Most of us who are part of the baby boomer generation grew up watching spies. They were everywhere; at least on television and movies. In the sixties all the classic spies were established from James Bond on the big screen to James West on TV. One of the best espionage oriented shows ever to hit television was ‘Mission Impossible’. Many of the younger people out there may associate this title with the film franchise staring Tom Cruise but the series still remains one of the better shows that have aired. It lasted seven seasons spanning the transition between the mid sixties to the early seventies. As it passed from one decade to the next the show underwent some major changes. There are people who might think this was the point that the show jumped the proverbial shark but the die hard fans out there just went with the flow and accepted the new cast and direction of the stories. There were actors who after four years on the series wanted to move on to other projects. Escalating costs of production also affected the plot lines for the stories. Still, this series managed to keep the original flavor and, most importantly, retain the fan base. There is something enduring about a spy show. It has the innate sense of danger that provides the audience with thrills as well as drama. ‘Mission Impossible’ delivered the goods week after week. The major cast changes were introduced in the forth season but starting with the season under consideration here, the fifth, the stories began to shift from evil governments to organized crime. CBS Paramount has added it to the previous DVD season sets so now you can add this one to your collection. You do have to remember that this season was first aired in 1970. This was a far different time than we live in today. The Iron Curtain was still up. Berlin was divided between the democratic West and the Communist East. Organized crime was once again on the rise and in the news. This season may not have what is considered the classic cast but the replacements were excellent and added a new flair to the series.

Every film and television genre has a formula to follow. ‘Mission Impossible’ was one that followed its format in an extremely strict fashion. Now this may seem boring but it was a large part of the fun and fame of the show. We always started with the head of the Impossible Mission Force (IMF), Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) going to some public place There he would exchange a preset code phrase with a stranger and be directed to a place where a tape recorder was hidden. Playing the tape the Voice (Bob Johnson) would explain the mission objective to Phelps; frequently some key photos were included. The voice on the tape would always remind him that ‘Your mission, should you decide to accept it‘ and ‘If you or any member of your team is caught or killed the Secretary will disavow any knowledge’. They tape would then self destruct in a puff of smoke. Phelps would then go back to his apartment and take out the dossier of potential agents. He would go through the pictures as he formulated the plan in his mind. Once chosen the team members for gather in Phelps’ apartment and go over the details. In this season the pictures of the chameleon like Roland Hand (Martin Landau) and former model Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain) where replaced by magician Paris (Leonard Nimoy) and former singer/actress Lisa Casey (Lesley Ann Warren). This was somewhat of a difficult change for many fans that could only see Nimoy as Mister Spock from ‘Star Trek’. Usually included in the missions were electronic genius Barney Collier (Greg Morris) and strongman Willy Armitage (Peter Lupus).

This season was started a move away from the archetypal IMF missions. It costs more to build sets and costume cast for an episode that takes place in a foreign country. Partially due to this the global scope of the missions move more towards fighting crime on the home front. An increasing number of story lines focused on organized crime most noticeably the activities of the ambiguous ‘Syndicate’. It feels like the writers didn’t want to use the word ‘Mafia’ but we all knew what they meant. There was also another major departure from the ever famous format of the stories. Throughout the series there were some personal missions typically when a team member was caught. Since they could not depend on the government to help the remaining team members would come up with a rescue mission. This happens in this season when Barney gets capture and is given only a few hours to live. Another is when Phelps returns to his hometown to donate some land to charity. Once there he discovers that the community is being victimized by a serial killer. Of course the local authorities are getting no where fast so Jim mobilized his team to take the killer down. The new character, Lisa, initially joins the team to settle an old score but soon becomes a regular team member. All of this gave the actors a chance to flesh out some of the back stories of their characters. Previously the team members were enigmas who came in, did their jobs and left. This also showed that the team had strong personal bonds that helped t humanize them.

Once the stories moved on to organized crime the ultimate goals of the missions changed. When fighting against a terrorist or rouge government they point was usually to embarrass the people involved to force them to lose power or remove the financial means for the heinous plot at hand. With the ‘Syndicate’ episodes the change was often heralded by the voice on the tape. The directive was now to obtain evidence that could be used in court. If the government was able to do this strictly in accordance with the Constitution then they wouldn’t need the IMF. So the plan was to break as main laws as necessary as long as what came out was immiscible in a court of law. This did serve to stir things up quit a bit in this season. At least it moved them away from constantly infiltrating the Eastern block countries. Over all the stories here worked and where typically better than a lot of what is one television; then or now. One week the IMF may be going after arms dealers the next a man pulling the strings of a city’s government here in the States. This new direction allowed the writers to broaden the plots and give freshness to the series.

This is still engaging television and exceeds much of what is on the tube today. CBS Paramount has one of the greatest vaults of TV shows around and thankfully they are continuing to release season sets like this to DVD. Get this one and enjoy it with the whole family.