Gibbs would watch it in 720p on his boat’s laptop. Tony would insist on 1080p. Abby would want it in 4K with a spectrographic overlay. For the rest of us? This 720p release is a reliable, space-efficient way to enjoy one of NCIS’s most tense season premieres.

Episode: Season 9, Episode 1 – "Nature of the Beast" Original Air Date: September 20, 2011 Source Quality Reviewed: 720p (presumably x264 encode, ~2-4GB file size) Showrunner: Gary Glasberg 1. The Episode Itself: Plot & Context Season 9 opens not with a cold case, but with a hot, smoking wreck. Following the massive cliffhanger of the Season 8 finale ("Pyramid"), where the team’s beloved (and insufferably brilliant) forensic scientist, Abby Sciuto, was trapped in a burning Navy Yard building after a bomb planted by the "Port-to-Port" killer exploded, "Nature of the Beast" wastes no time. But here’s the clever twist: the episode begins eight hours earlier .