The BEST episodes of Mission: Impossible season 3
Every episode of Mission: Impossible season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Mission: Impossible season 3!
Elite special agents undertook top-secret assignments in crackerjack episodes, which kicked off with the team leader receiving instructions via a tape-recorded message that self-destructed in five seconds. What followed were usually breakneck spyjinks set to a pulsating Lalo Schifrin score. Martin Landau turned down the Spock role in 'Star Trek' to play IMFer Rollin Hand. When Landau left the series in 1969, his replacement was the man who built a career on Spock, Leonard Nimoy.
#1 - The Bunker (2)
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/9/1969
With Cinnamon-as-Anna in place, she is taken to her "husband" and tells Dr. Rojak to be near an air vent. Jim as a security officer has placed a small remote-control flying disk in the bunker's air vent system and it holds a hypo. Barney steers it to Rojak's monitored cell and he uses the hypo to induce a heart attack. Jim summons Rollin (as a heart specialist) who advises surgery and instructs that "Anna" be at her husband's side. Ventlos the assassin plans to disrupt the operation by taking Rollin's place in disguise and the IMF quickly has to readjust when Ventlos tries to kill Rojak and destroy the installation.
#2 - The Execution
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/10/1968
The IMF must stop Lewis Parma, a Syndicate man who is close to gaining total control of the food distribution industry in the U.S. To stop him, the IMF must get his hired assassin Vic Duchell to turn state's evidence, but Duchell is resolute. Jim pretends to be a merchant who resists Parma's extortion efforts so as to become a target. Duchell bombs Jim's apartment but is knocked out. He wakes up "years later" to find himself on death row: he's been convicted for Jim's murder and is hours away from execution. Duchell believes Parma will get him out as he did one time before, but thanks to the IMF's staging, of course Parma is nowhere in sight. Just as he is is about to be fake-executed, Duchell breaks and turns evidence on Parma, just as Parma arrives at the warehouse where the scam is going on.
#3 - The Test Case
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/19/1969
A scientist of an enemy power, Dr. Oswald Beck, has developed a bacteria which causes cerebral spinal meningitis and mutated it into a form that kills and then becomes inert after a few hours. The IMF must destroy the preliminary culture and stop Beck. Rollin replaces the prisoner chosen for a test of Beck's bacteria, and Barney switches the bacteria cylinder for one with knockout gas and then uses a balloon to capture the gas. Rollin "dies" but then Jim, who has infiltrated the base as a military medic, "discovers" that Rollin isn't dead. Meanwhile, Barney releases the knockout gas into the control room, knocking out Beck's superiors. Beck thinks they are dying from his bacteria and believes they'll think he's a traitor who tried to kill them rather than the test subject. He flees but is shot while Jim destroys the bacteria.
#4 - The Bunker (1)
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/2/1969
Dr. Erich Rojak and his wife Anna are being held in an underground laboratory/bunker by a totalitarian enemy government. Another unfriendly government has sent an assassin, Ventlos, to kill Rojak. The IMF must rescue Rojak and his wife, destroy the test missile Rojak is working on, and stop Ventlos. The IMF infiltrate the base and Jim introduces a handstamp system, unaware that Ventlos has already replaced the bunker's security chief. Jim uses his system to expose security officer Cinnamon as a phony and she is imprisoned near Anna. Willy breaks in via the furnace and rescues Anna while Cinnamon takes her place...
#5 - The Exchange
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/4/1969
During a mission in a half Western/half Communist country, Cinnamon is caught and arrested after delivering information to the team. She is tortured and proves immune to everything except effects involving her claustrophobia. As intelligence officer Strom gets close to breaking her, Jim decides that the team must try and trade her for a valuable Eastern spy, Rudolf Kurtz. The IMF have to covertly get Kurtz out of prison, get him past the Western police, and get the information from him. The IMF fakes "rescuing" Kurtz and taking him to an office in the Eastern zone, where he gives up his information to superior officer Jim. Strom is forced to trade Cinnamon, but shoots both her and Jim during the exchange. Believing them dead and with Kurtz keeping silent about the information he spilled to protect his own life, Strom departs...as Jim and Cinnamon, wearing bulletproof trenchcoats, make their escape.
#6 - The Mind of Stefan Miklos
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/12/1969
Walter Townsend is discovered to be a double-agent: the U.S. government has leaked false information to him to give to the enemy which will cause them embarassment if believed. However, Townsend's contact Simpson has discovered the information is false and reported to his superiors Townsend is a defector. Simpson's superiors know of his jealousy toward Townsend and send their best intelligence officer, Stefan Miklos, to discover the truth of the matter. The IMF must make Miklos believe the information is true and Simpson the liar. Rollin-as-Miklos gets Simpson out and then takes Simpson's place. The IMF sets a series of clues to make Miklos belief that Townsend truly is a traitor and preparing to defect, including tickets and a passport. However, Miklos spots a planted "clue" that convinces him the IMF are doing exactly what they are doing: framing Townsend! He identifies them and then receives the information from Rollin-as-Simpson and Jim when he's spotted Jim as one of the IMF opera
#7 - The Glass Cage
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/2/1969
Anton Reisner, a reistance leader in a tyrannical country, has been imprisoned in the automated Trast Prison and is being tortured by Major Zelinko in order to get the names of the other resistance leaders. The IMF must get him out of the prison. Reisner is in a video-monitored escape-proof glass cubicle. Barney and Willy get themselves imprisoned when Cinnamon as head of the country's prison system arrives for an inspection. She distracts Zelinko long enough for Barney and Willy to escape, wreck the video system, and get to Reisner. But..they tell him to stay in the cell but act different, then get recaptured. Zelinko notes the discrepancy between the door counter and the written log and puts two and two together (incorrectly) with Reisner's odd behavior and assumes Reisner is an imposter. Zelinko and Gulka plot to keep the switch secret but Cinnamon arranges for Zelinko's underling Vasney to overhear it. She has Zelinko arrested and takes Barney, Willy, and the Reisner-as-the-imposte
#8 - The System
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/26/1969
A gangster, Constantine Victor (aka "Mr. V") has had the last witness against him on a murder indictment killed. Johnny Costa, Victor's associates and a casino owner, is the only one with enough evidence to get Victor convicted. The IMF must con Costa into talking. Phelps as a syndicate killer warns Costa that someone has put a contract on him. Cinnamon charms Costa and has him endorse minor credit slips which the IMF then forges for bigger ones. Rollin is a bookkeeper who supposedly works for Costa, finds an unlisted $25,000 planted by Barney, and the fake credit slips. Thanks to a prerecorded call from "Victor" mimicked by Rollin, Costa is relieved of duties. Costa confronts Cinnamon and gets her to admit she is working for Victor. Fleeing from Willy as another hit man, Costa locks himself in the casino vault to protect himself until he can testify against Victor.
#9 - The Mercenaries
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/27/1968
The IMF must bring down Colonel Hans Krim, the head of a mercenary army who has a ton of loot in gold bars hidden away in an inaccessible enclave. Rollin enlists while Jim and Cinnamon pose as gunrunners with Willy and Barney hidden in their truck. Rollin fakes finding a cache of gold and is then tortured into revealing it. Krim "kills" Rollin and then coerces Jim into moving it without revealing the secret gold to his aides. Krim tells the guards to ignore the truck with what he believes his gold, unaware that Barney has melted the real gold belonging to the army, melted it down to remove it from the vault, and put in the truck. While Krim's suspicious aide Gruner kills him over the betrayal, Jim drives away with the gold and the hidden IMFers, immune to being searched because of Krim's last orders.
#10 - The Diplomat
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/1/1968
Information on U.S. missile control centers has been stolen and turned over to Valentin Yetkoff, military attache and agent of an enemy power. The IMF must keep Yetkoff from confirming the information and in fact lead him to believe it is false. They go after Yetkoff's main man, The IMF recruit a Presidential aid and his wife Susan, and Susan woos Toland and lets him see she and her husband have top-secret papers relating to the missile centers. Toland kills Susan with an overdose and photographs the papers, but the IMF revives her just in time. Phelps presents himself to Yetkoff as one of the agents' underlings and gives Yetkoff proof that the stolen information is correct. Yetkoff finds out Jim is isn't who he pretends to be and believes therefore the information must be incorrect. When Toland presents his own proof that the stolen information is correct, Yetkoff believes he is an enemy U.S. agent and has him killed, then informs his superiors the information they stole is false.
#11 - Doomsday
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/16/1969
Carl Vandaam, a bankrupt European tycoon, is masterminding the theft of plutonium to make a hydrogen bomb and sell to the highest bidder. To keep such a bomb from falling into the wrong hands the IMF must stop Vandaam. Jim and Cinnamon get close to Kura, one of the bidders, by offering to bankroll him in return for oil rights. Vandaam demonstrates the bomb's plutonium core but afterwards Barney manages to steal the plutonium and replace it with an empty cylinder. Vandaam's aide discovers the theft and seals the building while Vanddam bluffs it out hoping they catch the thief before the bidding is over. Kura wins the bidding unaware that Cinnamon has planted a device in his money. Cinnamon insists they see the plutonium again, Vandaam is forced to reveal the theft, and Kura wants a refund. Cinnamon destroys the money by remote control. Kura has Vandaam shot while the IMF escape and summon the authorities.
#12 - The Interrogator
Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/20/1969
Agent Norvan Kruger knows about his country's plans to launch some kind of attack which will devastate the world. he's been captured by a second country unfriendly to the U.S. Kruger's interrogator, Spindler, hasn't broken the agent but even if he does the U.S. needs the plans. The IMF capture Spindler and Kruger during transport and lock Spindler up. To convince them he's who he is he tells them of Kruger's knowledge of the plan to launch nuclear missiles from submarines against the U.S. The IMF use drugs to scramble Kruger's memories and convince him he is an interrogator assigned to break a prisoner (Rollin). He's told he must get the information from Rollin or his superior Kutzof will have him shot. Rollin claims to have the same submarine-location knowledge Kruger does. Kruger grows steadily more confused, particularly when he can't hear what Rollin is saying. Jim as a psychiatirst tells Kruger he's blocking out the words. When "Kutzof" shows up, under pressure Kruger blurts out h
#13 - The Cardinal
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/17/1968
General Zepke plans to rise to power - the only threat to him is Cardinal Souchek who stands for a free people. Zepke has had Souchek imprisoned and plans to replace him with a double who will endorse him. The IMF use an infected mosquito to make the double, Nagorski, ill. Phelps and Cinnamon are called in as doctor and nurse to tend to him while Rollin impersonates a Cardinal and sees through Nagorski's impersonation. He escapes from an airtight sarcophagus and helps Barney and Willy enter the monastery through a booby-trapped tunnel before their air runs out. When Jim has Nagorski placed in an oxygen tent, the others open up the wall behind him, take out Nagorski and replace him with Souchek whom they've secretly freed. Zepke has Souchek-as-Nagorski-as-Souchek give a speech, but Souchek doesn't say what Zepke was expecting...
#14 - The Heir Apparent
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/1968
The Archbishop of Povia must designate a heir to succeed the departed king as regent, as the king left no heir. General Qaisette plans to seize the throne in a coup if he isn't named. The IMF spread rumors that Princess Celine, who disappeared as a child, is returning. Cinnamon studies Celine's life. Barney and Willey lead Qaisette to Phelps who has an elderly blind Celine/Cinnamon. Thanks to Rollin who claims to be a doctor who knows about the "real" Celine's crippled arm, Qaisette believes he can use the "fake" Celine to discredit the Archbishop. But Cinnamon manages to pass every test (with some help from Barney) and Rollin ingeniously sneaks out before Qaisette can call him as a witness. Cinnamon-as-Celine has Qaisette arrested and then abdicates the throne, disappearing once more.
#15 - Live Bait
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/23/1969
Selby, a double-agent for the U.S. within an enemy country's intelligence service, is suspected by his superior, Kellerman. The IMF must keep Selby in the clear and eliminate Kellerman. Selby complains when Marceau, a courier who knows about Selby's identity, is taken from him by Kellerman. Selby claims Kellerman is the double-agent. Rollin, as a government official, gives Kellerman 24 hours to break Marceau. Using his underling Brocke, Kellerman works with Rollin to trap Selby. Kellerman comes to believe that Agent Jim has kidnapped Brocke's girlfriend to force Brocke to give away Marceau's location to Selby. In reality, Stephanie is shown a fake split-screen of Jim conspiring with "Kellerman" (Rollin in disguise on tape!) to kill Brocke and eliminate Marceau. Brocke believes Stephanie and accuses Kellerman but she recants under pressure. Meanwhile, Marceau is wired to an explosive. When Stephanie recants the IMF break in using knockout gas and use liquid nitrogen to free Marceau. The
#16 - The Bargain
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/15/1968
An exiled general, Neyron, is living in his private estate in Florida. He's cut a deal with Frank Layton, a Syndicate man. In return for a big payoff of several million dollars to finance his coup, Neyron will let Layton have all gambling rights in his country when he returns to power in Suranaica. Rollin and Jim (as a billionaire financier and his aide) try to buy out Layton's hotel, but Layton finds out it's a ploy to distract Rollin from cutting a deal with Neyron over the Suranaica gambling rights. Meanwhile, Barney, Willy, and Cinnamon are on Neyron's kitchen staff and use IMF wizardry to convince him he has a disease that lets him predict the future. Neyron then foresees his murder thanks to a projection of Rollin-as-Layton and shoots Layton as he arrives to confront the general.
#17 - The Vault
Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 4/6/1969
Phillipe Pereda, finance minister of Costa Mateo has stolen $40 million from the vault of the country's president, De Varo. De Caro plans to announce the money will be used for an industrialization process. Pereda plans to frame the president for embezzlement when it is found the money is missing from the supposedly impenetrable vault, then take over the country. The IMF must stop him. Willy sneaks Barney into the vault and he gets it open and makes it look like it was robbed before setting off the alarm. Rollin (as an auditor) lets a guard see Barney before knocking him out, then knocking himself out. Pereda realizes that with this new robbery, he won't be able to frame De Caro. Cinnamon and Jim (as representatives trying to cut a deal with Pereda to buy land once he is in power) suggest he temporarily replace the stolen money with Treasury cash before De Caro confirms the theft. Pereda sneaks into the vault using an audio tape of De Varo's perfectly pitched code, he puts in the money
#18 - The Contender (2)
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/1968
Jim manages to avoid Whelan by hiding in the tunnel pipes overhead. He gets access to a list of Whelan's bookies. Meanwhile, Barney-as-Richy fights his way through a series of matches, helped by a concealed gas emitter in the ring beneath his opponents' corner. Finally Barney faces Buckman's champ Staczek, with orders to take a dive. He knocks out Staczek against Buckman's orders, leaving Buckman to be bankrupted covering the bets.
#19 - The Contender (1)
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1968
Charles Buckman is attempting to gain a stranglehold on all professional and amateur sports. If successful, the U.S. will be discredited in the world athletic community. Buckman is working with Syndicate man Dan Whelan. The IMF must eliminate them. Barney takes a crash course in boxing and impersonates Richy Lamoine. Barney-as-Richy announces a comeback, and Buckman forces manager-Rollin to sign with him. Meanwhile, Jim gets a job with Whelan. But as he sneaks through an access tunnel to get to Whelan's office, Whelan and his men come down the tunnel...
#20 - The Freeze
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/23/1968
Albert Jenkins, who robbed an armored car five years ago, double-crossed his associates and hid the $10 million. He then managed to get himself arrested as "Raymond Barret" on a burglary charge he did not commit. In this way he can outwait the statute of limitations on the armored car robbery from the safety of his cell. The IMF must bring him to justice. To do so, IMF ally Dr. Bowman tells Barret he has a fatal disease and gets him released early. Rollin as a doctor confirms the diagnosis and reveals that Jim, pretending to be a cryogenic doctor, can put him in stasis. Barret/Jenkins "wakes up" 12 years later in a futurstic IMF set and a graying Rollin tells him currency is no longer of value and the police want to question him. Barret escapes only to discover that it's a scam...but in the scam-within-a-scam, he thinks it's one day after the statue of limitations expires. He goes to the cemetary where he hid the money, along with his partners thanks to an IMF ploy, and all of them are
#21 - The Elixir
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/24/1968
Riva Santel is the recent widow of the President of San Cordova. Deputy Premier Avilla plans to announce free elections but Riva will declare herself dictator in a coup. The IMF must stop her. Pretending to be a film crew, the IMF team gets in. Hostess Cinnamon fakes a collapse and the guys comment on her age. Rollin as a plastic surgeon comes in and Riva finds out Cinnamon is actually seventy years old. She insists on surgery for herself. Since the surgery can only be done on the night of the speech, she has herself taped by her own camera crew. Barney and Willy get hold of the tape footage, reedit it, and switch the IMF tape for Riva's. Riva is sedated during the speech and so her men use the tape. When she awakens, her face in bandages, she is shocked to hear "herself" announcing her retirement. While Cinnamon disguised as old-Riva conspicuously leaves the country, Riva takes off the bandages to find she has her wish: she is now a younger woman...with a totally different face.
#22 - The Play
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1968
Milos Kuro, minister of culture has been using propaganda to discredit his premier, Leon Vados. Vados is a progressive trying to negotiate a nonagression pact with the U.S. When in the U.S. Kuro witnesses a play written by Cinnamon that undermines Vados and the U.S. He arranges to have it staged in his country. But Cinnamon and Rollin leak the play's existence to Vados. Vados attends a rehersal and is seated beneath a special radar disk that creates a sound envelope so that Vados hears only the special dialogue the IMF has created that makes Vados out to look like a fool. Vados has Kuro arrested.
#23 - Nicole
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/30/1969
Jim is sent in to recover a list of Allied agents from the enemy's highest ranking intelligence minister, Anton Valdas. Nicole Vedette's, Valdas' secretary, is apparently on the IMF's side but Jim decides not to use her. Instead Jim and Rollin plansto break into Valdas' safe during a party. Jim and Nicole meet and have a romantic attraction. The effort goes awry and Jim is shot and captured while helping Rollin to escape. Nicole is imprisoned on suspicion but tells Jim that no one is looking for Rollin. Nicole also tells him that Rollin's contact is a double agent. Jim believes Valdas substituted a fake list that he wants them to take back. The two escape and Jim collapses from his wound in a barn. Nicole reveals she is the double agent and reports the success of their charade to Jim. But because of her attraction to him she blackmails Valdas into letting them escape for real. Jim realizes the deception and Nicole confesses, unaware that Valdas put a bug on her. They are caught by Vald
#24 - Illusion
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/13/1969
Skarbeck and Lom are rivals for the vacant post of Chief of Secret Police in the East European Peoples Republic. As they are both hardliners, the IMF must eliminate both of them and make sure Paul Trock becomes the new chief. Skarbeck killed his lover Carlotta years ago but never found the man she was sleeping with. Skarbeck framed her costar and killed him in a car crash before having a breakdown. The IMF plan to trigger another breakdown. Cinnamon recreates Carlotta's act and admits to Skarbeck that Lom is paying her to him. Meanwhile, Jim sets up Lom with a letter proving Skarbeck killed Carlotta. Lom plans to nail Skarbeck for Cinnamon's murder. The IMF slip Skarbeck a drug to hypnotize him into thinking of Cinnamon as he did Carlotta. The IMF then trick Skarbeck into thinking Rollin, Cinnamons cabaret comic/partner, is having an affair with her, and that he is actually the murdered Fritz Mueller. Rollin tells Skarbeck that Cinnamon is having an affair with Lom. Skarbeck tries to k
#25 - Nitro
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/23/1969
General Zek of Karak is opposed to a peace treaty between his country and Agir, and is working with a munitions maker named Ismir Najiid to start a war by destroying King Said during his announcement of the treaty. The IMF must stop Zek and Najiid for good. The two conspirators hire Aristo Skora, a terrorist, to plant the explosives and incriminate Agir. Barney as a systems analyst sets up Najiid's factory's alarm system so Rollin can sneak in and steal the nitro from Najiid with Willy's help while letting himself be seen. Meanwhile, Jim has identified Cinnamon to Zek as an ally of "Hakim", the Agirian terrorist Rollin is pretending to be. Rollin and Willy grab the real Skora and then Rollin-as-Skora tells Zek their plan won't work. The IMF let Zek follow Cinnamon to an unconscious "Hakim" (actually a drugged and masked Skora) who has the nitro and a radio-controlled truck so Zek takes over his plan which he believes is the Agirians. Meanwhile Najiid has been drugged during Said's spee