The one other place I've encountered him again is the beginning of Dr. No (my commentary on him is in the tags of this post) but I also went and revisited the full text and. yeah, lmao, insane...

A yellow light winked on the intercom. M picked up the black telephone from the row of four. "That you, Sir James? Have you got five minutes?" "Six, for you." At the other end of the line the famous neurologist chuckled. "Want me to certify one of Her Majesty's Ministers?" "Not today." M frowned irritably. The old Navy had respected governments. "It's about that man of mine you've been handling. We won't bother about the name. This is an open line. I gather you let him out yesterday. Is he fit for duty?" There was a pause on the other end. Now the voice was professional, judicious. "Physically he's as fit as a fiddle. Leg's healed up. Shouldn't be any after-effects. Yes, he's all right." There was another pause. "Just one thing, M. There's a lot of tension there, you know. You work these men of yours pretty hard. Can you give him something easy to start with? From what you've told me he's been having a tough time for some years now." M said gruffly, "That's what he's paid for. It'll soon show if he's not up to the work. Won't be the first one that's cracked. From what you say, he sounds in perfectly good shape. It isn't as if he'd really been damaged like some of the patients I've sent you--men who've been properly put through the mangle." "Of course, if you put it like that. But pain's an odd thing. We know very little about it. You can't measure it--the difference in suffering between a woman having a baby and a man having a renal colic. And, thank God, the body seems to forget fairly quickly. But this man of yours has been in real pain, M. Don't think that just because nothing's been broken..." "Quite, quite." Bond had made a mistake and he had suffered for it. In any case M didn't like being lectured, even by one of the most famous doctors in the world, on how he should handle his agents. There had been a note of criticism in Sir James Molony's voice. M said abruptly, "Ever hear of a man called Steincrohn--Dr Peter Steincrohn?"

(1) wack cuz I SWEAAARR just as Bond's attitude towards M seems to have markedly shifted in Dr. No compared to previous books. MUCH more, like... rage and resentment into the mix now? where before it was a lot of admiration, love, and respect.... something HAS fundamentally broken, on BOTH sides. M did NOT seem to treat Bond with this level of, like. coldness? Like I don't think we got a ton of M's perspective, but I don't remember this level of, like. dismissive mercenary-ness about him? And then in uhhh Moonraker, he asks Bond for that favor! Like. I don't feel like THIS M would ask Bond for something so sensitive... it DOES feel like something has broken, and Bond is no longer that like golden boy, the uhh unsullied Adam in the Garden of Eden, and he is being cast out of Gods good graces and treated with coldness and callousness and almost a sort of cruel disdain.... *thinking very hard*

I forgot if this was the second point I was going to make lmao, but. okay the main thing I wanted to point out here is,. WACK also that Sir James Molony is apparently tasked with taping up M's broken toys injured and more importantly, hurt agents, get them... well maybe not fully back into shape - that may not be possible - but into a shape where they can be put to use again.

It seems so routine when M is like o he's a doctor I send out hurt agents to... but the man is specifically a neurologist... and as we later see (yes I acknowledge this is later canon, but still) in Man with the Golden Gun.... very willing to reprogram - *ahem*, sorry, """un"""brainwash agents, so that they can be (made) steady and sure in their mission again and will gladly go back to throwing their bodies in the shredder for Six's/M's goals.........

any anyway. the insane little thought Iii had. was. god imagine if M (Dench M) had that in Craig-Bond-verse..... if she just had a guy on retainer to send any doubting or wavering agents to for *overly casual* oh you know, just a little tune-up. Just a little routine maintenance, keep everything running smooth. except. *deep breath* this involves FUCKING AROUND with their MINDS lmao..... very Naomi from Supernatural, oh just a little casual DEATHLY DANGEROUS electroshock therapy which would *shock the Americans*, just a casual week for these people......