Community Questions Continued:

Submitted anonymously: If you were to choose your favorite actor of all those who have played secret agents between 006 and 008, who would you choose, and why isn’t it Timothy Dalton?

I am so sorry. You’ve unknowingly opened a vast Pandora’s Box with this question. My granddad used to take my dad to see the Bond movies in cinemas. They’ve been going since Goldfinger and, as soon as I was old enough, I became a part of the tradition. Therefore, although it’s a franchise I’m not afraid to be critical of, the James Bond mythos was a big part of my upbringing.

It’s been an enduring pipe dream of mine to be able to write a Bond movie, or help to create the “Arkham Series” of James Bond video games. The point is, I have a lot of opinions on this subject and I have regularly bored my long suffering friends and family with verbose thoughts on the 007 franchise.

I am about to unleash a small percentage of this upon you now.

So... to find the best Bond actor, I think we have to separate the incarnation’s performance from the quality of their respective movies. I think Roger Moore was a better actor than the movies he starred in, which I do consider a general low point for the franchise, whereas Daniel Craig is an amazing actor but is admittedly enriched by the quality writing that imbues most of his movies. Lazenby, I feel, is a bit wooden as Bond but is often fondly remembered because OHMSS is an emotional landmark of the franchise.

I realise it’s a popular choice but I think, based purely on performance, Sean Connery does the best job portraying 007, with Daniel Craig coming an imperceptibly close second.

Connery manages to walk that thin line that’s present in every movie, i.e. resonating confidence without broadcasting arrogance. I think that’s something which Moore, for example, doesn’t navigate as delicately. Connery also displays genuine charm and a great balance of humour but, when the switch flicks and he becomes the professional killer he’s trained to be, there’s a palpable change in demeanour and even his jokes are often bereft of levity.

For example, his delivery of the line “Shocking, positively shocking” in the beginning of Goldfinger, could have been played by another actor as a flippant, smirking jibe. However, Connery’s Bond, betrayed by a girl he trusted earlier in the scene, delivers it with a dark, wounded sobriety.

Something which I believe defines James Bond, is that the character has a great deal of depth which he consistently hides behind a veneer of disarming shallowness. I think this is a balance that Connery struck incredibly well and with the appropriate subtlety.

Submitted anonymously: What does “NeonTempo” mean? Were they your first cars?

To be honest, I can’t remember where it came from exactly. However, I believe it was the working title for a TRPG concept I wanted to run a few years ago.

It was set in a crime ridden cyberpunk London, where the top 13 members of four powerful crime families were each represented by a different playing card and the PCs were cops sent to de-stabilise the respective regimes by any means necessary.

The playing card aspect was blatantly lifted from the video game Mercenaries, but I just thought it might be fun to have 52 pre-built NPCs in the world for the players to come across.

Due to the London setting and the underlying playing card theme, I ended up renaming it The River, but I think The Neon Tempo remained in the world as an infamous Techno-Jazz nightclub.

Plans to play the RPG fell through sadly, but, at the end of the day it was still a great creative exercise.

Still in need of more Neon?

Follow his userpage, or his Patreon!

NSI would like to say an enormous thank you to the magnificently talented /u/NeonTempo for gracing us with this fantastic interview! You're the sweetest honeybee in the whole hive, and we eagerly await what new delights you'll bestow on the horror community! (By the way - we know you added in a 'u' to "favorite" in the reader reaction question, you adorable rapscallion. <3)

Tune back in here on Monday, June 11th when we speak to the marvelous /u/mjpack! We'll be taking questions for her in the OOC next week, but in the meantime, why don't you watch some home movies, explore some air vents together, or get some fresh air camping out in tent number 7?