The elephant in the room with this episode is that it guest stars both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Oh, and Werner Klemperer for good measure. When an actor becomes as strongly associated with an iconic role, as is the case with Shatner and Nimoy, it can be hard to suspend disbelief and "see" them as other characters. That's doubly difficult when two such actors, whose iconic roles are from the same series, appear together in the same movie or episode.
Shatner and Nimoy are both excellent here. Compare their performances to the average work-a-day guest actors of the time and you can see why they went on to greater success. But I challenge anyone with even a G. E. D. In 20th century pop culture to not be distracted by both actors appearing together here (even though they really never interact with one another).
As for the episode, this is my introduction to "The Man from U. N. C. L. E.". I knew of it obviously, and I'd even watched the rather mediocre film from a few(?) years ago. But I'd never watched an episode from the original series. I recently got an itch to watch some 60's "spy craze" shows, this one is well loved and it had Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock in it, so I bit. And... eh.
Vaughn is charming, but he plays second fiddle to Shatner here. That's a problem, not because Shatner isn't good, but because the premise of an average guy suddenly signing on to take down an international baddie and operating as if he'd done this sort of thing his whole life asks us to suspend our disbelief more than listening to Nimoy's in and out vaguely Russian/Eastern Bloc accent. I enjoyed McCallum in his "Mission: Impossible"-style role, but I was hoping to see he and Vaughn take on the baddies instead of passively watching supposed every man Shatner do it for them.
Shatner and Nimoy are both excellent here. Compare their performances to the average work-a-day guest actors of the time and you can see why they went on to greater success. But I challenge anyone with even a G. E. D. In 20th century pop culture to not be distracted by both actors appearing together here (even though they really never interact with one another).
As for the episode, this is my introduction to "The Man from U. N. C. L. E.". I knew of it obviously, and I'd even watched the rather mediocre film from a few(?) years ago. But I'd never watched an episode from the original series. I recently got an itch to watch some 60's "spy craze" shows, this one is well loved and it had Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock in it, so I bit. And... eh.
Vaughn is charming, but he plays second fiddle to Shatner here. That's a problem, not because Shatner isn't good, but because the premise of an average guy suddenly signing on to take down an international baddie and operating as if he'd done this sort of thing his whole life asks us to suspend our disbelief more than listening to Nimoy's in and out vaguely Russian/Eastern Bloc accent. I enjoyed McCallum in his "Mission: Impossible"-style role, but I was hoping to see he and Vaughn take on the baddies instead of passively watching supposed every man Shatner do it for them.