs.

Still, I stand by my original assertion that we wouldn't have all of this new sci-fi (good and bad) without the success of DW last year.

Oh, you're right, I'm sure, and the more the merrier! Even with the dross, we're getting so much more good stuff than the bleak nadir of pre-DW days. In other words, hurrah!

Many people will try and assasinate the Doctor for causing the commissioning of Hyperdrive, and many people will try and drug Patrick Stewart on the set of Eleventh Hour and drag him unconcious back to the Starship Enterprise - and wipe out ITV.

So yes, I suppose I'd end up agreeing with you Den - if Christopher Eccleston is suddenly found dead, Patrick Stewart goes to a Rehabiliation Centre and if I get white noise when I change over to channel 3.

The Doctor warned you not to turn over to ITV after you helped him with the Graske.

Life on Mars or Doctor Who? I love both. Great telly and something for those of us not the slightest bit interested in soaps and reality dross.

It was called The Black and Blue Lamp. It picks up the story from the end of the classic 1950 film The Blue Lamp with the arrest of Tom Riley (Dirk Bogarde / Sean Chapman) for the murder of PC George Dixon. Riley then finds himself transported to a tough 1980s cop show called The Filth.

Can't say I really like Life on Mars. Cop shows, regardless of the format twists, just don't appeal to me.

However, I am glad it got made and I'm glad it's a success. It shows the audience want escapism TV rather than wall-to-wall soaps and gritty crime dramas.

Incidentally, Matt Graham - the writer of Life on Mars - has written for the next series of Doctor Who.

I have to agree. 'Life on Mars' has obvious links to 'Lost' (we don't know what is 'reality' and what isn't), 'The Prisoner' (waking up in a strange place and being trapped there) and 'Dominick Hide' (in that he could affect his own future).

For me it's the best thing on TV at the moment, along with 'House'. I just hope, as someone else has said, that they can keep the quality up for a second season, which is a bit of a worry.

Personally I'd like to see him stay into 1974 and see Man Utd get relegated!!!

Hmm, Rose Tyler, Sam Tyler, if it wasn't for the fact that the DW script was presumably written a while back before anyone knew how successful LOM was going to be I would suspect a series crossover episode here. It's one of the few US TV gimmicks that the UK hasn't picked up on yet.