Life on Mars

Life on Mars is a hybrid-genre of crime and scifi. It has more of the tropes of the crime genre, such as an urban setting and police station. Many of the characters fill the expected roles as well, such as the partners who start of not getting along and over the episode learning to work with each other. However, it subverts certain tropes such as the morally ambiguous protagonist. In the story, Sam is very straight lace and by the book at the start. It also presents things such as destruction of evidence and violence against a criminal as not necessarily in a bad light and even seems to reward characters for such behaviour. Its primary connection to scifi is the element of time travel, which though not confirmed is a very likely possibility. Sam also keeps hearing things throughout the episode that imply things may not be as they seem.

Despite starting in 2006 and ending in 1973, the story follows a linear narrative. The storyline is restrictive, as we only know what Sam knows. The episode follows Todorov's narrative stages. It begins in 2006 with a murder case that is not out of the ordinary. This is the equilibrium. This is then disrupted first by Maya'a disappearance and then more importantly by being sent back in time to 1973. By the end of the episode, while not completely satisfied, there is a new equilibrium formed with Sam slowly adjusting to his new life in the past.

Very few of the enigmas are solved in the episode. In terms of the crime genre, it fulfils the expectation of the culprit being caught at the end, and also solves the mystery of the first suspects connection to the killer. However, in terms of the sci fi genre, little to nothing is resolved. The audience is left just as clueless as Sam as to how he ended up in the past and whether or not any of it is real.