The BEST episodes of Mission: Impossible season 5
Every episode of Mission: Impossible season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Mission: Impossible season 5!
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 - Blast
Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/30/1971
Gregory Tolan leads an underground cell specializing in bank robberies with the money going to finance an American revolution. His mysterious sponsor is Jonathan Brace, who runs other such cells throughout the U.S. The IMF must find out Brace's identity and apprehend him. Phelps (as a demo expert) and Dana (as his insider at Tolan's next target) get recruited and has to make sure Tolan steals the money without the police knowing so he can lead them to Brace. When Jim stops Tolan from shooting Willy (disguised as a clerk), the police are alerted and Tolan's team takes refuge. Jim goes to get a (bugged) car since Brace won't come to them, Paris and IMF guest agent Grace play the homeowners, and Dana and Tolan exit with the money when Brace orders them to. Jim stops the hostages from getting killed and they follow Tolan to Brace and bring them both in.
#2 - The Field
Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/23/1971
An enemy power has launched a satellite containing a thermonuclear bomb and the IMF must destroy it. The control center on an island in the Adriatic Sea is surrounded by an impenetrable minefield designed by an American defector, Norris. Barney secretly sets off some of the mines - without an explanation, the facility security call in Norris, whom they haven't seen. Paris takes Norris' place and using plans that Jim stole earlier, shuts down part of the field, and Barney gets in to program the system to drop the satellite out of orbit. Unfortunately, on the mainland the real Norris kills his girlfriend, a government spy, and Paris-as-Norris is arrested for the murder! This also leaves Barney trapped in the middle of the minefield. Jim and Doug manage to extract a confession and the location of the murder weapon from Norris before Inspector Koder (who knows the real Norris) can spot Paris. Dana comes in and manages to covertly slip Paris the information they've set up to make it look li
#3 - The Innocent
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/3/1970
In the Middle East Willy and Barney infiltrate a chemical plant to gain access to Dehominant-B, a quick-acting lethal gas. Barney is exposed to Dehominant-A while trying to get to the computer and crippled - Willy escapes and Barney is captured. Barney is interrogated and only has four hours to live. The team find out that Dr. Jerry Carlin, a dropout, is the only other person with the skills to access the computer. When Carlin rejects the team's appeal for help, Jim and Paris frame Carlin's girlfriend and threaten to keep her in jail unless he helps them. Dana provides a distract and Paris takes the head scientist Vazan's place and have Barney first fake a confession implicating the technicians and then his own death - they get Barney to the autopsy room where Doug revives him in the nick of time. Jim and Carlin take the incriminated technicians' place and Carlin manages to ruin the Dehominant and erase the computer, then everyone escapes with Vazan.
#4 - The Merchant
Season 5 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/17/1971
Armand Anderssarian is an illegal arms dealer who is about to complete a multi-million dollar deal selling arms to guerrilla groups around the world - the IMF must stop him. Jim pretends to be setting up a theft of a secret radar system and Anderssarian "sponsors" Jim with $5 million through Minister Sartori then plans to sell the system for $20 million. Meanwhile Anderssarian loses his $5 million to Paris (with Barney providing an assist) in a poker game. The IMF team perform a fake raid (under the scrutiny of Anderssarian's aide Leon) on a IMF-staged radar station but the stuff is useless and Sartori wants to be reimbursed. When Anderssarian can't do so Sartori takes care of him for good.
#5 - A Ghost Story
Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/27/1971
Howard Bainbridge, a chemical warfare expert who defected to East, was contaminated by his own experiments and then returned back to the U.S. and his family manor, where his father (a paranoid arch-conservative) had him killed and the body buried. Since Howard destroyed the records before defecting, the IMF must recover the body to get a sample of the chemicals. The elder Bainbridge, Justin, is unaware that his head of security is an enemy agent also trying to find Howard' sbody. The IMF gain access to a air-raid shelter on the grounds and start "haunting" Justin with a secretly-implanted microphone and holographic projectors. Plagued by visions only he can see of his son and his dead wife Janette (played by Dana), Justin calls in physician Paris, who recommends he assauge his guilt conscience and Justin ends up digging up his son's body, which the IMF take.
#6 - The Hostage
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/19/1970
After completing a mission Paris is undercover as an American businessman and still in disguise when he is kidnapped by Latin American revolutionaries led by terrorist Robert Siomney - they ask for the release of three prisoners in return for Paris' life. Paris fakes a disease forcing the government to drop medication, which the IMF has planted a tracking device in. Once they know where the revolutionaries' compound is, Jim fakes the exceution of two of the prisoners, putting pressure on the revolutionary leader Jorge Cabal since his son Luis is the third prisoner. Dana poses as Luis' girlfriend to get close to Jorge so Siomney orders her covert death to keep Jorge on track - Barney takes the killer's place and rescues Dana. Then Jim fakes Luis' death as well - Barney fake-kills Paris and then they reveal that Luis got a last-minute reprieve. With nothing else to bargain with, Jorge turns over Siomney, Barney in disguise, and the "dead" Paris in return for the government commuting his
#7 - The Party
Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/6/1971
Alexander Vanin, arrested and convicted for espionage, hid a list of agents operating in the U.S. His control, Mishenko of the EEPR, has been ordered to get the list but Vanin refuses to give in because then Mishenko would cut him loose. The IMF must get the list. Vanin hypnotized himself to forget the list's location and only his wife Olga can give the trigger command to let him remember. Jim gets Olga to the U.S. while Barney and the others clear out the EEPR Consulate with a bomb ruse and then take it over and stage a party where the reunited couple meet (while Mishenko waits across the street for Barney to defuse the bomb). The IMF fake partygoers sneak out and Mishenko shows up to find Vanin there. To prove his loyalty and that he didn't talk, Vanin has his wife give the trigger, unaware that the IMF are listening in and get to the bus where Vanin hid the list before Mishenko can.
#8 - Takeover
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/2/1971
Phelps must stop Charles Peck from using violence, created by professional provocateur Billy Walsh, to elevate his puppet, Mayor Steven Tallman to the governorship. Dana is a provocateur herself, arrested by Barney the current governor's representative. Walsh gets Dana out, and Paris is a blackmailer who convinces Tallman that Dana is his previously-unknown illegitimate daughter. Peck is concerned that Tallman (actually Paris in disguise) will confess their plans to save his "daughter", and orders Walsh to kill Barney and Dana. Barney stops Walsh on TV before he can blow up a crowd of demonstrators and police during a protest, and Paris-as-Tallman confesses to Peck's involvement.
#9 - The Catafalque
Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/6/1971
In San Pascal Premier Miguel Fuego and his nephew Ramone have signed a secret arms treaty with a Communist power to permit nuclear weapons aimed at the U.S. into their country. The IMF must expose the treaty before the missiles are installed. The team has Paris claim that Ramone's late father was killed by Miguel and that Paris' father at the closed Madrena Prison can verify this. The IMF secretly reopen Madrena prison and have Ramone arrested for fake-killing Doug, and Paris plays his previous character's father, who claims a diary will prove his claim. Ramone escapes and rejoins the younger Paris' character, who makes him believe the diary is on his father Victorio's body, lying in state. Barney and Doug have secreted replaced the body with a wax dummy behind the backs of the guards and planted a diary "proving" Miguel had Victorio lobotomized. Upon recovering it, Ramone goes to an asylum where a braindead "Victorio" is being kept. Enraged, Ramone takes Paris to the safe containing t
#10 - The Rebel
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/28/1970
The IMF must rescue three scientists in a dictatorial country and destroy their notes. They rescue two but the third one, Khora refuses to leave and is executed. Jim and Dana meet with his son Alex (a rebel leader) to get his notes and Dana is captured by the militia along with Alex's girlfriend, who has memorized the doctor's notes. Barney and Doiug parachute in with a giant hollow religious statue that Jim uses to get close enough to dig into the prison while Paris, pretending to be an Intelligence officer, plays the militia leader, Bakram, against the people. When Bakram discovers that the prisoners have escaped he destroys the statue, further enraging the country's people against him while the team make his escape.
#11 - The Hunted
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/21/1970
A mission to rescue a South African dissident goes awry when Doug and his white assistant get the man out of the hospital, but the assistant is shot in the leg. Separated from the rest of the IMF team, the assistant staggers into a shop where a deaf girl discovers the man is Barney in a mask. The rest of the team gets the dissident out of the country and then goes back for Barney. To draw off the police, Paris pretends to be a limping white man, but is injured for real by two men trying to capture him. Meanwhile, the wounded Barney discovers the girl, Maryana, was rendered psychosomatically deaf when her father, one of the dissident's co-workers, was shot by the government. Pretending to be policeman, Doug and Jim manage to track down Barney, and with the girl make a run for a helicopter to escape over the border. Before they can do so, they need to rendezvous with the wounded Paris and rescue him too.
#12 - Squeeze Play (aka Sicily)
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/12/1970
Albert Zembra, head of the Mediterranean branch of the Syndicate, is dying of cancer and plans on passing his list of opium farms to his chosen successor. He plans on turning power over to Carlos Empori, engaged to his granddaughter. Paris poses as a mobster and old friend of Eve's and "renews" his friendship with her, while Phelps, as Zembra's rival, warns Carlos that Paris plans to take over. Barney stages a fake assassination on Zembra, thwarting Carlos' security and making him look incompetent, then Paris and Paris-as-Zembra stage a conversation to make Carlos believe Zembra will give power to Paris. Carlos helps Jim kidnap Eve, but the plan goes awry when Eve reveals she knows Paris is a fake. Paris puts his life on the line by counting on her silence to complete the plot. Eve stays silent, Carlos is set up as a traitor to Zembra, and the dying mobster turns the information over to Paris.
#13 - Decoy
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/7/1970
Anna Kerkoska plans to defect with a list of American agents given to her by her father, the late Premier. Her brother Alexi also plans to defect, but it's actually a plan to grab the list, turn it over to Police Chief Petrovitch, and sell out his sister. Jim and Dana pretend to be a publisher brother-and-sister team and Paris kidnaps Dana to fake-force Jim to kidnap Anna for the Americans. Petrovitch and Alexi let the plan go ahead, while Jim becomes romantically involved with Anna. The bad guys overhear Jim "confess" how he is going to smuggle Anna out of the country, unaware its a ploy to draw them away from the real means of escape via a mini-race car in the back of the hearse - Jim and Anna use it to bypass the mined security gate and exit the country.
#14 - Flight
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/17/1970
Presidente Rojas plans to give a speech to the U.S. Congress while his Chief of Internal Security Ferrar plans a takeover and sends an assassin known only as Plato (and known only to Ferrar) to kill the Presidente before he gives his speech. The IMF must find out who Plato is and thwart the assassination. Ferrar follows Rojas to the U.S. where the IMF fake a plane crash - when Ferrar wakes up he is on an uncharted island colony inhabited by the prisoners from a missing penal ship. Paris pretends to be a double-agent working for Ferrar that the Chief knows of but never met. Paris reveals his plan to escape and convinces Ferrar that Plato plans a double-cross. When the other "prisoners" come after them, Ferrar is forced to hold them off so Paris can go off to thwart Paris, whose identity Ferrar reveals. Paris gets the information to the team in Washington just in time to stop the assassination.
#15 - My Friend, My Enemy
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1970
A Communist agent, Karl Maur, spots Paris on vacation, knocks him out and turns him over to Dr. Tabor, who is a brain specialist and mind control expert. Unable to break Paris, Tabor blanks out Paris' memories and uses an implanted electrode to program him to attack Jim by convincing the disguise expert Jim represents an authority figure, similar to the ones he has lost two women to in the past. Doug and Jim find nothing wrong with him, but Barney finds fingerprints pointing to Maur and Jim delays reporting to the Secretary and tries to find out what's going on with Paris. Paris is befriended by a Communist agent working with Tabor - Tabor murders her and makes it set up as if Jim did it. Paris attacks Jim but snaps out of it when Jim's life is threatened and turns against Tabor.
#16 - The Amateur
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/14/1970
The team must steal a rocket laser and smuggle out Father Bernard and his list of Western operatives. Bernard puts the IMF in contact with Wittstock, who gets them the laser. Wittstock is killed after delivering the weapon and Police Colonel Eckert seals up the country to capture the IMF. Bernard dies of a stroke but gets the list, but nightclub owner Eric Schilling saw Dana with Wittstock and tries to take advantage of the situation to profit. When Barney splits the laser into five parts for the team to smuggle out of the country, Schilling gets hold of Dana's part and the team has to get the part from Schilling while escaping through the heavily-guarded airport. Paris in disguise buys the part from Schilling, leaving him to be captured by Eckert while Paris drops the disguise to escape, leaving the part to be recovered by the rest of the team. Then the IMF secretly blend in with an arriving broadcast crew from England just as the crew are told their visas have been revoked - the IMF
#17 - The Killer
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/19/1970
Hired killer Eddie Lorca does everything randomly, making him impossible to anticipate. The IMF must find out who his boss, Scorpio, is and all they know is Lorca is arriving in town for an assignment - they don't know who he's going up against. The team creates a "blank" hotel and Paris as a cabdriver intercepts Lorca at the airport. Paris and Willy have to stall when it takes more time to set up the hotel then it takes according to the phone book to get to "their" hotel. They then put the room number Lorca randomly chooses on the bugged room they have set up. They intercept Lorca's call to his contact, and Paris-as-Lorca meets her instead to find out the target. Dana then delivers the contract to Lorca using the information Paris obtained. The target is a black union leader, and Barney must take the man's place. Lorca eludes surveillance and almost kills Barney with a planted explosive, but Jim figures things out just in time. The team then fake Dana's death, and she gives a dying-b
#18 - Flip Side
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/26/1970
The IMF must break up a drug-smuggling ring - Bracken gets his drugs from Mexico compliments of Diego Maximillian, who gets his drugs legally from C.W. Cameron. The IMF must connect Cameron to Bracken. Jim plays a Syndicate man who orders the pills from Bracken, and Barney tracks the shipment and switches out the drugs. The team has Maximillian picked up in Mexico so that Bracken has to go directly to Cameron to buy the drugs - the IMF get everything on camera and turn them both over to the authorities.
#19 - Kitara (aka The Bigot)
Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/20/1971
John Darcy, codename 'Kitara', leads a liberation movement in the African country of Bocamo and has been inadvertently captured by the ruthless Colonel Kohler. Kohler plans to torture Kitara, who if he confesses his true identity will result in the destruction of the entire movement. Kohler is after a truckful of government gold bullion Kitara stole. Jim and Doug play agents while Barney is captured and gets the location of the bullion from Kitara and gets it to Jim. Doug warns Kohler about "lamposa hycondra", a disease that causes blacks to turn white. After Kohler takes a IMF-rigged shower he wakes up the next morning to find himself black! Dana as a reporter introduces Kohler to shopkeeper Paris, who has "proof" that Kohler's grandfather was black. Kohler goes on the run and Paris hides him out at the gold's location. The authorities find Kohler there and believe he is Kitara and have him arrested, then hand the gold over to Jim to deliver it to headquarters.
#20 - The Missile (aka Torpedo)
Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/16/1971
James Read, an enemy agent, is posing as an analyst to get to a top-secret U.S. missile guidance system being tested and steal the plans - the IMF must have him take back fake plans and unwittingly pass on the incorrect information to his superiors. Dana takes the place of Read's contact and he and fake boss Jim fake a romantic relationship so Read can get blackmail photos and use them to turn over the system. Read tells Dana of his plan to kill Jim, but before she can warn Jim, Dana is kidnapped by Hecker, a psychopath who believes Dana is a former girlfriend he killed. After Willy saves Barney from a firetrap meant for Jim, Paris and Barney manage to rescue Dana and alert Jim just in time to avoid a rigged car, convincing Read he's in the clear with the guidance system.
#21 - Cat's Paw
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/9/1971
Larry Collier, newspaper editor and Barney's brother, is killed while trying to establish a link between corrupt police chief Abbott and Corley, the head of a ghetto mob who masks his illegal activities with an insurance front company. Barney, set up with a past as a crooked accountant, gets close to Corley by rescuing is secretary Millie - Corley hires him on when he finds out about his "past." Barney plants money to make it look like Corley's assistant Goslin is working against him, while the IMF use a phony seance to convince Goslin to quit with some incriminating evidence. Jim arrests Goslin with the evidence, a codebook, and uses it to force Abbott to back him as a mob boss then bribes Corley's guard to try and kill the mob leader. Barney rescues him and Corley runs into Jim, who threatens to take him to Abbott - knowing Abbott will have him killed, Corley turns state's evidence.
#22 - Butterfly (aka Poor Butterfly)
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/31/1970
Toshio Masaki, a powerful anti-American industrialist, kills his sister and frames her husband, an American businessman named Harry Kellem, so as to discredit America and discredit the Economic Council. Paris and Willy enter as a Kabuki artist and a fighter (along with Jim) while Barney and Dana sneak into the grounds and restage the murder as they believe it occurred but with no way of knowing how it ended well enough to convince Musaki. To create a distraction, Willy must engage in a fight with Osaki, Moshio's supposedly-unbeatable champion. Once the film is made Dana tries to blackmail Masaki and then Kellem's daughter Nobu. Paris tips the police to Dana's negotiations with Musaki and they show up as Musaki screens the film as Dana escapes (with Willy's help). Musaki panics and rips the film from the projector before it ends at the spot where the team couldn't recreate him performing the murder, thus confessing his guilt.
#23 - Homecoming
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/10/1970
When Jim returns to his hometown of Norville to donate family property to the community, he finds it plagued by a serial killer. Jim secretly brings in Barney to help investigate. A disturbed Vietnam vet is the suspected killer but Jim and Barney figure out he's innocent and get him out of jail one step ahead of a mob, then call in the rest of the IMF team to find the real killer.