Survival School

[leethet]

I was just reading tgabrielle's most interesting old post about Survival School here and it got me thinking about two things. 1) Napoleon's student A-number one, top dog, big cheese, etc., at Survival School. That gets me all girly inside, initially, about how entirely sexy and cool he is, but you know what? Given what's required to be top dog at Survival School, it kind of makes Napoleon an asshole, doesn't it? Or at least, not really very admirable as a human being. Cunning, ruthless, underhanded, manipulative ... hm. Good UNCLE agent, not so good person. 2) tgabrielle points out that we see only the physical training and wonders if they simply didn't show the intellectual stuff because it's hard to film, which makes sense. But it got me thinking ... what if Survival School is just that? A physical survival school. And there's other schools, maybe one or more than one, with courses the agents must pass to enter the field. There's nothing indicating for sure that agents only take Survival School and no other training, is there? So there could be History School and Intelligence School and all that other stuff (or, one school for the physical stuff and one for the intellectual/psychological stuff). And what would that other school/those other schools be like? So ... that's all. I was just thinkin. :)

Comments

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

tgabrielle points out that we see only the physical training and wonders if they simply didn't show the intellectual stuff because it's hard to film, which makes sense. But it got me thinking ... what if Survival School is just that? A physical survival school. And there's other schools, maybe one or more than one, with courses the agents must pass to enter the field. There's nothing indicating for sure that agents only take Survival School and no other training, is there? So there could be History School and Intelligence School and all that other stuff (or, one school for the physical stuff and one for the intellectual/psychological stuff). And what would that other school/those other schools be like? So ... that's all. I was just thinkin. :)

Actually, that does make more sense, to have the intellectual courses somewhere else. It wouldn't seem the island would be all that conducive to learning. And, as you say, it is called Survival school.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

I'd never thought of it until her post made me visualize. As you say, the setting doesn't look like anything but a series of physical tests (the demolition, I think, counts as that, just as firearms training would); the mental aspects of it might be dealt with on another island. :)

intellectual survival school

[tgabrielle.livejournal.com]

Maybe this is just one source of training but we do learn these agents are from impressive backgrounds. If this is just one of many U.N.C.L.E. courses, I do wonder why Napoleon excelled here--the exercises depicted are more oriented to Illya's skills. If it's just basic training and nothing more, I doubt Napoleon would have captured Cutter's attention.

Re: intellectual survival school

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Why not? It's been awhile since I've seen some of the episodes and I don't remember ever seeing Napoleon going through some of the gyrations Illya did, but I don't remember ever seeing anything that showed he couldn't. Was there something on the show that might have given the idea that Napoleon was some sort of klutz?

Re: intellectual survival school

[tgabrielle.livejournal.com]

...I don't remember ever seeing Napoleon going through some of the gyrations Illya did, but I don't remember ever seeing anything that showed he couldn't. Was there something on the show that might have given the idea that Napoleon was some sort of klutz?

I don't think Napoleon is a klutz and maybe he could do everything physically Illya could (and elected not to) or maybe he was even better than his friend. As Lee and Cindy have already pointed out, Napoleon on the show displayed a talent for other things. Maybe he's just great at EVERYTHING. To me this makes him less interesting as a character.

Re. Survival School, the action stuff they show the students practicing is definitely up Illya's alley. Cutter doesn't respect Illya so it seems likely he did not do well at some of the classes (the ones not shown) and Napoleon did. I don't think UNCLE has the budget to have various schools--Survival School is IT. Plus, the mole stole a codebook indicating there is some sort of intellectual content to the school. And just as I don't think Napoleon is a klutz I also don't mean to suggest Illya is a dummy, that he couldn't do the classroom work but in an UNCLE school Solo would have been the better at it.

Re: intellectual survival school

[leethet.livejournal.com]

I like visualizing the both of them as excellent at all of that stuff ... their flaws just lie in other directions. ;)

Re: intellectual survival school

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Well, there also seems to be a level of politicking, at which Napoleon excelled, as well as munitions and things -- probably leadership as well. I didn't mean to suggest it was all grunt level stuff, though it's fun to think of Napoleon being really good at that, too.:)

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

I always thought that there were more things taught there, we just didn't see the boring stuff. What was filmed was a result of a tight budget as well.

(BTW: in the script, the school looks far more formidable ---castle-like if I remember ---and far more sinister). I'm at the Jersey Shore right now, but when I get home, I'll dig up the script and post the description.

Because to be an agent, 'survival' depends on more than being physcially tough and even being a good marksman. The psychological stuff would be important too, and in the end, that's what I think Solo excelled at. He probably impressed Cutter in a way Cuttern never expected, and that's why Cutter still remembered him for years to come.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Because to be an agent, 'survival' depends on more than being physcially tough and even being a good marksman. The psychological stuff would be important too, and in the end, that's what I think Solo excelled at

Of course, but it doesn't necessarily follow that everything that agents are taught is taught in one place (bear with me here; I'm not saying this is so, just riffin' on a fun thought).

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

yes I understand.

My thinking is this:

1)Canon-wise, Cutter's school seems to be the only game in town. The series doesn't say, oh there's this school and that one. That's why the infiltration is such a big crisis.

2) As an educator, I believe in an integrated rather than a piecemeal approach. The best programs, IMO, are those that balance theory and practice and teach them together. One of the complaints in my neck of the woods, communication, is that some grad schools emphasize one at the expense of the other with problematic results. You can't just put a camera in a students' hands; you have to teach them *why* they should be making a film and its impact.

3)I also think an isolation approach in UNCLE would be preferable. They consider themselves different from everyone else. Therefore, they would want to re-socialize the ex=intelligence and ex-military personnel they get as recruits. They'd want to take them away from the rest of the word, break them down and remake them into UNCLE agents, agents of diverse backgrounds that would learn to work together and depend upon one another. Moving them from school to school would, IMO, dilute that. Rather, you put them on an isolated island for 6 months to a year, you teach them everything you can and more importantly, you remake *how* think. Those young recruits in the SS episode were all from other services. They already *had* military commando style training. I think there was the insinuation that a lot of what was going on was not physical but psychological, so why not intellectual as well.

Like a lot of things in the series, I think this is one more instance in which the concept was superior to the execution. It gave us a seed to imagine something much more complex.

[viviana7.livejournal.com]

That icon is genius.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Heh. Thanks! :)