ACED Magazine

To say that a television show from the sixties is a product of its time is undeniable, but anything that can make something as tedious as two-inch reel to reel videotape editing look methodically stylish and cool has got something going for it.

Greg Morris, playing an IMF (Impossible Mission Force) agent, is removing a key clip in order to overthrow a vain female dictator in "The Elixir", one of twenty-five episodes on the much anticipated third season release of the original Mission Impossible television show that ran in 1968-69.

Mission Impossible didn"t lay down the foundation of the spy thriller, nor change the course of television, but it made its mark on popular culture with an iconic music theme, clever disguises, catch phrases and elaborate con games.

The show’s success hung on a deft combination of caper film, suspenseful espionage thrillers and the popular star line-up of experts culled to solve an impossible mission.

Fashion model and actress Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), mechanical and electronics wiz Barney Collier (Morris), strongman Willy Armitage (Peter Lupin) and escape-artist and magician Rollin Hand, played by a remarkably young Martin Landau, are all brought together by ring master Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), who listens to the notorious tape and dossier that sets the plots in motion.

Contrary to popular belief, a lot of the episodes don’t actually say the “tape will self destruct in five seconds”, but instead,  “please dispose of this tape in the usual manner.”

With the cold war well under way and a growing global economy, Mission Impossible served up a core sample of sixties issues, styles, technology and impending technological trepidation of a nuclear event.

The enemy countries are never really mentioned, instead insisting on unnamed Latin American, Asian or vague reference to an Iron Curtain Slavic state.

Every episode follows the same tried and true formula, beginning with the classic tape then dossier scene, a meeting of experts, the plan, the danger of being discovered, the final twist and satisfactory conclusion. The villains vary from cold war army generals, thieves, assassins, and of course, the obligatory enemy spies. Unlike the truck-exploding effects of the movies, the television show was a little longer on brains even if audience expectations and sophistication have left the show somewhat dated.

Some of the schemes are so hair-brained they dare a contemporary audience to not chuckle involuntarily. One episode, “Freeze”, involves the scheming of a recently released thief (played by Battlestar Galactica’s Donnelly Rhodes) into thinking he has a rare disease so he can be cryogenically frozen and cured in the future so that he will retrieve stolen loot before the statute of limitations runs out. Got all that? Good because just when things appear to be heading in one direction, the producers pull the rug out and things are not what they appear to be.

This is the main appeal of the show, as the intricate plots keep audiences guessing. These tightly packed procedurals unfold with mounting tension while the main characters scheme with buttoned-down professionalism.

The set contains all twenty five episodes of season three with nice packaging and pristine prints that will provide hours of solid entertainment. There are no supplementary materials so fans will have to wait for a final season special edition.

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