Rebuilding SPECTRE/James Bond

[Arthur Frayn]

So this is an idea I've been noodling with for awhile now, where it's basically a rebuild/reboot/reconstruction/whatever of the "classic" era of Bond films in the 1960's.

The main idea is that SPECTRE, rather than being some vaguely nefarious criminal organization on steroids, is, in fact, a resurgent Nazi intelligence agency that managed to survive the fall of the 3rd Reich, and is now quietly re-asserting itself on the world stage. Think of them as a turbocharged Paladin Group or ODESSA - a bunch of former Nazi's and other fascist-aligned groups working together to pit the USSR and NATO against one another. The rough backstory is that SPECTRE was the Nazis answer to the British SOE - an anything goes, blank check secret organization dedicated to fucking with the Allied war effort by any means necessary (yes, I know that historically the Nazis intelligence efforts were hilariously outclassed by the Allies, but work with me here). Blofeld (here a Prussian nobleman and ardent Nazi, as opposed to a German-born Polish opportunist) sees the writing on the wall in 1944, and starts setting up ratlines to South America and Switzerland, funneling money into offshore accounts, burying weapons stockpiles, setting up sleeper agents via surrendering troops, etc.

When Hitler discovers this he's less than thrilled and orders Blofeld's execution, but by then he's already gone to ground and the Soviets are shelling Berlin. The Allies assume that SPECTRE was dismantled as the Third Reich collapsed, and Blofeld and co. become the Great White Whales for Nazi hunters. Flash forward to 1960, and (surprise surprise) Blofeld emerges from the South American bolthole and begins re-activating the organization.

That's about as far as I've gotten now, but would welcome input/ideas/critiques/etc. One thing I do need to figure out is what SPECTRE now stands for; a German counter-intelligence organization wouldn't have an English name, so SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion wouldn't work. Anyone have any ideas for a similar title in German that would plausibly be shortened to SPECTRE?

 

[Dahak]

I'd suggest SPECTRE's name was actually Unternehmen Gespenst for similar reasons to the real life Unternehmen Werwolf, and MI5 translated that as Operation Spectre and just used the capitalized form as they tend to with codenames. Over the years they've come just to call it SPECTRE because being English they find that easier and faster to pronounce.
SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion is a backronym some bored clerk came up with in the 1950s, got mentioned somewhere one of Gespenst's people heard about it and which they now use occasionally as a false flag when dealing with the likes of American Neo Nazis and Sorviegn Citizens, who couldn't be counted on to pronounce Gespenst if given a helping sneeze. the CIA use it for much the same reason the FBI used to call the mafia La Cosa Nostra, even after it was pointed out how wrong that was.

 

[Emote Control]

IIRC, SPECTRE was created because of a thaw in the Cold War. Ian Fleming got worried the Cold War would end -- if it did, it wouldn't be credible for James Bond to be combating insidious Russian masterminds. Therefore SPECTRE was created as a non-political villainous-scheme factory.

If you're rebooting James Bond in the modern timeline, though, I wouldn't got with the Nazi-remnant route. World War 2 was literally three human generations ago -- the idea that something Hitler came up with is still going strong with its original purpose strains belief (despite the presence of Neo-Nazis in real life). James Bond was always more "grounded" than Clive Cussler or techno-thriller writers such as Tom Clancy or David Poyer.

 

[Arthur Frayn]

IIRC, SPECTRE was created because of a thaw in the Cold War. Ian Fleming got worried the Cold War would end -- if it did, it wouldn't be credible for James Bond to be combating insidious Russian masterminds. Therefore SPECTRE was created as a non-political villainous-scheme factory.

If you're rebooting James Bond in the modern timeline, though, I wouldn't got with the Nazi-remnant route. World War 2 was literally three human generations ago -- the idea that something Hitler came up with is still going strong with its original purpose strains belief (despite the presence of Neo-Nazis in real life). James Bond was always more "grounded" than Clive Cussler or techno-thriller writers such as Tom Clancy or David Poyer.

Click to shrink...

It's not in the modern timeline, rather in the early 60's era like the original books/Connery films.

I'd suggest SPECTRE's name was actually Unternehmen Gespenst for similar reasons to the real life Unternehmen Werwolf, and MI5 translated that as Operation Spectre and just used the capitalized form as they tend to with codenames. Over the years they've come just to call it SPECTRE because being English they find that easier and faster to pronounce.
SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion is a backronym some bored clerk came up with in the 1950s, got mentioned somewhere one of Gespenst's people heard about it and which they now use occasionally as a false flag when dealing with the likes of American Neo Nazis and Sorviegn Citizens, who couldn't be counted on to pronounce Gespenst if given a helping sneeze. the CIA use it for much the same reason the FBI used to call the mafia La Cosa Nostra, even after it was pointed out how wrong that was.

Click to shrink...

I actually love this idea, thanks!

 

[Dahak]

One thing I find possibly interesting for background for this sort of thing is The Register's article on what James Bonds' career path must have been. A chunk of it is pointing out what the various people in the SIS actually do of course, and they are dealing more with the movie than novel Bond.

Mick Herron's Slough House series does that from a different point of view given it's major characters are mostly in trouble with the Intelligence Service for operating as if they were in Fleming's version rather than a more realistic one.

 

[Gyrfalcon]

I feel the core issue with Bond is he's a living embodiment of British imperialism and times have changed enough that people aren't so down with the kind of character he was/is.