#section ii

[thecountofs]

Section III Courier

[office-of-naval-intelligence]

who in ONI makes the best egg fried rice?

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Commander Sullivan I have a proposal!

- Operative Hazard

[oni-fly-team]

Incoming Transmission…

Verifying…

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Decrypting…

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Decrypted

The Office of Naval Intelligence Section III Interplanetary Fly Team is an Office of Naval Intelligence unit that specializes in small-unit tactics, law enforcement, intelligence gathering, and diplomatic cooperation.

The subsequent data releases have been authorized by CINCONI.

This, is the ONI Interplanetary Fly Team. And these are their stories.

Semper Vigilans.

[rallamajoop]

On Napoleon and Illya’s ranks within UNCLE

So, I made a post recently about the varying models of Napoleon’s office (which Illya sometimes seems to share with him and sometimes doesn’t), and @mrsspooky​ reblogged it with a suggestion that maybe Illya got his own office (ie, after The Shark Affair) when he was promoted to Number 2 of Section II. That got me wondering, since AFAIK Illya’s been Number 2 from the start*. But then again, given that we don’t know exactly how or when he got that promotion anyway, maybe there’s at least space for a headcanon where it happened somewhere mid-series? Out of curiosity, I checked my subs files to see if I could find the first time he’s referred to as “Number 2, Section II” in the dialogue.

As it turns out, Illya’s only ever referred to by rank twice. The first instance was in the S2 ep Foxes and Hounds (the second time is in Foreign Legion, but they botch it -- Illya introduces himself as Number 2 of Section I, which is clearly a mistake that no-one caught). So if you want to theorise he was promoted sometime in S1, it’s always possible.

Anyhow, surprised that so little was made of Illya’s position, I checked how often Napoleon is referred to as Number 1 of Section II, and blew my own mind slightly, because the answer?

Never.

Not once is Napoleon ever called Section II Number 1 in dialogue, or any variant thereof. Nor is he ever called Chief Enforcement Agent †, or CEA, or any of the other titles fans call him by in fic. Closest I could find anywhere in the first three seasons was a Thrush agent making the very vague statement that he was “considered the top agent in UNCLE” in a scene that only appeared in the movie The Spy With My Face. In fact, I couldn’t find anything in the show itself about his rank whatsoever until season 4, where both his and Illya’s ranks as 1 and 2 of Section II appear in text when we see their Thrush files during Thrush Roulette (he or Illya are also referred to as being among UNCLE’s top agents in Deep Six, Survival School, and Master’s Touch. Season 4 seems unusually big on telling us Napoleon and Illya are supposed to be important). Waverly, by contrast, is referred to as Number 1 of Section I on a regular basis, but he’s reminded Napoleon that he’s expendable more times than he’s mentioned Napoleon’s rank, as far as I can find.

Even so, the message that Napoleon's important still gets across to the audience, because if Napoleon isn’t somewhere near the top of the pyramid, why would he be the one taking command when Waverly is out of action in Brain Killer; why are he and Illya working directly out of Waverly’s office while Waverly’s away in King of Knaves and Green Opal? And if Illya’s Number 2, Napoleon’s obviously got to be the rank above him, right? Besides, we can presume that Illya and Napoleon’s ranks must’ve been part of some version of their bios, given the story Vaughn and McCallum have told about how they wound up with those badge numbers ‡. The scriptwriters apparently just didn’t see it as being something the audience needed to be reminded about very much, if indeed at all.

I don’t know that there’s anything very important to takeaway from this, but it’s a neat little bit of trivia, if you like useless trivia as much as I do.

* True, he’s wearing badge 17 in the pilot, but he’s definitely in badge 2 by The Shark Affair, and I’m not sure it’s worth reading too much into badge numbers as an indication of rank in any case. (See point ‡ below)

† Though I have seen him called "Chief Enforcement Agent” in promotional articles that came out while the show was on air, so fans didn’t get it from nowhere.

‡ McCallum picked “2″ since he was “Number 2″ of his division, Vaughn picked “11″ thinking it was the roman numerals for 2, since he was head of Section II. Apparently no-one on set commented on this at the time, so it stayed that way.

[office-of-naval-intelligence]

Parangosky plays league btw

- Public Relations Division

[office-of-naval-intelligence]

what Ship does ONI support the most amongst its troops? Lasky and Palmer, Chief and Linda or Fread and Veta?

The official position of the Office of Naval Intelligence is that fraternization is illegal pursuant to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The unofficial position is option D: All of the above.

[office-of-naval-intelligence]

How is ONI doing at this time? Holding up well?

The Office of Naval Intelligence’s official statement on the matter of present issues is that we are uninterested unless it pertains to the United Earth Government and United Nations Space Comma—

Is Commander Sullivan gone?

Good.

We’re all utterly exhausted, it’s bee—HEY HEY NO- LET ME GOICJFJFF—

[TRANSMISSION TERMINATED]

[office-of-naval-intelligence]

- Public Relations Division