NARRATIVE

#narrative

Aim-A report on the narrative and characterization used in The Sarah Jane Adventures series three episode one.

In the episode Prisoner of the Judoon. The story begins with Sarah Jane and the group of children see a meteor spaceship hurdling towards earth and go and ask their super computer in the attic Mr Smith what it is. At this point we find out that we have been tracking the ship and intersected a distress signal from the Judoon jail ship. When they go to investigate the crash site of the life pod they find themselves in the middle of the Judoon trying to re-capture his prisoner Androvax. They follow they find the Judoon captain out cold on the floor knocked out by Androvax. When the group finally catch up with him they find out that he has possessed as a little girl and almost tricked Sarah Jane and Clyde. When they find out Androvax then posses as Sarah Jane and knocks out Clyde. When Luke and Rani and the Judoon captain catch up with clyde they find out he has possessed Sarah Jane and is trying to destroy the world. Clyde, Luke, Rani and the Judoon captain go back to the house to find that Androvax has instructed Mt Smith to explode on activation.

Narrative is a chain of events in a cause effect relationship. At the beginning of the episode Sarah, Luke, Clyde and Rani all see a ship plummeting towards earth. When is does Sarah Jane and the group go to investigate only to find out the alien has escaped from the ship after being captured for destroying worlds. When they figure out that he has possessed as a little girl it is to late and Sarah Jane is possessed as well. When the rest of the group find out that and the Judoon try to find her and go home to ask Mr Smith. Little did they know Mr Smith has been set to explode on activation and the episode ends with a cliff hanger. This is a good narrative because it is simple and easy to follow. This episode also consists of restricted narrative. We now this because we do not immediately find out that Androvax the escaped alien has possessed as the little girl. We also are not told that he has set Mr Smith to explode. The suspense and surprise of these events are all made successful by restricted narration.

In this particular episode of “The Sarah Jane Adventures” the character identification is subjective. This is because we only get access to what the characters see and do and not there memories dreams and mind. For example we don't know that Androvax is in the little girl but if we could hear her thoughts we would know this. In “The Sarah Jane Adventures” there is one obvious example of the objective narration and that is series four episode one because we are able to see what Luke is dreaming.

The Vladimir Propps theory suggested that there was a narrative spheres of action taken up by different characters. These roles are split in to ten different roles hero, victim hero, seeker hero, villian, donor, helper, princess, father, dispatcher and false hero. Not all television series or films don’t have every one of these characters, for example the main hero’s in “The Sarah Jane Adventures” are Luke and Sarah Jane Smith. Hero’s are normally the main characters that try to restore the equilibrium by going on a quest. Half way through the episode Sarah Jane becomes a victim hero when she is possessed by Androvax. The victim hero is the hero at the centre of the villains attention or plan. The villain of this episode of “The Sarah Jane Adventures is an alien called Androvax. This is because he is the one who first disrupted earth by escaping and throughout the episode tries to find out away to destroy earth and escape without being captured. There are two helpers in this episode and they are Rani Chandra and Clyde Langer and continue to be the helpers throughout the series. We know they are helper because they help Luke and Sarah Jane to try and save the world from Androvax. In this episode we also have a dispatcher and this role is portrayed by the Judoon and we know this because he sends the group to try and capture the escaped Androvax. All of these roles are made easy for the children to pick out because they are very clear and because of the simple storyline they can also tell by the actions of these characters which ones are which.

Tzvertan Todorov believed that there was a equilibrium a the outset. This is at the beginning of an episode when everything is normal and no large events have happened yet. In this episode the outset equilibrium is when Sarah Jane, Luke, Rani and Clyde are all at Sarah Jane’s chatting at the car and laughing as Sarah Jane goes to report on a story. However it could be argued that Sarah Jane’s investigating nano bots is normal because in a lot of the episodes. She investigates strange things. The second stage in Todorov’s theory is when an action or event disrupts the equilibrium. In this episode the disruption is the Judoon jail ship crashing into earth and into an old council estate building. This is successful because Sarah Jane and her group immediately go to check it out. The third stage is the recognition of the disruption. The recognition is achieved when they arrive at the crash site to find a crashed Judoon life pod. When they finally catch up with the Judoon captain they find out that the Judoons prisoner is in fact a destroyer of worlds. The forth stage is when they attempt to repair the problem. At this point in the storyline jumps back to stage three when Androvax posses as Sarah Jane and goes to Mr Smith to find out what to do to escape from and destroy earth. In Todorov's theory there is a fifth stage that states that the equilibrium is restored and the end of the episode but because the episode ends with a cliff hanger so the last stage does not apply. This is very successful in this episode because it makes the audience interested and want to continue watching.

Another narrative theory was discovered by Allan Cameron. He believed that there was a narrative structure called modular narrative. This theory consists of four sub-categories They are anachronistic which is flash forwards and flashbacks with neither one dominating. The second is forking path narrative which is when it is juxtaposed and shows alternate outcomes due to a single event change. The third is episodic which is when the film or series does not actually have a narrative like a series of short tales that are disconnected. The final is split screen narrative that is based on spatial rather than temporal lines and that show more than one thing at a time. The prisoner of the Judoon episode is anthology episodic narrative because it is part of a series in this case “The Sarah Jane adventures” series three that is played in order of number for example this episode is the first part of a two part story which is a good way to do a story on television because it keeps the audience coming back and it creates tension and excitement.

#narrative