LO1 Task 4 - Compare and contrast Dr Who and Eastenders

 

East Enders

East Enders is a soap. It has a realist narrative because it shows real life characters with everyday problems, which the audience can relate to. It follows the lives of a group of characters who all live or work in a fictional area in the east end of London. The programme locations include a pub, garden allotment, a square, outdoor market, nightclub, boxing club and the characters homes.

The narrative is linear because it is structured and put together in a sequence, making the stories flow, however the endings are always open. East Enders has a combination of subjective and objective narratives. In subjective narrative, the audience knows what's happening and how the characters are really feeling. An example of this is Michael - the audience can see what he is going through and what he is feeling, quite clearly; it is not hidden away from the audience, making it subjective and unrestricted. Eastenders also includes objective and restricted narrative; in some parts of the programme, the audience does not know what's really going on and the story unfolds for the audience at the same time as the characters. There are four storylines happening at the same time, different characters are seen with their own stories. So when the scene changes, so does the narrative because it moves from one character’s story to another. East Enders uses Todorov's theory as well as Propp’s theory. There are more than one villian, hero, hero’s helper and damsel in distress

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a Scifi series, which is based in an anti-realist location and narrative. The narrative is both linear and non linear. It has one main storyline and one sub plot. In this episode the story starts off with a flashback sequence. Doctor Who uses the Propp’s theory; the doctor is the hero, the helper is Rory/ Amy, the villains are Daleks, the dispatcher is the prime minister and the damsel in distress is Oswin. Doctor Who is an anti-realist narrative, however there are realistic parts because the relationship between the characters is very human which helps the audience relate to the characters. Todorov’s theory is vey clear in the narrative. Equilibrium – everything is normal at the start; Disruption – the ship goes down; Recognition – the Doctor discovers a human trapped on the plant; Reparation – they attempt to rescue Oswin; Resolution – they rescue Oswin but discover that she is actually a Dalek – this is the new equilibrium. The narrative is objective and restricted from Oswin's viewpoint, because the audience is led to believe what she believes, which is that she is human. There is also a subjective narrative within the episode, when we see what Rory hallucinates. The narratives always have closed endings.