The Spy Command, a blog about James Bond-007 and The Other Spies, also has archived feature articles by Bill Koenig, the blog’s editor.
Most of these articles were published on the former Her Majesty’s Secret Servant website. Some are stored on pages of The Spy Command This is an index intended to make all of the articles easier to find.
BOND 26 TIMELINE: Yes, the Bond 26 timeline has begun. It’s early days.
BOND 25 TIMELINE PART 007: THE MOVIE COMES OUT: At long last, No Time to Die is released.
BOND 25 TIMELINE PART SIX: HOLDING PATTERN: A new year, a new delay, this one to October 2021.
BOND 25 TIMELINE PART FIVE: TRY, TRY AGAIN: The movie is delayed again, this time to April 2021.
BOND 25 TIMELINE PART FOUR: GET RE-SET, GET READY…GO?: With a new delay, the makers of Bond films and the studios that release the movies do a re-set for a new November 2020 release date.
BOND 25 TIMELINE PART THREE: POST-PRODUCTION, PUBLICITY…AND CORONAVIRUS: With No Time to Die having finished principal photography, the 25th James Bond film goes to the editing bay. But then a pandemic has an impact.
BOND 25 TIMELINE PART TWO: PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY: The Bond 25 timeline shifts to principal photography on the 25th James Bond film. Cameras are scheduled to roll on April 28, 2019.
BOND 25 TIMELINE PART ONE: HIATUS AND PRE-PRODUCTION: A timeline of Bond 25 events beginning in May 2016 through late April 2019
THE SEAN CONNERY HAIRPIECE PAGE: A look back at the different styles of Sean Connery’s hairpieces, from Bond and Beyond.
MAGAZINE-LENGTH FEATURE STORIES:
1970s TOUGH TIMES FOR SPY TV (New May 22, 2021): After a boom in spy TV shows in the 1960s, things went dry in the 1970s. But that didn’t prevent various unsuccessful efforts.
BOND 25’S MARKETING PLAN (New Nov. 10, 2019): The marketing plan for No Time to Die — Daniel Craig is the best Bond, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Bond adjusts to #MeToo — moves into focus.
JAMES BOND CONFRONTS A CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE : Guest writer Gert Waterink examines a shifting media landscape and how James Bond fits in.
THE POINTLESS RIVALRY BETWEEN 007, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (2018): Guest writer Nicolas Suszczyk examines why the James Bond and Mission: Impossible film franchises are completely different cinematic animals.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE 007 LOGO (September 2016): Guest writer Matthew Grice examines how the iconic 007 logo has evolved from Dr. No to the present.
THE ‘SPECTRE’ OF BOND 25 (September 2016): Pre-production of Bond 25, with or without Daniel Craig, may be one of the most difficult of the series, according to guest writer Gert Waterink.
THE STATE OF THE JAMES BOND FILM FRANCHISE 2016 (August 2016): Less than 12 months after SPECTRE, the 007 film franchise has no confirmed lead actor, no studio to release the next movie, and a production company that has other things on its mind than just James Bond.
CONTINUITY IN JAMES BOND FILMS: Continuity in James Bond films has been uneven. But, in many ways, a renewed emphasis on continuity in 2015’s SPECTRE mirrors what Terence Young did with the first two 007 films.
OUR ARCHIVE OF IAN FLEMING U.N.C.L.E. CORRESPONDENCE: The text of some key letters related to Ian Fleming’s involvement with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. television series.
ROBERT SELLERS DISCUSSES THUNDERBALL ON ITS GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY: The author of The Battle for Bond talks about the fourth James Bond film and the saga of Kevin McClory, Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham.
THE EVOLUTION OF THUNDERBALL: We examine three key scripts in the evolution of the “Biggest Bond of All!” — Jack Whittingam’s 1960 first draft for Kevin McClory, Richard Maibaum’s 1961 first draft when Eon wanted to start its 007 series with Thunderball and the 1965 Maibaum-John Hopkins screenplay.
FAMILIAR MEME: MEGALOMANIAC ENVIRONMENTALISTS: If you’re rich enough and powerful enough, there’s one way to deal with Earth’s environmental problems — take things into your own hands and don’t worry if people die. An expanded version of a post that originally appeared Feb. 15, 2015 in The Spy Command. Contains details about Kingsman: The Secret Service that weren’t in the original post.
THE FAMILY MODEL (EON) VS. THE CORPORATE MODEL (MARVEL): We contrast the family model of filmmaking (Eon Productions, which makes James Bond movies) with the corporate model (Marvel Studios, owned by Walt Disney Co.). An expanded and updated version of a post that originally appeared in April 2013 in The Spy Command.
QUANTUM OF FLEMING (New): How much “Ian Fleming content” is there in each James Bond film? With 23 entries over 50 years, but only a dozen novels and several short stories, something has to give. This story assigns a numerical value, based on a 1-10 scale. Based on a series of posts originally published in The Spy Command.
THE BOND TOO BIG FOR 007 (2011): 1979’s Moonraker was a big movie. Its first-draft script was even bigger — too big for Agent 007 to handle. The article also examines draft scripts for Diamonds Are Forever, Casino Royale and Tomorrow Never Dies.
IRON MAN: THE COLD WAR YEARS (2010): In his early years, Iron Man was the target of a lot of Communist foes. Soviet leaders kept targeting Tony Stark for assassination and the Soviet Union kept trying to come up with its own version of Iron Man.
THE FBI VS. SPIES! (2008): A look at some espionage-related episodes on The FBI (1965-74). In 2014, we started a sister site, THE FBI EPISODE GUIDE, which was completed in 2016.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — THE UNOFFICIAL CASINO ROYALE? (2007). Article comparing the similarities between Casino Royale and an early episode of Mission: Impossible. Originally appeared on HMSS.com and archived at the Internet Wayback Machine website.
IOWA, SPY CENTRAL (2002): The University of Iowa is home to the papers of 007 screenwriter Richard Maibaum and Norman Felton, executive producer of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Many behind-the-scenes details of both 007 and U.N.C.L.E. can be found at Iowa City.
DON’T YIELD, BACK S.H.I.E.L.D. (2000): How writer-artist Jim Steranko stretched the limits during an amazing two-year run on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Updated with a 2015 epilogue about the role Nick Fury has played in the Marvel Studios movies that began in 2008.
MATT HELM: AMERICA’S LOADED WEAPON (2000): How Matt Helm went from serious “counter-assassin” to an extension of The Dean Martin Show.
WILD, WILD WEST? (1999) You can’t go home again — at least that seemed to be the lesson when there were attempts in 1979 and 1999 to revive The Wild, Wild West. One had the original cast. The other was a big budget (at the time) movie version of a television classic.
HOWARD HAWKS’ CASINO ROYALE (1998): Howard Hawks in 1962 was approached by producer Charles K. Feldman about directing Casino Royale. A speculative piece of what that might have been like. The story originally appeared on HMSS.com and is archived on the Internet Wayback Machine website.
BLOOD FEUD: MCGARRETT VS. WO FAT (1998): A look at the battle between Steve McGarrett and Wo Fat in the original Hawaii Five-O series. A 2015 epilogue describes how the McGarrett-Wo Fat battle was altered in the new series that debuted in 2010.
A VISIT WITH IAN FLEMING (1997): Indiana University’s Lilly Library contains 15 Ian Fleming manuscripts and correspondence to and from the author. Viewing the material is the closest you’ll get to having a visit with Ian Fleming.
The Spy Command Feature Story Index 