For 20 years of NCIS, one friendship held up the whole building.
Gibbs had the gut. Ducky had the stories, the bow tie and a way of saying what Gibbs never would. Long before Abby, McGee or Tony, it was the two of them in autopsy, standing over a body and quietly working out the truth.
On Tuesday night, NCIS: Origins goes back to where that started.
A Marine, a beach and a familiar pair
The episode is called “Return of the Mack.” It airs Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 10 to 11 p.m. ET/PT on CBS, and it streams on Paramount+.
In 1992, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, played by Adam Campbell, helps the team investigate after a young Marine is found murdered on a beach with suspicious markings all over his body.
A strange body. A puzzle only a medical examiner can read. Gibbs at his shoulder.
Fans know that picture by heart.
The first time they work as a team
This is Campbell’s third episode of Origins. He first played young Ducky in flashbacks on the original series, and then in the 500th episode. Austin Stowell plays the young Gibbs opposite him.
Showrunner David J. North says this is the episode where the partnership truly starts to click.
“We have a really fun episode with him and Gibbs where you’re really starting to see how they work together as a team for the first time, and it’s a lot of fun really seeing how their relationship is evolving,” North told TV Insider.
He went further.
“I really think in an episode this season for the first time you’re seeing, wow, that’s how Mark Harmon’s Gibbs and David McCallum’s Ducky became who they were when we met them.”
The man who made Ducky unforgettable
David McCallum joined NCIS in 2003 as the bookish, eccentric pathologist with glasses and a bow tie. He took the part seriously too, spending time in the Los Angeles coroner’s office to learn how autopsies are done.
He died on Sept. 25, 2023, at age 90, surrounded by his family.
So every scene of young Ducky now carries a little extra weight. Campbell isn’t replacing anyone. He’s showing us the younger man McCallum spent two decades bringing to life.
Two reunions in one night
The same hour has a second big homecoming. In the present day, Mark Harmon‘s Gibbs walks back into NCIS headquarters to ask the new director, Tony DiNozzo, for help finding out who shot him. We covered that one in Gibbs and Tony’s reunion, ten years after “Copy that, boss”.
One storyline brings back the family Gibbs built. The other shows how it began, with a young doctor kneeling on the sand in 1992 and an agent who already trusted him.
Some friendships start with a handshake. This one started with a body on a beach.
