Life On Mars.tv Desktop 2 - Gene Hunt

Two posts ago I promised you all more desktops. Well the promise has been kept. Here he is in all his UN-PC glory, everyones' favorite "Gov" Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister). I also asked you all a question in the post that had Sam Tyler (John Simm) as a desktop, didn't I? Well at this stage no one has responded.

Am I to take it then that you don't want more desktops? Well I'm going to do them any way, but I would still appreciate your input as to what you would like to see next. Please comment in the comments section under the post as to who you want next after Annie. Yes Annie Cartwright (Liz White) will be next, but then who? Its all up to you. 'Til next time Martians, peace.

Gene Hunt 800x600 (Click to enlarge)



Cyberman

Something Different, Yet The Same

Greetings Martians when you are writing a blog for show that's already finished, finding new things to post are sometimes hard. Both series have completed in the UK, the DVD box sets are out, the soundtrack cd and as I have mentioned in an earlier post, very little other merchandise. So what do I have for you today, you may be asking. Well Martians today I have a special treat, for those of you in the UK.

Below I have an Australian Commercial for LifeOnMars on ABC TV (Channel 2), where it currently screens on Sunday nights at 8.30pm. The commercial is for Season One Episode Two, which screens tonight in Australia. Whilst most of you may have seen the episodes, or indeed the entire series this will be a change for several reasons. The way it is edited is completely unlike the UK advertisements, its also cropped to 14:9 (not full widescreen) and includes Australian voice overs. Hopefully I will be able to offer more of these, as the episodes air in Australia. For the time being enjoy this one.

(LifeOnMars - S01E02 Australian Promo)
'Til next time Martians, peace and Aussies is he mad? You be the judge.



Cyberman

Life On Mars.tv Desktop 1 - Sam Tyler

Hello everyone, of late I had been utilizing my design talents on other peoples sites which is something I enjoy doing. As a result though, this site has slipped a bit, not badly but below what I wanted. So as of today I'll be putting a little more effort into bringing you both LOM related news, as well as producing downloads for you like this desktop below.

This desktop features everyones hero Sam Tyler (John Simm), and is number 1 in this series. The second one will feature, none other than your favourite Gov Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister). At this stage I am planning on doing, all major characters. If you like my desktop and have ideas about what characters you would like to see next, simply respond in the comments section.

Enjoy the desktop and peace Martians.

Sam Tyler 800x600 (Click to enlarge)



Cyberman

TV Quick And TV Choice Awards

The 2007 TV Quick And TV Choice Awards are on, which gives Martians in the UK the opportunity to vote for their heroes in 3 different categories. It has Philip Glenister up against John Simm for Best Actor. To vote for Phil select 16 or John 31. Liz White is up for Best Actress for playing Annie Cartwright, select 35 to vote for her.

LifeOnMars has also been nominated for Best Loved Drama Series, select 15 to pick it Martians. Voting for the awards closes at midnight on June 15th, 2007 so get your nominations in by heading over to their web site tvchoiceawards.co.uk. The choice will be hard for Best Actor with Phil against John, decisions, decisions. The rest is obvious for fans of the show.

Any way Martians, more opportunities for the show to win gold. What more could you ask for? So who is it going to be, Best Gov or Best Time Traveller?



Cyberman

Promise and Disappointment

Over the weekend we had several events in the world of Life On Mars, the Australian Premiere of Season One and a BAFTA Award for the show (special thanks to Mark from Tardis And Torchwood Treasures for the awards tip-off). The first episode was shown on ABC TV (Channel 2) in Australia on Sunday night at 8.30pm, to some quite favourable reviews.

Australian newspaper The Age had this to say, from its columnist Greg Hassall,"On one hand Life on Mars is critical of the corruption, sexism and racism rampant during the '70s. At the same time, there is obvious nostalgia for the period's less complicated moral landscape."

The article then goes on to add "Time-travel scenarios are notoriously tricky to handle and the writers set themselves a huge task trying to combine this element with a gritty police drama. It's no surprise the show was rejected for years before the BBC finally took a punt on it. It was clearly a punt worth taking, with the show becoming a huge hit in the UK and picking up an international Emmy award." So The Age like it, and so they should.

The ratings for the week in Australia should be interesting with respect to LOM, Channel 2 rarely makes the top 20. So lets keep our fingers crossed for it. I have no doubt it would have done better on a commercial station, but we will have to just wait and see.

Besides the premiere in Australia, Life On Mars had other good news this week where it picked up the illustrious "Pioneer Audience Award" at the BAFTA's on Sunday. It had been nominated in 3 categories, including Best Actor (John Simm) and Best Drama. Sorry John, better luck next time hey?

Oh well the writers now have another award, to add to the growing stash including an International Emmy Award. 'Til next time Martians, Peace.




Cyberman

Writing about Tuesday on Monday

Life on Mars stars John Simm and Philip Glenister have reunited for a heist movie set in the 1980s, called Tuesday. The low-budget film, which is currently shooting in the UK, sees the duo ditch their TV police persona's and take on the characters of career criminals. "John and I are the bad boys," Glenister told BBC Radio 2. "We rob a bank. We rob a few banks, actually."

Glenister, who said he was "contracted" to work with Simm once a year, is currently dividing his time between Tuesday and the Cranford Chronicles - a BBC costume drama based on three novels by Wives and Daughters author Elizabeth Gaskell. "I'm flitting from the 1880s to the 1980s on a daily basis," he said. "I'm all over the shop."

The actor will also begin filming the sequel to Life On Mars, called Ashes To Ashes, in July this year. Simm's character "Sam Tyler" will not appear in the new series, with a female detective "Alex Drake" from the 2008 taking his place. For more information on Ashes To Ashes, head on over to AshesToAshes.tv.

(This time the squad car is after the John and Phil.)

'Til next time Martians, peace and remember, somebody else has an accident soon and wakes up in 1981. Is Alex more prepared than Sam? Only time will tell.



Cyberman

US Re-Runs

Hello everybody, LifeOnMars returns to everyone's lounge rooms on May 26th in the US. BBC America will be airing a series of repeats from Season One in 4 episode blocks, the first block will include episodes 1, 4, 5 and 8. The screening will commence at 12PM and will go through until 4PM on Saturday the 26th, it will then be repeated again on Sunday the 27th between 2PM and 6PM.

I imagine BBC America are doing this to re-introduce the show again, prior to the premiere of Season Two later in the year. Still no more news on David E Kelley's US re-imagining. Maybe its been canned, I doubt it though. We have been through half this year almost, and only one role has been cast for the show. The role being that of WPC Annie Cartwright (Rachelle LeFevre). Annie's character will more than likely be renamed though, to make her sound more American.

'Til next time, Martains peace.



Cyberman

Life On Mars In Australia.

On Sunday the 20th of May 2007 at 8.30pm, Australia finally gets to see season one of LifeOnMars. I say finally because I actually live there myself, and have been writing this blog since January 2007. That's right folks, with the series completely over now. With fans looking forward to the spin off series Ashes To Ashes, ABC Australia has finally bowed to the pressure and decided to screen it. Three cheers ABC, yay!

You sensed sarcasm there didn't you? Well sorry, I discovered this show over a year ago, what took the ABC so long? Best known to them I suppose, well their programmers at least.

With a title like "Life On Mars In Australia", you would expect that this post would have a bit more to share than simply just the Australian TV premiere date, wouldn't you? Well you would be right then, in addition to this I also have news of the Australian DVD release date for Season One. The DVD is being released through Village Roadshow on the 1st of August 2007, with a (MA15+) rating for "strong sex scene". This is more than likely because of the topless scene in episode four, where Sam meets Mark Warren the Night Club owner and extortionist.

The DVD is currently available on pre-order through EZY DVD's website. If you can't wait that long however, you can always get yourself a copy of the Zone 2 release of either the Season One or Season Two Box sets from Sendit.com via the advertisement at the top of the page. Remember though Australian Martians, we are Zone 4 and the imported discs will only play on a world zone player. Delivery from Sendit.com, usually takes under a week to Australia, provided that the item is in stock.

'Til next time Martians, peace and Australians, is he mad, in a comma or back in time? The puzzle will start to unravel next Sunday night at 8.30pm on ABC.

Cheers,




Cyberman

DCI Merchandise Hunt or (Genes' Hunt for Collectables)

A strangely titled post, yes? Well, you should be used to that by now, coming here any way. Today's post is about the very small amount of official merchandise, which is available currently for LifeOnMars. When a show such as LifeOnMars becomes as hugely successful as it has normally, we are generally bombarded with merchandise both official, unofficial and counterfeit. LifeOnMars, seems to be an exception to this rule. Let's hope that changes, we want LOM collectibles.

At present, the only official merchandise seems to be the 2 DVD box sets, the CD soundtrack album, a 2007 calendar, the companion book (1973 Annual), some photos / mini-posters and the yet to be released "Complete Series Box set DVD Collection". Not a great deal of goodies, really is it? Wheres' the Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt action figures BBC? You know the ones where you get Season One and Season Two versions of each character, as well 1973 and 2006 Edition packaging. Perhaps even a Camberwick Green Series (I keep pushing this, I know its because they were brilliant)?

Take Two, I've just found a site on ebay.co.uk, that has rulers, fridge magnets, mouse pads, key rings, wall clocks, bottle openers and coasters. Still, I would have still expected more than what I have mentioned though. Any way Martians if you are wanting LOM Merchandise, I have compiled a short list below. The list contains both official and unofficial merchandise, no counterfeited goods will be endorsed by this site. In other words if you've ripped the soundtrack or done something similar and are planning on selling copies, don't expect endorsement here. Its just not going to happen. Here is the list of all your LOM goodies.


LifeOnMars Merchandise:


All official Merchandise, dvds, cds and books - BBC Shop

Mini Posters and Photographs - Movie Market

DVDs - Sendit.com

Wall Clocks, Rulers, Key rings, Coasters, etc . . - Fortress GB

Personalised Greeting Cards - Fab Cards

Calendars - Star Store.com

Life On Mars T-shirts - Poegoth

Key rings, mugs and t-shirts - Size Does Matter


Plus of course the download-ables:


The script to Season One Episode One in PDF Format - BBC Writers Room

Desktops, mobile desktops, screensavers, sounds and desktop applications - BBC Official Life On Mars Site

Banners, Icons and Avatars - Life On Mars Icons

Fan Episode Transcripts - The Annotated Martian

Online Role Play Game - Life On Mars RP



'Til next time Martains, peace.



Cyberman

His name is Harold!

At the end of Saturday nights episode of Doctor Who, Martians had a special treat with their first real glimpse of John Simm in character as Mr Saxon (Prime Minister). In the trailer we also learnt, that his full name is Harold Saxon. During the brief few seconds John is in, he can be seen on Television as well as at number 10 Downing Street in an oxygen mask.

For fans of LifeOnMars, who aren't familiar with the Doctor Who universe, it is rumoured that Johns' character Mr Saxon is actually the Master in his latest body. The Master is one of the Doctors' oldest adversaries and is also a time lord, but unlike the Doctor travels through time and space to achieve his own goals. These usually include trying to take over the universe. Yes the Master is bad time lord, and this will be the first appearance of the character since the 1996 Paul McGann TV Movie.

In the scene where John is at number 10 in the oxygen mask, he can be seen tapping his fingers on the table. After watching this teaser - trailer several times, I have discovered that John seems to be tapping the Doctor Who theme. I may be wrong, but it certainly sounds like it. Maybe its just Russell T Davies subtle way of saying, the Master is coming back to the show. Who knows, perhaps only Russell and John. Anyway below I have provided you with 2 stills from the trailer, featuring John in character. I hope you like them, may they be the first of many.


[Mr Harold Saxon (John Simm) Prime Minister on television.]


[Mr Harold Saxon (John Simm) Prime Minister at number 10 Downing Street.]


By the way, a quick reminder about our new Season Two Poll. Its open and waiting for you vote, tell us what you thought your favourite episode was. If your memory is not serving you well at the moment, try the link below the poll to the episode breakdowns. 'Till next time Martians, peace and remember there are now 2 time lords to look out for. One more so than the other.




Cyberman

Fiftieth Post, Yay!!!!!!!

Hello everyone, Martians, Lifers, 73ers, etc . . . Today LifeOnMars.tv celebrates many things. Well 5 at least.

1) being around for 4 months,
2) reaching 50 posts,
3) just exceeding 6000 visits,
4) a newly redesigned site layout
5) still being around after the show has finished.

Well Martians there is still going to be news to tell, and as long as its relevant I will continue to bring it to you. Many of you out there have been saying to yourselves, 49th where's the 50th one, for the last 2 weeks. I'd been stalling, I confess. Amazingly enough though, all but 1 of those 5 things above happened today.

I have results for you from our recent Season One Poll, despite having extended the poll later past its close date hardly any of you out there bothered to enter. I don't know what it was, but those of you who did take that second to click then press vote made yourselves very clear. The most popular was Episode 8, closely followed by Episode 1. The first and last episodes of the season, next most popular was the fourth which is also the midway point of the season, weird.


In news, the Official Doctor Who site reports "Something Special" at the end of this weeks episode. The article features a picture (seen below) of John Simm smiling. Fans of John already know, as I have reported earlier that he has been cast as Mr Saxon who is running for Prime Minister in the series. It has been eluded to that John is also the Doctors oldest enemy, the Master in his latest regeneration. This has been confirmed by Philip Glenister, though Phil may have been joking.


The BBC are apparently doing this, to make up for the fact that it won't be on the following week. Hmm, wonder what it is? A mini episode featuring John? Maybe, maybe not, we'll find out tonight I guess. Also, before I go I would like to mention that we have a new poll up about Season Two this time. Please vote, you know you want to. 'Till next time, peace.



Cyberman