We're back! James Bond touches land, air and sea in this episode as we talk about our favorite Bond cars, the Spy-Fi Archives exhibit coming to the Queen Mary, and the re-opening of the 007 Stage in London. We also talk to a special guest in this episode, screenwriter and Young Bond Dossier expert John Cox -- who takes us into the literary world of the Young James Bond novels, which are very popular right now.

Some links and highlights from this episode:

• The 007 Stage reopens: visit their revamped website and check things out.
• The James Bond Car collection: subscribe and have Bond replica cars sent to you.
• Spy-Fi Archives at the Queen Mary: on exhibit April 7th through September 2007.
• John's amazing Young Bond Dossier site: check out the links to the Young Bond "apache" gadget, and the new Centenary Bond novel coming out next year.

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The freakishly amusing British import known as Severance and I have a rather colorful history together. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll explain how. In September of 2006 I saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival. (I even wrote a little bit about it on this very blog. And then I reviewed it for a different website.) A few weeks later I saw the film again at the Alamo Drafthouse's (awesome) Fantastic Fest. It was there that I got to meet Jimmy Moran, the crazy bloke who wrote Severance. He mentioned that he'd read my comments, appreciated the kind words, and that he'd like to drink several beers with me. And drink we did.

Then a few weeks ago the producer of the South By Southwest Film Festival asked me if I'd write up the "festival guide synopsis" for Severance, and so I did. During the festival I introduced the film to 300 raving gorehounds. Far as I could tell, they all liked the flick a whole lot. So that's three Severance screenings at three separate festivals, a new friend in the screenwriter and a bunch of fun stuff on the side. (Plus it'll be there when I cover next month's Philadelphia Film Festival. I just cannot escape this movie!) Basically, me and Severance go way back. But what I remember most from that first screening way back in Toronto is this: "Damn, this is a fun movie."

Unless you've been hiding under a rock or working on an off-world colony for the past several months, then you know that the 21st James Bond film, Casino Royale, will be hitting theaters this Friday. It promises all the explosions, car chases, fistfights and gunplay that you've come to expect from a Bond film, and an even more emotional Bond, which we might have to get used to.

In preparation for Friday, we're summing up all of the previous Bond movies by capsulizing the plots and picking out our key favorite moments. Oh, who am I kidding, these are my favorite Bond memories. I grew up on these films, reading the novels, playing the role-playing game, obsessively reading the Q Branch Manual to find out about Bond's gadgets. I also must have played GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64 a trillion times, so I like to consider myself somewhat of a Bond-o-phile. Roger Moore was the reigning 007 when I was growing up, but I watched the Sean Connery Bond films on tape, and was sold on his coolness vs. Moore's. This led to an enormous rift between me and my best friend, who idolized Moore (and his dad kind of looked like him). Although we both agree that the latest Bond films are a lot of fun, I think we still want to butt heads over who is the best Bond.

Luckily, you don't have to have seen any of the previous Bond films to "get" the next one, but this little history can help you appreciate all of the effort that has gone into the series. We're serving it up to you shaken, of course ... never stirred.