The Man from UNCLE – an extended introduction to the 60’s series from a newbie slash fan

[rallamajoop]

Since most of my activity here nowadays seems to be me writing Man from UNCLE meta or fic on every topic under the sun, I figured it was time to make a proper masterpost of everything I've posted here or to various comms.

Most of these links go to LJ, though there are a few at the end to odds and ends I've posted to tumblr too.

Fic

• UNCLE slashfic recs masterpost – [LJ Mirror]


• My fic:
  • Fatale
    

    Pairing: Napoleon/Illya
    Summary: Napoleon’s weakness for femme fatales has never been one of the more ambiguous facets of his sexuality. (Or, a world in which Illya began his career on the wrong side of the law certainly isn’t one where Napoleon is any less likely to wind up in bed with him.)
    Rating: NC-17
    Word Count: 6,630
    Notes: Alternate universe, contains gun-kink and some bondage

    
    
  • A Unified Theory of UNCLE, in four parts
    

    Pairing: Napoleon/Illya
    Summary: In a world where the occasional well-placed enemy mole or major security breach is simply a matter of course, a handful of UNCLE's most sensitive operational directives have never been committed to paper at all.
    Rating: PG
    Word Count: 28,544
    Characters: Napoleon, Illya, Waverly, with appearances by Angelique, Ursula Alice Baldwin, Mark Slate, Gemma Lusso and "Wanda"
    Notes: Effectively a mix of elaborate crack theories and historical trivia built around a faintly ridiculous amount of flirting, fluff and prolonged UST

Resources

• The Man from UNCLE – Complete Season 1-4 subtitles – [LJ Mirror]
Ripped from the DVDs, available in text format. Not as good as proper episode scripts as the lines lack attribution, but handy for checking dialogue in a hurry.


• Complete production credits spreadsheet – [LJ Mirror]
So, I started making a spreadsheet to get my head around which of the recurring cast showed up when, and got a bit carried away. Set up to be sortable either by episode airdate or original production order, covers shooting dates, air+rerun dates, directors, writers, and pretty much all the other credits available for import. Should be useful to anyone trying to figure out chronology and recurring influences.


• MGM Character bios – Napoleon, Illya and Waverly – [LJ Mirror]
The original source for a lot of details that made it into collective fanon without ever really coming up in the show, like Napoleon's yacht and Illya's love of jazz.


• Original outlines for UNCLE and THRUSH – [LJ Mirror]
Published with some of the early promotional material, and packed with details that didn't make it into the show, like the existence of the Mask Club and some of the other entrances to UNCLE HQ. Includes scans of some early promotional articles.


• The UNCLE Special – [LJ Mirror]
Scans of some articles with detailed technical info on the UNCLE gun.

Meta

• The Man from UNCLE – an extended introduction from a newbie fan – [LJ Mirror]
In which I attempt to write the introduction I'd wished I'd been able to find before watching, to let me know what I was getting into.


• Family Trees of Napoleon, Illya and Waverly – [LJ Mirror]
Covering every known family member we've ever met, heard about, or whose existence was perhaps vaguely alluded to once, plus some musings about what it all tells us about their backgrounds.


• On nicknames and Illya's wandering ethnicity – [LJ Mirror]
Ficcers are fond of throwing around nicknames like 'tovarisch' or 'Smart Russian'. I ran some searches through the subtitle files to check exactly what was used in the show and how, and in the process, made the surprising discovery that the show all but completely stops admitting that Illya is Russian in the later seasons.


• The curious semi-canonicity of the UNCLE Special – [LJ Mirror]
The UNCLE gun was and is one of the defining symbols associated with the series - so it would probably surprise most long-time fans to realise it was never actually mentioned by name on screen. Virtually everything fans 'know' about the gun actually comes from various news articles (scans and links included).


• The spotter's guide to The Girls of U.N.C.L.E. – [LJ Mirror]
UNCLE actually featured a number of recurring female staff members over the years, and many of them (IMHO) are so much more interesting than they get credit for (even if most of them were inexplicably called 'Wanda'). There's also an appendix post of sorts: Heather McNabb, Wanda Mae Kim and Sarah Johnson in print


• Gay communist spies and KGB honey traps – The surprising history of the Lavender Scare – [LJ Mirror]
Only tangentially related to UNCLE, but I started looking up the subject of gay spies, and found so much more material than I was counting on.

Picspams

• That one photoshoot – [LJ Mirror]
Three UNCLE stars, three attractive models and a smoke machine all get together to have one hell of a day at UNCLE HQ.


• Illya vs. The Cameraman: A Saga in Pictures – [LJ Mirror]
One of my favourite things about UNCLE's many promotional stills is just how many there are where it looks like Illya’s spotted the camera man, and thinks he’s up to no good.

Book reviews

• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Behind the Scenes Story of a Television Classic
  
A real treasure trove of behind-the-scenes details, recommended to any UNCLE fan.


• Ian Fleming’s Thrilling Cities
  
A travel book by the author of the James Bond novels, and one of Norman Felton's first inspirations for the series. Unfortunately, it quickly turns out that no matter what city Fleming wound up in, all the misogyny of the Bond franchise would still be along for the ride.


• KGB: The secret work of Soviet secret agents
  
A fascinating source on Cold War espionage.

Trivia and other odds and ends from tumblr

• General:
  • On the canonical support for that good old bed-sharing trope in MfU
  
  
• Napoleon Solo:
  • Norman Felton and Ian Fleming design Napoleon Solo + Addendum
  
  
  • Sam Rolfe continues to develop Napoleon Solo
  
  
  • An Annotated Guide to Napoleon’s Apartment + gifs
  
  
• Illya Kuryakin:
  • Canon details about Illya’s UNCLE career
  
  
  • Illya, romance and sex appeal
  
  
  • Illya's promotion to equal billing
  
  
  • Quotes from the later writers' guides, and some meta on Illya, women, and Napoleon + Addendum
    
  
  
• Mr. Waverly:
  • Behind the scenes with Leo G. Carroll's failing health
  
  

Comments

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Very good points to be made all the way through and it's refreshing to see someone look at the show with fresh eyes. I'm sure you are going to have fun with the series and I hope to read some of your work. Where will you be posting it?

Might I also offer you an invitation? There is http://mfu-canteen.livejournal.com/ which is our daily chatting place. There is also http://mfu-scrapbook.livejournal.com/ for all the image needs. There are also tons of links. Both sites are slash friendly.

Finally, looking for a new friend or two?

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the fandom! We're glad to have new members, especially a good writer.

Thank you for a terrific overview. I am most looking forward to seeing those fic ideas. It might be cheek from someone who can't write a word, but if you can fic half as well as you meta, they'll be very fine.

All the meta is admirable, but I'd like to especially yay what you write about S4, which says what I feel (as overview) better than I could. I'd like to add that nonhumans seemed very unfortunate, unlike S1 Fox and Hounds.

Most fans would probably advise against sitting through GfU, but if you ever care to give a small appendix about that; or indeed on any subject, this one would be interested.

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Hiya, I enjoyed reading your thoughts. I've loved U.N.C.L.E. since God was a boy - and I actually like cheese - so the gorilla is fine by me. Although there are better examples of the faux gorilla http://mfu-canteen.livejournal.com/2119557.html

I agree S4 is a bit of a lurch after that, but I enjoy that too.

And I agree the villainesses - and some of the good girls - get better shrift than was often the case at the time. Which, I think, goes some way to making it still watchable. Although it was still undeniably sexist by modern standards.

I put off watching the Reunion for ever, but have just finally watched it. It's not terrible, but it it's not great either. Mediocrity is always the unpardonable sin of showbiz.

I like the boys as mates. I'm not a dedicated slasher, but I have slashed (ahem - slash is also a euphemism for urinating) and will probably do so again.

Like many fandoms - and long term fan I might be, but I'm still fairly new to fandom - I think it feeds on the gaps in the narrative. There's little to fill in or fix, if canon does it all for you.

I'd be interested to see if your views evolve over time :0)

[lindafishes8.livejournal.com]

I see you've jumped into the deep end with gusto. Welcome to LJ. Allow me to recommend posting any gen stories you'd like to share in Section VII http://section7mfu.livejournal.com/ (http://section7mfu.livejournal.com/)

We host many different challenges. Watch for the weekly calendar each Monday, to keep it all straight.

I'm a first cousin (watched the original when it first aired) but there are many second cousins in LJ and all are welcome to join in the fun. You're also welcome to peruse our UNCLE bible. It was written for the 50th Anniversary. http://www.mfuarchive.net/archive/6/MFU_Bible.pdf (http://www.mfuarchive.net/archive/6/MFU_Bible.pdf)

[sparky955.livejournal.com]

Ah. getting your PhD in The Pretty and The Brunet !!!!!

As one who came back to the family in 2007, all I can say is, THANK GHU FOR LJ and online fanfic.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

An interesting and intelligent analysis of the show. I enjoyed reading this and agreed with a great deal of it, which, I suppose, indicates that there are some universals about fandom (or about something) between old fen such as myself and new ones such as you. Welcome, cousin.

[seagull2eagle.livejournal.com]

{flails around excitedly at your post} Awesome, great review and summary of the whole thing! I rather want to write a 7k reply to it, lol, but sadly I don't have enough time for that. But I *really* appreciate the amount of time and effort you've taken into not only the watching but the whole poking around to find everything on the internet and then saying "not enough!" and making one that *does* have what you (and probably others) need. ^^

I'm a fan who grew up watching reruns, and managed to keep liking it into slash years (amazing what we don't see when we're younger!) but never got around to fanficcing it myself until the new movie came out. My friend and I went to see it and I was expecting nothing much... and came out absolutely delighted. It wasn't the most awesome thing in the world, but for what it was, we really quite liked it and thought they did an excellent job. Not the original by any means, but still so much fun and with good characters and dynamics. So then, of course, I went back and started rewatching the original too. Because there's only one movie, but there's hundreds of episodes of the tv... and I fell in love with that all over again as well. For many of the same reasons that you've enumerated here. The characters! The interactions! The wonderful balance between serious and funny. The many, many women in all facets and they at least tried for a decent representation of other races as well (heck, a lot better than most of the current day ones!) It was a product of its time, but it was a GOOD product, and does quite well even to this day.

Regarding Napoleon and the women, I actually had the thought the other day that he doesn't so much *chase* them, as he lets himself be *open* to them - whatever they want to do, he responds accordingly.

Regarding fandom, I actually made a post on this myself a few weeks back (on my journal) that I think fandom and canon diverged so very radically in so many ways because the early fen didn't have dvds to watch - they had their memory of the tv episodes, and the reruns, and in many tv stations, they didn't often rerun the black and whites because it was jarring for the audience. So fen were left with later seasons more than early, and memories, and lots of discussion amongst each other. Which lead to some rather interesting parting of the ways between canon and fanon along the way. Not all bad, but definitely slightly different beasts. ^^ (Like Illya's science - which I quite like, but as you say, isn't there in the series. Rather interestingly, though, *is* there more in the movie! Nod to fanon? Or just giving Illya more depth? Both ways, I like. ^^)

I'm also totally with you that I'm not a season 4 person at all. -_- Which, haven't rewatched all of them yet, but it starts off, as you say, grimdark, and is almost completely irreconcilable with the initial seasons. No hope there, where hope is what the first seasons have in abundance.

This must have been a heck of a post on tumblr, lol. Not the format! Thank you for reposting it in LJ, and with all the pics too. ^^

That clip you have with wet Illya is hysterical because I was just capping that one and very much enjoying making icons of it... Wet T-shirt Illya pulling himself up, yum! :)

Anyhow, must run because late. I really wanted to reply lots more, but had kept putting it off because no time to write that much, and then thought I better post *something* before bed, just so you know how much I appreciate your post and thoughts. I don't think it's wasted at all. And if there's fic ideas too? Even better. ;D

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Wow, you really did jump in feet first! And what a great commentary! You've definitely done your homework. And, yes, it is very interesting to read what a new fan thinks of our very old fandom. I've seen it quite a bit in K/S these last few years; it's really nice to see the same thing happening here. For so long, new members were far and few between. So welcome to the fandom!

Oh, you may want to pick up a copy of this book. It's pretty informative.

http://smile.amazon.com/Man-U-N-C-L-E-Book-Behind---Scenes/dp/0312000529/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456401476&sr=1-1&keywords=the+man+from+uncle+book

[seagull2eagle.livejournal.com]

Instead of replying to your reply, I wrote a ficlet. Inspired by a line in your meta post; though I'll admit it's not the cheeriest of fics. ^^;;; So much for the optimism we were talking about, oops. But, well, sometimes the oddest things stick with us.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6116242

Okay, on to more cheerful things now. And replies. ^_^

[seagull2eagle.livejournal.com]

{checks through LJ posts} Was it on Tumblr where you mentioned ripping the screen captioning for a start on scripts?

Cool idea! ^__^ I have heard that the screen captioning wasn't the best. But it's a heck of a lot more than nothing, and nothing is what's out there now. Would be awesome for just what you said - a quick check of nicknames and other things "I thought they said" only to find they didn't say. Or things like that. Good luck with it. :)