Fantasy Recurring Characters
Shady Tree
London, UKPosts: 3,013MI6 Agent
As a fan I sometimes like to indulge fantasies of continuity across the classic Bond run in cases where it doesn't actually exist. To this end, I like to imagine a little re-writing which would enable particular characters to re-appear. Here are some examples:
1. Tiffany Carver, nee Case (replacing Paris Carver in TND)
Paris Carver becomes Tiffany Carver, nee Case. TND trades on the idea that Bond and Paris have a history so why not re-write her as Tiffany, his former American girlfriend in DAF? Having achieved immunity from prosecution by virtue of her co-operation with Bond in DAF, Tiffany gives up her devotion to larceny but pursues a career as a model and gold-digger, catching herself a wealthy media mogul husband in Eliot Carver. Immediately after the events of DAF, Tiffany had had a relationship with Bond lasting several months (rather like Fleming's Tiffany), but the recently bereaved, post-OHMSS Bond was only ever "on the rebound" from Tracy. His first loyalty remained to his job so eventually he walked out on Tiffany - and that was when she started her career in the media and met Eliot. Sadly, marriage to Carver has rather subdued this one-time moll: by the time Bond meets her again she is jaded and has lost much of her old sassiness. Although she's still good for the odd one-liner and remains feisty enough to slap Bond around the face for deserting her all those years ago, she's become, by now, more of a victim than a player and that's why, this time, and fatally, she doesn't take up Bond's offer to get out.
2. Anya Asamova (replacing Pola Ivanova in AVTAK)
With a little re-writing, the Russian agent, Pola Ivanova, with whom Bond has the jacuzzi encounter in AVTAK, could become Anya. In the tub, the couple remember old times, and Anya is still working directly to General Gogol.
3. Fallon (LTK British agent)
The upper-class British agent who arrives at the casino at the beginning of DN, "looking for Mister James Bawnd", could easily be Fallon, seen later in LTK as the agent in Isthmus City who's charged with the job of shipping Bond "straight back to London."
4. Felix Leiter (replacing Jack Wade in GE and TND)
Jack Wade could be re-written as Felix Leiter in GE and TND, minus the limb severed in LTK.
5. Mary Goodnight (replacing Kimberley Jones in AVTAK)
Goodnight, the bungling liaison officer in TMWTGG, could have retrained with the Secret Service as a submarine operator, substituting the blonde agent who picks up Bond for the long cruise to Alaska at the end of the pre-credits sequence of AVTAK. Memories of their "slow boat from China"? (Bond is showing his age in AVTAK - it wouldn't be surprising if he kept bumping into old girlfriends like Anya and Goodnight within the spy community! The notion that Bond has an on/off relationship with Goodnight is, indeed, introduced in TMWTGG, where he meets her again "after all these years".)
6. Holly Goodhead (replacing Damian Falco in DAD)
Conceivably, Dr. Goodhead could have worked her way up the ranks in the CIA where she would substitute the character played by Michael Madsen in DAD, a gung-ho American with whom M has a testy relationship. In the earlier parts of MR, Holly is distinctly chilly towards Bond, and so, in Falco's role, her attitude towards the Brits would be consistent with that... and by now she'd be too mature to allow her old personal feelings for Bond to compromise the line she takes with M.
7. General Gogol (replacing Dmitri Mishkin in GE)
Russian Defence Minister Dmitri Mishkin in GE could be re-written as General Gogol, who, by the time of TLD, had moved over from the military to the Russian government. Beyond TLD, it would have been Gogol's enlightened attitude re. detente which would have secured him the office of Defence Minister in post-Soviet Russia. Unfortunately for Gogol, who had previously caught up with the rogue General Orlov in OPY, he'd be shot dead, in GE, by another traitor general, Orumov, just at the point when he was ready to believe his old "Comrade Bond" and Natalya about who was really behind the villainous scheme. Thus Gogol's story would achieve abrupt but honourable closure.
8. Fredrick Gray (Minister of Defence in TSWLM, MR, FYEO, OPY, AVTAK and TLD)
A retired Fredrick Gray could be among those spotted (by the audience only - not by Bond) wearing an earpiece at the performance of Tosca at Lake Constance, Austria, in QOS. A key player for Quantum? I never DID like him!
And finally... a couple of continuity fantasies which the casting means we can accept without a need for any re-writing...
It's Admiral Hargreaves of TSWLM who becomes the new M after the retirement of Miles Messervy, at some point between FYEO and OPY. (Both Hargreaves and the new M, who is also an Admiral, are played by Robert Brown).
Rodney, Scaramanga's victim in the pre-credits sequence of TMWTGG, is conceivably the same guy as the lead Vegas gangster in DAF (both are played in similar style by Marc Lawrence) - in which case Jaws isn't the first and only recurring henchman!
Shady Tree
1. Tiffany Carver, nee Case (replacing Paris Carver in TND)
Paris Carver becomes Tiffany Carver, nee Case. TND trades on the idea that Bond and Paris have a history so why not re-write her as Tiffany, his former American girlfriend in DAF? Having achieved immunity from prosecution by virtue of her co-operation with Bond in DAF, Tiffany gives up her devotion to larceny but pursues a career as a model and gold-digger, catching herself a wealthy media mogul husband in Eliot Carver. Immediately after the events of DAF, Tiffany had had a relationship with Bond lasting several months (rather like Fleming's Tiffany), but the recently bereaved, post-OHMSS Bond was only ever "on the rebound" from Tracy. His first loyalty remained to his job so eventually he walked out on Tiffany - and that was when she started her career in the media and met Eliot. Sadly, marriage to Carver has rather subdued this one-time moll: by the time Bond meets her again she is jaded and has lost much of her old sassiness. Although she's still good for the odd one-liner and remains feisty enough to slap Bond around the face for deserting her all those years ago, she's become, by now, more of a victim than a player and that's why, this time, and fatally, she doesn't take up Bond's offer to get out.
2. Anya Asamova (replacing Pola Ivanova in AVTAK)
With a little re-writing, the Russian agent, Pola Ivanova, with whom Bond has the jacuzzi encounter in AVTAK, could become Anya. In the tub, the couple remember old times, and Anya is still working directly to General Gogol.
3. Fallon (LTK British agent)
The upper-class British agent who arrives at the casino at the beginning of DN, "looking for Mister James Bawnd", could easily be Fallon, seen later in LTK as the agent in Isthmus City who's charged with the job of shipping Bond "straight back to London."
4. Felix Leiter (replacing Jack Wade in GE and TND)
Jack Wade could be re-written as Felix Leiter in GE and TND, minus the limb severed in LTK.
5. Mary Goodnight (replacing Kimberley Jones in AVTAK)
Goodnight, the bungling liaison officer in TMWTGG, could have retrained with the Secret Service as a submarine operator, substituting the blonde agent who picks up Bond for the long cruise to Alaska at the end of the pre-credits sequence of AVTAK. Memories of their "slow boat from China"? (Bond is showing his age in AVTAK - it wouldn't be surprising if he kept bumping into old girlfriends like Anya and Goodnight within the spy community! The notion that Bond has an on/off relationship with Goodnight is, indeed, introduced in TMWTGG, where he meets her again "after all these years".)
6. Holly Goodhead (replacing Damian Falco in DAD)
Conceivably, Dr. Goodhead could have worked her way up the ranks in the CIA where she would substitute the character played by Michael Madsen in DAD, a gung-ho American with whom M has a testy relationship. In the earlier parts of MR, Holly is distinctly chilly towards Bond, and so, in Falco's role, her attitude towards the Brits would be consistent with that... and by now she'd be too mature to allow her old personal feelings for Bond to compromise the line she takes with M.
7. General Gogol (replacing Dmitri Mishkin in GE)
Russian Defence Minister Dmitri Mishkin in GE could be re-written as General Gogol, who, by the time of TLD, had moved over from the military to the Russian government. Beyond TLD, it would have been Gogol's enlightened attitude re. detente which would have secured him the office of Defence Minister in post-Soviet Russia. Unfortunately for Gogol, who had previously caught up with the rogue General Orlov in OPY, he'd be shot dead, in GE, by another traitor general, Orumov, just at the point when he was ready to believe his old "Comrade Bond" and Natalya about who was really behind the villainous scheme. Thus Gogol's story would achieve abrupt but honourable closure.
8. Fredrick Gray (Minister of Defence in TSWLM, MR, FYEO, OPY, AVTAK and TLD)
A retired Fredrick Gray could be among those spotted (by the audience only - not by Bond) wearing an earpiece at the performance of Tosca at Lake Constance, Austria, in QOS. A key player for Quantum? I never DID like him!
And finally... a couple of continuity fantasies which the casting means we can accept without a need for any re-writing...
It's Admiral Hargreaves of TSWLM who becomes the new M after the retirement of Miles Messervy, at some point between FYEO and OPY. (Both Hargreaves and the new M, who is also an Admiral, are played by Robert Brown).
Rodney, Scaramanga's victim in the pre-credits sequence of TMWTGG, is conceivably the same guy as the lead Vegas gangster in DAF (both are played in similar style by Marc Lawrence) - in which case Jaws isn't the first and only recurring henchman!
Shady Tree
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
Comments
Oh, wait, different question all together...;%