working on timelines...

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Some of you may have paid attention to a recent trend in my stories that have to do with validating the Return Movie, that most vilified of MFU non-episode yet solidly canon film in which we have Messrs. Solo and Kuryakin no longer with UNCLE but out having a life elsewhere.


I'm also delving into pre-New York life, particularly Illya's, in which there must be a reasonable timeline established for his remarkable assortment of degrees, accomplishments and general Illya-ness.
The other night I watched the Gazebo in the Maze Affair, in which Napoleon states that he and Illya encountered Emory Partridge seven years prior.  Now, the episode was shown in the spring of '65, so I'm going to go with that, which means they would have been in South America routing Emory sometime in 1958.  
Illya graduated Survival School in '56, correct?  He would have already had his Bachelor's from the UG in the Ukraine by then, and before heading off to South America he should have finished the Master's at the Sorbonne.  He would then, after ruining the Partridge's party, have needed to head straight for London and start on his doctorate at Cambridge while working, we have all surmised, for Harry Beldon.  Now, I'm not sure how long it takes someone to gain a PhD in Quantum Mechanics from Cambridge, but I'm thinking he's going to just make it to New York in time to film the pilot in 1963... tongue in cheek here.
Does that track with people here, or am I missing something?  Those writers in Season 3 should have checked on what happened in Seasons 1&2 before they started handing out doctorate degrees to a man on such a tight schedule.  No wonder Illya doesn't show a lot of interest in women, he's probably still pooped from all of that academic overload.

''Can I just rest now?''

Comments

[carabele.livejournal.com]

With trying to timeline anything in MFU, you have to just go with what little was given and then create a timeline that works for your own MFU fiction universe.

The series' writers were freelance and paid little attention to logical continuance of what other writers had previously done. (And that PhD given Illya in Season 3 was really ridiculous anyway considering not only timeline, but the fact that in Season 2 in VIRTUE he was shown as not even knowing how to talk to scientists in a "scientific" way. And then again in Season 4, in MAZE he makes a comment about it being valuable to have a physicist as a fellow captive with regard to Fabray. So obviously he didn't consider himelf such.) So honestly go with what works for you. As long as there are no glaring time-goofs, it's really hard to question whether this or that is a year or so off to one side or the other.

Also remember, in GAZEBO IN THE MAZE, though Illya is mentioned by Solo as having been part of the original Partridge mission, Illya himself does not recognize Partridge during that initial bus setup at the start of the episode. So, as I've mentioned before, it is quite possible Illya played a very minor role in that mission, perhaps in some sort of technical capacity. And more than likely he was working under Beldon, not Waverly, at that time. If the mission was big enough, no reason agents from several different U.N.C.L.E. offices might not have been working in tandem on it. Thus, though Solo was working out of New York, Illya didn't have to be in order to be involved in the same mission. (And Partridge was a Brit, so the initial investigation regarding him and his antics in South America could very well have been initiated in U.N.C.L.E.'s London office.)

And sorry, just have to say this, the RETURN movie to me is no more canon than the silly ACE novels. It, like the novels, was done strictly with commercialism in mind. There was no real effort to make either conform to the setup of the original series. With the movie, CBS (not even the same network as the original series) was trying to capture "lightning in a bottle" for a second time. It didn't work (basically because they didn't get it even halfway right), so they moved on and the movie has blessedly been mostly forgotten.

[eilidhsd.livejournal.com]

Distance learning?

[rosywonder.livejournal.com]

I am with Carabele on practically everything she says including the absurd 'Return' film. I've always adopted the 'make it feel right' method, try to get the canon thing as right as you can, but don't tie yourself in knots over it. As she says, the MFU series writers obviously didn't.

When I started writing, I worked out a time line/back story that worked for me, making Illya a couple of years younger, and giving him chance to complete his doctorate (av time 3 years) in the peace of the Cambridgeshire fens without anyone, including UNCLE breathing down his neck. Despite the series, he is a proper academic in my stories!

As to the 'return' thing, I did use one of its more absurd ideas (Illya as a fashion designer) and re-work it somewhat in my third long story. Well, you'll have to read it to see what I did . . . .

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

My personal time line for Illya has him taking a Maths degree in the USSR at ~age 16-18 (maths is notorious for young students, google Ruth Lawrence), he can then do National Service in the navy 18-20, Masters at the Sorbonne after that (another couple of years). Finally starts his PhD at Cambridge 23/24 and goes to Survival School as a break in his PhD. He then does a bit of work under Beldon, working out of Cambridge while he completes his degree, before going to NY at ~27.

With a maths and theoretical physics background he does not do lab work, especially chemistry.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I agree with adapting your own timeline. I had Illya completing all his education, University of Ukraine, Sorbonne and Cambridge before coming to UNCLE. (as well as doing his mandatory military service in the Navy. In my stories he was a Soviet operative while completing his studies and as he was already a trained agent I had him under Harry Beldon's tutelage for several years. He attended Survival School prior to his transfer to NY ( the big leagues) This all under Waverly's direction.

I ignore the inconsistencies regarding his scientific abilities on the show. In the reunion movie as I recall, David McCallum suggested the role reversal, he being the women's clothing designer instead of being the owner of the computer company. He wanted to shake things up a bit. And it did you fans I suppose as it really didn't make sense for their characters to go in the directions they did. If it were the reverse, it would have made more sense, and possibly made the movie better for the fans. oh well, it is what it is and I admire your taking it on, but as I said, developing your own time-line would be more logical in that illogical and inconsistent world that the MFU writers gave us.

The stories you've written are great and are helping make the "reunion scenario" more palatable, so keep up the good work.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Just want to say I'm looking forward to reading more of your excellent stories set in that pro-Return timeline.

(Reapermum's suggestion looks admirable. Anyway, it looks as if it would help if he was one of those people who get by with little sleep!)

[rosywonder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I apologise Glenna for not saying that your stories are lovely and I'm sure that Kuryakin is more than capable of holding his own with a pair of scissors and a bolt of cloth. In fact he can design me something any old time he pleases, as long as there's a fitting included . . .!!