James Bond: Spies, Lies and Family Ties

[dizzydrea]

I grew up watching James Bond movies, as I'm sure I've mentioned before. My very first Bond film was The Spy Who Loved Me. I saw part of it at a pizza parlor and I was hooked. I think I was ten at the time. It was the car. The car that could swim. I so wanted one.

But I digress.

Despite the fact that Roger Moore was my first Bond, my favorite Bond was always Sean Connery. He was such the suave, sophisticated 00 agent that I so wanted to meet one day. Oddly, one of my favorite installments of the series was On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which starred George Lazenby in his one and only appearance as Bond.

I mention all of that to help explain where the idea for this story came from. You see, no one ever addresses why there's a different Bond every so many years. Obviously, we're meant to believe that it's the same man, and just ignore that it's a different face.

Well, when Casino Royale was announced, and Daniel Craig was named the next Bond, I was admittedly skeptical. They were going for a younger, edgier Bond, and I wasn't sure how that would work.

I was wrong, of course, and Daniel Craig has quickly become one of my favorite Bonds.

Fast forward to Skyfall, and Muse is still wondering how this different Bonds thing works. She kept pestering me with this idea, that what's really going on is that James Bond is an alias for 007, and that it's been used by many men down through the years.

I wrote another story earlier this year that trades on that same idea (Secret Agent Man), but this story delves into the idea a bit more. Where Secret Agent Man merely suggests that both Bond and Monepenny are aliases, Spies, Lies and Family Ties is based on the idea that Moneypenny is actually the daughter of the original James Bond.

The reason for that is simple: Samantha Bond played Moneypenny in the Pierce Brosnan films. I simply couldn’t resist "casting" her as Moneypenny in this story. The irony was just too much for me to resist. So, Jane Moneypenny (and the name Jane comes from the book The Moneypenny Chronicles) is really Samantha Bond, daughter of the original James Bond, and this incarnation of Bond (as played by Daniel Craig) is simply the latest 007 to use the name.

Of course, there's also a good dollop of romance in this story, because I simply can't resist. I've always loved the flirting between any version of Bond and Moneypenny. But I also hated the idea that Moneypenny is some fainting flower, hence her being a field agent in her own right in this story.

But really, this all boils down to the fact that Muse needed an explanation for why there've been so many men playing Bond over the years. She is a strange creature sometimes, my Muse, but I try not to question it too much.

I hope you enjoy it!

Spies, Lies and Family Ties