NCIS

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Name: NCIS
Abbreviation(s):
Creator: Don McGill and Donald Bellisario
Date(s): September 23, 2003 – present
Medium: Television
Country of Origin: USA
External Links: at IMDb
at Wikipedia (tv series)
at Wikipedia (franchise)
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. Originally a spin-off of JAG, it premiered in 2003 and is on its twentieth season as of 2022–23.

It has four spin-offs of its own: NCIS: Los Angeles (2009–present), NCIS: New Orleans (2014–2021), NCIS: Hawaiʻi (2021–present), and NCIS: Sydney (announced for 2023).

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

Spin-offs

In season six, two-part episode number #ep135 led to a spin-off series, NCIS: Los Angeles. A two-part episode number #ep252 during the eleventh season led to a second spin-off series, NCIS: New Orleans. NCIS: Hawaiʻi premiered on April 15, 2021, with NCIS's nineteenth season.

A new spin-off called NCIS: Sydney was announced in February 2022, upcoming Australian police procedural television series. This being the fifth series in the franchise and the first to be set in a country other than the United States. It will debut on Paramount+ and Network 10 in Australia in 2023.[1][2]

Fandom

See also: Timeline of NCIS Fandom

At first glance, the fandom looks small and fairly quiet, but it is made up of loyal and devoted fans who keep communities, sites and forums active even after the departure of so many actors, characters and crew members.

Shipping and Common Tropes

The most common slash pairing is Gibbs/DiNozzo, followed by DiNozzo/McGee and Ducky/Gibbs. In recent years, Gibbs/McGee has seen sporadic growth, most likely due to the new dynamics between the characters following Michael Weatherly's departure from the show.

Het pairings and gen works are also popular. Although less common, there is also a fair amount of f/f content.

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,[note 1] much in part due to how the character relationship have been handled from their first iteration and in subsequent episodes. Ziva was introduced at a critical moment in the plot—after Kate's death by Ari who knew Ziva intimately—as well as his role as a double agent in the service of the Mossad. The tensions between Tony and Ziva are palpable, even physically and many fans are very uncomfortable with the show leading to this 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.[note 2] Hurt/comfort is a common theme, especially in gen fic, with Tony vying with McGee for status as most-whumped character. Following the same theme of competition for status, there are works where Tony and McGee vie for Gibbs' attention in the professional and sometimes sexual sphere.

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 others fetish gear to work. In addition, Kate, Abby, and Ziva make comments in canon implying at least occasional interest in other women.[note 3]

Crossovers

Fandom crosses over all of the different crime procedural shows, including NCIS with Criminal Minds, CSI, Bones, and Hawaii 5-0. Crossovers with the Stargate universe are also fairly common, possibly due to the connection with the military (as SG1 and SGA feature Marines). Other contemporaneous large fandoms are also a target of crossovers, notably Supernatural and Harry Potter.[3]

Of the series in the NCIS universe, NCIS: Los Angeles most commonly appears alongside the original. Crossovers with JAG, its progenitor, are relatively uncommon.

Shared actors is also a popular factor for crossovers or fusions. For example, Michael Weatherly appears in Dark Angel and Bull.

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.

David McCallum was once upon a time known as the original fangirl bait Illya Kuryakin on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., so crossovers or fusions in this universe are not uncommon. Ducky is on occasion slashed with Albert Stroller from Hustle (a character played by Robert Vaughn, who was Illya's partner Napoleon Solo on MUNCLE), and some crossovers blend the characters from all three series.[4]

Controversies

Ziva Bashing

Ziva is frequently the object of character bashing[5], and sometimes called a Mary Sue.[6][7] 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,[8] 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, Communities & Resources

See Timeline of NCIS Fandom for more infos.

Archives

Recs/Lists

LiveJournal Communities

Pairings:

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

Resources

Notes & References

Notes

  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."

References

  1. ^ NCIS to film Sydney spin-off for Paramount+ and Network 10 for 2023 release date ABC News (Australia) 16 February 2022
  2. ^ NCIS is coming to Sydney as the police drama's first international spin-off The Guardian 16 February 2022
  3. ^ On FanFiction.Net, as of March 27, 2010, the top NCIS crossover fandoms were Bones (53), Harry Potter (41), and Criminal Minds (34), with 30 Supernatural, 18 SG-1 and 16 SGA crossovers. As of November 25, 2022, the top are Criminal Minds (256), Harry Potter (244), Supernatural (202). On AO3, the most common are Criminal Minds (US TV) (508), Supernatural (TV 2005) (325), and Stargate SG-1 (308) as of November 2022.
  4. ^ Such as in Evan Nicholas's Gibbs/Ducky story "Contrapositive": "ncis_slash: Fic: Contrapositive". 2007-04-25. Archived from the original on 2012-11-28.
  5. ^ "Gibbs/DiNozzo Shippers Unite! - A little consideration on 6x08 "Cloak"". 2008-11-19. Archived from the original on 2012-11-30.
  6. ^ "You Made Me Hate You (I Didn't Want To Do It) The Hathor Legacy". 2006-02-10. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
  7. ^ "Kate vs. Ziva - NCIS". 2008-12-07. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
  8. ^ "The Outfit: A Collective of Chicago Crime Writers: Women of NCIS". 2009-08-30. Archived from the original on 2022-04-20.
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