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Five Thoughts on Mission: Impossible’s “The Psychic”

By | September 20th, 2020
Posted in Television | % Comments

“The Psychic” originally broadcast on April 22, 1967. Directed by Charles Rondeau and written by William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, this episode finds the IMF preventing a corrupt businessman from selling illegal acquired patents for top-secret defense hardware. What makes this mission impossible is hat this businessman, Lowell, has fled to South America to avoid persecution, where he plots and waits to release these plans on the black market.


1.) A Little About this Episode

I don’t think Mission: Impossible broadcast its episodes in the same chronology in which they were filmed. It’s been a hot minute, for instance, since we last saw Rondeau’s name in the title credits. And there’s nothing special, nothing that stands out about “The Psychic,” certainly nothing that makes this seem like the end of a season. Not that it matters for this show from a bygone era: each episode always made for its own sort of mini-movie.

“The Psychic” does provide mention of one of Mission’s first and few recurring plot threads: the Syndicate. In the movies, they’re an anti-IMF organization; here, a group of gangsters. Now, the gangsters involved don’t actually show up for this episode but their influence, notoriety, infamy are prevalent. The team leads Lowell to believe they are acting on the benefit of the Syndicate, and this hush falls across Lowell’s team. While the other characters give each other worried glances when the group is brought up, Lowell keeps his cool, showing he cannot be bullied.

As a whole, the episode is fine, though at one point I did realize Greg Morris struggles with emoting. His character gets caught twice in the story, right in time for the commercial break, and each time he stares toward the camera with the same blank expression. Peter Lupus’s role is to fill out the background, his few lines delivered flat and methodically. Both characters are great, but their presence is physic — silent, professional.

2.) Goodbye, Mr. Briggs

Not only is “The Psychic” a closer to a solid and entertaining first season, it’s also the last time we see Dan Briggs. It’s a pity then that he disappears shortly after the apartment debriefing scene.

Apparently, the experience of filming Mission: Impossible was not a pleasant one for Steven Hill. In an interview many years later, Martin Landau reflected that he didn’t think Hill could keep the momentum going. “I felt he was digging his own grave,” he said in a quote from Patrick J. White’s The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier. Constantly at odds with the producers, Hill never publicly said what led to his departure, though many suspected it had a lot to do with his religion. An Orthodox Jew, Hill adamantly refused to work on the Sabbath, Friday night through Saturday.

These tensions may also be why Briggs disappeared so often after the opening. (Or in the case of “Action!,” didn’t appear at all.) I don’t want to project the extra-textual evidence into the story because it’s too easy to influence a reading of the series in that way, but it’s said Hill didn’t learn about his dismissal until he read a trade article about it in Daily Variety. The shame of it is, despite not often working in the field, Briggs exemplified what it takes to be a strong leader. He adapted quickly. He encouraged his team. There was a cool, a confidence about him, a determination to see the mission through no matter the cost. He was tough but not aggressive, smart but not arrogant. I always got a kick out of his light stride when he rushed in and out of rooms.

Steven Hill continued working, and went on a long stint in Law & Order. He died in 2016 at 94.

Which leaves the stage open for the next team leader, the traitor Jim Phelps.

3.) Top Mask Pulls

Now that we’ve reached the end of the first season, I thought it time to look back and reflect on some of Mission’s highlights. It’s been a journey and ’60s television doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a marathon session. There are moments when elements and plot points from the episodes blend in together, especially because Mission: Impossible works within a tight structure, a plot formula that provides the same setup and many similar beats week after week. That being said, the numerous stories and events, the parade of characters the IMF encounter, the various locales they travel, provide a lot of opportunities for more memorable and lasting impressions.

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One of the most ubiquitous aspects of the series have been the masks. Characters posing as characters pretending to be other characters. A good mask reveal could warrant a great cheer. There might have been less mask pulls in Mission: Impossible Season One than all of Mission: Impossible II, but here are some that defined how the show, and the subsequent films, used and played with the trope.

3. “Shock” — This one for the sheer number of people posing as one character. There’s Briggs and the imposter and I think even Rollin Hand dons the disguise for a brief moment. Briggs’s pull is hidden in the edit, which takes away from the impact, but Lee Katzin lingers on the imposter’s exposure.

2. “The Pilot” — There are a few mask gags in Mission’s inaugural episode, including one where a character walks in on Rollin Hand with half of the target’s face on, the tendrils of it billowing and fluttering around his mouth. The true moment though, that exciting bit of television, comes at the end of the episode. The sabotage has been completed and the team races from the hotel before the military can catch them. Rollin grabs the bottom hem of his mask and rips it off — classic — and throws it on the ground. It’s the final shot of the episode and the credits roll over it. So much of what we think of Mission’s mask gags and pulls comes from this moment.

1. “The Trial” — Overall, “The Trial” is a par episode, at best, although it’s an episode with a lot of shining moments. Among them are the final reveal. Carrol O’Conner, desperate to win this court case, arranges to assassinate the star witness. So Rollin Hand dresses the witness up as Rollin Hand. He comes lumbering into the courtroom, everyone’s confused because he won’t say anything as he takes the stand. The other Rollin Hand enters. And then, the man on the stand rips his face off. It’s a satisfying moment, has that thrill and rise you want out of seeing a job pulled off effortlessly.

4.) Top Guest Stars

There were no shortage of name actors who crossed the Mission: Impossible stages. People who have gone on in reputation, in recognition, from other roles, from other series; people who have disappeared altogether. With so many episodes and so many plots, there’s a revolving door of talent the IMF have to deal with. They often play the villains with this glee, this enthusiasm, this wild abandon where you could tell they were relishing the role. Though sometimes they join the team for a brief outing, where they’re as serious, stern-faced, and professional as the rest of the IMF. In any event, these guest stars often elevate sub-par episodes into something memorable and entertaining.

So, these are my favorite guest stars of Mission: Impossible Season One. As a note, I’m not including Martin Landau. Although he’s given a credit for “special appearance” or “guest starring” (the former if his role is prominent, the latter if he only appears for a brief scene), he’s the true lead of the season. Landau worked a lot during this time period, especially in movies, and this credit gave him the opportunity to step away from Mission for a week if needed. In later seasons, he was promoted to a regular, until he left the show altogether.

5. BarBara Luna as Elena (“Elena”) — BarBara Luna held a long, illustrious career, appearing in something like 500 different TV shows including Hawaii Five-O, Zorro, and, like so many of the other guest stars, Star Trek. Luna plays a woman cursed by an ancient Mayan god to give up state secrets to IMF’s enemies. The role offers her plenty of opportunity to jump between moods, from coyish and playful to angry and enraged, with Luna throwing everything behind each emotion. She sways over Martin Landau. She navigates the gender politics of her fictional South American country with the same dexterity as her work in the lab. Her role is straight out of a Gothic romance and Luna leans into it with full understanding of how to make it work.

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4. Carrol O’Connor as Josef Varsh (“The Trial) — A mediocre Mission that brings a lot of memorable moments. So many of the series’ plots involve the IMF preventing a new organization from taking over the powers-that-be in their enemy countries. O’Connor represents a more aggressive, more unpredictable faction of the Mission: Impossible brand of Communism, a leader of the secret police who’s moving to frame an American. His character falls too easily for the IMF’s traps, never stops to consider how everything becomes too convenient, too perfect for his plans. But O’Connor brings this quiet menace to the character, this unnerving feeling. He’s so passionate, so wrapped up in his plots, so wicked, that when he realizes he’s been played like a fucking fiddle, you almost feel badly for him.

3. George Takei as Roger Lee (“The Carriers”) — I wasn’t too big on this episode, either, the one where the IMF discover a secret town run trying to train people to immigrate to the United States in order to spread pestilence. It reeks too hard of Cold War propaganda, of an aren’t you glad you live in America? mentality. But Takei, playing a scientist who specializes in infectious diseases, brings his usual intelligent charisma to the story. Until the tense scene where they’re trying to sabotage the plague, he serves to fill out the background. But when he’s on, we fall into his assured authority, really know what he’s talking about. Plus, that voice. That accent. A winner every time.

2. Eartha Kitt as Tina Mara (“The Traitor”) — Eartha Kitt twists and bends and weaves her way through this episode, assured and powerful and efficient. In the episode’s story, she’s the only IMF agent who actively does anything, but when Kitt’s around, you just need to stand back and let her take control. She doesn’t talk much in this role, part of the parcel of spending most of the story sneaking around, but she nonetheless commands the screen at every turn. Eartha Kitt was a powerful of a person and when she appears, you’re frozen by her message and her charisma until she finally decides to release you. Just ask Lyndon B. Johnson.

1. Ricardo Montalbán as Gerard Sefra (“Snowball in Hell”) — Now here’s an actor who takes his role and just runs with it. Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Meriño delights in his character, in his preference for cruel tortures, in his desires to return to the old ways where he ran his prison with no humanity, no mercy. He oozes menace, allows his wickedness to waft over him. He makes for one of, if not the, most memorable Mission: Impossible villain. Including Solomon Kane and August Walker from the movies. He doesn’t just twirl his mustache, he uses it to wrap up the scenery and devour it whole, and it’s a goddamn delight for the entire 50 minutes.

5.)  The Top Five Missions of Season One

I had never watched the TV series before taking this assignment. All my love and enthusiasm for Mission: Impossible came from the movies, which might be the best action franchise of all time. Because Tom Cruise hired Brian De Palma to direct the first entry, the films have gone in this Hitchcockian suspense direction, intense, with big, prolonged, innovative action sequences. The TV show is much quieter, taking pages from the work of Jules Dassin, Jean-Pierre Melville, David Maurer, John Houston, and Stanley Kubrick. Creator Bruce Geller decided to make it a spy show because he wanted to see the people actually get away with these capers. So, there’s often a level of satisfaction the show hits when the characters rush off, a job well done.

This season is most definitely a product of its time, and it bears many of the politics and fears the country faced (or sold) about Communism, about Socialism, about maintaining the status quo of the American way. Some episodes have not aged well, but, for the most part, the show runners and writers kept the stories so broad and open that they almost stand outside of time. I’m glad the movies went in their own direction because the show doesn’t have to live under its longer shadow. It’s allowed to be its own weird thing.

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If you’re going to watch any five episodes from the first season, I’d recommend these ones. There are almost no repeating elements, long plot threads, or any semblance of serialization. Drop in and out whenever you like. It’s one of the beauties of this show.

5. “The Frame” — The introduction of The Syndicate. The story is contained and the plot filled with layers and layers of complications. It’s classic Mission, with a complicated heist, plenty of disguises, menacing villains, and Barbara Bain playing every single man who comes across her like a fiddle.

4. “Wheels” — The accidentally pertinent episode. The IMF are dispatched to a South American country in the middle of an election. The police have been working to rig said election in order to take power and turn the country into a tyrannical dictatorship, much like what the GOP are doing in modern day America right now. The obstacles the team face feel more immediate and dangerous, and this marks for one of the most intense episodes of the first season. Add in some student protestors, police brutality, the shooting of an unarmed black man, and you have this reflection of the current world. The end of the episode is both sour and hopeful, with a local shocked they actually won, and Barbara Bain congratulating him, knowing full well that the fight for justice never ends, that right-wing powers never go quietly into the night, in defeat.

3. “The Legacy”Mission goes pulp adventure for this one, the mid-season premiere. There’s Nazi gold, an attempt to reëstablish the Fourth Reich, secret codes, and hidden fortresses. It moves briskly, assuredly, and director Kim Manners finds some great images and sets throughout. It’s flat out entertaining, an adrenaline rush. And it’s always great to see Nazis, neo- or otherwise, get what’s coming to them.

2. “Snowball in Hell” — This was already a solid plot, fun concept, fun heist, but Ricardo Montalbán elevates this episode into the stratosphere. His mustache-twirling villain is so vile and wicked and awful, you want to see the IMF pull the rug out from under him while simultaneously hoping he gets the better of them, too.

1. “Operation Rogosh” — In a way, Mission lives in the shadow of two episodes: the pilot and “Operation Rogosh.” Everything comes together so perfectly in this. Leonard J. Horn goes fully subjective with his staging, Jerome Ross keeps the information from us in his script. The IMF plot unravels as Rogosh keeps getting played and there’s a tension between what he knows, what we know, and what will happen when the team puts everything together. It’s a contained episode that feels much bigger and wilder than it is. And when the team reveal what they’ve done, there’s this surge of energy, this burst of satisfaction at a solid completed mission.


All right, that’s all for this season. It’s been a great run. See you next time.

Mission: accomplished.


//TAGS | 2020 Summer TV Binge | mission impossible

Matthew Garcia

Matt hails from Colorado. He can be found on Twitter as @MattSG.

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