However, when the bad guy, Colin Raimes, comes up with an alibi, he's released. Maya decides to follow the guy anyway. When Sam learns that Colin's alibi is bogus, he rushes out to find Maya, only to arrive too late. Colin has kidnapped her.

As Sam drives to Raimes' residence, David Bowie's song "Life on Mars" begins to play on his MP3 player. In agony over the thought of losing Maya, he arrives at the location and jumps out of the car. As he starts to cross the street, he's hit by a car.

Sam wakes up in the street. "Life on Mars" is still playing, but from a different car. He's disoriented, and his car and cell phone are missing. Sam looks into the other car and sees an eight-track tape player with Bowie's album in it. As he looks around, everything seems wrong. And then he looks up to see the Twin Towers.

Sam walks through the city as the sights and sounds of 1973 bombard him, but he can't wrap his mind around it. He makes his way to the 125th Precinct and everyone thinks he's the new transfer. When he meets Lt. Gene Hunt (Keitel), he learns the lieutenant doesn't want to deal with a detective who doesn't even know what year it is.

While all Sam wants to do is get back to 2008 and save Maya, he soon realizes that there's another serial killer in 1973 killing women the same way the killer does in 2008. And if he's going to save Maya in the future, he has to solve the case in 1973. Trapped without DNA or computers, Sam finds himself in a turbulent time, struggling to work in a police force that has a different moral code than the one he knew in 2008. Now all he has to do catch the new 1973 bad guy and figure out a way home.

Dramatic issues, killer cast

In the original BBC six-part series Life on Mars, Sam Tyler was in a coma. According to the producers, in the ABC reimagined version Sam is going to have to deal with more than a coma to get home to Maya. It makes for a lively story that uses its New York backdrop and the dramatic issues of 1973, such as a country stuck in an unpopular war, to great effect. And, better yet, Jason O'Mara turns in a star-making performance and Harvey Keitel offers some serious backup.

Life on Mars has more than a little NYPD Blue in it, with Keitel's performance being very reminiscent of Andy Sipowicz, only not as nice. Thirty-five years have drastically changed the world, and yet in many ways it hasn't changed at all. And that's the point of this series, which embraces the differences and similarities between the two times.

The writers have done a fine job of adapting the material and given the actors some terrifically meaty scenes to play with. O'Mara and the cast take full advantage. O'Mara manages that delicate balance between being sympathetic and ... well ... nuts all at the same time. And that's really what the series is about, the duality of the characters, of the times and of the issues that still embroil us today.

"Out Here in the Fields" offers a great introduction into the series and gives us a good sense of where Life on Mars will go. That doesn't mean it in any way gives us much of a hint of why Sam ended up 35 years in the past or how he'll get back. And that's the biggest handicap this series faces. Viewers want a sense of what a series is about. Mystery can work for a show like Lost, but can it draw in the necessary viewers when it's up against NBC's ER in its last season or Jerry Bruckheimer's latest crimebuster series, Eleventh Hour?