Farewell, Ducky: Which NCIS Vets Should Return for Inevitable Tribute to David McCallum?
How can NCIS Season 21 best pay tribute to original cast member David McCallum, who died on Monday at age 90?
McCallum played chief medical examiner-turned-NCIS Historian Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard for all 20 seasons, most recently appearing (remotely) in the final two episodes of Season 20 last spring. He had been the show’s last remaining original cast member following the exit of series lead Mark Harmon early in Season 19. (Sean Murray in Season 1 only recurred as McGee.)
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“For over 20 years, David McCallum endeared himself to audiences around the world playing the wise, quirky, and sometimes enigmatic, Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard,” NCIS executive producers Steven D. Binder and David North said in a statement. “But as much as his fans may have loved him, those who worked side by side with David loved him that much more …. From Day 1, it was an honor to work with him and he never let us down. He was, quite simply, a legend.”
The character of Ducky as of late was largely off-screen, ostensibly on a globe-trotting book tour; his most recent video consultation was delivered from a stop in Edinburgh. So on the one hand, the NCIS writers may decide to emulate what, say, Call Me Kat did for the late Leslie Jordan and simply have Ducky continue to live an idyllic off-camera existence.
Or, the well-watched CBS drama might choose to better honor McCallum — whose acting legacy spanned nearly 70 years and also included memorable roles on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Sapphire & Steel and other TV shows — by giving the longtime NCIS team member an emotional sendoff of his own.
If NCIS takes the latter, sadder route, which faces from the show’s past do you think should be on hand to pay the good doctor their last respects? We have a few suggestions, followed by a poll where you can express your own wishes….
Mark Harmon as Gibbs
LAST APPEARED: Gibbs was tooling around in his newly finished boat when it shockingly went “boom” in the Season 18 finale. In the fourth episode of Season 19 — after Gibbs, McGee et al solved the case of a contract killer hired by a conglomerate to clear the way for an environment-poisoning copper mine — “boss” decided to stay put in “the middle of nowhere,” in Alaska, where the multi-episode arc had led him.
CHARACTER STATUS: As EP Steven Binder told TVLine a year ago, “There’s this feeling among the writing staff — and I share it — that we left [Gibbs] sort of nowhere but also everywhere. Like, when I think of Gibbs, I don’t think of him living in an apartment in Alaska. Instead, I imagine he’s sort of melted into pixie dust and is floating around in the sky until he is called back to duty.”
What better “call to duty” than to pay D.C. a quick visit to say a proper farewell to longtime friend and esteemed colleague “Duck”?
Michael Weatherly as Tony
LAST APPEARED: Original cast member Weatherly’s run ended with the Season 13 finale, after Tony learned that longtime romantic interest Ziva David had years earlier — prior to her “death” — given birth to their daughter, Tali. Weatherly has often teased some sort of NCIS encore (sometimes even a “Tiva” two-fer), but even in the wake of Bull‘s cancellation, that has not yet come to fruition.
CHARACTER STATUS: As detailed in the “Ziva” recap below, Tony and Tali presumably enjoyed a reunion with Ziva sometime in late Season 17. Since both former NCIS agents really should be on hand for any Ducky remembrance, the series could deliver some overdue fan service along the way.
Pauley Perrette as Abby
LAST APPEARED: Original cast member Perrette’s NCIS run ended after 15 seasons, in May 2018.
CHARACTER STATUS: After Clayton Revees fatally took a bullet for her during a seemingly random (but not) street mugging, Abby committed herself to following in the MI6 agent’s footsteps by shepherding a charity for homeless women. She then accompanied Reeves’ body back to his London home, before embarking on this new chapter in her life. Abby, like Ducky, was all about the science, so it’d be odd to not hear from her, in some way, in any sendoff episode. (She just might not share a scene with Gibbs.)
Cote de Pablo as Ziva
LAST APPEARED: After exiting NCIS at the start of Season 11 (ending an eight-season run), de Pablo’s enigmatic Ziva most unexpectedly resurfaced in the Season 16 finale, then recurred in a handful of Season 17 episodes.
CHARACTER STATUS: In de Pablo’s mid-Season 17 mini-arc, Gibbs helped Ziva with the “one thing” she needed to tend to before reuniting with Tony and their daughter Tali: making sure that Adam Eshel was OK. Once that was handled, Ziva told Gibbs that she had slipped word to Tony to get Tali into hiding, and that once he and Tali are safe and settled, she would reach out. So presumably the DiNozzo-Davids are reunited and well. But having one show up to honor Ducky without the other could be narratively clunky.
Emily Wickersham as Ellie
LAST APPEARED: In the Season 18 finale, “Rule 91” (as in the Gibbs rule, “When you walk away, don’t look back”)
CHARACTER STATUS: Special Agent Bishop famously — and abruptly! — dipped on romantic interest Nick Torres and the rest of NCIS at large in order to prep for a super-secret undercover op on behalf of Odette, a former CIA operative and Ziva David’s onetime cohort. While it’d be nice to somehow bring Ellie in “from the cold,” it might create more closure issues with Nick than any one guest spot can resolve.
Maria Bello as Dr. ‘Jack’ Sloane
LAST APPEARED: Bello’s swan song as forensic psychologist Jack Sloane aired in March 2021, ending a three-season run.
CHARACTER STATUS: Jack had hinted that she was leaving NCIS to retire to “Costa Rica”; instead, she stayed put in Afghanistan after a mission with Gibbs, to continue a friend’s work protecting young girls from abduction by the Taliban. Having been around for Ducky’s transition from Chief M.E. to NCIS Historian, it’d be fitting to hear from Jack again.
Adam Campbell as ‘Young Ducky’
LAST APPEARED: Campbell’s fourth turn as Young Donald Mallard, in flashbacks, aired early in Season 18.
CHARACTER STATUS: Alive and well… in the past. But what a sweet touch it could be to serve up even the briefest new flashback to bring the good doctor’s colorful story full circle.
Bob Newhart as Ducky’s mentor, Dr. Walter Magnus
LAST APPEARED: In the mid-Season 8 episode “Recruited” — the esteemed guest star’s only NCIS visit thus far.
CHARACTER STATUS: Out there in the world somewhere, though Newhart, now age 94, hasn’t acted on a TV series since an April 2020 episode of Young Sheldon.
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