Also known as Navy NCIS
Tropes:
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first season (particularly the first half) is practically a different show, especially to those who began watching NCIS in later seasons.
- McGee had a limited role before being promoted to as a main character in Season 2.
- NCIS was referred to as Navy NCIS.
- Earlier episodes had someone else as assistant coroner to Ducky.
- Gibbs was less stoical. He playfully lied down on Ducky's slab in the first episode alone, was far more lighthearted a Deadpan Snarker, and rather willing to go along with jokes occasionally and jest with Abby and DiNozzo. Compare and contrast to being a hardass in later seasons where even so much as responding to a joke with anything other than annoyance or his signature Death Glare is extraordinarily rare unless it's Actually Pretty Funny or he gets the last laugh on someone's expense.
- Ducky assisted Abby more than Gibbs in her forensic work in earlier episodes.
- Gibbs was depicted as having an extremely active personal life outside of work and would promptly drive off with an unnamed redhead at the end of many episodes. He became a workaholic with spectacularly debilitating personal issues later into the show's run.
- Kate originally had UST with Gibbs before she and Tony settled into their bickering flirtation.
- The theme song in the pilot was different compared to the one that came afterwards.
- It's implied Abby and McGee have some kind of a relationship (possibly boyfriend and girlfriend, possibly just a friends with benefits thing). This goes on til about midway through season 2 and is then completely forgotten about.
- DiNozzo has a limited knowledge of movies, sometimes not recognizing commonly held knowledge, opposed to the later episodes where he is a virtual walking encyclopedia of movie trivia.
- There is no Director of note, and wouldn't be until Jenny Shepard at the beginning of Season 3.
