The Vulcan Affair
| "The Vulcan Affair" | |
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| The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode | |
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Don Medford |
| Written by | Sam Rolfe |
| Produced by | Norman Felton |
| Original air date | 22 September 1964<ref_name=TMfU/> |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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"The Vulcan Affair" was the first episode of the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. It was edited from the pilot, Solo, which was shot in colour, but was broadcast in black-and-white, to conform with the rest of the first season. It was first broadcast in the USA on NBC on 22 September 1964. The hero is Napoleon Solo and his antagonist is Andrew Vulcan, an evil scientist working with THRUSH. The episode was subsequently expanded with additional footage and released in colour as the feature-length movie, To Trap a Spy.
The episode opens with several THRUSH agents raiding the UNCLE headquarters via a covert entrance from the back of a common tailor shop in New York City. They are at first successful, until Napoleon Solo defeats them. A sequence in Solo shows the death of the captured agents due to THRUSH having them take a slow acting poison killing them regardless of the success or failure of their mission.
The raid is discovered to be connected to a deceased UNCLE agent discovering THRUSH plans to assassinate an African political leader through Andrew Vulcan, a senior THRUSH operative who is a major American industrialist. By investigating Vulcan's past he locates a housewife who was a former university girlfriend of the reclusive Vulcan to aid him. They board an airplane and head to Washington D.C.. Once there, they go to a party hosted by Vulcan for the African leader and his two fellow diplomats. There, the housewife flirts with Vulcan to acquire information, and he invites her for a tour of his chemical plant. (He plans to give the African leader and his friends a tour the following day.) Seeing a good espionage chance, she agrees. She distracts Vulcan while Solo sneaks in the plant. Vulcan and his men find them out and pursue them through the plant. They get in a car, and find the African leader inside. In reality, he is complicit in the plan and working with Vulcan; he plans to kill his two friends with an explosion at the plant during their tour. They are captured, and almost killed, but Solo manages to free them and they rescue the two men. The leader and Vulcan are killed in the explosion.
The episode was mostly shot in six days in late November 1963 but some additional footage was shot in three days in the following spring. The director was Don Medford with Maurice Vaccarino assisting and Henry Berman editing. The producer was Norman Felton who had conceived the original idea for the show and then developed it in consultation with the creator of James Bond — Ian Fleming. Sam Rolfe was given the job of writing the detailed background for the series and wrote the script for this episode. The score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith including the catchy theme tune which was performed by The Gallants.
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