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Some of the analyzed narratives have highly complex structures of super-signs: these narratives exhibit super-signs that have three or four levels of nestled super- signs, super-signs sharing signs in complex manners, and super-signs that are consistently and effectively used. These super-sign structures are so detailed and

complex that they are difficult to take in when represented as a static figure.48

When it comes to complexity both the Matrix franchise and the TV series Life on Mars stand out, and I will exemplify this with a few cases from the latter. The storytelling in Life on Mars signifies virtuality in an often self-reflective way, and the production crew has managed to create an intriguing fantasy world with a

minimum of spectacle and visual effects. The signs of virtuality in Life on Mars are almost completely reliant on non-visual signs related to characters, dialogue and events. The story of Life on Mars has a profound feeling of nostalgia and sadness. The modern day police officer Sam Tyler is hit by a car, and he wakes up in 1973, attired in periodic clothing and with a fresh employment at the local police force. Piece by piece he tries to puzzle together how he got there, where he is, if he is trapped in a coma dream or not, and how to get home. The storytellers never make it completely clear. What is clear is that the Manchester of -73 is an exaggerated caricature version of Manchester. Estranged from his more or less lunatic

48 _{With the mind map tool Mind42 I have created online representations of some of the most}

complex super-sign structures. These structures can be investigated interactively, see appendix 02 for URL addresses.

colleagues, Sam desperately tries to wake up from the enigmatic illusion. But his growing love interest for fellow officer Annie Cartwright and his growing taste for an illusion that is more alive and real than the actual, finally have him make the choice to stay in the illusion.

Media technology plays a central role in the narrative, and can be regarded as one of the top super-signs. The emphasis on [media technology] reminds us that just as the TV screen is an image, Sam’s world is just an illusion. This super-sign breaks down into several lower level super-signs, for example the [talking through the TV screen], [Test Card Girl character], and the [Open University Professor character]. The Open University Professor is an example of a super-sign that works on

different levels. The character connotes old-style television programs, and is

therefore one of many signs signifying that Sam is caught in a [different era]. Other signs that create the impression of a different era are the periodic clothing,

architecture, a pronounced lack of modern day technology, and irrational police procedures. All these super-signs coalesce into one of the top super-signs: the old- fashioned and apparently primitive time of 1973, deliberately contrasted with

modern day style, technology and rational police procedures. Media technology has other connotations as well in Life on Mars. The Open University Professor always talks to Sam via the TV screen, and Sam always wakes up afterwards as if it was all a dream. Here, communication technology denotes mediation and it connotes a lack of actuality, signifying that everything might be just illusions in Sam’s mind. Additionally, the Open University Professor occasionally talks about Sam as if he is Sam’s doctor, and he can never hear what Sam says back to him. This emphasizes that Sam might be in a coma, as well as his profound loneliness in this strange world of 1973. So, the [Open University Professor character] is a sub-sign in five different super-signs – [different era], [talking via TV screen], [dreaming], [coma], and [not belonging]. This illustrates how many of the signs and super-signs in a narrative are interconnected in complex, syntagmatic patterns. Other branches of the complex pattern of related signs include the two super-signs [different era] and [not belonging]. Sam Tyler’s loneliness in the foreign world and his conflicts with his police colleagues are persistent themes in the TV series. His loneliness is often accentuated in front of the TV screen; he eats his TV dinners in front of the screen, he sleeps in his clothes in an armchair in front of the screen, and he occasionally makes desperate attempts to have the mysterious characters of the TV screen (such as the Open University Professor) actually acknowledge him. It is an equally

recurrent theme that Sam is caught in a world that is in stark contrast to his actual world. He is amazed and aggravated over caricatured police brutality, police

sloppiness, sexual harassment, and so on. There are many examples of short dialogue that effectively holds several meanings. Often, one of the meanings is related to the in-diegetic situation, while it simultaneously can be interpreted as a self-reflective, non-diegetic comment. Late in the series, his boss Gene Hunt overhears when Sam records audio commentary about the outrageous police work

at the station.49 _{Hunt’s line – ”What are you; the narrator?” – both means that he}

has overheard Sam, and at the same time references the fictive status of both Sam’s illusionary world, and the BBC produced TV show itself. Another example is this

dialogue exchange.50

Gene Hunt: “How do you think I spend my time here Tyler?” Sam Tyler: “Building a Death Star?”

Gene Hunt: “By listening to the sound of the cogs in the machine going round and round all day, while your cog is out of synch with the rest of us since you rode in on your big Hyde horse”

The phrase “spend my time here” points out that the world they are in is not the real world, but a world within the world; the “here” is the place, the contained illusion, where Sam is caught. The phrase also reflects on whether the characters in this world are autonomous or not. Does Hunt actually do anything when Sam does not interact with him? Or does he, as with the proverbial tree falling in the forest, cease to exist when Sam is not present? Sam’s reference to the Death Star is both a reference to another fiction (the Star Wars saga) as well as to his out-of-time

situation,51 _{while Hunt’s final line both suggests that the world they inhabit is an}

artifact, an illusion upheld by stage machinery, and once again emphasizes Sam’s estrangement. In this manner, different kinds of signs support each other; a handful of simple representamen can be loaded with several interpretants, and a short dialogue exchange open up several connotations.

This is typical for how the dialogue in Life on Mars is highly self-reflective,

especially the many dialogues between Sam and Annie where they swap arguments about whether the world and its inhabitants – including Annie herself – are

illusions in Sam’s mind or not. One such example comes from the first episode.52

Annie Cartwright: “Where’re you going?”

Sam Tyler: “I can’t deal with this place. Look; somewhere out there, Maya needs me. My mind could only invent so much detail; you know, so I’m gonna walk until I can’t think up anymore faces or streets.

Annie Cartwright: “What will you find; a mist; a big cliff, white door?”

The idea of breaking down the illusion and of reaching the end of the world is used elsewhere, most notably in The Thirteenth Floor where characters literally drive until the road ends. As we will discuss later, #containment is a topology of virtuality, and the end of the world suggested in the dialogue above is a distinct way to signify this containment.

Life on Mars uses some super-signs that are somewhat spectacular, such as the characters that speak to Sam in his dreams, and the sudden black-outs enclosing him in darkness. But most of the signs and super-signs used in Life on Mars are

50 _{Season 2, episode 3, at 08:15.}

51 _{Star Wars had not premiered in 1973.} 52 _{At 41:20.}

incorporated as natural parts of the diegetic world, such as the dialogue examples above. The production design is another example, where the super-sign

[Manchester 1973] becomes heavily loaded with the interpretant that it might all be an illusion. One of the clearest signs of the era is Sam’s leather jacket which he is mysteriously outfitted with when waking up after his car accident, and which he almost never takes off. It is as if it is his second skin, an embodiment of his status in the illusionary world.