What to do with Dr. Donald ‘Ducky’ Mallard’s office is the B-story in tonight’s episode of ‘NCIS.’
The tribute to David McCallum’s passing was the Feb. 19, 2024, episode “The Stories We Leave Behind,” which memorialized the last original NCIS cast member, who died on Sept. 25, 2023, of natural causes at age 90.
As a result of the multiple strikes that year, the memorial episode, putting both McCallum and chief medical examiner/NCIS Historian Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard to rest, had to be delayed.
“One of the things that was really important to us was to highlight not just his interactions with our current roster on NCIS but also to highlight his interactions with past members of the NCIS family as well, so it was nice to be able to highlight some of those classic scenes and format the story and form the story around those,” Brian Dietzen (Jimmy Palmer), who co-wrote the episode told Parade at that time.
In tonight’s “The Trouble with Hal” episode, tribute is paid to Ducky once again when there is some dispute over what should happen to his office, which has lain unused for a year.
“I want to turn Ducky’s office into a state-of-the-art gym,” Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) declares.
“We already have a gym,” Knight (Katrina Law) responds.
To which Torres says, “But that gym is barely a gym. It needs an upgrade. He has all those big windows and the high ceiling. I know exactly where to put the kettlebells.”
Torres is asking his co-workers to sign a petition that was requested by Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) to see what opinions the other staffers have on what should be done with the space.
McGee (Sean Murray) suggests that Jimmy Palmer might not like the idea, but Torres points out that Palmer works out, too.
“Yes, but he might also be too sentimental about Ducky’s office to want to change it to anything. Don’t you think, Jess?” McGee asks, putting Palmer’s ex-girlfriend on the spot.
“Uh, I don’t know. You should ask Jimmy,” she says.
But to everyone’s surprise, when Torres asks Palmer what he thinks about putting Ducky’s old office to a new use, Palmer thinks “it’s great.”
“I’m not sure how many people would actually use it, but Dr. Mallard wouldn’t want his office just sitting idle forever,” he says.