Mission Impossible - The Complete Sixth Season
The Mission Impossible DVDs

Buy Now

 

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.

Season 6 (1971–1972)

Title	Director	Original Airdate	#
Blind	Reza S. Badiyi	September 18, 1971	6x01
Lynda Day George joins the regular cast as Casey. Jim undergoes surgery to be temporarily blinded in order to pose as a federal investigator who had been caught in an explosion caused by the Syndicate at an industrial facility.
Encore	Paul Krasny	September 25, 1971	6x02
To bring down a pair of crime syndicate bosses by finding evidence of a murder committed by them years before, the IMF must convince one of them (William Shatner) that he has travelled back in time to his youth in 1937. Final appearance of Sam Elliott as Doug.
The Tram	Paul Krasny	October 2, 1971	6x03
The IMF must infiltrate a Syndicate financial meeting - held at a mountain resort only accessible by aerial tramway - to discover the group's Swiss bank account number.
Mindbend	Marvin Chomsky	October 9, 1971	6x04
A Syndicate boss has been using a psychopathic doctor to brainwash former prison inmates to assassinate public officials and then kill themselves immediately after, and Barney must go undercover and resist the doctor's "training" to expose them.
Shape-Up	Paul Krasny	October 16, 1971	6x05
The IMF has to break the Syndicate control over a waterfront and its docks by making the local boss believe a ship is haunted by the ghost of a man he killed.
The Miracle	Leonard J. Horn	October 23, 1971	6x06
The IMF makes a Syndicate drug smuggler (Joe Don Baker) believe he has received the heart of a priest in a transplant operation (faked for the benefit of him and his associate (Billy Dee Williams)) and that he is taking on the donor's personality traits in order to intercept a large heroin shipment.
Encounter	Barry Crane	October 30, 1971	6x07
In order to put two Syndicate operators out of commission, Casey poses as the wife (Elizabeth Ashley) of one of the operators attending a group encounter alcohol rehab center in order to convince the two operators that each is double-crossing the other.
Underwater	Sutton Roley	November 6, 1971	6x08
When an underling steals a shipment of diamonds out from under the nose of a Syndicate fence (Fritz Weaver) and hides them underwater offshore, Casey makes the fence and the underling believe SCUBA diver Jim has already found them in order to retrieve the gems and the $75 million earmarked for their sale.
Invasion	Leslie H. Martinson	November 13, 1971	6x09
After an enemy agent (Kevin McCarthy) steals the secrets of the US Distant Early Warning (DEW) system against nuclear missile strikes, he is made to believe the United States has been invaded by the country he's spying for in order to to retrieve the document and uncover the identity of his 'control'.
Blues	Reza S. Badiyi	November 20, 1971	6x10
Posing as an aspiring singer, Barney makes a Syndicate record executive (William Windom) believe he has an audio recording of the night the executive threw a woman off a balcony.
The Visitors	Reza S. Badiyi	November 27, 1971	6x11
Jim and Casey make a Syndicate-controlled media tycoon believe they are extraterrestrials with the secret to eternal life in order to expose corrupt candidates in an upcoming election.
Nerves	Barry Crane	December 4, 1971	6x12
When a paranoid Syndicate enforcer (Christopher George, Lynda Day George's husband) threatens to release deadly nerve gas in a heavily populated area to force the release of his brother from prison, the IMF must recover the defective gas canister before it leaks and kills thousands. Guest stars Tyne Daly as the enforcer's girlfriend and Rafer Johnson as his partner.
Run for the Money	Marvin Chomsky	December 11, 1971	6x13
To bring down a Syndicate man running illegal parimutuel betting parlors and stop the saboteur blowing up their competition, the IMF pits the two men against each other by making the saboteur believe he's buying a stolen and disguised super-horse.
The Connection	Barry Crane	December 18, 1971	6x14
In order to take down the largest supplier of uncut heroin on the eastern seaboard (Anthony Zerbe) and uncover his opium source, the IMF makes him believe an island off the coast of Georgia is really off the coast of Africa.
The Bride	John Llewellyn Moxey	January 1, 1972	6x15
Casey poses as the Irish mail-order bride of a Syndicate boss (James Gregory) in order to disrupt an international money laundering ring.
Stone Pillow	Leslie H. Martinson	January 8, 1972	6x16
In order to discover the location of film negatives an inmate is using to blackmail a Syndicate boss, cellmate Jim must bust the inmate out of prison for real.
Image	Don McDougall	January 15, 1972	6x17
When a Syndicate boss threatens to flee the country to avoid prosecution and take a secret list of corrupt officials with him, tarot reader Barney convinces him he has a heretofore unknown (and separated) conjoined twin to get him to divulge the list's location.
Committed	Reza S. Badiyi	January 22, 1972	6x18
Casey gets herself committed to a prison-like mental hospital in order to save the only witness in a murder trial against a Syndicate boss from being driven insane by the corrupt staff.
Bag Woman	Paul Krasny	January 29, 1972	6x19
After Barney's cover is blown during an operation to discover the identity of a politician demanding bribes from the Syndicate, the rest of the team races to warn bag woman Casey that the satchel she's carrying is actually a bomb.
Double Dead	Barry Crane	February 12, 1972	6x20
When Willy is captured stealing the $10 million bankroll of a pair of Syndicate loan sharks, the rest of the IMF must not only turn the loan sharks against each other in order to get the money, but also rescue Willy before a Syndicate doctor can break him using a truth serum.
Casino	Reza S. Badiyi	February 19, 1972	6x21
To take down a Syndicate casino owner (Jack Cassidy), the IMF makes his Syndicate bosses believe he's planning to rob his own vault and flee with the money to the Caribbean. The events of the seventh-season episode "Kidnap" (7x11) make reference to this episode.
Trapped	Leslie H. Martinson	February 26, 1972	6x22
To recover $8 million stolen during an Army payroll heist in Southeast Asia and nab a smuggling family, the IMF convinces one brother (Bert Convy) that the other brother (Jon Cypher) is trying to have him killed. However, after Jim is shot during the mission, he develops amnesia.