The BBC has its fair share of detractors, but it has its fair share of good drama, too. Last night we checked out the new series Life On Mars - basic premise: a policeman is hit by a car in 2006, and comes round in 1973...Interestingly enough, Jo had just finished reading The Time Traveller's Wife, which also explores the idea of chronological displacement.
Science fiction certainly has its Geeksville element, but it also has a place of affection in the broader British national psyche. Other than the fact that so many of us grew up watching (the - brilliantly - recently returned) Dr Who, I'm not really sure why that should be the case; but it would seem to be so. We seem to have a fascination with the genre, that takes us beyond the weighing, measuring, cataloguing, and physical-horizon-pushing of Science into the warmer realm of the intangible elements that make us human.
It is too early to know what I think of Life On Mars as a story-line. But the concept of time travel, with the attending moral dilemma of whether or not to change a bad past (might an even worse future ensue?) is a fascinating one. It reminds us of the connectivity of all our actions; that we cannot fully know what our actions might set in motion, nor should we take full responsibility for the subsequent actions of others; but, we might give our actions more thought as a result…
Life On Mars
BBC sci-fi connectivity
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