NCIS ROFL! (spoilers)

[kelliem]

I missed last week's NCIS ep due to a VCR which does not comprehend the concept of 'leap year'. Tonight, thanks to ardent_muses loan of a tape, I finally got a chance to watch it. Spoilers ho:

I fast-forwarded through the titles so I missed the ep title. I didn't really get suspicious when the 'name' guest star turned out to be Brian Thompson (aka the Alien Bounty Hunter from XFiles), and when the victim-of-the-week's name turned out to be "Gordon" I didn't really think anything about it, but when they said the material witness' name was "Darren Spotnitz" I started paying attention. When I realized that the 4 suspects were named "Carter," "Morgan," "Wong," & "Bowman," I started to LMAO. And when the scenario ended up involving an ALIEN (granted, a fake one, but...) I was absolutely howling.

Then, I rewound to see who wrote the episode, and discovered it was titled "The Truth is Out There."

Nice job, Mr. Jack Bernstein, whoever you are. This X-Phile was definitely amused.

Comments

[katallison.livejournal.com]

I love it that this is funny in a you'd-have-to-be-a-genuine-X-phile-to-get-it way, rather than using more obvious Mulder-Scully homages. Thanks for passing this along, Kellie; it gave me a good laugh.

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I was sitting there thinking "it just can't be coincidental that they would put 'Darren' (aka Darren Morgan) and 'Spotnitz' (aka Frank Spotnitz) together," and I was right. It was subtle, and really well done. I like this show anyway but that definitely increased my liking for it. I'm glad it amused you too. :)

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

You know, I didn't even get those the first time I watched it, and in fact I missed the ep title. But when I saw it the second time, though I couldn't quite place "Darren Spotnitz," the names of the suspects finally snapped into place. I felt like a dolt, and I am a dedicated X-phile.

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was just that Spotnitz is such an uncommon name and it's so associated with XF in my mind that it caught my attention. I just went and looked at the IMDB entry for NCIS and ran down the list of writers, and sure enough they have an XF alumnus on the list-- Jeff Vlaming, who (though he did not write the NCIS in question) not only wrote for XF but also for Due South, Xena, Weird Science, Brisco County, Jr., and Northern Exposure. Another writer, Philip DeGuere, wrote for one of my early fannish loves, Alias Smith and Jones, not to mention Dead Zone, Simon & Simon, Max Headroom, and Magnum PI. Between the two of them it's like reading a fannish primer.

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a legacy of writing. And some of MY favorite shows, too. I think Vlaming also may have something to do with "Keen Eddie."

Thanks for the research!

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Vlaming did write some Keen Eddie! I meant to put that in too, but somehow missed it. That was the first thing I noticed, but then I got all excited about the other stuff. Plus, as I dug further, I found that he's one of the producers, which I suspect may have been what led to the whole XF homage. :-)