You all knew that i'd be coming up with this sooner of later, so here goes:
My list of favorite silly MI episodes;
The Town
Butterfly
The Martyr
Double Circle
Chico
The Freeze
The Killer Takeover
The Party
Next?
The Town
Is that the one were Rollin and Jim are going on a fishing trip? And Grandpa Walton keeps Jim doped up?
Spenser with an "S", like the poet.
Lol cind5. Yes, that's the one. I got in the habit of always calling Will Geer, Grandpa Walton too.
It might be silly, but I liked it because (at the time) it was a break from the normal opening sequence: Taped Instructions, Phelps Apartment, etc. Loved the way Rollin took charge and came up with a "plan on the run."
My sillies include:
Charity, a real lightweight mission, no real danger.
The Falcon, a needless three parter. All the cool parts were there. Lee Meriwether as Tracey and John Vernon as the ultimate baddie.
I felt the script was flat and Nimoy's acting seemed indifferent. I still don't know what ever happened to Noel Harrison's character. I felt, at the time, that it was the producers' way of trying to banish Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter from viewer's memory. I'm still not convinced it wasn't
I hate to admit this, but THE TOWN is my favorite episode, just for all the reasons you just mentioned Lima. I guess I think outside the box.
My silliest episode to me is the one with the fountain of youth. Oddly enough the episode is called The Fountain.
Spenser with an "S", like the poet.
I tend to agree about the Falcon. I thought it was ok, but nothing special and certainly did not need to be a 3 parter. As far as silliness, the episode that comes to mind for me is My friend my enemy. Never liked that one. Reminded me of a bad episode of Get Smart.
shareI don't remember the Nimoy version of My Friend My Enemy very clearly. I do remember the Thaao Penghlis version much better from the 1988 re-make. And I agree that even in that iteration, it was silly. The Get Smart reference was apt, and made me laugh.
shareOne of the things about The Town that seemed like a WTF moment was when Jim was trying to get Rollin's attention by starring at his head. Then when he did, he explained what had happened by blinking his eyes!
shareHe was using Morse code with his eyes. If I was Rollin and Jim was doing that to me, I would be thinking he's having a stroke.
Spenser with an "S", like the poet.
On to another silly episode, The Martyr. This season four episode is possibly THE WORST MI episode in the history of the entire series.
I know Paris is supposed to be a master of disguise, but trying to look like he's only 18 just doesn't play.
Hopefully this post will not self-destruct in 5 seconds.
As for The Falcon, a lot of my fellow posters have some very good points about this episode.
That being said, I liked it. It should have been a two part instead of a three part episode.
My favorite parts were Noel Harrison's performance as the most airheaded IMF head of state in MI history, and Diane Baker as Princess Francesca. Plus, John Vernon gets a couple of funny one-liners into the script.
"Nicole" with Joan Collin. Seemed like the episode was a real break from their formula and the only reason it was what it was is because they had to have Phelps fall in love with her. Very silly episode and I missed the rest of the cast.
shareYeah, Nicole was borderline silly episode, although it was nice to see Jim getting his turn to have a fling, brief as it was.
I thought Rollin's "dirty old general" act with the two female guests was priceless.
Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!
Actually I liked Nicole a lot when it was first shown. The main impetus was complaints that missions never went wrong, so they came up with this concept.
shareWell, you do have a point. Have you noticed that some of us(mainly me) are always complaining that we never got to see what would happen if the mission went south, and when it happens, we're complaining?
I had a huge crush on Peter Graves at the time, so when Jim is kissing Nicole ten minutes after they met, I was probably jealous.
Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!
SPOILERS! Nicole is both fascinating and disappointing.
I like to compare and contrast it with Joan Collins' appearance in Star Trek's City on the Edge of Forever.
She is the female guest star and romantic interest for the male lead in both. So you kinda gotta know she dies in the end. The rest of the cast is banished for most of both episodes. Kirk has Spock at his side, as Phelps has Hand. (Jim and Jim?)
The episodes' divergences becomes readily apparent once the plot moves forward. Nicole didn't have the brilliant writing of Harlan Ellison, nor did Graves have the same on-screen chemistry with Collins as Shatner did. And I like Graves as an actor much more than Shatner. Hand's empathy for Phelps when Nicole dies is a stark contrast to Spock's stoicism when Kirk stops McCoy from saving Edith Keeler.
I've seen way-earlier posts here, suggesting that Paramount was trying to recreate the critical success of City on the Edge of Forever by using Joan Collins in a similar premise on Mission: Impossible. It just didn't work.
Well done, Klondike6! Thanks for your great post! Game, Set, and match to you sir!
Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!
Another Star Trek reference for this episode, Nicole, was the background music. When Jim and Nicole are running thru the woods and you hear that music, I thought for a second were they being chased by a Gorn or Klingon?
Spenser with an "S", like the poet.
No, I didn't notice that, but I'm going to watch the episode right now to see what you mean. I'll let you know what happens.
Laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!
Well said!
I might have appreciated the episode more if we had the rest of the cast. As it was, it just seemed like a filler episode and kind of pointless.
On the other hand, I LOVED "The Exchange" when Cinnamon was caught and tortured. Not just because Barbara Bain did a superb job but because the rest of the cast was involved in her rescue. Lots of good stuff going on there.
My choice would be Encore. I enjoy it for the sheer entertainment value of it and William Shatner is in it. But the premise and execution is absurd in terms of the lengths they go in carrying it out.
*Major spoilers below.*
Shatner is an old mobster (yep, with silly old age makeup, although not as silly-looking as that of his co-star Michael Baseleon) who has just had murdered an old lady who was going to testify about a murder that happened decades earlier. So, to get the goods on him, they have to convince him he's back in 1937 (because, apparently, he's so suspicious, shrewd and violent they can't think of a less crazy way). They knock him out, then take away the effects of his old age, including a limp, with makeup, hair dye and injections, apparently none of which he notices is on his body, although he remains suspicious of the reality of his situation and surroundings for some time. Agents take on the identities of his partner and other people from back in the day. Then, seemingly an entire town is made to look like 1937, every little detail. City blocks, barber shops, apartments, movie theaters, cars, the passersby, the works. They duplicate his 1937 apartment to every last detail, throwing in an unpaid bill from 1937, radio broadcasts, magazines, his bottle of milk...even an old plane flying overhead, which finally convinces Shat that it's all real (good thing no 747s needed to fly by that day). Then, when it's all over, the agents and all the people on the streets abandon the fake town, leaving a mess of paper blowing in the wind and Shatner is left alone as the de-aging stuff wears off (on cue, his limp comes back, his gray hair starts peeking out and his face starts melting) and he ultimately is confronted by his elderly partner.
Like I said, it's fun to watch and I enjoy it but the implausibility factor hits the stratosphere in this one.
You're right that Encore was silly. After all, William Shatner was in it. My favorite part of that episode is when Jim, making sure that everything is in place, tells one of the extras to take off his sunglasses because for some nutty reason they didn't have sunglasses back in the 1930's!
Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.
Both Shatner episodes, Encore and Cocaine are pretty moronic, but in that funny, over the top, I can't believe what I'm seeing and really enjoying it, in that Shatner way. He is my biggest guilty pleasures. Watching Shatner is like witnessing a train wreck. You don't want to look, but you just can't turn away.
We live as we dream - alone.