Series One - Episode One (PART TWO)

Okay I teased you quite a bit there, you're all waiting for an episode synopsis and here it is. The episode begins with with the familiar Sam Tyler self questioning, with a difference this time. "Am I mad in a coma or back in time?", is not being said by Sam but Molly, Alex Drake's daughter. Molly is reading Sam's "Confidential" reports, much to Alex's displeasure. Molly asks Alex will she write about Sam in her memoirs, and is told that Sam is worthy of a book all to himself.

The banter between the 2 is interrupted by Alex's police radio, which informs them that there is a siege taking place down at the docks. Alex arrives on the scene and tells Molly to stay in the car, so she remains safe. When Alex speaks to the officers in attendance, she is told that the gunman has asked for her by name. This perplexes Alex, she immediately goes over to the gunman and enters hostage-negotiation mode. The gunman appears to know Alex, though she has no idea of who he is.

The gunman lets go of the hostage, which further complicates matters as Molly is now out of the car and running to her mother. The obvious outcome of this would be for the gunman to grab Molly, and he does a predictable scene up until this point. The gunman then makes threats to kill Molly if Alex follows them, we hear a gunshot and of course Alex expects the worst. Running down the steps of the Quay to the shore, Alex is stopped by Molly. She has a sense of relief, which is short lived. The gunman appears to have given them the slip, from the surrounding confusion resulting from the gunfire.

Alex thinks her troubles are over and drops Molly off with her step-father, she then heads back to the car to go to the station. As soon as Alex puts her keys in the ignition, she is distracted by the sound of a gun being loaded in the back seat. A voice is then heard directing Alex to drive (a quite predictable but necessary plot development). They get to their destination and Alex is shot by the gunman (Layton), only to wake up in the same place in 1981. Alex's adventure now begins.

The plot of this first episode, I found to be very reminiscent of Life On Mars's very first episode in several ways but I suppose it needed to be to introduce Alex. Firstly in present day in both episodes, a crime is being committed which is connected directly to a crime happening in the past LOM (2006/1973) and A2A (2008/1981). The central character in both suffer near death experiences, which triggers an apparent time shift backwards to an earlier period of their lives. They (Sam & Alex) both encounter Gene Hunt, Chris Skelton and Ray Carling. Perhaps these are more the series' formula, rather than the actual plot. Either way both episodes had very similar story lines.

The episode not only introduces Alex, but also a new character as well which we had seen in promo pictures the character of course being WPC Sharon Granger. Sharon Granger is I suppose A2A's equivalent character to Annie Cartwright from LOM, but with a difference. Unlike Annie Cartwright, Sharon "Shaz" Granger seems to be a stronger character. This is more than likely due to the fact that Shaz is living in a time, where women were starting to become more equal in the work place. Though Gene's and Ray's archaic attitude to women, still manage to crush her spirit. Shaz also has a much more outgoing personality, and seems to be modelled (in hair at least) on one of the Human League's back up singers. It will be interesting to see how her character evolves over the series. Oh I forgot to mention, Shaz is Chris "the Div"'s girlfriend too.

Any way thats about it for this post, I'm sorry this site has started to fall behind now that Ashes is actually being screened. Over the next week I intend to play catch up, so by the screening of epidode 5 we will actually have full breakdowns of each episode. 'Til next time Martians / Burn Victims, peace. Also if anyone is curious about what font the titles are done in, its actaully the same font that was used for "Close Encounters of The Third Kind".




Cyberman