More exciting news and meetings! I wish that some of the other James Bond alumni authors could be there to talk as well.
Unique choice and viewpoints.
A nice twist.
I love her enthusiasm, happy to have her be a part of the James Bond family.
Her passion and enthusiasm for this project and her love for Bond make me want to read the book more than anything. I have no doubt she’s done a great job and will introduce us to an exciting view into the expanded Bond universe.
I’m cool with the direction of her M. We’ve had other people in the role other than Sir Miles.
I’m very intrigued by that moth. Related to the environmental plot?
Maybe, it could be a callback to Silence of the Lambs.
Yeah. Though I think this might be the first time we’ve definitively had an M who doesn’t have ‘M’ as one of his/her initials?
So far the M’s have included Sir Miles Messervy, Barbara Mawdsley (Dench’s character in the Brosnan films), Olivia Mansfield (Dench’s character in the Craig films), and Gareth Mallory.
Boy, her excitement is infectious, isn’t it?
I’m really intrigued by how this is all shaping up. I think if you want to make the Bond franchise ‘diverse’ then this is the way to go about it.
The one thing I’m a little concerned about (not overtly, but it is something that made me go ‘‘Hang on?’’) - in her description of Johanna Hardwood/003, she mentions that she used to be a trauma surgeon who was then recruited to the 00 Section by Moneypenny. I’ve always preferred the idea that Bond and the other 00’s are military and intelligence veterans who attain 00 status, as opposed to it being some kind of special program that turns ‘‘ordinary people’’ into super-agents. Canonically, every iteration of Bond has spent years in the Royal Navy (either in Naval Intelligence or, with Craig’s incarnation, the Special Boat Service) and then at MI6 before earning a 00 number and I’d kinda prefer that to the idea of some ordinary person being recruited into the 00 Section and being turned into a top agent. But anyway, let’s see how it pans out (Jeffrey Deaver took a radically different approach to the Service which I did enjoy!)
Also intrigued by this new M. He’s said to be a mentor to Bond. Is he a replacement for a previous M, like Messervy, in-universe, or is he basically the M that Bond has always worked with in this continuity?
So it’s a little more of a stretch, but it’s Sir Emory ("EM"ory) Ware (sp?), so the M is still there at least phonetically. This M being a former agent and Bond’s mentor gives me shades of Alec Trevelyan’s original backstory in GoldenEye.
Also this 003 being someone that Bond was romantically involved with is an interesting parallel to what’s happening in the current 007 comic by Dynamite.
It’s entirely possible that 003 was a trauma surgeon in the military.
You will be surprised the minimum for Intelligence Officers. As a surgeon she is massively overqualified.
Yeah, that’s a great point…totally missed that!
Nothing was mentioned about him being a former 00, but it’d be interesting if that was the case. Maybe he was Bond’s mentor in the 00 Section? Or who recommended him to the previous M for his old job? I’m guessing if he’s a Cold War veteran, then he could possibly be someone who is, say, the same age as Brosnan now…someone who could have been active as a 00 during the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s, and then spent the last 20-odd years rising the ranks of MI6. Maybe at the tale end of his 00 career in the 2000’s he mentored a young Bond? (Depends on how old they make Bond in this version…I’m guessing they’ll go with an older Bond who could theoretically have become 007 in the late 2000’s).
Good point!
But it’s an interesting choice for a 00 nonetheless. Then again, we don’t know much about the background of other 00’s who’ve been mentioned in the novels or seen on film (except I think in the Fleming novels 006 was said to be a former Royal Marine). I’d assume that a 00 is someone with hardcore military/Special Forces experience, or at least intelligence experience in the field.
This is them. Olivia Mansfield quotes the first C at one point.
“Orphans always make the best recruits”
Alec Trevelyan?
We don’t know anything for sure, but Alec Trevelyan wasn’t some ordinary person picked off the street and turned into 006. Presumably, he spent years in the military and/or at MI6, like Bond, before getting his number. He’s portrayed as Bond’s equal in every respect in the film so I’d assume he becomes from a similar professional background.
You so seem to be ignoring anything that disagrees with you…