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Nancy Travis as Vanessa Baxter in Last Man Standing.

(Image credit: Fox)

It’s a good time to be a fan of the NCIS franchise right now. Not only is the Paramount+-exclusive series NCIS: Tony & Ziva arriving in a few weeks, but NCIS, NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Sydney will all air on CBS the same night this fall on the 2025 TV schedule. The flagship show that’s been airing since 2003 will kick off this procedural block, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the first new character who’s been cast for NCIS Season 23 will shake things up for Gary Cole’s Alden Parker.

Nancy Travis, best known on the TV front for shows like Last Man Standing, Mr. Mercedes and The Kominski Method has been tapped to play Navy Vice Admiral Harriet Parker, Alden Parker’s sister. She’ll first appear in the two-part NCIS Season 23 premiere, and her presence will shed light on Alden’s past and how he became the man we’ve been following since early Season 19. TVLine also learned from NCIS showrunner Steven D. Binder that when Alden and Harriet reunite, their childhood dynamic will quickly reignite, which will in become problematic for their respective jobs:

They’re going to relive that between the two of them. She’s this super squared-away Navy admiral, and then you’ve got Alden Parker, who’s got this ‘bad kid ‘seed. Those two are going to come to a head, and what’s funny about that is it’s one thing to have it happen over Thanksgiving dinner, it’s a whole other thing to happen in the middle of a global crisis! The bickering is, I might say, very NCIS.

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Jessica Knight, Alden Parker and Nick Torres in NCIS bullpen wearing warm clothing

We’ve known that Alden Parker has a sister for years now, so it’s good to know we’ll finally meet her on NCIS. I’m already braced for the sibling bickering that will erupt between Harriet and Alden, although it’s unfortunate that it comes in the midst of unfortunate circumstances, And I’m not just talking about this “global crisis” that Binder teased, for which he did not reveal any specific details.

At the end of NCIS Season 22, Alden Parker came home to discover that Roman Parker, his and Harriet’s father, had been murdered by Kansas City mob boss Carla Marino. She did this as revenge for the role she believed Alden Parker played in her son dying in a motorcycle accident years earlier. While there was no mention of Roman in the report of Nancy Travis’ casting, I find it hard to believe that Alden and Harriet won’t discuss their father’s death. That’s too big an event to just gloss over and have Alden grapple with on his own at a later date.

If Alden Parker does indeed end up going outside the bounds of the law to take down Carla Marino, like Gary Cole speculated to me back in May, it may take his sister working with the other members of the team to pull him away from the darkness. We see what awaits Alden, Harriet and everyone else when NCIS Season 23 premieres Tuesday, October 14 at 8 pm ET on CBS.