At the end of the series, in what appears to be a
deus ex machina, it is revealed that Tyler's 2008 and 1973 realities were
both fictitious, created by the onboard computer of a spacecraft that is carrying Tyler, Hunt, Norris, Carling, and Skelton on the first ever
manned mission to the planet Mars, in 2035. The crew he worked with in 1973 were just
virtual reality versions of his fellow spaceship crewmembers. His room number, "2B", is his sleeping unit; his old precinct, "Hyde", and his new precinct, the "125", are based on the name of the spacecraft - "Hyde 125"; his neighbor, Windy, is the name of the computer
A.I.; Frank Morgan, an FBI agent in the series, is the Mission Control flight director; in a reversal from her struggle to be taken seriously as a police officer in 1973, Annie Norris is the ship's commander. To sustain the crew, their minds were routinely kept active while asleep using virtual reality "neural stimulation" programs of their own choosing, but Sam's choice of a scenario where he was a police officer circa 2008 was abruptly changed to a 1973 setting by a meteor-storm induced glitch in the computer. This conclusion is markedly different from the conclusion of the
original UK series, but is still left ambiguous as the first step on Mars depicts Gene Hunt's signature shoe stepping into the sand.
In a twist, Gene Hunt in 1973 turns out to be astronaut '
Major Tom' Tyler - Sam's father - in the conclusion. Just as Maria was estranged from Gene in 1973, Sam was estranged from his father until the very end of the series, when he reconciles with his dad before they step out onto the bare ground of the Red Planet.