SPECTRE began in the novels as a small group of criminals but became a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base in the films, to replace the Soviet SMERSH.

Henchmen working for SPECTRE, one of its members, or directly for Ernst Stavro Blofeld:

While Blofeld considered the possibility that the sexual relationship was consensual, it was more important that SPECTRE was reputed to keep its word.

Blofeld is absent from the next book, The Spy Who Loved Me, though its events take place while Bond is battling SPECTRE in North America.

The Prime Minister receives a communiqué from SPECTRE ( SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion ) explaining that the organisation has hijacked a Villiers Vindicator and seized its two nuclear bombs, which it will use to destroy two major cities unless a £ 100, 000, 000 ransom is paid.

The introduction of SPECTRE and its use over a number of books gives a measure of continuity to the remaining stories in the series, according to academic Jeremy Black.

For more than a year, James Bond, British Secret Service operative 007, has been involved in " Operation Bedlam ": trailing the private criminal organisation SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Bond teams up with CIA agent Cedar Leiter, daughter of his old friend, Felix Leiter, to investigate one Markus Bismaquer, who is suspected of reviving the criminal organisation SPECTRE, which was believed to have been disbanded years earlier following the death of its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, at the hands of Bond ( in You Only Live Twice ).

* In the 1963 James Bond movie From Russia with Love, the strategy of the criminal organization SPECTRE is compared to three Siamese fighting in the same tank: Two will fight each other to the death while the third will wait its turn to fight the exhausted victor, symbolizing the conflict between the USA and the Soviet Union, with SPECTRE as the fish that waits.

Both McClory and Fleming claim to have come up with the concept of SPECTRE ; Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett and John Cork both note Fleming as the originator of the group, Lycett saying that " proposed that Bond should confront not the Russians but SPECTRE ..." whilst Cork produced a memorandum in which Fleming called for the change to SPECTRE:

He is believed to be either a direct descendent or a confidant of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and to have resurrected the evil organization SPECTRE Gardner alludes, on more than one occasion, that Bismaquer in truth is a homosexual and possibly had fallen for Bond.

Casino Royale also takes credit for the greatest number of actors in a Bond film either to have appeared or to go on to appear in the rest of the Eon series — besides Ursula Andress in Dr. No, Vladek Sheybal appeared as Kronsteen in From Russia with Love, Burt Kwouk featured as Mr. Ling in Goldfinger and an unnamed SPECTRE operative in You Only Live Twice, Jeanne Roland plays a masseuse in You Only Live Twice, and Angela Scoular appeared as Ruby Bartlett in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

* In the James Bond film Thunderball ( 1965 ), French NATO pilot François Derval is murdered by Angelo, a SPECTRE henchman who has been surgically altered to match Derval's appearance.

The house has been featured in many British films, including The Amazing Mr Blunden, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, From Russia with Love ( as the SPECTRE headquarters ) and the Carry On films and in such television series as One Foot in the Grave and Midsomer Murders.

Although he has been set up to be killed in the ensuing attack by SPECTRE forces on the base, Bond regains his personality and his memory.

In the first book to include SPECTRE, " Thunderball ", it is stated that the numbers of each member changes periodically ( it " advances round a rota by two digits at midnight on the first of every month ") to avoid detection and Blofeld is in fact number 2.

While attending prep school at Warfield Academy, James Bond Jr. with the help of his friends IQ ( the hitherto unmentioned grandson of Q ), and Gordo Leiter ( the son of Felix Leiter, also not previously established ), fights against the evil terrorist organization SCUM ( Saboteurs and Criminals United in Mayhem, which is an offshoot of organizations like SPECTRE ).

As Connery was 52 at the time of filming, the storyline features an aging Bond, who is brought back into action to investigate the theft of two nuclear weapons by SPECTRE.

In the film, Kronsteen ( Vladek Sheybal ), works for SPECTRE, and is tasked with planning Bond's killing and disgrace for killing Dr. Julius No. Ultimately, he fails and is murdered at Ernst Stavro Blofeld's behest.

He first appears in a minor role as the leader of SPECTRE in the 1961 novel Thunderball.

Academic Christoph Linder sees Thunderball as part of the second wave of Bond villains: the first wave consisted of SMERSH, the second of Blofeld and SPECTRE, undertaken because of the thawing of relations between East and West, although the cold war heated up again shortly afterwards, with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis all occurring in an eighteen month period from April 1961 – November 1962.

In the film series, Bond's archenemy became SPECTRE, which first appeared in Fleming's novel Thunderball ( 1961 ).

On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the second book in what is called " the Blofeld trilogy ", sitting between Thunderball, where SPECTRE is introduced and You Only Live Twice, where Blofeld is finally killed by Bond.

In 1963, Fleming settled out of court with McClory, which awarded McClory the film rights to Thunderball, although literary rights would stay with Fleming and thus allow continuation author John Gardner to use SPECTRE in a number of his novels.

Others, such as continuation Bond author Raymond Benson, disagree, saying that McClory came up with the SPECTRE concept.

SPECTRE ( SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion ) is a fictional global terrorist organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, the films based on those novels, and James Bond video games.

In Ian Fleming's novels, SPECTRE is a commercial enterprise led by Blofeld.

Connors is employed by a SPECTRE type organization named ERIS led by Dr. Brinkman ( Ian McShane ), and his henchman, François Molay ( Arnold Vosloo ).

In the Ian Fleming novel Thunderball, it is described as " the solidest street in Paris " and the site of the headquarters of SPECTRE.

Although SPECTRE and Blofeld are used in a number of films before and after Thunderball, the issue over the copyright of Thunderball did prevent SPECTRE and Blofeld from becoming the main villains in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me.

Bond discovers that the revitalised SPECTRE plans to take over control of NORAD headquarters in order to gain control of America's military space satellite network.

At one point the villain of the film was to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his organization SPECTRE ; however, this was changed to avoid a possible lawsuit over the rights to this character, which originated from the novel Thunderball.

Although the story follows the same general storyline, there are some changes: the film shows Dr. No to be an operative of SPECTRE and his island fortress is nuclear powered ; No is killed not by the mountain of guano, but by drowning in reactor coolant.

Largo was referred to as " Number Two ," in the film, indicating his rank as the second highest ranking official in SPECTRE.

The film version contained some changes to the novel, with the leading villains switching from SMERSH to SPECTRE, a fictional terrorist organisation.

Blofeld's SPECTRE volcano base complete with spacecraft-swallowing rocket shuttle, helipad and attack helicopter, and command center in the 1967 film You Only Live Twice ( film ) | You Only Live Twice.

In the films, SPECTRE usually replaced SMERSH as the main villains, although there is a brief reference to SMERSH in the second Eon Bond film, From Russia with Love.

The film retells the story of Thunderball and reintroduces both SPECTRE and Blofeld.

Although the From Russia with Love video game mirrors much of the plot of the eponymous film, it uses an organisation called OCTOPUS rather than SPECTRE to avoid copyright issues.

* In the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, a SPECTRE officer states that the criminal organization earned £ 250, 000 as a consultation fee for the robbery.

SPECTRE is introduced in the first film, Dr. No ( 1962 ), in which the doctor explains to Bond that it is the acronym for the SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion, the four great cornerstones of power.

Although twice referred to, SMERSH never appears in the official film series ; first, in From Russia with Love ( 1963 ), Bond initially thinks he is fighting SMERSH, only to learn that the villains are from SPECTRE, including villainess Rosa Klebb, the former head of SMERSH who has secretly defected to SPECTRE.

In the film, Klebb ( Lotte Lenya ), defected from SMERSH to SPECTRE.

In the film From Russia with Love, working under Rosa Klebb makes him a SPECTRE agent.

Simmons also had a role as SPECTRE agent Jacques Bouvar in the pre-title sequence of the fourth film, Thunderball.

* In the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in a disguised voice sends an ultimatum to NATO demanding that they pay SPECTRE a ransom of white flawless diamonds worth £ 100 million to be deposited in the Mergui Archipelago off the coast of Burma.

In the film, Klebb is depicted as a former SMERSH agent who has defected to become a member of SPECTRE ( Blofeld refers to her as " No. 3 ").