Life On Mars - Am I Mad, in a Coma or Back in Time?

- The original BBC series took its name from the David Bowie song, "Life on Mars".

- Gene Hunt: I may be a sheriff, but I'm a deputy to the law.

- Gene Hunt: I'm done with this game. Let's play another. Let's play, eh, hopscotch or pin the tail on a donkey. You pick, Dora.
- Dora Keens: I want a lawyer.
- Gene Hunt: I wanna hump Britt Eklund, what are we gonna do?

- Sam Tyler: I need a drink.
- Gene Hunt: That's the first sensible thing you've said since you got here.

"Life on Mars" finished its two-season arc on the BBC in April 2007, but one of its principal characters will live on in a spin-off series.

The British broadcaster has ordered a show called "Ashes to Ashes," which will follow DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) and his shoot-first, ask-questions-if-we-get-around-to-it style of law enforcement from the 1970s to the '80s. Set in 1981, the show will find Hunt working in London with a female detective from the present day who finds herself stuck in the past.

The finale of "Life on Mars," which aired Tuesday on BBC1, resolved the question of how 21st-century cop Sam Tyler (John Simm) was transported to 1973 Manchester. Simm will not be part of the new show.

BBC America aired the first season of "Life on Mars" last summer and will have the second season later this year. Producer David E. Kelley is also working on an adaptation of the show for ABC, though casting difficulties have pushed the show back to midseason.

Jane Featherstone, an executive producer of "Life on Mars," says "Ashes to Ashes" will be "a touch of 'Moonlighting' teamed with a measure of 'Miami Vice,'" the BBC reports.

The female lead hasn't been cast yet, but filming is scheduled for this summer with an eye toward a premiere in early 2008. There's no word on whether the new show will cross the pond to BBC America.