(S01E07) In what would have been the season finale if this were the British version of the show, Sam finally meets his father (and talks to himself as well, in an amusing timey-wimey sort of way). Originally, his father left him on his fourth birthday right after the party. Now, something else happened.

On a tangential note, I do wish this show had theme music of some sort. Preferably something akin to the style of '70s police television dramas. The opening montage seems to go too quickly. At least, this is what I thought while listening to the '70s-style music during the opening chase scene.

Life on Mars does has a slower pace than most of the other shows on television. Fortunately, it is kept interesting by being filled with eye candy such as wide shots and different colors. The shirts and the wallpapers alone fascinate me. I even got a laugh from Gene Hunt's loafers.

Sam has been in 1973 for a while now. Did it ever occur to him to wear a different shirt, maybe one with not quite as wide a collar? I was born around that time and I still shudder at the old photos of me in those sorts of outfits in nursery school.

In this episode, we find Sam dealing with the daddy issues of his youth using a new and innovative method: time travel. I bet you wish you could use that one to deal with yours.

I noticed that this episode contained no flash forwards to 2008. There were, however, several references to previous episodes (the Pignato Brothers, I think that's how their name is spelled, were mentioned in the previous episode involving Rose Tyler which guest-starred Robert Klein).

The ending of this episode is different than the British version. In the original, Sam wasn't shot and I don't believe he hinted to his father about the true nature of their relationship. I wonder what Vic will do now that he has that knowledge? Being a 70's criminal, he doesn't strike me as terribly imaginative.

Did Sam change history? Was Annie supposed to be killed by Vic Tyler? The dialogue sounded a little vague to me in this regard. Vic's a pretty bad assassin since Sam wasn't killed. Did he intend to only wound Sam?

I missed the original broadcast of the previous episode dealing with Sam's mother, so I must make this observation: Sam's mother shares a name with a recent companion of the Doctor, another time traveler, from Doctor Who. If they truly wanted a great homage, they would put a police box in a shot somewhere (okay, it's not London, but maybe there's a British-themed pub in New York City).

Here's an obvious question for the beginning of the episode: why are Manhattan cops (uptown, presumably) policing in Coney Island, Brooklyn? Aren't there other cops in New York who could help?

Sam's puzzled reaction to the question "what year is it?" was quite amusing.

I liked the repeat of the Bowie theme (from which the series drew its name) at the end of the episode. Had the show not been picked up, it would have been a good place to end things. However, now they're going off the British script and I'm really interested in what the writers are going to do with it.

I guess we won't find out what's in the basement until next year. What do you think is there?