Mission: Impossible - The Complete First TV Season

Mission Impossible:The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.Mission was a program unique to it's era and should be viewed in that context. It was, of course, the James Bond era, but it was also the ear of the cold war, where enemies, foreign and domestic were somehow lucking everywhere and our mission, should we decide to accept it, was to intercede and prevent the downfall of civilizations.In viewing the episodes on this collection, I discovered, again, that Mission was really in its way, the first ensemble TV shows. In the first episodes, jointing the cast members of Stephen Hill, Barbara Bain, Gregg Morris and Peter Lupus, would be several guest stars, each with unique skills to help the mission. The mission, famously, was given by a mysterious voice on a series of interesting devices, not all tape recorders then. This allowed the plot to start quickly, bypassing the James Bond speaks to M stage of the drama.In the first episodes were are clearly told what the mission was and what the goals were. Almost always something went wrong and a "new" mission had to be developed to pull their rears out of the fire. This also made the show seem more like an anthology program because each week the stars and the new quest star played new roles in new circumstances. Eventually the shows become a mystery when Dr Briggs does not tell the viewer exactly what his goals are. You sit there and wonder, "what the heck are they doing?" While the show was always written well, it shows signs of brilliance the first season. For example, in one episode, Martin Landau must find a important tape recorder that an agent had hidden while being chased by the bad guys. They do it by putting him into the same, terrible situation. Really smart. And while they may be looking for that formula for episodes yet to come, it is not hereOf course, in the first season Martin Landau becomes a regular, and the use of gust stars goes down. But Greg Morris also expands his presence and becomes one of the signatures of the series. I had forgotten just how perfect he was in this role.And the music of course is outstanding, this show set the example for series yet to come.The Bad:Not quite overwhelming yet are the electronic devices that will take over the show and the constant face masks that change a person height, weight, body structure and voice making the episode hard to believe. The agents rely on each other and well as themselves and their acting convinces you. The plot sometimes also rely on unbelievable circumstances. In one episode, Martin Landau using slight of hand to get lockmithing tools within a prison when he was being taken prisoner. That sort of thing takes you out of the reality.The Ugly:A lone voice on a recorder game them instructions to have people killed, both in and out of the U.S. No trial, no evidence. That's right, these people are often assassins. They also topple small governments in their spare time. Usually they just set up people to be killed but they shoot people on their way out! In one episode, "The Diamond" they blow up the leader of a country, steal his diamond and kill a few guards on the way out.Finally, while they may be looking for that formula for episodes yet to come, it is not here yet and the action, the writing, the music and the sets almost make in a mini movie. If you can get past the ugly, that's not bad for 1966.

Those of you somewhat familiar with this classic television series may note that the title of this review is different than they remember. That is because, in this, the first season, the head of the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) was played by Steven Hill in the role of Dan Briggs, whereas in all the subsequent seasons, Peter Graves as Jim Phelps was the leader. Hill gives a different flavor to the role, less physical but more cerebral.This first season is also different than the following ones because like most series, the show was finding its bearings. Whereas most adventure shows in the 1960's were expected to have a generous helping of car chases, fist fights and gun shootouts, MI creator Bruce Geller wanted a different type of show, one that is plot oriented (as opposed to "action oriented" or "character oriented") and which requires the viewer to pay attention and think as several different threads of the story which are occurring simultaneously are drawn together at the end. Thus, we see in the first season some episodes do have the car chases and shootouts, and we do see some banter between the characters, but these things were quickly phased out as the show settled into its familiar, unique format that lasted seven seasons, as the entire program focuses on the IMF's elaborateplans to stop some evildoer.My favorite episodes from this season are "Operation Rogosz" and "The Frame". The first is a story unfortunately quite relevant to today, in which an international terrorist tries to release lethal bacteriological agents into the Los Angeles water supply. The other is about a plan by the IMF to eliminate a powerful Mafia boss (note how the word "mafia" is never used for"political correctness" reasons, but rather "the Syndicate" or "organized crime") by making it seem that he was cheating on his partners in crime. Neither of these episodes have any "action" of the type I described above, but they are both riveting with outstanding acting and directing (director Leonard J Horn was particularly effective in "Operation Rogosz") and intricate stories.I do have some reservations about certain premises of the show, for example, although I have no expectation about the stories being "realistic", I do find situations where an IMF team member (usually Rollin Hand played by Martin Landau) impersonates somebody by wearing a mask looking like that person to be beyond the realm of credibility. Also, whereas in some episodes, the IMF is able to overthow dictatorial goverments, stop or prevent wars and the such, and so when their entire weight is used to stop one man (as in "The Frame") it sort of makes you feel sorry for the poor guy since he doesn't stand a chance against them (in later seasons, as a result of the unpopularity of America's war in Vietnam, it became "politically incorrect" for the IMF to interfere in foreign countries so most of the stories became modified forms of the IMF removing some Mafia figure and this became stale after a while).This show has become a classic and will be remembered far into the future, just as Sherlock Holmes has. I hope more seasons will be brought out in the future on DVD.