Mission: Impossible - Season 5

Good evening. This is the fifth season (1970-1971) of "Mission: Impossible" which is fully produced by Bruce Lansbury from season 4 and supervised by top writer Laurence Heath who, nevertheless, produces six episodes. Here is a complete revision of the series because of its ideological shift through a leaning towards the thematics of the youth movement (for instance: students' agitators and radicals in "Takeover", NLF guerrillas in "The Rebel", far left terrorists in "The Hostage" and subversive revolutionaries in "Blast").

You will find some deep changes: a new-hip-younger "regular" leading lady named Dana Lambert (played by Lesley Ann Warren) introduced in "Flip Side" (in which she performs two folk songs), a replacement of Willy in twelve episodes out of twenty three via a young physician named Doug Robert and also named Doug Lang (played by Sam Elliott), a faster-harder-urgent urban main theme music (moreover, four episodes contain the original main theme music), no more multi-part episodes, a recursive portable gadget used to stun that can be described as a "golden needle ring" (created by writer Ken Pettus in a season 4 episode of "The Wild Wild West" and introduced in a late MISSION season 4 entitled "The Crane", and over-used by producer Bruce Lansbury), no dossier scenes, a dramatic prologue-teaser followed directly by the tape scene before the opening credits, downbeat and realistic kind of narratives with accidents and failures, assignments in progress, improvisations, and caught up agents. The fashion design of the team is also renewed and reflects the trend (casual or outrageous) of the 1970's: pay attention to Jim's outfits (suits and sunglasses) during the tape scenes which will blossom from season 6.

Anyway, two of the series' main ingredients remain: a master of disguises (Paris) and foreign intrigues (around sixteen). Actor Leonard Nimoy shines again in these offerings: brainwashed Fred Stark in "My Friend, My Enemy", Kabuki performer Nakamura Taizo in "Butterfly", abducted business man Walter A. Phelan in "The Hostage", criminal Alfredo Sanchez/old convict Martin Sanchez in "The Catafalque", professional gambler Harry Kroll in "The Merchant". You'll still discover top episodes: the masterpiece "The Killer" (guest starring Robert Conrad), "The Innocent" (a controversial plot re-written by Laurence Heath that calls into question the methods of the IMFers who blackmail a young "hippie" scientist so that he works with them), "Flight" (guest starring John Colicos), "The Catafalque" (written by scripts genius Paul Playdon and guest starring John Vernon) and good ones: "My Friend, My Enemy" (guest starring Peter Mark Richman), "The Merchant" (guest starring George Sanders), "The Hostage" (guest starring Lou Antonio), "The Amateur" (guest starring Anthony Zerbe), "The Missile" (guest starring David Sheiner), "The Party", "The Field". As in season 4, intimistic stories centered around IMFers return: Paris ("My Friend, My Enemy" in which we learn his past as a magician), Jim ("Homecoming" in which we get a glimpse of his hometown and his family background), Barney ("Cat's Paw" in which we meet his brother). The music scores are powerful: "The Killer and "Takeover" by Lalo Schifrin and "The Rebel" by Hugo Montenegro.

Mission:Impossible is my favorite TV show ever, and I own all of the first five seasons on DVD. In my view Season 5 represents the nadir of the original Mission:Impossible series.

In my opinion the mistake that the producers made at this juncture of the series (which coincided with the dismissal of the show's creator Bruce Geller) was to make the episodes character-driven instead of plot-driven. Mission:Impossible was conceived as a show based on a complex, intricate and perfectly executed plan. While the characters were important in terms of the various skills they possessed in order to carry out the plan, the story was never about the characters. This changed in Season 5, as is evidenced by the episode "Homecoming" which features a very weak plot and a lot of rather sappy references to Jim Phelps' personal history. Gone is the meticulously constructed plot; in its place is a very pedestrian crime drama. (One exception to this trend in Season 5 is the episode "The Killer," probably the best show in an otherwise poor collection.)

Thankfully the producers came to their senses and in Season 6 restored many of the elements which made the series great.

To sum up, Season 5 is only for die-hard fans of Mission:Impossible. Casual fans and/or those who want to see only the best episodes would be better off acquiring seaons 2-4.

Mission: Impossible 5th season set

Well, to my fellow CBS/Paramount skeptics, I'm glad to report that this 5th season of Mission: Impossible is okay, and has not been bastardized by any tampering from the CBS/Paramount music-changing service labs.

I waited until I had heard from another reviewer before even ordering this set, and still kept my fingers crossed. I've watched a few episodes, and I'm happy with the set. No music has been removed, and, more importantly, none has been injected in.

The video and audio quality is fine, the same as the earlier Mission sets -- but, of course, this is the set where the 1970s "hipness" begins. Dated, yeah, but, at least it's the way it was originally aired.

After the awful and unforgiveable debacle with what CBS/Paramount did to The Fugitive Season 2 Vol. 1, we're all scrutinously skeptical of anything they put to DVD. Let's hope they decide to make good for how they've disappointed us all with The Fugitive. Maybe they'll re-do that set right. Or maybe they'll drop the whole rest of that excellent series. If so, it's their loss as well as ours.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 35 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars