| Mission: Impossible | |
|---|---|
| Season 5 | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 23 |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | September 19, 1970 – March 17, 1971 |
| Season chronology | |
The fifth season of the original Mission: Impossible originally aired Saturdays at 7:30–8:30 pm (EST) from September 19, 1970[1] to March 6, 1971.[2] "The Merchant" originally aired Wednesday, March 17, 1971 at 7:30–8:30 pm (EST).[3]
| Character | Actor | Main | Recurring |
| Jim Phelps | Peter Graves | Entire season | |
| Paris | Leonard Nimoy | Entire Season | |
| Dana Lambert | Lesley Ann Warren | Entire Season | |
| Barney Collier | Greg Morris | Entire Season | |
| Willy Armitage | Peter Lupus | Episodes 1-4,7-8,12,15-16,18,21-23 | |
| Dr. Doug Robert | Sam Elliott | Episodes 5-6,9-11,13-14,17,19-20 | Episodes 3, 22 |
|
See also: List of Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series) episodes |
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code [4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 105 | 1 | "The Killer" | Paul Krasny | Arthur Weiss | September 19, 1970 | 105 |
| Lesley Ann Warren joins the regular cast as Dana Lambert. The IMF must stop a contract assassin (Robert Conrad) who makes all his decisions based on random chance. This episode was remade as the first episode of the revival series. | ||||||
| 106 | 2 | "Flip Side" | John Llewellyn Moxey | Jackson Gillis | September 26, 1970 | 106 |
| The IMF must bust an illegal pharmaceutical ring where a US manufacturer (Dana Elcar) sells – legally – to a Mexican businessman (Robert Alda), who then smuggles the product back across the border to a west-coast distributor (Sal Mineo). | ||||||
| 107 | 3 | "The Innocent" | John Llewellyn Moxey | Story by : Marc Norman Teleplay by : Marc Norman and Laurence Heath | October 3, 1970 | 108 |
| First appearance of Sam Elliott as recurring IMF team member Doug. When Barney is accidentally poisoned and subsequently caught 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. First of three episodes starring both Sam Elliott and Peter Lupus. Larry Linville makes an appearance as a foreign colonel. | ||||||
| 108 | 4 | "Homecoming" | Reza S. Badiyi | Laurence Heath | October 10, 1970 | 103 |
| Jim Phelps 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. Loretta Swit, Jacqueline Scott guest star. | ||||||
| 109 | 5 | "Flight" | Barry Crane | Story by : Leigh Vance Teleplay by : Harold Livingston | October 17, 1970 | 110 |
| 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. | ||||||
| 110 | 6 | "My Friend, My Enemy" | Gerald Mayer | Story by : William Wood and Gene R. Kearney Teleplay by : Gene R. Kearney | October 25, 1970 | 107 |
| While motorcycling in Europe, Paris is recognized by enemy agents, kidnapped, and programmed to murder his "control" – Jim Phelps. | ||||||
| 111 | 7 | "Butterfly" | Gerald Mayer | Story by : Sheldon Stark Teleplay by : Eric Bercovici and Jerry Ludwig | October 31, 1970 | 102 |
| 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 wealthy isolationist brother (Khigh Dhiegh). Brian Keith and John Banner guest star. | ||||||
| 112 | 8 | "Decoy" | Seymour Robbie | John D. F. Black | November 7, 1970 | 109 |
| 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, a list of moderate pro-Western officials. | ||||||
| 113 | 9 | "The Amateur" | Paul Krasny | Ed Adamson | November 14, 1970 | 112 |
| 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. | ||||||
| 114 | 10 | "Hunted" | Terry Becker | Helen Hoblock Thompson | November 21, 1970 | 111 |
| While attempting to smuggle the ill leader of a black nationalist movement from the clutches of his country's murderous white settler minority, Barney is wounded by the secret police and forced to seek refuge with a deaf-mute seamstress. Can the IMF find Barney before the secret police do? | ||||||
| 115 | 11 | "The Rebel" | Barry Crane | Story by : Norman Katkov and Ken Pettus Teleplay by : Ken Pettus | November 28, 1970 | 104 |
| 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). | ||||||
| 116 | 12 | "Squeeze Play" | Virgil W. Vogel | Story by : Walter Brough and David Moessinger Teleplay by : David Moessinger | December 12, 1970 | 114 |
| 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 (Albert Paulsen) from perpetuating his empire. | ||||||
| 117 | 13 | "The Hostage" | Barry Crane | Harold Livingston | December 19, 1970 | 117 |
| 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. | ||||||
| 118 | 14 | "Takeover" | Virgil W. Vogel | Story by : Jerry Thomas and Arthur Weiss Teleplay by : Arthur Weiss | January 2, 1971 | 118 |
| 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. | ||||||
| 119 | 15 | "Cat's Paw" | Virgil W. Vogel | Howard Browne | January 9, 1971 | 116 |
| The IMF helps Barney avenge the murder of his older brother by the black Mob. | ||||||
| 120 | 16 | "The Missile" | Charles R. Rondeau | Arthur Weiss | January 16, 1971 | 119 |
| 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 Lambert is his former girlfriend. | ||||||
| 121 | 17 | "The Field" | Reza S. Badiyi | Story by : Judy Burns and Wesley Lau Teleplay by : Wesley Lau | January 23, 1971 | 121 |
| 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. | ||||||
| 122 | 18 | "Blast" | Sutton Roley | James L. Henderson & Samuel Roeca | January 30, 1971 | 122 |
| 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. | ||||||
| 123 | 19 | "The Catafalque" | Barry Crane | Paul Playdon | February 6, 1971 | 113 |
| 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. | ||||||
| 124 | 20 | "Kitara" | Murray Golden | Mann Rubin | February 20, 1971 | 120 |
| In order to rescue a renowned resistance leader imprisoned in an African colony governed by apartheid, the IMF utilize drugs and a special light bulb to trick a white governor (Lawrence Dobkin) into believing that his race has been altered. | ||||||
| 125 | 21 | "A Ghost Story" | Reza S. Badiyi | Story by : John D. F. Black and Ed Adamson Teleplay by : Ed Adamson and Ken Pettus | February 27, 1971 | 123 |
| A fascist militia leader (Andrew Duggan) 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. | ||||||
| 126 | 22 | "The Party" | Murray Golden | Harold Livingston | March 6, 1971 | 124 |
| An US imprisoned Spymaster Colonel (Frank Marth) of the East European People's Republic 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 for the couple at the real embassy of the EEPR. Second of three episodes starring both Sam Elliott and Peter Lupus. Malachi Throne guest stars. | ||||||
| 127 | 23 | "The Merchant" | Leon Benson | Harold Livingston | March 17, 1971 | 115 |
| Final appearances of Leonard Nimoy as Paris and Lesley Ann Warren as Dana Lambert. 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. | ||||||
