NCIS

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Name: NCIS
Abbreviation(s): NCIS
Creator: Don McGill and Donald Bellisario
Date(s): September 23, 2003 – present
Medium: television
Country of Origin: United States
External Links: IMDb

Tv.com

Official website
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

NCIS is a procedural crime drama following a fictional team of special agents in the (real) Naval Criminal Investigative Service, dealing with US Navy and Marines personnel. It is a spin-off of JAG.

It has two spin-offs:

Canon

The original team consisted of field agents Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo, Caitlin "Kate" Todd, and Timothy McGee, as well as medical examiner Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, and forensic scientist Abby Sciuto. After the death of Caitlin Todd, Ziva David joined the team. Seasons 3-5 featured NCIS Director Jenny Shepard, who was replaced by Director Leon Vance in season 6. Eleanor "Ellie" Bishop, a NSA Analyst, joined the cast in Season 11, replacing Ziva when she left and Ellie became a Probationary Special Agent. One of the strengths of the show is that its popularity appears to be able to weather major changes in the makeup of the team and their associates, although it is widely believed that it would not survive the departure of Gibbs; DiNozzo was expected to take his place eventually but is no longer part of the team since Season 13, and there is currently (2021) no obviously strong contender for the leading role.

the character of Ducky, artist is Kate Nuernberg

Fandom

See also: Timeline of NCIS Fandom

The fandom is small and fairly quiet (somewhat like how the show has great ratings, yet rarely gets press or Emmy nominations). The most common slash pairing is Gibbs/DiNozzo, followed by DiNozzo/McGee and Ducky/Gibbs, but there are f/f, het and gen stories as well. While the show has implied attraction between Tony and Ziva, much of the fanfic does not play on this subtext, and some fans are actively opposed to it.[1] A lot because the character Ziva was introduced at a critical moment in the plot - after Kate's death by Ari who knew Ziva - and her role as a double agent for the Mossad. The tensions between Tony and Ziva are palpable and many fans are uncomfortable with the show leading to this heartbreak becoming a romance.

The single biggest canon plot point, or (strange attractor) to inspire fiction is the death of Kate Todd in the last moments of the season two finale (episode 2.23 "Twilight). Another common story type are prequels, showing how individual characters met before the beginning of the show.[2] Hurt/comfort is a common theme, especially in gen fic, with Tony vying with McGee for status as most-whumped character.

For non-canon plot points, BDSM and other kinks have a significant following in the fandom, possibly due to the fact that Gibbs whacks his team in the back of the head a lot, asserting a strong corrective appearance, and Abby canonically wears a dog collar and fetish gear to work. In addition, Kate, Abby, and Ziva make comments in canon implying at least occasional interest in other women.[3]

Crossovers

Fandom crosses over all of the different procedurals shows, and while crossovers within the CSIs are more common, NCIS does get crossed with them, as well as with such shows as Criminal Minds and Bones, more often than it does with other shows with larger fandoms. Maybe because there are Marines in SG1, SGA and Hawaii 5-0, crossovers with the Stargate universe are fairly common; Supernatural/NCIS fic is also fairly popular.[4] West Wing crossovers often draw on Mark Harmon's role as Agent Simon Donovan and that character's death. The canon pre-series murder of Gibbs' first wife Shannon and daughter Kelly is sometimes used as a springboard for fix-it plots (especially adoption fics), in which one or both escaped death and became characters in another fandom.

Because Ducky is played by David McCallum, once upon a time known as the original fangirl bait Illya Kuryakin on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., NCIS is often crossed over or melded with MUNCLE. Ducky is also on occasion slashed with Albert Stroller from Hustle (a character played by Robert Vaughn, who was Illya's partner on MUNCLE), and some crossovers blend the characters from all three series.[5]

Controversies

Ziva Bashing

Ziva is frequently the object of character bashing[6], and sometimes called a Mary Sue[7] [8]. Ziva bashing came about at first because fans resented her taking Kate's place, but increased due to the exaggerated violent and arrogant nature of the character. The Ziva Bashing trend has grown even wider and stronger in recent years do to the character being written as having betrayed and lied to the team, and assaulting Tony. In addition to her role as an agent at the behest of the Mossad, obeying her father who was the director of the institution.

Misogyny

NCIS is notorious for "fridging," killing off strong female protagonists,[9] especially if they have had any relationship with the male leads. Gibbs has been in relationships with at least six murdered women (beginning with his first wife and daughter pre-series), other examples include Caitlin "Kate" Todd, Jenny Shepard (NCIS Director and one of Gibbs' former lovers), Michelle Lee, Jackie Vance, and many others. By comparison the only recurring male characters to have been murdered are Mike Franks, Eli David and Ned Dorneget, all secondary characters appearing infrequently. The show also featured an implausible number of female serial killers in early series, though this is now less common.

Fanzines

See the category of NCIS Zines for more.

Gen & Het

Slash

Archives & Fannish links

Recs/Lists

Livejournal Communities

Pairings:

See the newbieguide has a list of all NCIS livejournal communities as of 11/25/08

Resources

References

  1. ^ The livejournal community no_tiva is self-described as "A place where members would rather see NCIS without the pairing of Tony and Ziva – better known as TIVA." (Accessed 12 Nov 2009) They have recently moved to create the more generalized community ncisnorom (Accessed 5 May, 2012), advocating no canon relationships, period, not just 'Tiva'.
  2. ^ The best-known of these is probably Sequitur's Rictus[1], an angsty gen case-fic recounting how Tony met Gibbs. (Accessed 12 Nov 2009)
  3. ^ In 3x04 "Silver War", Ziva owns her own copy of G.S.M., a Playboy-style men's magazine, and comments to Tony, "I especially like the article on page fifty-seven. In my experience, it works every time."
  4. ^ Fanfiction.net NCIS crossovers show 20 Supernatural crossovers, and 27 SG-1 or SGA crossovers, as of 12 Nov 2009.
  5. ^ Such as in Evan Nicholas's Gibbs/Ducky story "Contrapositive". (Accessed 12 Nov 2009)
  6. ^ A little consideration on 6x08 "Cloak"
  7. ^ You Made Me Hate You (I Didn’t Want To Do It) Accessed November 19, 2008
  8. ^ Kate vs. Ziva Accessed November 19, 2008
  9. ^ [http://theoutfitcollective.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/women-of-ncis.html Women of NCIS by Sara Paretsky (2009, accessed 16th June 2016)
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