James Bond has gadgets that would make Thomas Edison green with envy for not inventing them. Q, of course, monitors Bond’s gadgets from conception to execution.
The exchanges between Q and Bond reveal how and why the gadgets can be used. Later in the film, Bond uses the gadgets as Q described. Q, though fond of Bond, rises to impatience. In Thunderball (1965), Q shouts at Bond to stop being frivolous when handling the weapons.
In License to Kill (1989), Q chastises Bond’s female ally when she tries taking a picture with a camera that is actually a laser weapon, nearly killing Bond. He exclaims, Stop fiddling about with things you don’t understand!
Q inspired a television takeoff — Massarati and the Brain (originally titled Massarati and Q), an idea that never got beyond the pilot stage. When an entertainment industry executive attended a screening of For Your Eyes Only (1981) at the home of television mogul Aaron Spelling, he realized audiences enjoy the scenes with Q and the gadgets. The original premise of Massarati was a soldier of fortune teaming with a genius inventor friend. By the time the project was filmed, the inventor was a 13 year-old boy. Massarati and the Brain aired during Summer 1982.
Bond’s adventures bring him to close proximity with desirable women whose beauty, sexuality, and allure are matched by their provocative names. Very close.
In Diamonds Are Forever (1971), a woman introduces herself as Plenty O’Toole. Bond suggests that she was named after her father. When Bond meets Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (1964), he cannot quite comprehend the woman’s moniker. He responds, I must be dreaming. Upon learning of Dr. Holly Goodhead’s name in Moonraker (1979), Bond grins.
Lois Chiles’ portrayal of Holly Goodhead proves that men do make passes at girls who wear glasses. The final scenes of Moonraker exemplify suggestiveness. A U.S. space command patches a video connection from the Space Shuttle rescued by Bond and Goodhead to Buckingham Palace and the White House simultaneously. The video shows Bond and Goodhead weightless in the shuttle, making love. M — James Bond’s boss — mutters 007 in frustration while the Minister of Defense asks, What’s Bond doing? In a perfect double entendres, Q responds, I think he’s attempting re-entry sir.
Moonraker ends with Goodhead asking, hopefully, Take me around the world one more time? Another double entendre. Bond replies, characteristically, Why not?