Mission: Impossible – The Complete Second Season (DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Episodes: B+

 

 

Though it seems like he was there from the beginning, Peter Graves actually joined Mission: Impossible in its second season as Jim Phelps after Steven Hill left the show as IMF head Dan Briggs.  The rest of the original cast returned including Barbara Bain as model Cinnamon Carter, Greg Morris as electronics expert Barney Collier, Peter Lupus as strongman/good henchman Willy Armitage and Martin Landau now established as a regular playing master of disguise Rollin Hand.  This set contains the entire second season of shows as follows:

 

1)     The Widow (9/10/1967) – William Windom plays a heroin kingpin who has just made a record purchase he intends to unleash from an unnamed Asian country, but the team is asked to stop him at all costs.

2)     Trek (9/17/1967) – The late, great Daniel O’Herlihy (Robocop) plays a man who steals some very rare gold, only to land up in a prison out of U.S. reach where its head (Mark Lenard from Star Trek) knows he stole it, knows where it is and wants to know how to get it.  The IMF is asked to free him and recapture the gold.  Michael Pate also stars.

3)     The Survivors (9/24/1967) – Albert Paulsen returns as a different agent this season, one the IMF who is trying to kidnap the proper combination of agents to get a priceless, deadly formula.  Another good show.

4)     The Bank (10/1/1967) – The team has to stop a communist from taking over his own satellite country and turning into The Fourth Reich, as he is a secret Nazi.  Plays better than it sounds and holds up well for its age.

5)     The Slave (1; 10/8/1967) – The IMF battles white slavery by becoming directly involved in this cleverly-penned two-parter that has them traveling to The Persian Gulf.  Percy Rodriguez, Sid Haig and Peter Lorre Jr. make up the many of the supporting cast.

6)     The Slave (2; 10/15/1967)

7)     Operation “Heart” (10/22/1967) – Michael Strong is a Stalinist-style chief of secret police ready top overthrow his government unless the IMF can stop him.  Pernell Roberts plays the imprisoned doctor who may know these plans when the rest of the government there does not.  Arthur Rowe co-wrote one of the more interesting episodes of this season here.

8)     The Money Machine (10/29/1967) – Brock Peters plays an evil African financer going in for the kill unless the IMF can stop him from overthrowing a democratic government already having its own troubles.  A very good show with some real twists that work.

9)     The Seal (11/5/1967) – This all time masterwork of the series influenced the first Tom Cruise film as the team has to retrieve a 2,000-year-old jade figure that should go back to its country of origin, but a very wealthy and powerful business man played to perfection by Darren McGavin becomes one of their best adversaries.  The statue is under one of the tightest security set-ups ever built, but it will take more than a team member in a cat suit to get it, so they train an actual cat!

10)  Charity (11/12/1967) – Fritz Weaver and Hazel Court are an evil married couple who rob from the defenseless and poor, then give to themselves, partly by running illegal charities.  When their activities cross the further line and threaten some unsuspecting millionaires who cannot be told outright about this, so the IMF has to intervene and get the stolen money back.

11)  The Council (1; 11/19/1967) – Paul Stevens is a syndicate head and Vincent Gardenia surprisingly good in this two-parter about how the IMF is sent to break up their biggest operation by attacking their Swiss bank accounts.  One wonders if a theatrical film release was considered for either of these two-parters.

12)  The Council (1; 11/26/1967)

13)  The Astrologer (12/3/1967) – Cinnamon pretends to be a lady who can see the near future as the IMF infiltrates another dictatorship, but this time, its leader is superstitious a bit and they intend to make that his undoing.

14)  Echo Of Yesterday (12/10/1967) – Hans Gudegast, know known as Eric Braeden, plans to bring back the Nazis with the help of Otto Kelmann (Wilford Hyde-White playing a bad guy for a change, and well) who owns a huge munitions business and is ready to turn it over to Col. Marcus von Frank (Gudegast) to make this all possible.  One of the better thrillers of this season.

15)  The Photographer (12/17/1967) – Anthony Zerbe is in villain mode again as the title character, actually bringing in tons of spies into the U.S., then leash a deadly virus.  Then the destruction of New York City is planned.  Very interesting and John Randolph (Seconds) also stars.

16)  The Spy (1/7/1968) – Joseph Campanella plays a traitorous captain who might be able to get the rest of NATO’s missile plans unless the IMF can stop him.  They also want to recover the first part, which leads to a complicated plan, but once again, this is laid out well.  Kate Woodville and Karl Swenson also star.

17)  A Game of Chess (1/14/1968) – The IMF must stop a huge shipment of gold from going back to the USSR, so they turn to the country’s favorite game to foil their plans.  Another interesting show that has aged better than expected.

18)  The Emerald (1/21/1968) – Michael Strong stars (already?) as a different USSR figure, a deadly KGB type out to get the tile item, which has plans to devaluate the U.S. dollar contained within it.  Very good and more like the outright tête-à-tête spy show you would expect.

19)  The Condemned (1/28/1968) – Solid show where an old friend of Phelps is condemned to death and he gets the team to help save him.  A season highlight.

20)  The Counterfeiter (2/4/1968) – Edmund O’Brien is a man who uses his clinics chain to make counterfeit drugs, but his new scheme to replace a new wonder drug with fakes could kills thousands, so the IMF has to expose him without him knowing it.

21)  The Town (2/18/1968) – Will Geer shows up in shades of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds as Phelps is kept against his will in a small town where he is marked for murder and told he had a stroke when he has not.  Worth seeing for Geer alone.

22)  The Killing (2/28/1968) – Phelps is set up as a fake target to get a top Gangster assassin in this decent show with its share of wit about it.

23)  The Phoenix (3/3/1968) – East Bloc chairman Stephan Prohosh (Alf Kjellin) has been demoted to working in a museum, but in one of the many artifacts is a stolen secret alloy substance that he will use to regain power unless the IMF can stop his mad plans.  Another interesting show.

24)  Trail By Fury (3/10/1968) – The team goes to South America to help the fledgling head of a new democratic party stay alive and gain power, but one of his assistants (Michael Tolan as Santos Cardoza) is in prison and if he is seen as a snitch, will be instantly killed.  Not unless the IMF gets in first.  Sid Haig and Victor French also star.

25)  Recovery (3/17/1968) – Bradford Dillman is a U.S. scientist who has defected and when two U.S. SAC bombers crash in USSR territory, he is the key to breaking the U.S. fail safe system unless the IMF can get here first.  Another Cold War story that holds up well.

 

 

Yes, that is less shows that the first season, but they likely spent more money on them.  The show was still in peak form, but it become a little talkier and a little sentimental in a way that did not hurt this season, but both would eventually hurt the series in the long run.  This is still the show that caused colleges across the nation to cease activities every week to watch it and was still in top rate shape.  Graves had been bashed for his lack of acting skills often before, but he is very good on this show and it assured a long career to come.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image is in color and again from a round of new transfers, but is just lacking the total detail throughout one would hope for throughout.  However, the clarity and color on these uncut shows is so good, that they are a constant pleasure to watch with visual surprises throughout.  Though the original show was monophonic and a Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track is included for each show, Paramount has upgraded each show to Dolby 5.1 and the results are not bad.  You can hear sonic limits, but it is a nice alternative.  Some episodes were previously released on VHS and even a couple of 12” LaserDiscs, but these are the best copies to date, looking pretty ready for both HD formats.

 

Sadly, there are no extras again, but this is a must-see set.  Remember, this was a show so bold in its time that it even showed a compilation of shots from the entire show before it began and was never matched in this respect.  It still falls a tad short of the amazing first season, but is very close.  We highly recommend this box and the first show, which you can read more about at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4632/Mission:+Impossible+–+The+Complete

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo