Overview
- NCIS: Origins aired its Oct. 28 installment on CBS featuring Adam Campbell reprising Donald “Ducky” Mallard opposite Austin Stowell’s young Gibbs.
- Ducky arrives from the Washington, D.C., office as an assistant medical examiner to assess whether the Camp Pendleton team needs an in-house ME.
- The episode is framed as an on-screen tribute to David McCallum, who portrayed Ducky on NCIS for two decades until his death in 2023.
- Fans are promised franchise nods and backstory reveals, including an origin for Ducky’s habit of speaking to bodies during autopsies.
- This marks Campbell’s first appearance in the Origins prequel and his fifth turn as young Ducky overall, and he says carrying the role now holds added weight, reflecting advice McCallum gave him to find his own version of the character.