section7mfu | S1-S4 subtitle files, and some analysis of nicknames and catch-phrases

Cross-posted from here on

muncle, at

glennagirl's request.

A little while back, I came across a Section VII post from last year Round Table - Catch Phrases discussing the providence of various nicknames that turn up in fic, like 'tovarisch' and 'partner mine', and thought I'd see if I could source some of the ones people weren't sure about.

A little background context first: Frustrated by the lack of complete episode scripts for The Man from UNCLE available online, I recently went through the process of ripping the subtitle files from my DVDs and posted them online (details in another muncle post). These aren't a proper substitute for episode scripts, as there's no character attribution to most of the dialogue, and some lines do get mis-transcribed or abbreviated to save space, but they're close to the next best thing. Download links below for those who'd like their own copy.

Download as plain text | Download with italics

Of course, the really nice thing about having all the scripts available in text format is that it's then pretty trivial to write some code to search them all for particular quotes. So I set about running a search for a few obvious candidates, and turned up some interesting results – including some real surprises about how the different seasons handled the thorny issue of Illya's ethnicity.

Tovarich
Used once, Napoleon referring to Illya when speaking to a third party (The Girls of Nazarone Affair, "Tovarich here, he always thinks that he knows-"). It's worth noting that Napoleon was making a point about Illya's 'Russian stubbornness' at the time as a cover for why they were trying to trace a racing car part, so it's perhaps reaching a little when fans use it as an all-purpose affectionate nickname. Illya's also called 'tovarich' once by a third party in The Terbuf Affair, and the word is used once more in the same episode referring to someone else again. It appears nowhere else in the series (regardless of spelling), as far as I can tell, but it's certainly no pure fan invention.

IK
Used exactly once by Napoleon in The Mad Mad Tea Party Affair ("Ready when you are, IK."). This may actually be the case of Napoleon using one of these nicknames for Illya purely for the hell of it, without obviously making some sort of point (as in 'Tovarich' or 'Pussycat', those couple of times in the See Paris and Die Affair).

Illyusha/Illyushenka
Both used once in reference to Illya by a third party (an elderly Russian woman who was hitting on him) in The See-Paris-And-Die Affair.

Polya/Napasha/etc
Pure fanon, no-one in the show is ever called any variation on these, though I'm pretty sure most people are aware of that when they use them. Napoleon does once tell a woman she can call him 'Nappy' if she likes (The Deadly Toys Affair), though. I don't think I can see that catching on in fic.

Partner (all variants thereof)
Surprisingly, this is almost never used in reference to Illya and Napoleon. Only once do either of them use 'partner' in direct reference to the other, when Illya uses it to explain who Napoleon is to a third party (The It's All Greek To Me Affair). Other people refer to one of them as the other's partner 4 times that I've caught: twice by villains (The Re-Collectors Affair and The King of Diamonds Affair), once by Mr Waverly posing as a villain (The Pieces of Fate Affair) and once by a guest character in the It's All Greek To Me Affair. That, amazingly enough, seems to be it.

By and large, people seem to talk around the subject of Napoleon and Illya's professional relationship rather than qualifying it as a partnership. Even in The Moonglow Affair – an episode which explicitly deals with the forming of a new partnership between April Dancer and Mark Slate – the word 'partner' is never used in reference to either duo: Waverly calls them a 'team' once or twice in that ep, but never partners. In total, there are 22 hits for the word 'partner' in the subs from all seasons, but mostly not in reference to our heroes. (And just to clarify, 'partner mine' specifically never does appear either – I imagine we have the website to thank for popularising that one.)

My friend
I have not checked every single use of this, as a search gets me 93 hits (even before you consider variations like 'my dear friend'), many of them from contexts which have nothing to do with UNCLE's star duo. Still, from even a very quick check of a few hits, it's obvious this is common from both of them. It's the default way they explain their relationship to other people – for example, when Napoleon is introducing Illya to his old commander in The Secret Sceptre Affair, or when Illya is explaining his job in the 'Welcome to UNCLE' sequence ("Like my friend Napoleon, I go and I do whatever I am told to by our chief") which appears in every episode from 2-6. 'Your friend' seems more likely to be how other people refer to their relationship with each other too (often in the context of "if you want to save your friend Mr Kuryakin/Solo", because that's pretty much how the job seems to go). Mr Waverly actually refers to Illya as "your Russian friend" even in the office on one occasion, when talking to Napoleon once in The Spy With My Face.

Napoleon and Illya also call one another 'my friend' directly a number of times. To list just a couple of examples, Illya calls Napoleon that twice directly in Brain-Killer, and Napoleon calls him that once in See-Paris-And-Die. There are probably others, but you get the idea.

It's worth noting that 'my friend' is also something Illya uses in other contexts, and sometimes even when he's threatening someone. In Terbuf, for example, he refers to Napoleon as 'my friend' twice when speaking to other people, though he also calls a gypsy 'my friend' while trying to convince them he's one of them (a gypsy later calls them 'my friends' a few times too, so this eventually took), and a captured enemy officer 'my friend' twice in quick succession while threatening him (worth noting here that one of these was missing from the subtitles, demonstrating that they will occasionally miss things). He seems to find it a pretty useful all-purpose sort of phrase.

[adjective] Russian, [adjective] American
I've saved this for last because some interesting stuff came up while checking this one, which I wanted to go into in a little more depth. Though it's rare, this definitely happens. Napoleon calls Illya a 'Sly Russian' ("Well, you are a sly Russian. Someday, when you grow up you should make someone a marvelous secret agent") during The Odd Man Affair, and a 'Smart Russian' ("You're a smart Russian.") during The Never-Never Affair. He also refers to himself as a 'Smart American' once in the same episode, though I can't trace any time where Illya refers to him as such.

Napoleon uses 'Smart Russian' once more in The King of Diamonds Affair, and this is this interesting one. The line is a little hard to hear, and the subtitles actually have it as 'Ah, smart Russians'. In context, it's a little ambiguous as to whether Napoleon's referring to Illya (who just picked a safe), or whoever designed the alarms (which just went off), but considering there's no reason to suppose anyone Russian was involved in designing the system, I'm assuming he means Illya. The line is said as a very vague aside and is hard to make out, and I'm half-suspicious it may even have been an ad-lib.

But the really odd thing about it is that this is literally the only time anyone refers to Illya as Russian anywhere after the end of the first season – and the longer I look through the scripts, the more I suspect that has to have been deliberate. And for all the discussion I've seen of how S1 was the strongest of the seasons, the one most willing to take itself seriously, this is one factor I don't know if anyone has pointed out before – only that when you look at search results by episode like I've been doing, it becomes pretty hard to ignore.

Though the first season doesn't do a lot with Illya's heritage, it doesn't shy away from admitting to it. Illya is explicitly referred to as Russian in The Girls of Nazarone Affair (by Napoleon), The Love Affair (by himself), and by other parties in See Paris and Die and The Shark Affair, not to mention getting a scene in Russia in Russian Military uniform in The Neptune Affair. Though I don't have the complete script for The Spy With My Face (extended theatrical version of The Double Affair), he's referred to as Russian so many times that one can't help but suspect the writers were worried the audience might forget if they stopped dropping in regular reminders (none of these lines made the TV cut though, ftr). But as soon as we hit season two: nothing, but for that one 'Smart Russian' mumble. Nor is he Soviet, Communist, or from the USSR in any variation I can think to look for. Seasons three and four are all more of the same.

On the two occasions where Illya's geographic origins come up at all, he's suddenly not Russian but specifically Ukrainian. We hear a reference to his childhood in Kiev in The Foxes and Hounds Affair, and about his education at the 'University of Georgia, in the Ukraine' in The Hot Number Affair – which is a pretty odd reference, given that the European Georgia is not a part of Ukraine at all, but a wholly separate country. A fair bit of googling has yet to find me a single reference to a place called Georgia in Ukraine, let alone one with a university (though if there is one that I have missed somehow please do someone let me know – lord knows I'm no expert on European geography), which probably indicates a bit of awkward research-fail in order to make a joke on screen. Notably, the joke would've made perfect geographic sense had Illya specified that he went to university in Georgia in the USSR, which it was back in 1966. But they don't, and I can't help but be suspicious that someone behind the scenes has chickened out big time, and has made sure the scripts downplay Illya's Russian/Soviet connections to the point of near-invisibility. Ukraine may still be a Soviet state, but one I'd imagine would have been much more palatable to a US audience.

But the coup de grace of Illya's ambiguous origins may remain the seriously weird events of The Jingle Bells Affair, in which Napoleon and Illya play chaperone to a visiting dignitary from an unspecified but clearly Soviet nation, who not once in all their scenes seems to notice that one of his guides is, himself, also from the USSR. Illya himself spends the episode talking about western capitalism as if he's as familiar and comfortable with it as any native. Neither seem to be aware they're spending time in the presence of a fellow countryman. I'm honestly not sure what we're supposed to make of it; it's bizarre to watch. About the only possible way I can make sense of it is to assume some mandate from behind the scenes to avoid talking about Illya as a Soviet citizen at just about any cost.

Come to think of it, maybe it should be no surprise we never heard 'tovarich' again either.

Anyhow, that's about it for this particular foray into the scripts of The Man from UNCLE – but if there's anything else you'd like me to plug into my search script to see if I can source the quote, drop me a line! Now I've got the code set up it's very easy to do.