“Mark [Harmon] said to us, ‘I didn’t know you guys were doing that, and there was no greater way to honor David [McCallum] than to put his music [in], because David felt so passionate about his music,’” NCIS: Origins executive producer David J. North says of the upcoming tribute to the late actor with Adam Campbell reprising his role as the younger version. Adds EP Gina Lucita Monreal, “There’s three songs that he performed and he was very proud of his music, and we are so proud to put it in the episode and you’ll see, it just fits so beautifully within what we were doing in the episode.”
The episode, titled “The Edge,” after one of McCallum’s songs (which will be featured in the episode), airs on Tuesday, October 28. In it, Campbell’s Ducky comes as a liaison from D.C. headquarters — he and Gibbs have met before, in 1980 (NCIS Season 18 Episode 2, “Everything Starts Somewhere”) — to evaluate whether Pendleton needs an in-house medical examiner, but is that the only reason for his visit? We’ll have to wait and see.
“You see the connection that Gibbs and Ducky shared and Mark and David McCallum shared through Austin [Stowell] and Adam Campbell’s portrayal of young Ducky,” North tells TV Insider. “Gina and I were just in the sound studio with Mark Harmon doing his narration for that episode and seeing the emotion that Mark has towards David, and Mark is a huge fan of Adam who plays young Ducky, as was David McCallum. So, we’re really excited. It’s going to be a really special episode.”
Adds Monreal, “We’ll see both Gibbs and Ducky realize something about themselves that we know to be true about their characters in the future.”
There are “quite a few” Easter eggs in that episode, teases North.
“We used David’s hat — the hat that David used as Ducky, Adam has on in the show,” reveals Monreal. (You can see it in the photo up top.) “I believe his bag, too, and then it was just so special to go shoot in autopsy, where the mothership plays autopsy, where David McCallum spent years.”
Explains North, “It was his stage for 20 years and to be up there, that felt wonderful, and it’s really beautiful scenes that we did there. In those scenes, we will learn something pivotal about Ducky’s character. Everything will suddenly make sense for people of something pivotal about him.”
This will be Stowell’s first episode working with Campbell; the actor played young Ducky in four NCIS episodes, and on the mothership, young Gibbs was played by Sean Harmon (who is an exec producer on Origins). “Ducky is undeniably charming, able to win over the grumpiest of grumps,” notes Stowell.
He shares that when he first signed on to play Gibbs in the prequel, he began binging all the episodes and would be folding laundry while watching. But when McCallum was onscreen, he would stop what he was doing. “I couldn’t help but fall in love with David McCallum’s version of the character. It felt cozy and comfortable,” he explains. “There was just something so alluring about him. And Adam, it is so easy to see why he was cast, that he’s an incredible actor and he has that same magic. I almost want to call it like a Disney style comfort, that Pixar level comfort. There’s a reason that we all love those movies, and there’s a reason why we all love Ducky, and there’s a reason that Gibbs is so connected to him and why their bond is so strong.”
For Gibbs, it’s easier to talk to someone not at NIS. After all, they’re not coworkers just yet. “He’s able to share parts of himself that he guards with other people,” Stowell tells us.
Adam Campbell as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard — ‘NCIS: Origins’ Season 2 Episode 3
Greg Gayne/CBS
It sounds like that same quality is going to strike a chord with Lala (Mariel Molino), who survived a horrific car accident and just returned to work in the NCIS: Origins Season 2 premiere. As the star points out, it’s sometimes easier to talk to strangers than it is someone who knows you — especially with things tense between Lala and Gibbs after their moment in the pool in the finale and the fact that he’s now dating Diane (Kathleen Kenny).
“Oh, I loved getting to do scenes with young Ducky. That was really special. Adam is an incredible actor and he’s so present and so generous,” raves Molino. “It’s completely different to any other dynamic she has with anyone else on the show. She actually feels a sense of comfort with him and that she can trust him in a way that I can’t really describe, but there’s something about him not being a permanent member of the team that gives Lala a good amount of confidence in sharing with him things that she’s not ready to share with the rest of the team, specifically when it comes to the accident and some of the stuff that has happened to her.”
She adds, “There is a sense of connection and just humanity that I think these characters share.”
What are you hoping to see from the tribute to David McCallum and Adam Campbell reprising his role as young Ducky? Let us know in the comments section below.
NCIS: Origins, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS
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