LO1 Task 4 Compare and Contrast Eastenders and Doctor Who

Task 4

Compare & Contrast - Eastenders and Doctor Who

Eastenders is a realist drama which has been on TV for many years also it uses a single camera in the production. It is a drama where it based on real life situations that people may go through. On the other hand, Doctor Who is an anti-realist drama which has a narrative of going into space, meeting aliens and time traveling.

Eastenders is based in East London and is a sequential drama, meaning that the drama is filmed in chronological order, making the drama flow. There are some aspects of Props Theory in Eastenders at times; this is because that there is a hero, villain and damsel in distress. However, it depends on what the storyline is about. The storyline of Eastenders is not consistent as it changes all the time. However, there will be one main story line that the narrative will be based on and the others will be substituted but as the characters clips change the story will change too. The drama, Eastenders, has both aspects of subjective and objective narrative. I know that it is subjective because the audience know what is happening during the episode. For example, the character 'Michael Moon' portrays to the audience what he is going through and how he is feeling in his situation. However Eastenders is objective too meaning that the audience does not know what is happening. Eastenders is a restricted drama where the audience can see what the character is going through and have sympathy for the character.

On the other hand, the drama 'Doctor who' is an anti-realist drama, meaning that the narrative, and everything that is involved in the drama, is fake. In each episode it consists of meeting aliens traveling through time and travelling in outer space. But in Doctor Who there are some aspects of Realism, such as the love story between Rory and Amy Pond. This drama involves the Props Theory as it has the involvement of a hero which is Doctor Who, a damsel in distress which is Oswin and villains which are the Darleks. Also to support The Props Theory, it also has Todorovs Theory meaning that everything is all well at the beginning, where Amy and Rory agreed to have divorce; living a normal life, and then it changes by the doctor becoming captured and taken by a prisoner by the Darleks. It is then resolved by the Doctor being the hero and fixing the problem.  There characters are shown one at a time in order for the episode to link together. However, Doctor Who is a non-linear drama because it involves flashback. For example, at the beginning of this episode it shows that doctor who is defeated and then it flashes back to the main plot of the story and where it began. It is a restricted drama where the audience doesn't know what has happens next.

In conclusion both Easterners and Doctor Who have similarities such as both of them use a single camera to do all the production and both dramas consist of being restricted. However, the differences are that Eastenders is based around the realism and real life problem whereas doctor who is a Fictional narrative which is anti-realist.