NCIS: Origins’ Doc Tango Is One Of The Show’s Most Underrated Characters. Why He Deserves More Attention

NCIS: Origins Season 2 premiered on the 2025 TV schedule Tuesday, October 14, the same day as NCIS Season 23 and NCIS: Sydney Season 3. After six weeks of uninterrupted new episodes, the prequel series is taking a week off, and then will deliver “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “End of the Road” before the year is over. In the meantime, to help commemorate Native American Heritage Month, I’d like to take some time to talk about one of the show’s most underrated characters, Témet Téngalkat, a.k.a. Doc Tango, played by Julian Black Antelope.

Doc Tango Has A Great Rapport With The Team

Doc Tango is the medical examiner who usually runs the autopsies on the murder victims that the main NCIS: Origins characters are investigating. He’s often seen working with Lori Petty’s Dr. Lenora Friedman, the assistant medical examiner, and he’s also the uncle of Tishmal Kwa'la, Mike Franks’ ex-girlfriend. As such, he and Mike get along especially well, as Tango is unfazed by Mike’s gruff personality. The ME also has a friendly personality.

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However, unlike other ME characters in the NCIS-verse, like Donald “Ducky” Mallard from the flagship show and Roy “Rosie” Penrose from NCIS: Sydney, Tango is not exclusive to the show’s team, but works with multiple law enforcement agencies out of the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office. When Adam Campbell’s younger Ducky appeared in “The Edge,” he determined that the team had a good enough thing going with Doc Tango, and thus didn’t need an in-house medical examiner.

I hope that changes down the line. Granted, barring Julian Black Antelope leaving the series, it’s not like we’re not going to see him fairly often for the foreseeable future. However, it’d be nice if he could become NIS-exclusive so we could see that great rapport with the team more often. Even better, he can start forging closer relationships with Gibbs, Lala, Randy and more. Lenora free to come along, too.

I Want To See Doc Tango’s Personal Life, History And Culture Explored

We got a little bit of insight into Doc Tango’s past and Native American heritage during the flashbacks in Season 1’s “From the Ashes,” but those were focused on Tish as one last exploration of the character before she drove off to parts unknown. Also, when Ducky met the Camp Pendleton team, he observed that the pattern on Tango’s bolo tie was Luiseño or, known by their proper name, Payómkawichum, the “People of the West.”

The last few years have brought TV shows highlighting Native American culture, like Reservation Dogs, Dark Winds and Echo (plus, as I talked about last year, Forge’s role on X-Men ’97). NCIS: Origins delving deeper into this aspect of Doc Tango as more Native American representation in media, particularly broadcast television, is a good thing. Beyond that, let’s not forget that Origins Season 1 used an episode to talk about fellow recurring character Richard Kowalski’s past as an Army chaplain, and we’re even getting an episode in Season 2 focused on the dog Gary Callahan. Let’s carve out some time to get to know Tango more outside of his ME work.

If NCIS: Origins is renewed for Season 3, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Julian Black Antelope is promoted to a series regular. But if he remains in a recurring capacity, the show should dedicate more attention to Témet Téngalkat whenever possible. He’s a solid character right now, and I think he could become an even better one.