Mission Impossible - The Complete Fifth Season
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Good evening. This is the fifth season (1970-1971) of "Mission: Impossible" which is fully produced by Bruce Lansbury from season 4 and supervised by top writer Laurence Heath who, nevertheless, produces six episodes. Here is a complete revision of the series because of its ideological shift through a leaning towards the thematics of the youth movement (for instance: students' agitators and radicals in "Takeover", NLF guerrillas in "The Rebel", far left terrorists in "The Hostage" and subversive revolutionaries in "Blast").

You will find some deep changes: a new-hip-younger "regular" leading lady named Dana Lambert (played by Lesley Ann Warren) introduced in "Flip Side" (in which she performs two folk songs), a replacement of Willy in twelve episodes out of twenty three via a young physician named Doug Robert and also named Doug Lang (played by Sam Elliott), a faster-harder-urgent urban main theme music (moreover, four episodes contain the original main theme music), no more multi-part episodes, a recursive portable gadget used to stun that can be described as a "golden needle ring" (created by writer Ken Pettus in a season 4 episode of "The Wild Wild West" and introduced in a late MISSION season 4 entitled "The Crane", and over-used by producer Bruce Lansbury), no dossier scenes, a dramatic prologue-teaser followed directly by the tape scene before the opening credits, downbeat and realistic kind of narratives with accidents and failures, assignments in progress, improvisations, and caught up agents. The fashion design of the team is also renewed and reflects the trend (casual or outrageous) of the 1970's: pay attention to Jim's outfits (suits and sunglasses) during the tape scenes which will blossom from season 6.

Anyway, two of the series' main ingredients remain: a master of disguises (Paris) and foreign intrigues (around sixteen). Actor Leonard Nimoy shines again in these offerings: brainwashed Fred Stark in "My Friend, My Enemy", Kabuki performer Nakamura Taizo in "Butterfly", abducted business man Walter A. Phelan in "The Hostage", criminal Alfredo Sanchez/old convict Martin Sanchez in "The Catafalque", professional gambler Harry Kroll in "The Merchant". You'll still discover top episodes: the masterpiece "The Killer" (guest starring Robert Conrad), "The Innocent" (a controversial plot re-written by Laurence Heath that calls into question the methods of the IMFers who blackmail a young "hippie" scientist so that he works with them), "Flight" (guest starring John Colicos), "The Catafalque" (written by scripts genius Paul Playdon and guest starring John Vernon) and good ones: "My Friend, My Enemy" (guest starring Peter Mark Richman), "The Merchant" (guest starring George Sanders), "The Hostage" (guest starring Lou Antonio), "The Amateur" (guest starring Anthony Zerbe), "The Missile" (guest starring David Sheiner), "The Party", "The Field". As in season 4, intimistic stories centered around IMFers return: Paris ("My Friend, My Enemy" in which we learn his past as a magician), Jim ("Homecoming" in which we get a glimpse of his hometown and his family background), Barney ("Cat's Paw" in which we meet his brother). The music scores are powerful: "The Killer and "Takeover" by Lalo Schifrin and "The Rebel" by Hugo Montenegro.

Season 5 (1970–1971)

Title	Director	Original Airdate	#
The Killer	Paul Krasny	September 19, 1970	5x01
Lesley Ann Warren joins the regular cast as Dana. The IMF must stop a killer-for-hire who makes all his decisions based on pure chance.
Flip Side	John Llewellyn Moxey	September 26, 1970	5x02
The IMF must bust an illegal pharmaceutical ring where a US manufacturer (Dana Elcar) sells - legally - to a Mexican business, who then smuggles the product back across the border to a west-coast distributor (Sal Mineo).
The Innocent	John Llewellyn Moxey	October 3, 1970	5x03
First appearance of Sam Elliott as recurring IMF team member Doug. When Barney is caught and poisoned during an attempt to destroy a computer, the IMF must persuade the only person in the area who can fill in for Barney to do the job - except he's reluctant to help and threatens to turn the team in.
Homecoming	Reza S. Badiyi	October 10, 1970	5x04
Jim discovers a series of murders going on in his hometown, and he brings in the rest of the IMF team to help him get to the bottom of it.
Flight	Barry Crane	October 17, 1970	5x05
In order to foil an assassination, the IMF must convince the only man (John Colicos) who knows the identity of the assassin that his plane has crash-landed onto a notorious penal colony.
My Friend, My Enemy	Gerald Mayer	October 25, 1970	5x06
While motorcycling in Europe, Paris is recognized by enemy agents, kidnapped, and brainwashed into killing his "control" - Jim Phelps.
Butterfly	Gerald Mayer	October 31, 1970	5x07
Paris must impersonate a kabuki artist and Willy must fight a jujitsu master in order to expose the murder of the Japanese wife of an American businessman by her isolationist brother.
Decoy	Seymour Robbie	November 7, 1970	5x08
The IMF must spirit the daughter of the late premier of an Eastern-bloc country - and the secret dossier he gave her - to the west out from under the nose of her brother and the country's security chief, who knows of her desire to defect and wants the secret document.
The Amateur	Paul Krasny	November 14, 1970	5x09
While the IMF smuggles a secret weapon out of an Eastern-bloc country, they must contend with the meddling of a nightclub owner (Anthony Zerbe) who is not as clever as he thinks he is.
Hunted	Terry Becker	November 21, 1970	5x10
While rescuing the seriously-ill leader of an anti-apartheid movement from an African country, Barney (in Caucasian disguise) is injured and must rely on the help of a deaf-mute seamstress in order to stay out of the clutches of the police.
The Rebel	Barry Crane	November 28, 1970	5x11
After a scientist is executed, the IMF must discover the location of his notebook in order to keep it out of the hands of the military, led by a scheming colonel (Mark Lenard).
Squeeze Play	Virgil W. Vogel	December 12, 1970	5x12
Paris impersonates an American mobster in order to infiltrate the Syndicate's Mediterranean branch, obtain the list of their opium suppliers, and prevent the branch's terminally-ill boss from perpetuating his empire.
The Hostage	Barry Crane	December 19, 1970	5x13
At the conclusion of a successful mission in a Latin country, revolutionaries kidnap Paris, believing he actually is the successful American hotel magnate that he had been portraying.
Takeover	Virgil W. Vogel	January 2, 1971	5x14
A youth organizer is hired by a political boss and his puppet mayor (Lloyd Bochner) to foment student violence in order to make their political opponents appear weak. Dana poses as a provocateur (who is the mayor's long-lost daughter) to disrupt their plans.
Cat's Paw	Virgil W. Vogel	January 9, 1971	5x15
The IMF helps Barney avenge the murder of his older brother by the black Mob.
The Missile	Charles R. Rondeau	January 16, 1971	5x16
An enemy agent attempts to steal the guidance system and schematics for a top-secret missile, but the IMF has secretly switched them out for fakes in order to set enemy weapons research back. Unfortunately, the team must also contend with a psychotic mechanic who is convinced that Dana is his former girlfriend.
The Field	Reza S. Badiyi	January 23, 1971	5x17
In order to help Barney cross an enemy minefield and destroy a nuclear satellite, Paris impersonates the American defector who designed the minefield. But when the real defector is accused of murder, the enemy forces take Paris into custody and reactivate the mines, with Barney trapped inside the field.
Blast	Sutton Roley	January 30, 1971	5x18
Jim and Dana infiltrate a crew of bank robbers in order to discover the identity of the mysterious man they're funding, who aims to eventually overthrow the US government.
The Catafalque	Barry Crane	February 6, 1971	5x19
To discover the hidden location of a secret nuclear treaty and avoid a Cuban-style missile crisis, the IMF team must convince the son (John Vernon) of the country's deceased former leader that the new leader is framing him for murder.
Kitara	Murray Golden	February 20, 1971	5x20
In order to free a resistance leader, the IMF uses drugs and a special light bulb to make a ruthless white provincial governor (Lawrence Dobkin) in an apartheid African nation believe he's actually black.
A Ghost Story	Reza S. Badiyi	February 27, 1971	5x21
A fascist militia leader must be made to believe that he is seeing and hearing ghosts in order to find where he has hidden the corpse of his son, which contains the only remaining clues to the secret of a deadly nerve gas.
The Party	Murray Golden	March 6, 1971	5x22
An EEPR agent gave his wife a code representing the location of the list of his government's spies in the US, then hypnotized himself to forget the list and its location, with the wife serving as the only trigger. In order to get the list, the IMF throws a fake party at the real embassy of the East European People's Republic.
The Merchant	Leon Benson	March 17, 1971	5x23
Final appearances of Leonard Nimoy as Paris and Lesley Ann Warren as Dana. The IMF uses a rigged card game in order to bankrupt an illegal arms dealer (George Sanders). But when the computer the team was using is sabotaged, Paris must beat the arms dealer at five-card stud poker without any help.