[[quoteright:350:http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/life_on_mars_uk-show.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:You are surrounded by Armed Bastards.]]
->''"My name is Sam Tyler. I had an accident and woke up in 1973. Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time? Whatever's happened, it's like I've landed on a different planet. Now, maybe if I can work out the reason, I can get home."''
-->-- '''Sam Tyler,''' opening titles.

~~DramaticHourLong, BuddyCopShow, MagicRealism, PeriodPiece~~

BBC FishOutOfWater crime drama, 2006-2007; there was a deliberate decision to [[BritishBrevity end the show after two seasons]].

[[BritishCoppers DCI]] Sam Tyler is a normal 2006 detective. Until he gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973...

He's still a police officer, but a [[BritishCoppers DI]] now. He's got to get used to a policing world with no DNA profiling, no computers and no Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

The seemingly most rational explanation is that he's in some kind of coma, as messages from 2006 keep entering his head... but Sam's 1973 is so perfectly detailed, down to details that he shouldn't be able to imagine, that he has no idea what's going on. More to the point, the killer who kidnapped Sam's girlfriend on the day that he was run over appears to be active in 1973. Is that why he's in 1973? If he solves the mystery in the past, can he save his girlfriend in the future... and go home?

Surprise hit character? DCI Gene Hunt. To quote Sam Tyler, he's an "overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding" (Hunt's response: "You make that sound a [[InsultBackFire bad thing]]"). Sexist to boot, he's highly un-PC, highly quotable (if rather vulgar) and gained a wide range of fans.

Notable for being surprisingly sophisticated and intelligent, a critical and commercial success, as well as being artfully designed and shot.

An [[Series/LifeOnMars American version]] debuted in fall '08 on ABC, starring Jason O'Mara as Sam and Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt. A SoBadItsHorrible pilot, with Colm Meaney playing the Hunt role and looking a bit neutered in it, led to a recast (only O'Mara survived) and move of location to NewYorkCity. This new version had promise, possibly due to hewing as close as possible to the British original, but was cancelled after one season. Fortunately, the producers were given enough notice to wrap up the plot.

A Spanish version, called "La chica de ayer", has recently finished after eight episodes.

A follow-on series set in 1981, called ''AshesToAshes'', started in February 2008.
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This show provides examples of:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: General Themes ]]

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Gene tolerates Sam's bizarre behaviour and ahead-of-its-time political correctness because he recognises Sam's skill in catching criminals. The others only put up with it because Sam outranks them.
*ConnecticutYankee: Sam tries to introduce 'modern' police methodology and encourage his colleagues to see past their bigoted attitudes, though with limited success. One problem is that while in theory Sam is better trained, the techniques he's learned are often useless in 1973. Why wait for a search warrant if you can just kick down the door? What's the point of knowing you shouldn't move a corpse before it's been checked for fingerprints, if the technology to do so hasn't been invented yet?
*FishOutOfTemporalWater: Sam Tyler
*MindScrew: Most of the show, but especially the two season finales.
*OddCouple: Sam and Gene (he's by the book, he's BYOB), but also Chris and Ray.
*PoliceProcedural
*RunningGag: "That's not how it goes!" (Sam constantly getting the YouDoNotHaveToSayAnything speech wrong); "You are surrounded by armed bastards!" (even carried over to AshesToAshes); Gene's flasks and fondness for American [[TheWestern westerns]].
*TheSeventies (Manifested as seventies clothing, hair, and unfortunate blue eyeshadow.)
*TheyFightCrime: For the most part, the plots are standard police investigations, though occasionally made significant by Sam's techniques or history.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Characters and setting ]]

*BornInTheWrongCentury: Reg Cole
*CoolCar: Hunt's beloved Mark III Cortina.
*CowboyCop: Pretty much everyone who isn't Sam, but especially Gene Hunt.
** Sam occasionally flips over into this territory as well, despite his professed morals.
*CreepyChild: ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Card_F the Test Card F girl]])
*EnsembleDarkhorse: Gene Hunt
*{{Fauxreigner}}: Nelson the barman, who pretends to have a natural Jamaican accent.
*MagicalNegro: Nelson fulfils this role, (with hints he might be aware what's happening to Sam)
*MyLocal: The Railway Arms.
*OntologicalMystery
*OopNorth (Manchester)
*PlatonicCave (Maybe)
*PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Averted by most of Sam's new contemporaries, ''especially'' Gene Hunt.
*[[DracoInLeatherPants Sexist In Leather Pants]]: Gene Hunt
*LicensedSexist: Also Gene Hunt.
*MagnificentBastard: Still Gene Hunt.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tropes and plots ]]

*AlmostKiss: That would be Sam and Annie.
*ApathyKilledTheCat
*CelebrityParadox: Sam makes a ''{{Doctor Who}}'' reference. And being from 2006 and all, he's probably thinking of New Who.
**He was a kid in the 70s, though, so I doubt it.
**John Simm played The Master in New Who. [[spoiler:But not until the year after Sam Tyler died]]
*** Wasn't Sam Tyler named after New Who's Tylers? In the American version his mother is named Rose.
*[[spoiler:DreamApocalypse]]
*FalseFlagOperation: Series finale (season 2 episode 8)
*FingertipDrugAnalysis: Sam identifies heroin by taste.
*{{Flanderization}} (Chris Skelton's naivete starts to get out of control in the second series.)
** It gets better in ''AshesToAshes'', though.
*FlashedBadgeHijack: Subverted in the first episode of Series Two. Sam is unable to move out of the way of an oncoming car. In a desperate attempt to do something, he holds up his badge, closing his eyes as he anticipates the crash. The car comes to a stop inches away. [[spoiler: Because it's tires were punctured, courtesy of Annie Cartwright's stinger.]]
*FramingTheGuiltyParty: When Sam tries it, it causes {{Stable Time Loop}}s of a sort Sam doesn't really want. When Gene Hunt tries it, Sam objects.
**To be fair, Sam only does it out of desperation to stop crimes [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong he believes are going to happen]], while Hunt does it on regular basis on a GutFeeling.
*TheGreatBritishCopperCapture
*HolyShitQuotient: Through the roof in the last episode.
*ICNumber (Subverted: IC codes haven't been introduced yet, and nobody else understands them.)
*ImMrFuturePopCultureReference:
**Sam and Annie pose as "Tony Blair" and "Cherie Blair". When Gene pops up unexpectedly, Sam promptly dubs him "Gordon Brown".
**"You know, ''StarskyAndHutch'' have got a lot to answer for..."
*ItWillNeverCatchOn: When Sam suggests that they install a TV in the pub, everyone is extremely skeptical. Seriously, they look at him like he grew a third eye.
*JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Gene Hunt, Ray Carling
*LadyInRed: actually a plot point in Season 1.
*LiteraryAllusionTitle: named after the Bowie song.
*LukeIAmYourFather
*MaleGaze
*MediumBlending: The claymation of Camberwick Green.
*MindScrew: The last two episodes.
*MoodDissonance: The last episode especially. [[spoiler:Seriously, the main hero's suicide shouldn't feel so... ''awesome''.]]
*MushroomSamba: 2007!Sam accidentally gets a drug overdose, leading 1973!Sam to hallucinate a memorable version of the childrens' show "Camberwick Green".
*NoodleIncident: Whatever it is Mrs Luckhurst ''does'' that's "illegal in some parts of Wales" and makes Gene Hunt scream bloody murder.
*OldFashionedCopper: Gene Hunt, Ray Carling
*PerpSweating
*PoliceLineup
*RabidCop: Subverted: by today's standards, Sam is the only cop who ''isn't'' rabid.
*ResuscitateTheDog
*SeasonFinale
*[[SmokingHotSex Smoking Hot Fight]] Although Sam and Gene have had a few of these, the one that really stands out has to be the fight between them in the hospital, after which Gene is shown smoking. [[HoYay Draw your own conclusions]].
*[[spoiler:SuicideIsPainless: Sam goes back to his own time, realises the [[CreepyChild Test Card F girl]] was right all along, and takes a running jump off the roof of the police station while ''Life On Mars'' blares triumphantly in the background.]]
*TakingTheHeat: A union leader tried to cover up a fatal industrial accident at his mill to keep it from being shut down (and his members losing their jobs) by confessing to having murdered the accident victim.
*TrainJob: The climax.
*TrappedInAnotherWorld: And it's ''[[RealIsBrown brown]]''.
*WhatYearIsThis
*WhoopiEpiphanySpeech: "If you can feel, you're alive."
*YouCantFightFate
*YouCantGoHomeAgain
*YouDoNotHaveToSayAnything (Subverted: British police used a different caution in 1973 than the one Sam is used to from 2007. Sam repeatedly tries and fails to recite the 70's version, at one point coming up with the [[ReadingYourRights Miranda Warning]].)
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