S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

The SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (S.P.E.C.T.R.E.) is a fictional terrorist organization led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Its first appearance was in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel, Thunderball, and subsequently in a number of James Bond films including the very first Bond film, Dr. No, where it has been the spy's most persistent opponent.

Parodies and clones

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is often cloned or parodied in films, video games, and novels. The most obvious is the Austin Powers series of movies. In this series, a man named Dr. Evil (parody of Ernst Stavro Blofeld) is the leader of a villainous organization simply called "Dr. Evil's Evil organization." Dr. Evil's second in command, known only as "Number Two", is a parody of Emilio Largo, Blofeld's second in command.

Related Topics:
Video game - Austin Powers - Dr. Evil - Number Two - Emilio Largo

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• In the video game series No One Lives Forever a man simply called "The director" leads a similar organization called "H.A.R.M.." A running joke during the series is that no one actually knows what H.A.R.M. stands for.
• The James Bond spinoff animated series, James Bond Jr, featured a clone of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. called "S.C.U.M.".
• The animated series Inspector Gadget featured a clone of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. called "M.A.D.". Dr. Claw, the head of M.A.D. is also based on the villain Blofeld.
• In the mid 80s, a highly successful James Bond tabletop RPG was released. With the films as inspirations, the stories were adapted for players. Minor changes to plots and villains were made. For example, Kidd & Wint were freelance assassins working for SPECTRE. They in fact leased out services to other terrorist organizations and various crime syndicates. The most noted change was SPECTRE. It was later renamed TAROT and the face cards represented various departments.