THE INNOCENT: Though Michel Petit as the young lama Miki is technically an "innocent", I prefer to call him the Asset. The traditional role of the Innocent is instead played by Susan Seaforth (now Hayes) as Kelly Brown, the boy's dental nurse who accompanies him, and is therefore put in danger, after his dental surgery in the States. She cares for the boy, and he, in turn, cares for her, making sure she has something to focus on so she doesn't succumb to fear, and gives her encouragement after she's been dumped by a boyfriend who apparently can't accept she has a job. Had we had more time with her, she would have fallen for Illya. As for Seaforth, she started working in television in the early 50s and in 1968 became a regular on The Days of Our Lives, a soap on which she still appears, despite defecting to The Young and the Restless for a number of years in the 80s.
REVIEW: If some of this episode looks familiar to some audiences, it's because it repurposed a lot of unbroadcast footage from the UNCLE films sold abroad, editing them into a new Affair, much as Star Trek would in a couple years with The Cage and The Menagerie (also starring Malachi Throne in the new sequences. I guess Vaughn is still "on break" (which means Illya is the main star of the new story), but since the scenes new to the films were exciting, memorable, and even cut down for television, pleasantly racy, it's nice they found a place for them for the domestic audience. That all said, it also means the episode seems to be playing for time. Solo's mission to meet an agent called Dancer (Lancer in To Trap a Spy, I expect some looping was done at the film stage and simply ignored here) and almost falling prey to the treacherous but sexy Angela has no real bearing on the plot except to drop her name later and flush out the real villain (so basically, UNCLE gets a different message from Lancer/Dancer). And even in the new story, there's a failed escape and reset.
The other reuse is the commando mission that opens The Spy with My Face and here serves as the rescue of Illya and his charges. This also serves as an excuse to bring back Australian agent Kitt Kittridge who, in a new clip, survives the encounter. He's a bit of a shit otherwise, most prone to making culturally insensitive comments about the fictional country referenced in the story, but since Illya is busy, he makes a fine action partner for Solo. And yes, the mish-mash of episodes means Solo's haircut has continuity problems, but to the production's credit, they give him a scene where he combs them in a different way to cover it up. Really, in terms of reuse, if we forget we've seen these events in a completely different story, it's quite well done.
The new story concerns the 10-year-old reincarnation of a lama from the Himalayan country of Shanti, the target of a THRUSH assassination led by his own guardian. A coup, in other words. The boy Miki, efficiently played by Belgian child actor Michel Petit, is wise beyond his years (give or take his sweet tooth) and handles the adventure with aplomb. There are fun gags around that wisdom and the adults being surprised by it, but he also learns some harsh lessons about who to trust in the world of international affairs. Nice of him to prevent the agents from killing the THRUSH villains and keeping their souls clean, stating that THRUSH would no doubt do the job itself. Some nice spycraft throughout, though some is a bit sci-fi - the absurd chase between a station wagon and a VW minibus ending with the car being hijacked remotely, for example - but Illya's mousetrap bit, Solo letting his blank-filled gun get taken by the evil Kaza, and from one of the films, the rubber tire over the electric fence, which I hadn't noticed before.
HEARD ON CHANNEL D: "Kuryakin should be safely at your point in 15 minutes... with a girl. And a ventilated station wagon."
"I wish I was in a cocktail dress somewhere with my boyfriend. Who I don't think is my boyfriend anymore because of this darn uniform. He said he wanted me warm and dancing and feminine. Not antiseptically clean." "They did not instruct me of such things at the lamasery." "For men, there is no instruction in these things." (Kelly, Miki and Illya)
"We should have all the loose ends wrapped up... in about one U.N.C.L.E. agent from now." (THRUSH agent Rudnick)
BONDED: Luciana Paluzzi (THRUSH temptress Angela) appears here even closer to her bit in shortly in Thunderball (as SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe). The name Kittridge would end up in another successful spy franchise, as the ambivalent character played by Henry Czerny in the Mission: Impossible films.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: A pretty seamless use of repurposed footage, though it makes the story necessarily slight (note also the generic title).
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