‘NCIS Team Excited’: Brian Dietzen Teases Farewell Episode For Duck (David McCallum)

February 19, 2024 will undoubtedly remain an important date for all American fans of NCIS: Special Investigations. In fact, this evening, the second episode of the 21st season of the hit detective series airs in the United States on CBS, which is nothing but a tribute to the character of Duck and also to his translator, David McCallum. He died on September 25.

“We talked about what we wanted to do, and we wanted to stay in the spirit of NCIS — it wasn’t about showing the best collection of Duck’s best moments.”Recently, showrunners Steven D. Binder and David North.

That’s why, after the opening scene where Jimmy (Brian Dietzen) discovers Duck’s lifeless body in his house (a sequence of which you can discover a taste of the teaser above), the heroes of NCIS will try to solve the problem. A cold case that their comrade and friend was working on. Was it all helped by the spirit of a deceased NCIS forensic pathologist and historian?

We wanted to investigate and told ourselves we had to find a way to connect this case to the loss of a beloved and valued colleague.Brian Dietzen, Jimmy Palmer’s translator, who also co-wrote this pivotal Season 21 episode, explained to TVLine. “We’ve finally developed this concept that when life ends, it’s the stories we leave behind that matter.”.

But what form will this powerful tribute to Duke take? And can we hope to see some familiar faces from the series again for this occasion, like Gibbs (Mark Harmon) or DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly)? Brian Dietzen made a few revelations about this episode, which promises to be unmissable for any self-respecting fan.

Are all the NCIS alumni coming back to say goodbye to Duck?

When the task of writing this special episode of NCIS fell to screenwriter Scott Williams, with whom he wrote two episodes during seasons 19 and 20, Brian Dietzen didn’t hesitate long before joining him on this new story. to pay tribute to him to whom he had answered for twenty years.

And while this upcoming episode of NCIS will clearly focus on the impact that Ducky might have had on Jimmy or McGee (Sean Murray), who have been portrayed as him since the first season, the two screenwriters wanted the story to be seen by American viewers tonight. The special bond that existed between Duck and the entire NCIS team. in the broadest sense of the term.

“It was important to show how affected and upset the team was by Duck’s death.”Brian Dietzen explains. “We had to honor Dak’s relationship with the entire team. Not just the current team of Parker, Knight, Torres, McGee and Casey, but the teams that came before. We wanted to make sure that some of the memories and some of the people McGee held dear are represented.”.

Soon there was a question from the channel about the return of former iconic actors. But as Jimmy’s interpreter confirms to TVLine, that just wasn’t possible.

“We were in a situation where every possible and imaginable idea was proposed to us”Brian Dietzen admits. “Like, ‘Can we get all the actors from NCIS history and spin-offs together on the same scene?’ Logistically, unfortunately, this is not possible. Therefore, we tried to touch on another. agencies across the country, but also evidence of admiration and respect from former members. Be it with gifts sent by the heroes as tokens of love”.

In short, you see, barring some last-minute surprises, Mark Harmon, who left the adventure early in Season 19, won’t be reprising his role as Gibbs for the duration of this Duck tribute episode. But it would still be surprising if Gibbs wasn’t mentioned in one way or another.

Cut to just 10 episodes due to the strike that affected Hollywood last year, season 21 of NCIS does not yet have a French broadcast date on M6.