NCIS star explains how David McCallum death changed show

NCIS Season 21 Spoilers Ahead**

The death of NCIS star David McCallum at age 90 has profoundly impacted the direction of Season 21. McCallum, who played the beloved character Ducky, passed away while planning for the new season was still underway. In response, the producers decided to create a special episode to write out Ducky’s character and pay tribute to McCallum’s significant influence on the show.

Brian Dietzen, who plays Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jimmy Palmer, co-wrote the episode titled “The Stories We Leave Behind” with Scott Williams. This emotional episode sees the NCIS team grappling with Ducky’s death while working on one of his unsolved cases involving a dishonorably discharged Marine.

Dietzen explained to TVLine that he hadn’t initially planned to write for the shortened Season 21 due to the WGA and SAG strikes, stating, “Before David passed, we had that work stoppage with the WGA and SAG strikes, so I had said to Steven Binder and David North, our showrunners, ‘I don’t need to write this year,’ because we only have 10 episodes. I didn’t want to insert myself. But then when David passed away, Scott Williams, my co-writer, volunteered to do this episode and he said to me, ‘I thought it was only right that you co-write with me.’ And then everybody in the room said, ‘Yeah, that’s perfect. That’s what should happen.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely, I’d be honored to.’”

The episode will focus on Jimmy’s reaction to Ducky’s death, revealing that it was Jimmy who found Ducky. “Since Jimmy worked so closely with Ducky for a couple decades, it made sense that a lot of the story would be retold through his eyes and his memories,” Dietzen said. The episode aims to honor Ducky’s relationship with the entire NCIS team, past and present, including Parker, Knight, Torres, McGee, and Kasie, as well as previous team members.

This special tribute episode, “The Stories We Leave Behind,” will air Monday, February 19.