The Return of the Control Room Station?

JBFan626

One of the aspects of earlier Bond films that I enjoyed were those control room scenes: guys with headphones, display screens, flashing lights, big red buttons, radio transmission speak. I'm thinking of scenes like those found at the laire in Dr. No or the Hawaii Capcom scene at the beginning of You Only Live Twice or even to a smaller degree in the opening submarine scene in FYEO. There's a very 'NASA' feel about them. I love the feeling of suspense and panic, yet focused diligance to the task at hand. Maybe these types of scenes are a relic now, but I think it would be great to see this type of sequence in Bond23. I don't think we've seen something like this in a good long while...

HASEROT

similar scenes were used in Tomorrow Never Dies... that is the last time i can remember them being used.....

it depends on the subject matter, and the storyline if these scenes are too work.. i wouldn't want them forced in if they don't feel right - ya'know?

thelordflasheart

I agree with haserot - putting something in a film just because it seems "Bond-y" isn't a good enough reason IMHO.

Those big control rooms must have looked impressive, and more importantly, *new* in the 1960's during the space race. They would seem neither now, and would look more like Austin Powers than Bond to a lot of people I reckon. Although one of the things I loved about GoldenEye is that they pulled off the control room/villians lair, albeit it in an updated way. But now that you can control everything from your iPhone or Blackberry I'm guessing the control rooms aren't needed ;-)

00Beast

Nice post, JBFan626! I must say, I agree with you! I always did like those scenarios, especially when Bond has to get inside of one in order to stop a countdown, like in YOLT and TSWLM. I also liked it when the villains had to abandon the control room as it's about to blow. It's somehow very suspenseful, even if Bond isn't present at the time, like in DN, DAF, GE, and TND. I do hope Bond 23 brings back the large-scale control room stations! They are very Bond-like, and really have become staples in the Bond series.

j7wild

bring back those Moonraker girls!

Bond had the loveliest bunch of girls in Moonraker than any other film!

Benny

bring back those Moonraker girls!

Bond had the loveliest bunch of girls in Moonraker than any other film!

I'd rather they actually had something to do, rather than lounge around bringing little to the story.
Besides, Bond hasn't had the lovelies hanging around him in mass numbers since TLD, and only then it was really for publicity shots. I supposed the trend died with the end of the Moore era.
Back to the topic at hand, I think it's due time for Bond to enter and destroy a control room, or have one feature in the movie, as a base of ops where Bond can report back to the action as it happens. Similar to the situation room that M observes Bond in TND.

00Beast

The Control Room Stations really add an element of suspense and thrill to the Bond movies, because they pretty much run the villain's entire plan, and even if the main villain died, it would still keep the plan going on typically a countdown. The whole "back-to-basics" approach with CR and QoS didn't really provide room for that, but hoefully Bond 23 will add this long-lost element.

DaltonCraig007

Yes, bring back the control room... and have a large-scale battle in it !! And bring back the old M office, with the wooden plank, desk so full everything will fall on the floor, libraries, old telephone ( not the boring wireless one from now) and the big, red, thick door !!

JBFan626

Those big control rooms must have looked impressive, and more importantly, *new* in the 1960's during the space race. They would seem neither now, and would look more like Austin Powers than Bond to a lot of people I reckon. Although one of the things I loved about GoldenEye is that they pulled off the control room/villians lair, albeit it in an updated way. But now that you can control everything from your iPhone or Blackberry I'm guessing the control rooms aren't needed ;-)

I do agree to an extent...maybe not the old 50's/60's science fiction style control room with the blinking lights, random meters, gauges, antennae and the like...but I'd like a return to the idea of a fleet--either on the villains side or on the allies side. I like the idea of a group of officers and aerial/naval/combat personnel working together on a mission. Bring back Commander Bond and the old military formalism we saw in the earlier films: give us guys in helicopters and headsets reporting back to command bases saying things like "Roger" and "this is aerial fleet 524 reporting to Command center, do you copy". These are the ingredients that made for a great finale. There is a sense of a build-up; there is an actual mission at hand; not some rogue agenda by Bond working on his Sony Eriksson. Instead, Bond has a whole fleet to back him up to go up against some base or laire, yet only Bond can be the one to sneak in and save the day at the last minute. At the same time he couldn't do it without his back-up. It's like the Star Wars original trilogy, where there is a fleet of figther jets (x-wings) to take out the Death Star, but within all that is the personal battle of the Luke the main protagonist against the villain (Vader). This is the kind of finale I'd like to see, and they've done it before with Bond.

Ok, I've gone on too long here and a bit on a tangent. But I like the idea of the Bond mission to exist on a bigger scale, and having that control room setting as a backdrop is the right for that.

DaltonCraig007

Yes @JBFan626 - that's the main problem with Bond since 1995 : Neither Brosnan or Craig worked with an ally fleet in a huge battle. The best Brosnan did was a duo work with Berry in DAD and Yeoh in TND... Craig worked with Camille in QOS yet he did most of the work himself... Yes, more helicopter, military formalism, and bring back Commander Bond !!

Samuel001

I think in time, even with Craig we may see some of that @DaltonCraig007. If it's brought back though it must be done right and in a non-cliched way, which is very important so with the current team maybe it's best that it is left out. ;-)

00Beast

Yes, those military raids at the end were always really spectacular, like in GF, TB, YOLT, OHMSS, DAF, TSWLM, and MR. I hope they bring those back very soon.

shadowonthesun

Raids and/or control rooms should only be included if the story actually calls for them. If you just include them for the sake of having them and sculpting the plot around them, you end up with MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II (though to be fair to John Woo, he was forced to cut an hour out of the film, and a lot of the plot ended up on the cutting room floor).

JamesBond

One of the aspects of earlier Bond films that I enjoyed were those control room scenes: guys with headphones, display screens, flashing lights, big red buttons, radio transmission speak. I'm thinking of scenes like those found at the laire in Dr. No or the Hawaii Capcom scene at the beginning of You Only Live Twice or even to a smaller degree in the opening submarine scene in FYEO. There's a very 'NASA' feel about them. I love the feeling of suspense and panic, yet focused diligance to the task at hand. Maybe these types of scenes are a relic now, but I think it would be great to see this type of sequence in Bond23. I don't think we've seen something like this in a good long while...

I totally agree with you, pal.

00Beast

Hahahaha, just looked back at this thread from last June and realized that we were still calling it "Bond 23". Oh the times! I wonder if SkyFall will have a control room station, and if Silva will be running it? We saw Dr. No, Blofeld, Stromberg, Drax, Trevelyan, Carver, and Graves in their control stations, so perhaps Silva will pick up the pace again! From what the trailers have shown, we are at least privileged to see Silva's hideout, but it doesn't look like much of a control room to me, so maybe that's not the one. I wouldn't doubt it if SkyFall did not feature one, but I am hoping it will!