Mission: Impossible - Season 6 [DVD]

Good morning. This is the sixth season (1971-1972) of "Mission: Impossible" which is again produced by Bruce Lansbury (from season 4 and 5) and supervised by top writer Laurence Heath who also produces six episodes. The series returns to its genesis (the original theme music, a sophisticated leading lady) and solely focuses on the American gangsters threat also known as the Syndicate: the IMF now does Feds jobs instead of Secret Service operations.

There're substantial changes: find a small crew of four IMF agents, a new and real "glamorous" leading lady named Lisa Casey (played by Lynda Day George) who also replaces the master of disguises Paris, the departure of Dr. Doug Robert (which appears once in "Encore") and character Barney who becomes a major asset for the plots and displays his acting knacks, especially in "Mindbend" as a brainwashed fugitive, "Blues" as a junky soul music performer in which he sings twice: "Judy's Gone Now" and Otis Redding's "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay", "Image" as a Tarot dealer and he plays twice a master of disguises (actually, his new talent was first shown in the season 5 "The Hostage"): in "Underwater replacing a gangster's henchman and in "Bag Woman" replacing a gangster's right-hand man. A brand new director popsup named Leslie H. Martinson who achieves the masterpiece "Invasion" and will blossom next season.

Above all, this is a showcase for actress Lynda Day George who not only act--her best efforts are highlit in "The Bride" and in "Committed"--but performs a song ("The Gentle Rain") in "Trapped" and we witness her husband Christopher George in "Nerves".

Top episodes are still here as "Encore" (guest starring William Shatner as an old gangster who believes traveling into his own past: June 30, 1937), "Invasion" (an unusual espionage intrigue, guest starring Kevin McCarthy as an American defector who thinks that America has been taken over by the Soviet army), "Mindbend" (a disturbing plot, guest starring Donald Moffat, about brainwashed small-time criminals trained like Pavlov's dogs to kill politicians which foreshadows Alan J. Pakula's "The Parallax View") and fine episodes are numerous as "Blind" (in which Peter Graves gives his best performance as a corrupted Federal agent by simulating the pathology of blindness combined with alcoholism), "The Tram" (from a story written by scripts genius Paul Playdon and guest starring Victor French), "The Miracle" (guest starring Joe Don Baker as a Christianism-hating drug dealer who is conditioned by the IMF to become his moral opposite: good!), "Underwater" (guest starring Fritz Weaver and Jeremy Slate), "Blues" (guest starring William Windom), "The Connection" (guest starring Anthony Zerbe), "The Bride" (guest starring James Gregory), "Committed", "Bag Woman" (guest starring Robert Colbert and Georg Stanford Brown), "Casino" (guest starring Jack Cassidy). As usual, the music scores are inspired, especially "Blind" by Benny Golson who launches the sound of the Syndicate, "Run for the Money" by Robert Drasnin, "Encore" and "The Miracle" by Lalo Schifrin, "Mindbend" by Robert Prince who composes a modernist electronic music.

By Season 6, MI had dispensed with its last A-rated character actor (Leonard Nimoy) and instead utilized the core team in a genuine team effort, week after week, battling organized crime on the domestic U.S. front.
By 1971, with the Vietnam war edging toward defeat, CIA-style adventures behind an increasingly permeable Iron Curtain had become culturally unacceptable. The real enemy was within: narcotics, the Syndicate, Mafiosi in impeccably pressed suits. The violence was more realistic, the plots tightly written and able to exploit every facet of Paramount Television's back lots and environs. Masks were faded out and Lynda Day George provided a far less impossible option of a disguise expert.
The results could be stunning - William Shatner (no longer Captain Kirk) playing an ageing mobster sent back nearly 40 years to reveal a murder he committed was an all-time classic and forerunner of every "Hustle" genre plot.
Mission Impossible became far less implausible and its rating success warranted a seventh and final season against massive odds of internal studio politics.
Buy the DVD set, watch the fun unfold and - most importantly now in the week after Peter Graves' death - celebrate Jim Phelps' genuine all-action hero and infallible mastermind.
Tom Cruise was always fighting a losing battle...

I'll give this only four stars, as i found the reconversion of the IMF into a domestic crime-fighting machine a little too one-dimensional. The "beyond the reach of conventional law enforcement agencies" setting became a little tiring and i found myself crying out for one of those ridiculous missions in a country like "Luxania" or "Povia". However, there are plenty of good episodes. There's even room for one, as Thomas Rucki quite rightly states, veritable masterpiece. Oddly, we revert to the original theme tune for the opening titles. We even have one of those extreme oddities: Jim's mission briefing being done on an LP, for the first time since season three. Kenyon Hopkins does many of the music scores and his edgy, jazzy work serves to embellish.

This is a stripped-down IMF team of three men plus a "beautiful make-up artist" called Casey (Lynda Day George). If truth be told, the magnificently-maned LDG is actually very good in her role. She has some juicy parts to play ("moll", grifter, French redhead, Irish bride, psychiatrist, Corsican, singer), is always convincing and very easy on the eye. (Dressed far more modestly than Lesley Warren in season five.) Jim Phelps is doing even more of the heavy-lifting, as there's no Rollin Hand/Paris accomplice, and seems to be having great fun. Barney gets to play a few parts which need more than technical expertise and Willy is restored after his stop/start season five.

High points would be "Encore", with William Shatner. (One i remember from its ORIGINAL airing.) Utterly ridiculous, but great fun. "The Tram" is a brisk episode with Felice Orlandi. "Mindbend" is moderately disturbing. Shame it has such a very cheesy wrap-up. A "young" Donald Moffat and Bill Fletcher are good villains. "Encounter" is another taut episode, with Elizabeth Ashley really excelling in a guest role. William Smith looks as mean as usual, and then some. "Invasion" is THE piece de resistance. (The first episode with a different hand lighting the fuse, in the opening credits.) Utterly preposterous, but SO very well done. Kevin McCarthy is a slimy nasty, without hamming it. Casey is both lovely and quite excellent in this. "Nerves" has Lynda's hubby, Christopher George, playing a syndicate enforcer. Anthony Zerbe is back for more punishment, in "The Connection". "The Bride" has a mildly shocking lift-shaft liquidation and delicious Woodrow Parfrey cameo. "Stone Pillow" features Bradford Dillman. "Committed" sees Geoffrey Lewis co-starring as a rather nasty hitman. Again, shame about the cheesy ending. "Bag Woman" has a good suspense, like "Casino". "Trapped" is a great season-ender, in spite of using a ridiculously wiggy stunt double for Jim.

The season has a few relative disappointers, but not actually too many. Watch out for appearances by Billy Dee Williams and Tyne Daly. Also the Hill Street Bluesers "Dan Travanty", James Sikking and Jon Cypher. Overall, very much better than i thought it would be.