Summing Up: Season Four, The Awards

On the whole, the back-to-basics approach from Season Four producer Anthony Spinner worked. (Given a choice between fluff like "Jingle Bells" and a dark-toned mystery like "J for Judas," I'll go for the latter every time.)  Even the best episodes this year lacked some of the sparkle that graced the best of Seasons One and Two.  But on Spinner's watch, U.N.C.L.E. regained much of its strength and occasionally prefigured the grimmer tone of today's movie and TV spy thrillers.

Now, my coveted Silver Communicator Awards.  Feel free to join in with your own winners and losers:

Best in Show: "Summit Five," "Deadly Quest," "Maze"

Best Performance by Robert Vaughn: "Man from Thrush"

Best Performance by David McCallum: "Gurnius"

Most Important to the U.N.C.L.E. Universe: "Summit Five," "Survival School"

Best Innocent: Sheila van Tillson, "Deadly Quest" (the best of a rather dull lot)

Best Villains: Viktor Karmak, "Deadly Quest"; Harry Beldon, "Summit Five"


Most Colorful: "Prince of Darkness"

A for Atmosphere: "Deadly Quest"

And the Tarnished Medals go to:

Dullest: "Fiery Angel," "Gurnius"

Weakest: "Seven Wonders" (sadly, a poor final note for the series to go out on)

Summing Up: Season Three, the Awards

I know, I know: "Awards?  Why?"

Good point.  This year gave us hardly anything worthy of the sort of laurels earned by the Season One gems like "Project Strigas" and "Fiddlesticks," or Season Two sparklers like "Ultimate Computer" and "Minus-X."  The highlights of Season Three are, with a few exceptions, more a succession of clever scenes or memorable moments, rather than entire episodes.  Still, we shall reward excellence, or at least above-averageness, whene'er we find it.  Accordingly:

Best in Show: "Concrete Overcoat," "Thor," "Deadly Smorgasbord," "Galatea"

Best Villains: Sutro, "Her Master's Voice"; Strago and Miss Diketon, "Concrete Overcoat"

Worst Villain: Colonel Hamid, "Come with Me to the Casbah"

Best Innocents: Captain Morton, "Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum"; Stavros, "It's All Greek to Me"; Rosy and the Baroness, "Galatea"

Worst Innocent: All the innocents in "Hot Number."  Every one of 'em.  They can sit over there next to Nina of "Apple a Day" and Marvin Klump of "Matterhorn."

Silliest/Dumbest: "My Friend the Gorilla," "Abominable Snowman," "Jingle Bells," "Pop Art," "Hot Number". . . ah, the list goes on . . .

Funniest: "Pieces of Fate," "Sort of Do-It-Yourself Dreadful," "Super-Colossal"

Best Scenes and Shots Dept.:
-- The whole jail-cell and escape sequence in "Five Daughters, Part II";

-- the teaser, with Solo grumping about being yanked away from a date, in "Monks of St. Thomas";

-- one of the great defining Solo Moments in "Deadly Smorgasbord," when Beckman "fires" the SAD and gets only a stuffed snake, and Solo holds up his hands with a "For my next trick . . ." smile;

-- the night shot of Solo in "Jingle Bells," crouched on the rooftop with the yellow skylight behind him;

-- the scene in "Candidate's Wife" when Solo tells Irina, "Whatever happens, I'm on your side";

-- in "When in Roma," Illya, after reading young Sammy to sleep with a blood-and-thunder comic book, looks to see how the story comes out;

-- Illya swiftly plugging Sutro in "Her Master's Voice," and the hidden thug about to jump Solo in "Pop Art";

-- and the best, of course, is the moment in "Concrete Overcoat, Part II" in which Solo stands up to Waverly, determined to save Illya and Pia.

Field-strip, oil, reassemble, and load your Specials!  Ensure your communicator is properly tuned for Channel D and local office frequencies!  Onward and upward, to Season Four!

Summing Up: Season Two

In his "The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Book," Jon Heitland points out that ". . . the stories of the second season stand on their own.  Though they lacked Sam Rolfe's touch, they nevertheless adhered to the U.N.C.L.E. formula of adventure with humor.  The plots were not to be taken too seriously, but the villains still exuded menace."  True enough; when it came time to list honors for this season, I found that, while not always up to the quality of Season One, Two has almost too many charms to count.  I wound up with a lot of ties!

Now, my coveted Silver Communicator Awards for Season Two.  Feel free to join in with your own winners and losers:

Best in Show: "Ultimate Computer," "Alexander the Greater," "Re-Collectors"

Best Performance by Robert Vaughn: "Nowhere"

Best Performance by David McCallum: "Ultimate Computer," "Arabian"

Most Important to the U.N.C.L.E. Universe: "Waverly Ring," "Nowhere"

Best Innocent: Buzz Conway, "Project Deephole"

Best Villains: Victor Marton ("Foxes and Hounds"), Vincent Carver ("Discotheque"), Mother Fear and Captain Jenks ("Children's Day"), Arthur Rollo ("Minus-X")

Most Delightful Stories: "Foxes and Hounds," "Ultimate Computer," "Adriatic Express," "Minus-X"

A for Atmosphere: "Very Important Zombie"
And the Tarnished Medals go to:
Dullest: "Round Table"
Silliest: "Yukon," "Foreign Legion," "Indian Affairs"

Onward to Season Three!

Summing Up: Season One

To me (and I suspect, most fans), Season One is the overall best in terms of story values, detail, continuity, and excitement.  Under the tutelage of Sam Rolfe, the series told exciting stories in a fast-paced visual way new to episodic network TV.  Indeed, until the advent of "Star Trek," MfU gave us the widest variety of vivid stories ever seen in a series with continuing characters, and told against a wholly created background to boot.  Just look:

- An assassination plot that wasn't
- An attempt to revive Der Fuehrer
- A battle with a modern-day Antony and Cleopatra
- A pirate preparing for the end of the world
- Two different stories about switched identities
- A scheme to smash a new von Ribbentrop
- A high-tech safecracking
- An artifact from the past, turned out by accident to infect the present
- Intrigue in a night-shrouded Balkan nation
- A story about lost love, and another about loyalties
- A fall down a deadly rabbit hole
- A female Walter Mitty who actually gets to live her dream of spy excitement

And now, my coveted Silver Cigarette Case Communicator Awards.  Feel free to join in with your own winners:

Best Overall:  "Project Strigas" and "Fiddlesticks" (tie)
Best Performances by Robert Vaughn:  "Double" and "Dove"
Best Performances by David McCallum:  "Bow-Wow" (of course) and "Hong Kong Shilling"
Most Original Innocent: Chris Larson in "Finny Foot"
Most Original Villain:  Captain Shark
Most Effective Villain:  Brother Love
Most Delightful Stories: "Mad, Mad Tea Party" and "Never-Never" (a coincidence that both involve U.N.C.L.E. HQ and its personnel?  I think not)
A for Atmosphere:  "Dove" and "Yellow Scarf"

And the Tarnished Medals go to:

Dullest:  "King of Knaves"
Silliest:  "Girls of Navarone"

Onward to Season Two!