MissionImpossibleSeason6

Mission Impossible: Season 6 (1971 Paramount, CBS DVD)

Mission: Impossible was a simple idea- take a specialized team of secret agents, give them an unlimited budget and a utility belt full of wonderful toys, and have them fight crime. You have the premise of a 1960's TV spy series that spawned 168 episodes over nearly 8 years on the air, another 35 episodes during a short two-season revival in 1988, three movies, and countless pop-culture parodies.

Each of the 22 episodes in this season begin with a short "intro" that explains a bit of the back-story about the episode's mission. After a 2-minute summary of the plot, the hallmark scenes begin with Agent Phelps (Peter Graves) tracking down an envelope containing the mission briefing and a recording on media that would make the RIAA moist; tapes that get played once then "self-destruct" in a hiss of smoke before the famous Lalo Schifrin theme plays to start off the episode. The Impossible Mission Force then comes up with some crazy plan to convince the bad-guys to either kill each other, give up some sort of important information, or collect evidence to incriminate them in a crime.

All of the missions in Season 6 have a common theme- targets outside of the reach of traditional law enforcement have to be stopped. This includes a few politicians, but mostly an assortment of criminals from a super-secret organization known as The Syndicate. The Syndicate is an all-powerful group of ruthless criminal masterminds, untouchable by the police, but staffed entirely by morons. (It's possible they're getting some sort of tax break by hiring the retarded.)

These folks usually aren't too bright. This is important, though, since it makes pulling off otherwise ridiculous plans like convincing mob bosses they've just traveled backwards in time or that space aliens drive a Plymouth Valiant possible. But hey... this was 1971. A little campy should be expected.

Guest stars made regular appearances all over Mission: Impossible's run. Just about every episode features at least one actor who either was, or was going to be a name later in their career. Tom Bosley shows up as a random Syndicate bad guy. In another episode Demond Wilson shows up as a shotgun-wielding criminal sidekick in all his 70's pimpsuit glory. In one of the weaker episodes of the season, "The Miracle", Joe Don Baker appears as a Syndicate drug lord's "Chief Executioner." (Something about trying to play a badass getting ready to kill a secret agent while wearing Lennon shades and frilly shirt covered in lace just doesn't work. In this episode their electronics expert Barney (Greg Morris) apparently had also been taking night school classes in hypnotic suggestion.)

And then of course there is William Shatner, who shows up as an old crime boss in "Encore." With a little makeup and a Hollywood set the IMF team manages to convince him that he's traveled back in time to his younger days and convinces him to re-create a decades old murder so the team can figure out where he hid the body. But I'll forgive him, because he's the goddamn Captain.

Overall Season 6 isn't the strongest of the run and did have a couple of really weak episodes, but it was consistently good with a few very strong episodes in the mix. Forget Tom Cruise. This is the classic secret agent series and the way it was meant to be done.

3 out of 4

reviewed by Jeremy Gaggins