Ever given a thought to HR and Henchmen?
Or OH &S as per OHMSS?
Super geek Kathryn Harkup has and gives it vent in her Q branch fan tome, SUPERSPY SCIENCE, a Qute critique of science, death and tech in the world of James Bond.
Harkup harries the question: Where do the Bond villains recruit their staff? Is their a minion recruitment agency and what is offered more than a steady wage and a free boiler suit or a life time supply of black skivvies to endure employment by a homicidal megalomaniac hell bent on world domination?
But they are fantasy figures fleshed out by thespians, what about the stunt teams? Thankfully, unlike Blofeld, the Broccolis take safety seriously, with only one recorded death in the history of the film series, that of stunt performer, Paulo Rigoni, on the set of For Your Eyes Only.
In the Bond films’ 60 year history, so many amazing sequences have been created with so few incidents thanks to the immense talents of the team behind the films and the safety precautions put in place.
Pay attention Double O Seven, as Harkup takes us through 25 chapters from the naive nuclear reactors of Dr. No to the nanobots of No Time To Die.
The narrative is not linear though, as she jumps from film to film, colouring outside the lines of designated chapter headings, ping ponging the plausible with the downright doubtful and far fetched impossible.
Harkup, who is a chemist as well as a hard core Bond fan, confesses that that the science underpinning the various plots is shaky at best, but does the science have to be factual in an otherwise fictional universe?
Never say nevertheless, a certain topicality has been a benchmark in the Bondwagon of manufactured mayhem, from toppling space craft to the introduction of lasers, solar power and bioterrorism, to weaponising electromagnetic pulse, and Harkup carves up the improbable exaggerations from the existing possibilities.
A fun book for fans, SUPERSPY SCIENCE makes a splendid stocking filler this Santa season.
SUPERSPY SCIENCE by Kathryn Harkup is published by Bloomsbury.