‘NCIS’ Pays Tribute to David McCallum: Ducky’s 11 Best Episodes
David McCallum, best known for his roles on NCIS and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., passed away in September 2023 at the age of 90.
And now, in Season 21, the show will be paying tribute to both the actor and the character he played since the introduction in the two JAG episodes, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. “When you lose someone very close, you can fall into just crying and mourning continually, and while we wanted to pay homage to him, we didn’t want that to be it,” Brian Dietzen, who plays Dr. Jimmy Palmer and co-wrote the February 19 episode with Scott Williams, tells TV Insider. “We wanted to celebrate the fun times as well, and we wanted to celebrate the amazing work that this great actor did on our show and also honor the character that he created. And I think both those people, the character and the actor, would love to see us continuing on and honoring him through continuing to do good work.”
In honor of McCallum and ahead of the tribute, below, we’ve compiled the best Ducky episodes of NCIS.
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"Bête Noire" (Season 1 Episode 16)
It’s the episode that introduced rogue Mossad officer and terrorist Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin), who would go on to deliver a devastating blow to the team by murdering Kate (Sasha Alexander). Here, he sneaks into autopsy in a body bag and takes Ducky and his assistant at the time, Gerald (Pancho Demmings), hostage, and yet, Ducky adapts to the situation and manages to maintain a semblance of control the best he can.
"Meat Puzzle" (Season 2 Episode 13)
Sure, the first thing that jumps out when we think about this episode are the body parts in barrels and Ducky and Palmer piecing them together, but we absolutely love going home with Ducky, especially because it means seeing his mother (Nina Foch) and her corgis.
"Broken Bird" (Season 6 Episode 13)
For all the stories that Ducky tells, it’s not too often that we hear about the more emotional moments from his past, but when a woman attacks him at a crime scene, claiming he killed his brother, he has no choice but to revisit that time. When he was with the Royal Army Medical Corps, he’d volunteered to work in a refugee camp. There was a man known as Mr. Pain, and Ducky tended to his torture victims. Once the team identifies Mr. Pain, he and Ducky come face-to-face after years and the truth comes out: Mr. Pain had been torturing Ducky, using the woman’s brother as a weapon to break him, and Ducky had ended his pain to keep him from suffering a slow, agonizing death at the other man’s hands.
"Phoenix" (Season 10 Episode 3)
There’s no way that Ducky’s just going to sit back and relax while recovering from a heart attack, and instead, he manages to find a case — he realizes that what didn’t sit right about an autopsy he performed from years ago is he didn’t have all the facts to determine the man was murdered — that, thanks to one of Gibbs’ (Mark Harmon) rules, puts him in charge. (Rule 38: Your case, you’re lead.) The best parts: Gibbs and Ducky’s conversation in the former’s basement and Ducky interrogating — using the suspect’s vital signs and with a bit of singing!
"Detour" (Season 10 Episode 16)
A trip back to NCIS with a body is anything but normal for Ducky and Palmer, who are kidnapped and forced to perform an autopsy in a cabin in the woods. But while the team is looking for them, they manage to MacGyver their way free… though they are being hunted through the woods when the others show up.
"So It Goes" (Season 12 Episode 3)
It’s the first episode in which we see Adam Campbell as a young Ducky (great casting!), with a case that initially has the doctor thinking an old friend of his is dead. (Sadly, Angus is found dead during the investigation.) Not only does the episode explore that personal part of Ducky’s past, it also reunites him with a lost love (and the reason for a falling out he had with Angus).
"Spinning Wheel" (Season 13 Episode 11)
Surprise: Ducky had a younger brother! (Even Gibbs didn’t know about Nicholas.) But it’s a heartbreaking tale, with the brothers being separated when they were younger (Nicholas was just a boy) and Ducky thinking the other was dead (then alive, then dead again). But there’s somewhat of a happy ending, with the two eventually reuniting (and Nicholas living in a nursing home with early on-set Alzheimer’s). It’s an episode that allows McCallum to shine.
"The Tie That Binds" (Season 14 Episode 10)
When Ducky’s old address is found on a victim, it leads to flashbacks of his younger self stumbling upon his mother hiding a man in a closet and then sending that man, who ran cons, away. The most notable scene has to be Ducky talking with his younger self in autopsy as he questioned that decision to send the man away and taking away his mom’s chance of love. (Later, he finds out that she did have a romance in her last years.)
"Everything Starts Somewhere" (Season 18 Episode 2)
For Episode 400, the CBS procedural delves deep into one of its core relationships and reveals how Gibbs and Ducky met. The case that brought them together links to the one in the (more) present-day storyline. It’s the perfect showcase of the characters’ bond, from its early days to what it’s become.
"Kompromat" & "Black Sky" (Season 20 Episodes 21 & 22)
Ducky might not be in these two episodes much (and it’s all over video, providing key intel for the case), but they’re worth watching for McCallum’s last onscreen appearances on NCIS. He’s in the middle of a 35-city lecture tour in Scotland, and he tells them of a scientist who changed his name to “something from an old television show,” Ivan Kuryakin (The Man From U.N.C.L.E. reference!) As McGee (Sean Murray) puts it, Ducky is “still the best.” Ducky’s response: “I do what I can.” And what that is is something no one else can do.
