NCIS Overview
NCIS OVERVIEW
Season 3 Cast
The easiest way to describe NCIS is to tell you what it's not.
It's not a JAG spinoff, although it's made by the same powers-that-be and took over two episodes of that show.
It's not a pale imitation of CSI, despite the fact that there are procedural elements.
It's not a military show, even though it has the word "Naval" in the title.
It's not a cop show. But it sort of is, too.
It's not a drama.
It's not a comedy.
It's... kind of all of that. And a bit more, which makes it a hard sell, especially for fandom in general. As a matter of fact, it's taken nearly three seasons for the show to garner enough of a fanbase to register on most people's radar.
But it should.
No, wait. Hear me out. Even if you hate procedural, cop, and military shows, you should try a few episodes of this one. I know it looks like it's aimed at middle-of-the-road America, but it's really fun.
There's humor and hotness and headsmacking. Other stuff, too, but I'm telling you about the fun first.
NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service. It really is a branch of the US Military system... basically the police force for the US Navy and Marine Corps. It's a civilian agency, though, and that's important. NCIS' agents aren't soldiers or sailors, although they may have experience. They're more along the lines of FBI agents, only with a particular limitation.
NCIS headquarters is located in the Navy Yard, and there's always a good establishing exterior shot of the building in practically every episode. Most of the story takes place within, in the bullpen, the autopsy and forensics labs, MTAC, interrogation, and Gibbs' favorite conference room-the elevator. Gibbs' basement shows up with some regularity, as does McGee's apartment. Occasional forays will take place to the garage and directors' office, and location shoots take place in and around a surprisingly southern-California-like Washington, DC.
The show focuses on a team of agents, the Major Case Response Team, that responds to large-scale crimes.
The Characters
Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs
played by Mark Harmon
Gibbs (the second B is for Bastard) is an ex-Gunnery Sergeant with the Marines. He served two terms as a sniper, one in Panama and one in Desert Storm. Now he's an NCIS agent with a brilliant, if quirky, team and an unfinished boat in his basement. He has a weakness for redheads-he's married three-and his coffee intake rivals Abby's soda consumption.
He's pretty much completely out of touch with popular culture. He owns one TV and it's in his basement, along with the boat he's building by hand. How he's going to get the boat out of the basement is a subject of much debate, but the general consensus is that since he has to finish it first, it's never going to be a problem.
Impatient, brusque, and abrasive, he uses headslaps to keep his team in line and doesn't hesitate to say what he thinks. Often he'll trust his gut over what the evidence says; it's never proven him wrong yet. While his relationship with the current director (Jen Shepard) is a bit contentious, due to their personal history, even she admits that he's the best at what he does and trusts his gut as well.
Of his other team members, Gibbs has closer ties to Ducky and Abby than anyone else. He and Ducky are friends, going back a long time, and it's pretty obvious that Gibbs adores Abby. He brings her soda and presents, teases her about her music, and gives her affection he doesn't show anyone else. However, Gibbs is like a mama bear where his entire team is concerned and will do anything he can for them, if it's needed.
While NCIS is an ensemble show, Gibbs is the center of it. Fandom treats him much the same way.
Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo
played by Michael Weatherly
Tony (that's Y Not spelled backwards) is the senior field agent on Gibbs's team. He's a former athlete, both basketball and football, and was a Phys Ed major at Ohio State. He's worked as a cop in Peoria, Philadelphia, and most recently Baltimore, before coming to NCIS and joining Gibbs's team-which he did by virtue of his smile, if you believe him.
In some ways, Tony's the most complex character on the show. He comes from money, but his family cut him off when he was twelve. He has an appreciation for the finer things in life and can name couture labels and shoes at a glance; many of these find their way into his closet. He loves movies and has a film analogy for everything, a trait which often annoys his teammates. Tony's also an inveterate womanizer and goes through ladies like they're going out of style. On the down side, he can be obnoxious and juvenile-the eternal frat boy, with a sense of humor to match.
But while Tony can be more than a little annoying, he's also incredibly dedicated to his job in general and Gibbs in particular. Tony looks up to Gibbs with a devotion that borders on hero-worship. In Tony's eyes, Gibbs can do no wrong (aside from his personal life), and in many ways, Gibbs is who Tony wants to be on a professional level. Amusingly enough, Gibbs used to be a lot like Tony, according to Ducky.
Tony's one of the characters you either love or hate. There's not a whole lot of middle ground where he's concerned. But any way you slice it, he's still incredibly hot.
Probationary Agent Timothy McGee
played by Sean Murray
Tim (Probie) McGee makes up in computer skills what he tends to lack in social graces. A graduate of MIT, McGee is the team's resident hacker and geek. He and Abby work together fairly often, which can and often does cause some friction between the two. However, it tends to be more sibling squabbles than anything else.
McGee is brilliant with technology, but not so much with people. He's learning, and he is growing as an agent, but he also tends to put his foot in his mouth on a fairly regular basis. Gibbs doesn't need to headsmack him; a raised eyebrow is generally all it takes for McGee to stammer his way back to the point at hand. Of the other team members, Tony treats him like an often-annoying little brother. Ziva tends to be more openly supportive.
In his personal life, McGee's into computer games similar to Everquest. He's also writing a novel that seems to be fairly closely based on his work with NCIS (his protagonist's name is Tibbs).
Opinion of McGee tends to be mixed. Some love him, some find him useless, and some don't care one way or the other.
Officer Ziva David
played by Cote de Pablo
Ziva (pronounced Dah-veed) David is a Mossad officer currently working for Gibbs at NCIS. She was introduced to the team shortly after Kate died, first as Ari Haswari's control officer and then as a member in her own right. Ari was her agent-and, as we discovered, her half brother-but that didn't stop her from killing him when she discovered he was a rogue agent who had, in fact, murdered Kate Todd. While she doesn't have a background in investigation, she is highly trained in espionage and covert ops and brings those skills, along with the Mossad mindset, to NCIS-something that occasionally causes friction with her teammates.
Of the entire team, she's probably the closest to the director. They worked together in Cairo and Ziva has used Jen as an information source before. Ziva is more of an outspoken ally of McGee than Tony; she and Tony have a relationship that's best described as abrasive. She keeps trying to win Abby's friendship, without much luck so far, and sees Gibbs as a wonderful teacher and agent, even though she doesn't have the hero-worship for him that Tony and McGee do.
Fandom tends to be split on Ziva; some like her, some despise her for taking Kate's position, and some just don't like her at all.
Forensics Specialist Abigail Sciuto
played by Pauley Perrette
Abby (don't call her Abigail) is the team's resident forensics specialist. Whether it's a bullet, a piece of clothing, or a computer, there's not much she can't do and even less she can't find out. Her mind works at about the speed of light, probably assisted by the sheer amounts of caffeine she drinks. She's addicted to Caff-Pow!, a soda which we can only surmise has about twice the caffeine as Jolt, maybe three times the amount in Mountain Dew.
She's probably the most cheerful Goth you'll ever meet. Her wardrobe runs to black, with tall boots, miniskirts, chain belts, and dog collars. Her hair's pitch black and almost always worn in pigtails. Originally from Louisiana, both her parents are deaf and she's fluent in sign language. Gibbs is as well, and the two of them have been known to have ASL conversations that leave the others clueless.
Of her colleagues, there isn't one that doesn't like her. She has Gibbs wrapped around her little finger, complete with hugs and presents on her birthday. She and Tony are good friends, and Ducky delights in her cheerful outlook and scientific brain. While Abby is more than a bit stand-offish with Ziva, Ziva does keep trying to make friendly overtures. Part of Abby's cold shoulder, however, is due to Kate. Abby and Kate were close friends, and Abby views Ziva both as an intruder and as a reminder. And then, of course, there's McGee, with whom Abby had an on-again, off-again fling. They're pretty much off now, and the vibe between them is much more brother-sister. Abby has a strong competitive streak and McGee's computer expertise can and does enroach on her territory.
In fandom, Abby's just about universally adored. Who wouldn't love a brilliant, beautiful Goth with nine tattoos and an aversion to sunlight?
Medical Examiner Donald Mallard
played by David McCallum
Dr. Mallard (Call me Ducky) is the team's medical examiner. British by birth, how he ended up at NCIS is something no one quite knows, despite Ducky's penchant for long anecdotal stories. He seems to know a little bit about everything, just as he knows people from all over the place. Possibly a hazard of the profession, Ducky tends to talk to the men and women who end up on his tables, although so far none have answered. This doesn't seem to stop him, however.
Fandom generally likes Ducky, and he's brought in a fair number of M.U.N.C.L.E. fans due to David McCallum's previous role as Illya Kuryakin.
Director Jenny Shepard
played by Lauren Holly
The current director of NCIS, she was both professionally and personally involved with Gibbs some time in the past. She seems to be having some difficulty settling into the role of the director, and has irritated Gibbs and Tony by checking over their shoulders at times. She knew Ziva from assignments in Cairo and was the one to arrange Ziva's place on Gibbs' team. She was also the one who assigned Abby an unasked-for lab tech; bad move on her part.
Jen doesn't get treated with the same respect the previous director (Tom Morrow) did, but she also doesn't act in a manner that would demand the same level of professional courtesy.
Fandom-wise, it seems that someone out there must like her, as TPTB increased her role from a reoccurring guest star to a member of the cast. However, finding fans who will admit to liking Madame Director (as she's unaffectionately known) is a rather Herculean task.
Special Agent Caitlin Todd
played by Sasha Alexander
Caitlin (Kate) Todd was a former Secret Service agent who joined NCIS after resigning from the Treasury Department. A profiler by training, Kate settled into NCIS fairly quickly, although not without a few bumps along the way. She and Abby were close friends, in particular, although she and Tony tended to bait each other more often than they actually spoke. Kate considered Tony to be an "X-Rated Peter Pan"--a term that certainly wasn't a compliment.
Personally, we never really found out what Kate liked or what she was interested in. She was Catholic, something that came into play a few times, and we know she had brothers, but other than that we never really found out much. She did tend to be a bit uptight; prudish if you put a negative spin on it. Tony tended to tease her about that quite a bit, although she gave as good as she got.
She and Ari Haswari had a very odd relationship; he seemed fascinated by her in the episodes where he showed up. Kate had the opportunity to stab him once and couldn't do it--as she told Gibbs, he had "kind eyes". Kate's profiler instincts failed her in this case. There was nothing kind about Ari, and he proved it by killing her in the season 2 finale.
When she was alive, fandom opinion on Kate ranged from those who loved her to those who thought she was an uptight prude who needed to get laid. After her death, she tends to have fallen into the "speak more kindly of the dead" camp, although most fans will still acknowledge she wasn't perfect.
Ari Haswari
played by Rudolf Martin
Mossad mole? Hamas agent? Al-Qaeda operative? Plain old sociopath?
It doesn't matter much, now. Ari was first seen as a terrorist who took Ducky, Gerald and Kate hostage in the NCIS autopsy lab. He escaped by shooting Gibbs--who, in return, shot him after he kidnapped Kate.
Ari showed up again in the season two finale, leading NCIS on a chase for him and the bomb he planned to detonate on the pier at Norfolk when the Marine Amphibious Strike Group returned from the Persian Gulf. The team was able to stop the bomb. They couldn't, however, prevent him from killing Kate Todd.
He was finally killed by his half-sister, Ziva David, during a face-off in Gibbs' basement.
Other Characters
Jimmy Palmer Geek with a scalpel, Jimmy is Ducky's latest and (apparently) longest-lasting assistant. He's a klutz, gets lost driving the van to crime scenes, but what he lacks in social abilities, he's been gaining in forensic skills.
Tobias Fornell An FBI agent who gets his jollies by getting in Gibbs' way. He's also, arguably, the one man in his agency who understands Gibbs and his methods. The two of them have a tolerant relationship now, especially since Fornell married and subsequently divorced Gibbs' second wife.
Tom Morrow NCIS' former director left the agency for Homeland Security. He was known for favoring results over process.
Gerald Jackson Ducky's former assistant had a tendency to listen to his CD player rather than Ducky's speeches and sometimes didn't take his job seriously. He was, however, quietly competent until Ari shot him in the shoulder, shattering the ball joint and necessitating his early retirement. Gerald has no idea how to drive a stick shift.
Paula Cassidy Originally stationed at Gitmo, she's a specialist on Middle Eastern affairs, and possibly affairs with DiNozzo. Tall, blonde and mouthy in a good way, she generally kicks people's asses when needed. Yes, this includes Tony's.
Cassie Yates She works in the drug-trafficking side of NCIS and occasionally is called in to help Gibbs' team. Cassie tends to appear at the ends of seasons in attractive, tight-fitting clothes.
Vivian Blackadder Appeared on the two JAG episodes; was probably fired for excessive whinging and letting Gibbs get blown up during an operation.
First introduced as a two-episode interlude during the eighth season of JAG, NCIS (the show) was originally known as the redundant Navy NCIS in its first season. The "Navy" was dropped in the second season.
New viewers can pick up pretty much anywhere they catch the episodes. For someone who's contemplating a full-on immersion in NCIS, there are 6 episodes that will introduce all the characters and important events: 1.01, Yankee White; 1.16, Bête Noire; 1:23, Reveille; 2:23, Twilight; 3.01, Kill Ari, Part One; and 3:02, Kill Ari, Part Two. There are many other episodes scattered throughout the three seasons that are must-sees (I highly recommend 1.09, Marine Down, 2.07, Call of Silence and 3.09, Frame-Up), but it's not an arc-heavy show.
The best thing about NCIS fanfiction is that, while it follows Sturgeon's law quite solidly, the remaining ten percent is exciting and wonderful and occasionally even revelatory.
The best thing about that ten percent plus the show?
It's a lot of fun.
Welcome to NCIS. Please buckle your seat belt. If Gibbs or Ziva is driving, you might want to consider additional protective gear.
(special thanks to sffan and blueraccoon and kernelm for betas and soundings-out and html stuff and just general all-around wonderfulness.)
Resources off LJ
Official Site
Fiction Resource: Largest NCIS-only fic archive
NCIS fans: Tony-centric fansite
Numeriklab: Composers/performers of the theme music (which is really, really cool)
If you can read French, there are many French fansites out there-it doesn't take much Googling to find them.
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