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Navy NCIS: The Beginning

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9.1

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 10/21/03

The cross-over that aired few weeks after the show's premiere, was aired as a JAG episode, but also a pilot titled "Navy NCIS: The Beginning". The episode is a 1-hour combination of two episodes that aired as JAG, "Ice Queen (1)" and "Meltdown (2)".
A murdered JAG officer teams up the JAG staff with agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS).

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FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (9)

LALALALALA where can i get this?

7.5

By RachelJoyce1, Jan 13, 2012

WHERE CAN I WATCH IT!? ANYBODY KNOW?
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The opening of a new franchise. This is a JAG episode but is the introduction to NCIS. We are introduced to most of our team. Gibbs, DiNozzo, Abby, and Ducky are all among the people we see in this Pilot. A dead body washes up & a terrorist is caught.moreless

8.0

By simontag, Dec 05, 2008

This is our first glimpse into the NCIS world and it gives us so much information about our new soon to be friends. It firmly establishes Gibbs as our leader, brilliant interrogator, strict demeanor, compassionate towards kids, but it also shows us that he at the top of his game as an investigator. We meet DiNozzo and glimpse his attitude but most importantly that he is only a few steps behind Gibbs with regard to seeing things the way Gibbs does. This is evident when he is tirelessly searching for the killer while Gibbs is away and Blackadder has all but convicted Rabb and moved on. Abby is our gifted forensic scientist same as she is in all seasons. Blackadder is definitely the least likable person on the team and has issues. At the very beginning she is arguing with Gibbs about his decision to question the scout and gives him dirty looks. What she does not know is that Gibbs only talks to the kid to help him get past the horror of what happened which makes Blackadder look like all the more a doofus. Her brother was killed on the USS Cole and after the terrorist is killed she demands to be put on the team yelling at Gibbs who has to act like a drill instructor to make her back down. At the end of the episode she screws up the capture of the terrorist by staring at him thereby giving him the knowledge that they were after him.

The only visible difference we see in character development from this Jag episode to our actual NCIS series is that Ducky hounds after Blackadder to go out with him almost like Tony does in NCIS with random girls. This attitude of his was removed in the actual series. Ducky still talks to corpses but there is a weird movey/blurry vision of the corpse looking at the team and Ducky through the 2 part pilot. This is annoying and stupid and was also removed for the series.

Blackadder is also removed for the NCIS series as well. She will be absent from the next episode and there will be nobody in her place until the end of the episode where Kate will be hired. It is assumed from a number of exchanges and her screw up at the end that she may have gone back to the FBI.

This episode centers around a body that is washed up on the river bank that turns out to be Lt. Singer from Jag and during the investigation the evidence piles up against Cmdr. Rabb and he is consequently tried for murder. An additional plot line running concurrently is that a terrorist on the NCIS watch list is captured by them and the director needs thier best interrogator (Gibbs) out there but not until the case is wrapped up. At the end they find out that Rabb is not guilty and Gibbs and Tony go to bat for him to finding the real killer endearing both of them to us for saving Rabb who looks like he's going down. Gibbs has a really weird interrogation method that brings results in a fraction of time that the CIA's does and from that information they are able to stop another attack on a Naval ship.

All in all this episode is done well and they removed the 3 things that sucked about this episode from the NCIS series starting in the next episode. Those are Ducky acting like Tony, the stupid corpse soul floaty view, and Blackadder. This episode is quite good and if you missed it but have only seen NCIS and want to go back to watch it I would recommend it.moreless
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I loved this episode. I watched Jag every morning before work. And When I saw this episode I loved it, I loved the characters. I wasnot aware that it was going to be a new show, but I was hoping that we would be seeing moe of these crazy characters.moreless

9.1

By okeydokeythen, Sep 14, 2008

When I was watching this episode I was so upset that they were trying to charge Rabb with the murder of his brother that he tries so hard to save. Then they brought in the NCIS team I could tell that Rabb and Gibbs were really just rying to figure each other out. Gibbs was so sure that Rabb had something to do with it at first. To me it was a good suspense episode. Abby was so cool and like now I felt like she was one of the most real life type characters. The whole story was so aggrevating, you knew that he didn't do it but you could not imagine the aggrevation Rabb felt knowing he didn't have anything to do with it but could not get Gibbs to listen. For awhile there you thought that Rabb may be in for the long haul. I loved how they managed to combine one show with a new show and make it work.

GREAT START OFF..moreless
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I forgot how the series started until I caught this in reruns the other week.

10

By QuakertownBob, Sep 07, 2008

In retrospect this episode was much better than most pilots. It gave us some characters we already knew and expanded with new characters. We had the JAG characters and built a series from it.

The interaction of all the members of NCIS was good and I do miss Robyn Lively but Sasha Alexander was a good fit for the show.

It was a good episode, better actually than the pilot for JAG which was mediocre, and the character mix was much beter as was the interaction.

You can see quickly that Gibbs is a leader and quirky. I love the whole crew and concept.moreless
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The perfect start to a great series!

10

By jenniferbaymer, Mar 01, 2007

As far as pilots go, I believe that this was a huge success. I think it was a great idea to start the show off of JAG. Having already been on air for a while, JAG was a popular show and had many veiwers. This was a gift for NCIS. Ducky was absolutely fantastic in this episode. His endless persuit of Viv Blackadder added the right amount of humor that the show needed. These episodes also showed just a bit of agent Gibbs personality. When he was talking to the cub scout, we learned that something bad had happened to him when he was a child. These two episodes showed the perfect amount of humor and seriousness needed to make a great show.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Mark Harmon	Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs
Michael Weatherly	Special Agent Tony DiNozzo
Pauley Perrette	Forensics Specialist Abby Sciuto
David McCallum	Chief M.E. Ducky Mallard

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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David James Elliott	Cmdr. Harmon Rabb, Jr.	Guest Star
Catherine Bell	Lt. Col. Sarah MacKenzie	Guest Star
Patrick Labyorteaux	Lt. Bud J. Roberts, Jr.	Guest Star
Alan Dale	NCIS Director Tom Morrow	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (4)
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- GOOF: On Abby's first scene, when she grabs her lab coat, her hands are glove less, on the next pan, as she adjusts the coat, you can see a blue glove on her right hand, the next shot has her without gloves, again, as she reaches for one in the glove box.
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- GOOF: When Gibbs is interrogating Rabb, there is a camera shot through the viewing glass that shows Tony, Viv and Abby in the mirror reflection off the glass. However, Abby hasn't entered the room yet as evident by her entering the room about 10 seconds later.
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- TRIVIA: About Tony's identity when he goes undercover: in real life, Michael Weatherly has a son named August, nicknamed "Gus."
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- TRIVIA: The pilot for this series aired as a two-part episode of JAG in the spring of 2003. Two major changes were made for the series. A gimmick in which Ducky is shown talking to corpses - from the corpse's point of view - was dropped, and a character named Viv Blackadder (played by Robyn Lively) was replaced by the character played by Sasha Alexander.
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QUOTES (4)
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- Rabb: Look, there are enough holes in this case to raise reasonable doubt.
  Counselor: There is also enough evidence to tie you to the murder and a string of witnesses, your colleagues, who will testify to angry words between you and Lt. Singer right up to the time of her death.
  Rabb: Well, it could be worse I guess.
  Counselor: How?
  Rabb: I could not have an alibi
  Counselor: You have an alibi??
  Rabb: No.
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- Harm Rabb: How long you been doing this, Gibbs?
  Gibbs: Nineteen years.
  Rabb: Can you tell if someone's guilty, by looking in their eyes?
  Gibbs: I can.
  Harm Rabb: Yeah, well look in mine. Ask me. Ask me!
  Gibbs: Would you kill for your brother?
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- Gibbs: I'm not smart enough to play risky games with a lawyer of your caliber, Rabb.
  Harm Rabb: That's Commander Rabb. Or Commander. Or sir, "Gunny." I believe as a reservist you're still technically in the Marine Corps.
  Gibbs: I am an NCIS Special Agent, and I don't have to salute you, or sir you, or give you any military courtesy, but you know that. So who's playing the games here?
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- Major McBurney: Nice lab you got here. Interesting Martha Stewart on LSD touches around the place too.
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NOTES (4)
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- Patrick (Bud Roberts Jr.) and Mark (Gibbs) stared together in the 1987 movie "Summer School". Mark plays a gym teacher that has to teach remedial English to failing students over the summer holidays.
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- When Tony gives Abby the blood, i.e. the first time we see Abby, the song playing is "Transfer" by Collide, and when the lawyer dude is in the lab talking to Abby, the song playing is "Frozen" by Collide, and the song playing when both the JAG lawyers come to the lab with Gibbs to get the results from the tag in the hat is "Monochrome" by Collide.
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- Sasha Alexander is the only one of the original NCIS cast members that does not appear in this episode.
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- This episode is actually not a NCIS episode. It has the title JAG, but it's considered a one-hour pilot episode for NCIS.
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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