* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: The series was initially rejected by Creator/TheBBC and took nearly a decade to get greenlit. Creator/JohnSimm thought the idea was ludicrous upon reading the script.
* {{Anvilicious}}: The show comes down hard against football hooligans, as made especially clear by Sam's post-arrest speech about what football is about.
* AwesomeEgo: Gene.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** The title theme.
** All the early 70s music used - perhaps surprisingly in some cases. Tracks from Music/{{Cream}}, Music/TheWho and [[Music/MarcBolan T. Rex]] were always going to sound good. What's more surprising is how awesome the series manages to make Music/PaulMcCartney, Music/MottTheHoople and Music/{{Lindisfarne}} sound. Special mention also to the eponymous Music/DavidBowie track that soundtracks Sam's first moments in '73. And has a pretty awesome reprise [[spoiler: when Sam throws himself from a roof to return there in the last episode]].
** The song "Over the Rainbow" plays in the scene previous to where [[spoiler: Sam throws himself off the roof]].
* HilariousInHindsight: In a Series One episode, Sam jokes that he's asked Series/DoctorWho about the time travel situation. Creator/JohnSimm's other big role in a BBC drama would turn that into retroactive CelebrityParadox. Plus, co-creator Matthew Graham would write the episodes "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E11FearHer Fear Her]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E5TheRebelFlesh The Rebel Flesh]][=/=][[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E6TheAlmostPeople The Almost People]]", the TwoPartEpisode featuring Marshall Lancaster (Chris).
* HoYay: When you have at least one reviewer acknowledging that the ''real'' romance of the series is between Sam and Gene...
** There's a Creator/JohnSimm interview where this was actually put to him as a question. Simm is both amused beyond belief and not entirely dismissive of the idea that the entire point was Sam coming to terms with being gay.
* IronWoobie:
** Sam Tyler. He's a FishOutOfTemporalWater experiencing tons of angst (and SanitySlippage) as he tries to get back to his own time, and he gets verbally, physically and sexually assaulted on a regular basis. He's also a badass police officer who manages to make the most out of his admittedly sucky situation.
** Arguably Gene himself too. While he is [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero politically incorrect]], rough around the edges and [[AntiHero frequently skirts the line of morality]], he is ultimately a man who cares about protecting people and the sanctity of the law. His more misguided or ignorant actions are born from a [[WellIntentionedExtremist desire to protect the innocent]] and he shows a [[BerserkButton deep distaste for serious corruption]] once Sam takes a stand on the matter. Also, while he is demonised by Sam and the press, it is shown that his gut instinct is actually often correct in many cases and he is an effective police officer. Once his true nature and past is [[GuardianAngel revealed in Ashes to Ashes]], he also takes on a significantly more sympathetic light.
* MemeticMutation: A RunningGag in the fandom is to jokingly claim that Sam Tyler is [[Series/DoctorWho The Master]] who forgot who he was (either due to another fob-watch incident or through some other form of amnesia) and is now stuck in the 70s.
* MisaimedFandom: Gene Hunt was initially portrayed as being nothing but the "overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline alcoholic homophobe" that Sam Tyler described him as. Although the writers had always intended to deepen Hunt's character as the show went on, they were disturbed at the way that Hunt's extreme political incorrectness actually made him very popular with fans.
* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/ArchiePanjabi as Maya, Sam's present-day girlfriend — three years before she played [[Series/TheGoodWife Kalinda]].
* StrawmanHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Frank Morgan. He's ''right'' -- Gene Hunt ''is'' a flawed police officer. His motives may be right, but his judgment is skewed. He is far too emotional and violent. The fact that he put himself at the front of his suicide mission does not negate his flaws, or the fact that he put his team in danger when cooler heads could have completed the task with less risk.]]
** Gene Hunt himself in the second episode (see JerkassHasAPoint above). Technically Hunt should ''not'' be framing Kim Trent, but at least it would have kept him off the streets.
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