Wikia

Vivian Blackadder

Gender:	Female
Status:	Unknown

Occupation

Affiliation

Rank / Title

●	Federal Agent	NCIS	Special Agent
● NCIS: MCRT

●

Federal Agent

FBI

Special Agent

First Appearance

● JAG:

Ice Queen
NCIS: The Beginning

Last Appearance

● JAG:

Meltdown
NCIS: The Beginning

List of Appearances

Vivian "Viv" Blackadder was a former FBI Agent-turned-NCIS Special Agent who investigated the murder of Lieutenant Loren Singer in the JAG episodes "Ice Queen (episode) and Meltdown (episode) which served as the official pilot for NCIS before the show itself went solo.

During the two episodes, she was partnered with Anthony DiNozzo.

However due to negative reaction from test audiences, Blackadder was written out of the show altogether and as such, has not appeared in any of the main episodes of the NCIS series since then.

Biography

Not much is known about Viv's personal life. The only piece of information that was ever given is that she had a brother named Rex but it was never revealed if she had any other siblings or if her parents are or were alive or dead at the time.

At some point, she joined the FBI for an unknown period of time but after the USS Cole bombing which killed Rex in 2001, Vivian quit or left the FBI, joining NCIS after learning that NCIS were the first agency on site in the aftermath of the attack.

She soon began developing a very strong obsession to get revenge for his death and even demanded that Gibbs get her on the kill team that would be going after the group responsible.

However Gibbs flatly refused, saying that NCIS wasn't going to be used as Viv's personal instrument of revenge and told her to focus on the job or get her butt back to the Hoover Building.

She later calmed down but once the operation to capture the terrorists began, she blew it and received a very hostile reaction from Gibbs, further driving a wedge between their already icy relationship. It could be assumed that this was responsible for ending Viv's career as an NCIS Special Agent.

It is unknown what became of her after the two-part episode but it is assumed that she either got fired from NCIS or returned to the FBI.

Personality

Previously an FBI Agent, Viv's only goal and her sole reason for joining NCIS in the first place is so that she can avenge her brother Rex who died in the USS Cole bombings.

She has something of a very hostile relationship with Gibbs and isn't even remotely close to the other members of the team, especially to Abby.

She also tends to ignore Ducky who regularly attempts to invite her out to dinner and regards his habit of talking to the corpses as disturbing while also strongly believing that he has a lack of respect for the dead.

She's so focused on avenging her brother to the point where it becomes a strong obsession and she doesn't care what happens as along as she's part of the team bringing the terrorists responsible to justice.

As seen in "Meltdown", she is even willing to jeopardize an important anti-terrorist mission for the sake of getting close to Hussan Mohammed, the man responsible for the Cole bombing.

These actions regularly brings her into conflict with Gibbs who is hellbent on making sure that Viv doesn't use NCIS as her own personal instrument of revenge.

In regards to Loren Singer's death, Viv was the only one out of the Major Case Response Team who seemed truly convinced that Harmon Rabb was the killer and when Tony expressed his doubts, Viv was even reluctant to go any further after the investigation was closed, suggesting that she's willing to accept the evidence as it is and not be prepared to look deeper even if it meant that the supposed murderer was being framed by someone else.

Relationships

Leroy Jethro Gibbs

Viv and Gibbs's relationship is very cold and tense due to the fact that Viv is more concerned with avenging her brother who died in the USS Cole bombing than focusing on her job and duties as an NCIS Special Agent.

As such, Gibbs has regularly insisted that NCIS will not be used as her own personal instrument of revenge and the topic is such a thorny subject that the two have even come to blows over it numerous times.

It's also quite clear that due to this subject hanging over them, their relationship is very stormy and hostile.

Anthony DiNozzo

Viv simply regards DiNozzo as a surrogate brother figure because he's similar to her deceased brother. They could be considered colleagues, not potential friends.

Donald Mallard

Viv's relationship with Ducky is one of extreme distrust due to the fact that Ducky regularly keeps hitting on her every time they're out in the field and makes effects to ask her out to dinner, something Viv usually rejects.

Unlike the others who accept Ducky's talking to the dead as being normal and part of his job, Viv finds it extremely disturbing and believes that the lack of respect for the dead that Ducky shows towards the victims he autopsies is disgusting.

Abigail Sciuto

Despite the fact that the two were never talking to one another, it's presumed that Viv and Abby don't get along either.

As such, Viv is the only member of the team that hasn't formed anything resembling a strong friendship to Abby but later took to Viv's sucecessors, Kate and Ziva.

Behind the Scenes

Viv Blackadder was played by American actress Robyn Lively. Unfortunately, the character of Blackadder didn't go down with the audiences so she was written out of the series altogether with Lively being dropped from her contract.

When Season One of NCIS officially began, the vacant position went to Caitlin Todd played by Sasha Alexander and following Kate's death in the Season Two finale, "Twilight, Ziva David played by Cote de Pablo took over the role and has maintained it to this day.

Trivia

Viv and Kate Todd are the only two NCIS characters who do not know anything about Gibbs's first family due to the fact that by the time that the Season 3 finale had aired, Viv had long since left the show and Kate had been killed off in the Season 2 finale, Twilight (episode).
In a way, Blackadder has been in every episode of NCIS's run; the closing shot of the main title sequence of the blue sedan driving away from the camera, with the Capitol Building in the background, is lifted directly from Ice Queen (episode), when Vivian and Gibbs return from questioning several of the JAG officers.
The pilot episodes, "Ice Queen" and "Meltdown" are the only two episodes where the main characters have any interaction of any kind with Viv. After that, no-one in the main series has mentioned or made any kind of reference to her since then.
Viv can read deer tracks, a skill that she mentions that she learned from her murdered brother, Rex.
During her short tenure on the team, Viv like the rest of the team had the SIG-Sauer P228 as their own sidearm.
Viv is also the only red-haired woman not to have been in a romantic relationship with Gibbs, possibly due to the fact that the two have a hostile or very tense relationship with each other.

While she was stationed at NCIS, Vivian had the desk in the far corner of the bullpen, the desk directly in front of Gibbs's and opposite DiNozzo's. Once she left, the desk was left empty for most of Season 1 until Agent Timothy McGee temporarily claimed it during Dead Man Talking (episode). McGee later claimed it as his own when he permanently joined the team in Season 2's See No Evil (episode).
Viv holds the honor of being DiNozzo's first-ever female partner in the field with Kate and Ziva later replacing her.
Along with Don Dobbs, Viv is the only female character whose fate after Meltdown (episode) is not known. In addition, both she and Dobbs are the only two characters from the backdoor pilot have not appeared in any of the episodes of the main NCIS series nor have they been mentioned since then.
Viv's surname, Blackadder was the last name of the character played by Exec. Producer Donald Bellisario when he guest-starred in the 3rd season cliff-hanger, "To Russia, With Love". The name, "Blackadder" is also the name of a British comedy series that aired in the 1980s which starred Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) with the main character surname's being Blackadder.