Tracking Backstory in NCIS

DC is one big party right as we roll into Monday. Last night in Sterling (about 30 minutes from me), there was a big firework show. Today, people are braving the poor weather…still rain, and a messy rain for a rally at the Capitol Arena and peacocking for the inaugural balls. Snow is coming as the afternoon temperatures drop,

For all that everyone is complaining about the change of the inauguration to indoors…well, you have to be here. Washington DC will be 14 degrees tomorrow. That doesn’t include windchill, which is supposed to put it in the single digits. Brr!

(I’m about 15 minutes away from downtown. As odd it sounds, because of landscape, DC is lot colder than my area, which will be 25. I looked up my work location, and that’s 38…all on the same day, and within 20 miles).

After I wrote my post about backstory, I thought about doing one on NCIS. It has such amazing backstory about Gibbs and most of the other characters (the men are developed better than the women). So I picked an episode that was airing and monitored only for Gibbs backstory.

The episode: Ravenous, Season 3, Episode 13.

Dog tags are are found in bear scat in the Shenandoah National Forest (for the record, we do have bears in Shenandoah, but that area is more rugged. They likely shot it somewhere in California.).

When I first saw this storyline, I thought they weren’t going to do a lot of backstory. It wasn’t focused around a Gibbs backstory storyline.

I was wrong. This is all the backstory that got mentioned, and this is just Gibbs.

Sniper: Gibbs was a sniper when he was in the military. He follows a track through the woods, noting that the killer used sniper techniques (actually hunting techniques, but sniper is an incorrect conclusion his backstory would provide),
Gibbs’ Rules: Tony and Ziva discuss Rule 8. The Rules were mentioned in the first episode, and it’s until Season 6 that the viewer finds out the origin of the rules.
Gibbs’ Wives: Abby is very upset that Gibbs appears to have forgotten her birthday. She’s frosty, explaining contraception to Gibbs, and he says, “I had a few wives.” (I think at this point in the series, everyone still thinks there were three wives, not four).
Marine Corps: Gibbs was a gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps. A suspect in interrogation identifies Gibbs as having been in the Marines, because the suspect’s father was in the Marines. Later in the scene, the suspect calls Gibbs “Mr. Marine.” All this is opinion, since the suspect hadn’t liked the way his father treated him.
Sniper: Abby confronts Gibbs about forgetting her birthday. He tells he didn’t; he left her gift in her desk. But she’s been there all day and she never saw him. She looks, and yes, the gift is there. He sneaked past her. Gibbs sneaking up on people is used in nearly every episode (usually when someone doesn’t want him to overhear what they’re saying).
Sniper/Marine Corps: Gibbs uses his tracking skills to track a suspect through the woods. From other episodes, Gibbs does what the military calls “Land Navigation,” which uses the terrain to navigate.
Marine Corps: This one is probably a little more personal knowledge since I was in the military. After the ranger shoots the suspect, Gibbs barks out orders to his team. It’s a little bit louder than someone not in the military would speak, and it’s also more direct, also a Marine trait.
Marine Corps: Tony and McGee are carrying the injured suspect, and the ranger is walking with them. Suddenly the ranger attacks; he and Gibbs fight on the ground, down and dirty. Tony and McGee wrestle with dropping the injured man, but debate letting Gibbs handle it. Because it’s Marine thing. When I was in the military, we heard, “If a Marine can’t stir up trouble, there’s no trouble worth stirring up.”
Sniper: The ranger abandons his rifle with a scope and runs. Gibbs rolls over, grabs the rifle, sights, and shoots. He hits a running man in the backside.

What amazed me was how seamlessly this backstory was integrated into the main story. It was simply a natural part of the story. Each one, also, was a tag (a shortcut) to identify the character for the viewer.

Yet, many writers are taught to focus on plot as the big thing, and characters as a separate entity. They should both be tightly woven together so that if you tried to extract the character and his backstory, it would significantly diminish the story, or even break it.

When building the plot, think about how your character’s backstory relates to it. Weaving the backstory into the plot can make your story stand out.