LIFE(TIME) ON MARS

I've already gone into detail about why I liked the finale to the American version of 'Life On Mars' as a viewer. But as a caretaker for the Toobworld concept, in which all TV shows should be connected, sharing the same universe, there's another reason why I liked it so much.

It fits quite nicely into the Toobworld timeline:

2032
A manned Earth mission to Mars, the Ares IV, took place under the command of Lieutenant John Kelly.
(VOY: "One Small Step"; ENT: "Demons")

2035
Project Aries spacecraft lands on Mars.
('Life On Mars')

2097
A Mars colony is established.
('Mercy Point')

2100
Mars is colonized.
('Babylon 5')

2103
Mars is colonized by humans.
('Star Trek') The dates that don't fit well into the timeline for Earth Prime-Time are those for Ray Bradbury's stories; they took place far earlier - if our world followed his chronology, we'd be living on the Red Planet by now. So Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" should be in an alternate TV dimension, more than likely by itself, unless there are other shows which have such an accelerated timeline.

In 2067, an alien race known as the Mysterons builds a base on Mars. They have no physical form and are willing to establish peaceful contact with the people of Earth. But when their surveillance equipment is mistaken for weaponry, the Humans launch an attack on the Mysteron base. This will happen in the TV series 'Captain Scarlet And The Mysterions', but because that was populated by puppets who have replaced real humans, they should be relegated to a dimension shared by 'Davy And Goliath', 'Moral Orel', 'Robot Chicken', and the other Gerry Anderson programs. (Supermarionation be damned!)

And all the events on Mars by the year 3000, as depicted in 'Futurama', take place in the Tooniverse, of course. In a previous post, I said that the Ares IV was a one-mission. Looking over that description above, it looks like there was more than one crew member on board. No matter. I think with an accelerated mission to Mars, the trips would overlap. By the time the Aries Project crew (on the Hyde 1-2-5?) arrived, the Ares IV crew might even still be there, performing the prep work for terra-forming. If not, they probably passed each other in their space commutes.

Now there are three different dates listed for colonization of Mars, thanks to 'Mercy Point', 'Babylon 5', and 'Star Trek'. I see no problem with this; it's a matter of semantics, I guess. The 'Mercy Point' date is when it was established, so that means when it began. The 'Star Trek' date is probably when the project was completed. And as far as the 'B5' date goes, somebody probably just rounded it off.

(Notice that the 'Star Trek' entry says that Mars was colonized in 2003 - by humans. Of course, we already know - from 'My Favorite Martian', 'Doctor Who', 'The Twilight Zone', 'War Of The Worlds', and 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' - that Mars was already populated by several sentient species......) So since 'Life On Mars' didn't cause any major Zonks when it came to the timeline, I welcome it into Earth Prime-Time.

As to both versions of 'Life On Mars' sharing the same TV Universe, that'll be dealt with in a later post today.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

[Thanks again to MediumRob for supplying the pics!]