ext_8965 ([identity profile] carolinecrane.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] crack_van2003-12-30 08:31 am

Without A Trace: An Overview

The Players:

Jack Malone

The boss. He's in charge of the NYC branch of the FBI's missing persons unit the show centers around. Considered a bit of a maverick by the FBI PTB, he's usually being carefully scrutinized by either his boss or the higher-ups at FBI headquarters. He has a bad habit of breaking the rules, but generally flies off the handle if any of his agents follow his example.

He's married (Marie) with two daughters, but had an affair with Samantha that apparently ended before the show began. He and his wife were estranged for awhile but they're trying to work things out now. He and Vivian are close and he considers her a friend.

Cases that affect him the most -- well, everything. He tends to take things personally.

Samantha Spade

Yes, that's really her name, and they make dumb jokes about it on the show from time to time. Her mother had a ridiculous amount of love for The Maltese Falcon, and she doesn't like it when people call her Sam (unless it's Jack). She had an affair with Jack that ended before the show began, but she's still a little bitter about it and she lets that show every once in awhile. She's from the midwest, but we don't know much more about her childhood. She was married briefly when she was eighteen, but it only lasted a couple months. She was shot at the end of season one, so in season two we get to see her deal with post-traumatic stress and OPR-ordered counseling.

Cases that affect her the most are ones involving young girls or young women trying to carve out an existence in the big city, or women whose careers are their whole life.

Vivian Johnson

Vivian rarely appears in fic, and when she does she generally serves as a Greek chorus of sorts. That seems to be her role on the show as well, however, so it follows. It's unfortunate she doesn't get more to do, because she's definitely the most well-adjusted character, and in my opinion, she kicks a serious amount of ass. She's very realistic about her place in the department and she doesn't take any shit. She's the first person to call Jack on his sometimes questionable behavior, and she's generally the voice of reason around the office.

vivian's got a son, Reggie, 13. I'm pretty sure she's married to his dad. Has she ever specifically mentioned a husband? I don't know.

The cases that affect her the most -- well, generally she's the most level-headed of the group. She was a little rattled when her son's idol, a boxer, went missing in season one, and then when Martin screwed up and got her investigated by the OPR in season two.

Danny Taylor

Danny was orphaned at the age of eleven, and grew up in Florida, either raised by relatives or within the foster care system. No one's really sure on that detail yet. He mentioned having older brothers in "Birthday Boy", but we don't know if he meant actual brothers or foster brothers. We know he's got a scar on his abdomen, most likely a bullet wound, from when he was growing up in Florida. He hasn't actually mentioned being in a gang, but he's mentioned the priest who helped him straighten out his life after he got busted for stealing booze when he was thirteen. He doesn't drink at all anymore. He changed his last name to give himself a fresh start, but we don't know what the name on his birth certificate is (although I suspect that this has more to do with the bad press the show got last year for having a Hispanic character with an Anglo name than it does with Danny's past).

Danny's the one with all the street cred, and the cases that affect him the most are the ones involving the immigrant community or kids without parents (or kids in the immigrant community).

Martin Fitzgerald

The son of the deputy director of the FBI, Martin's the greenest member of the unit. He joined Missing Persons in the premiere episode, and Danny in particular gave him a hard time because of his last name. He transferred from White Collar Crimes because he wanted to make a difference, which translated to some people as a lack of field experience. He screwed up pretty much right from the start, but he's since proven himself to the team. And he and Danny get along a lot better now too.

He spent most of season one trying to get out from under his father's shadow. When he wasn't doing that he was alternately arguing and flirting with Danny, and getting shot down by Sam. He was an Accounting major in college and he worked at a prison teaching accounting before he went to the Academy. He's the most straight-laced of the group, and the quickest to jump to conclusions based on ethnicity or financial status. Danny likes to remind him that he really doesn't know anything about what it's like to grow up in the hood.

Cases that affect him the most generally involve upper-class kids who don't get enough supervision.

Other Names That Might Come Up In Fic:

Victor Fitzgerald -- Martin's overbearing father. Deputy Director of the FBI, he spends a lot of time sticking his nose in Martin's business and generally making his son feel incompetent. Makes for great fic fodder in the right hands, of course. Nothing like a supporting player whose sole purpose is to heap angst onto one of the main characters.

Agent Paula Van Doren -- Jack's boss. We're led to believe in "Fallout" that she knows about Jack's affair with Sam.

Marie (sometimes Maria) Malone -- Jack's (sometimes estranged) wife. Too often crucified via fanfic for my tastes, but then I have issues with cheating so I'll just stop right there. They're trying to work out their marital problems, but it doesn't seem to be going all that well. There's some contention as to whether or not her name is Marie or Maria, but I believe it appears in the credits for "The Source" as Marie.

Kate and Hannah Malone -- Jack's daughters.

Chet Collins -- The father of a son who went missing pre-canon. He and Jack stayed in touch and eventually his son was recovered in season one's "Hang On to Me".

Graham Spaulding -- uber-creepy pedophile who got off on a technicality when Jack coerced a confession to save the life of one of his victims. He stalked Jack and eventually committed suicide in season two's "Copycat", after reinacting one of Jack's old cases and then attempting to murder his victim in the same way Jack's mother committed suicide. Jack's got issues, and he seems to attract the crazies.

Eric Keller -- A cop Sam went out with in "The Source".



The Show:

Without a Trace is one of many crime dramas set in NYC. It follows five FBI agents (see above) in the Missing Persons unit (which does not actually exist) as they search for the weekly missing person. The show lets us know more about the characters than its sister program (another Bruckheimer production) CSI, but character canon is sort of fluid and tends to change as it suits the writers from episode to episode. It can be frustrating for fic writers who try to work within canon, but the show's writers manage to keep at least the big things more or less consistent.

Most episodes tend to focus on one particular agent, showing how the case is affecting them individually. In that respect it's a decent ensemble format, although Jack takes center stage a little more often than I'd care for him to. This season seems to be the season of Sam and her Psychological Issues, but season one was more balanced, at least in my opinion.


The Train Wrecks Ships:

Sam/Jack

This is THE canon pairing. By 'the' I mean they've actually slept together, and as far as we can tell their whole relationship happened pre-canon. This means lots of sexual tension onscreen, and lots of fic wherein Jack leaves his wife for Samantha. It's a pretty popular ship considering it's canon.

Sam/Martin

This is the almost-canon pairing. Martin and Sam have flirted a little onscreen, but so far all they've done (that we know of) is have a drink after work when Sam was feeling particularly needy. Supposedly there was going to be a push for this relationship in canon in season two, but nothing's come of it yet. You kind of either love this pairing or hate it -- there's really no in-between. The Sam/Jack shippers hate it for the obvious reason, as do the Danny/Martin shippers. There are quite a few Sam/Martin shippers, though, so it evens out.

Danny/Martin

Far and away the most popular slash pairing, most likely because Danny and Martin have enough chemistry to bottle it and make a fortune. It doesn't hurt that they touch a lot onscreen, or that even their arguments involve massive invasions of personal space. It's pretty clear they want each other, even if neither of them ever admit it.

Sam/Danny

You don't see this pairing a lot, mostly because there's just not much evidence for it in canon. At least I imagine that's the reason why. Sam and Danny seem to have a friendly but not exactly close relationship. They tease each other, but they don't give off sexual tension vibes. Still, they'd make a beautiful couple.

Jack/Danny and Jack/Martin

Two more rarities, but they do exist. There's even one threesome fic out there somewhere. It doesn't make any sense to me since Jack is not only married, but had an affair with a female subordinate, which pretty clearly spells 'straight'. Added to that, he's made a few thinly veiled homophobic comments in the course of interrogations, which not only rankles, but leaves me with the impression that he's not thinking about jumping Danny or Martin any time soon. I imagine that's why there's not more Jack slash out there.

Vivian/Sam

I think there are one or two WAT femmeslash fics. Vivian's married in canon, though, so I don't really buy a femmeslash vibe. Still, sometimes you do what you can with the characters you're given.

Jack/Vivian

Never seen it, don't really want to. They're good friends, close enough for Vivian to call Jack on his bullshit often. There's no UST there, though. Also, Vivian's married, and Jack's got enough relationship problems as it is without having an affair with another coworker.



Just shut up and give me the fic already:

A couple general show-related links:

The show's official site
InFEDels Surveillance -- Eye Candy (i.e., screencaps galore)
Maple Street -- It's a message board, which is so not my thing, but you can find fic recs there
Anthology -- the place I go for episode transcripts

Unfortunately the only all-inclusive WAT fic archive has nothing on it at the moment. I didn't even know it existed until I started writing this overview, so that's a pretty good indication of how well it's been advertised. Maybe it's new? Not sure. Most people tend to archive their fic on individual sites, but there are a few archives where you can find fic of whatever variety you prefer.

Pretty FBI Boys -- a Danny/Martin archive
Without a Trace Fanfiction -- a het archive, mostly Sam/Jack
The Without a Trace section of ff.net -- Unfortunately, ff.net seems to be the place for most of the het fic within the fandom. This is the place to go for Sam/Martin.
WAT Fic for All -- archives slash, gen and het. There's really nothing there as of yet.
The WAT slash yahoo group
[livejournal.com profile] wat_slash -- The WAT slash LJ community.
[livejournal.com profile] wat100 -- The WAT 100 LJ community. Mostly het.
[livejournal.com profile] without_a_trace -- A no-fic LJ community for discussion about the show.

And then there are the individual author sites:

Probable Impossibilities -- Azar's het fic (Sam/Danny and some crossovers at the moment)
Helsinkibaby's WAT het fic -- you have to scroll down to midway through the page. Mostly Sam/Danny with a little Sam/Martin.
La Verre -- Tahlia's WAT het fic (mostly Sam/Jack).
The Thwarted Invasion -- Julian' Lee's WAT slash (scroll down to the bottom)
Perpetual Motion's WAT slash
Brenda Antrim's fic archive Brenda's got a few WAT slash fics
Entertain Me -- [livejournal.com profile] carleton97 has a few WAT slash fics
Neko's WAT fic -- slash and het
Alethia's WAT slash
Aithine and Veronica's WAT slash
And then there's my WAT slash


Obviously there's a slashy bent here. Most of the WAT het writers just don't seem to have individual sites, it's the weirdest thing. If you know of any I haven't listed here, by all means, let me know and I'll add a link. Or if I've left out some other glaring detail, let me know and I'll add that too.
aithine: (Enrique - sexy)

Good overview :)

[personal profile] aithine 2003-12-30 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
Only quibble I have is Danny was most likely ten when he was orphaned (parents killed in a car wreck) - he mentions in the season one ep Clare de Lune that he was the same age as Clare was when her mother died six years ago (ten) when his parents died.

Oh, and you might want to mention that the unit they work in (Missing Persons) is not a real FBI division. :)

Another decent info site: Missing Persons Unit Elite - ignore all the typos and misspellings (I get the impression that English is not the host's first language), it's a good source for episode transcripts typed up by a number of folks and the music on the show. (I don't use it for anything else, so I don't know how useful the rest of the information is on the site, sorry. *g*)

(And I am so totally with you about season one being more balanced than this season. If I have to hear more whiny, bitchy Sam or grumpy Jack, I'm going to start throwing things!)
aithine: (Dannys!)

Re: Good overview :)

[personal profile] aithine 2003-12-30 08:10 am (UTC)(link)
Snicker - I should never try to make comments when I've just woken up and should be getting ready for work! Eleven was what was stuck in my head, but then I talked myself out of it when I glanced through the beginning of the CdL script. Sheesh. ::rolls eyes:: *g*

And thanks for the link to Anthology - I'd lost that link, since when I visited the first time they only had one script for WAT. :)
aithine: (Enrique - sexy)

Re: Good overview :)

[personal profile] aithine 2003-12-30 08:12 am (UTC)(link)
LOL I knew what you meant. *g* (And it really is too early in the morning. Mornings should be illegal. *g*)

Although a ghost-Danny working for the FBI could be an entertainingly whacky parody. ;)

[identity profile] aimless-glee.livejournal.com 2003-12-30 09:36 am (UTC)(link)
I'm new to all things WaT so this reading is going to be really helpful.


(sam/jack, sam/martin? hmmmmm.)

[identity profile] alethialia.livejournal.com 2003-12-30 12:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Lovely overview. Even I didn't know a lot of this stuff. Granted, I tend to play in slash circles, but Jack/Viv? Okay...

Eric Keller -- A cop Sam went out with in "The Source".

Thank you! For the life of me, I can never remember this guy's name.

It doesn't hurt that they touch a lot onscreen, or that even their arguments involve massive invasions of personal space.

Or that they say each other's name way more often than is necessary, or that they prefer to call each other with new case info, or that they make up flirty nicknames and carry each other's bags...Okay, I'll stop.

Good overview, lots of nice information, and pretty pictures! I don't think I've seen those before. Are they new or am I just oblivious?

[identity profile] azarsuerte.livejournal.com 2003-12-30 12:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Most of the WAT het writers just don't seem to have individual sites, it's the weirdest thing. If you know of any I haven't listed here, by all means, let me know and I'll add a link.

I'm a WaT het writer and I have an individual site. *g*

Probable Impossibilities (http://azar.ink-and-quill.com/)

I'm in the process of converting the site to PHP or I'd give you the link directly to the WaT section. But it's easy to get to--just click on the picture of Danny. ;-)

So far I've written mostly Danny/Sam and Stargate crossovers (I get a huge kick out of the name parallels on the shows...will probably write a Profiler crossover or two someday for the same reasons *g*) but I'm open to Sam/Martin too so might start writing it. *shrug* Any slash pairings I still don't know about--I don't write much slash, but I can be persuaded to read it sometimes. ;-) I also have a BIG problem with infidelity and so the one thing I can guarantee you'll never see from me is Jack/Sam. Fic acknowledging that they had a relationship, yes, but never anything condoning or supporting it.

Hope that helps! :-)

[identity profile] twigged.livejournal.com 2003-12-30 12:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for doing such a good overview! I've never seen the show but it sounds interesting. If the fic inspires I'll have to check it out. :)

[identity profile] alethialia.livejournal.com 2003-12-30 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I get a huge kick out of the name parallels on the shows...will probably write a Profiler crossover or two someday for the same reasons *g*)

I've been saying this forever! Sam, Jack, Malone, etc. Even the team in WaT is organized like that in Profiler, with the same character roles and everything.

So, yeah. I'd read that. ;)

[identity profile] alethialia.livejournal.com 2003-12-30 05:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Hehehe. I promise not to tell on you. And I may have to go check those out. Ooh, fun iconage things might come out of it!

And, yeah, I wondered why you had such an ugly pic of Martin up. Stupid CBS. They make their hottest actor look the worst? Wtf? He looks so old. And I'm not even going to make stupid excuses for them because it's just not forgiveable, much like never putting the boys in the same scene.

Not. Bitter.

[identity profile] aimless-glee.livejournal.com 2003-12-30 05:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the heads up.

[identity profile] alethialia.livejournal.com 2003-12-30 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, I love pairings that make me so bitter I no longer want to write them. And then I do. I'm weak, I know.

Yay for new picture! But, eh, why do they always make him look stupid. CBS! Let him look hot for heaven's sake! He's a beautiful man! This is not a crime. In fact, it's probably a big part of the reason you hired him, yo.

Ah how they embitter the fans, let us count the ways...

[identity profile] planbee.livejournal.com 2004-01-01 12:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Great work Caroline. Even though I knew all of this it was still an entertaining read.

But why use the old picture of Eric Close? Of all the new CBS WaT pictures I think his came out best.

[identity profile] azarsuerte.livejournal.com 2004-01-02 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
Even the team in WaT is organized like that in Profiler, with the same character roles and everything.

Oh yeah! You can practically create a 1-1 correspondence between the characters!

Jack = Bailey
Sam = *snerk* Sam
Martin = John (even down to the not-getting-along-with-Daddy part)
Danny = Nathan (except he didn't disappear at the end of the season--thank heaven!)
Vivian = Grace

The only one missing is George. *g*

There are differences, of course. For instance, I was a *HUGE* Sam/Bailey fan and I don't 'ship Sam/Jack. Of course, that's largely because Bailey wasn't *still married* in the series, but also because there's not the same level of equality in S/J's relationship--IMO--as there was in S/B's.

I do find it ironic, though, that in all three of the fandoms I'm in where Sam/Jack is a possible pairing, I don't support it in *any* of them, and for totally different reasons! And in two of them, my primary 'ship of choice is Sam/Dan. *g* Deja vu all over again.

[identity profile] alethialia.livejournal.com 2004-01-02 01:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Dude, and they even have the 'main character changes his ethnic last name to leave his past behind' thing going on. The similarities really are a bit too obvious to ignore. Though, I would equate Danny more with John and I consider Martin an amalgam of both Nathan and George. Danny and John are the jokesters, the streetwise ones, neither have families (John basically disowned his father and Danny's an orphan), both changed their names, both worked their way up to get where they are, both have a sport about which they're a bit obsessed (D: baseball, J: football), both are irreverent, go-against-the-grain kinda guys, they both have a special rapport with both the women on the team, etc, etc.

Martin's more difficult. He has the computer/general geekitude of George and that long-suffering, 'I'm so abused' attitude of Nathan (especially when it came to John, a relationship I think can be paralleled to the Danny/Martin one). But, on the other hand, we never really got to know Nathan very well--something I think was a crime--besides that he had Issues with his wife and he and John were very close. And, if you're a slasher like me, you can translate George being gay to Martin being gay. But that's only in my world. ;)

Heh. Amusingly enough, I was such a Sam/John girl. Man, SJR was it for me, so our two factions would have been warring throughout the series' run. Also amusingly, that would be a Sam/Danny pairing going by how I see the characters (or a Sam/Martin one by yours) and nope. That's not happening. Alternatively, I never could see the John/George slasher's perspective back then, so I suppose that might indicate the characters are more different than I think.

But still, the shows do have striking similarities that I maintain cannot be entirely coincidental. Hmm. And now I'm off to watch S1 DVDs.

The link for Pretty FBI Boys is broken

[identity profile] xueyie.livejournal.com 2007-12-20 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
The link should be http://www.dannyandmartin.com/instead.