"Mission: Impossible" My Friend, My Enemy (1970)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Gerald Mayer

Writers:

Gene R. Kearney (teleplay)
William Wood (story) ...

TV Series:

"Mission: Impossible" (1966)

Original Air Date:

24 October 1970 (Season 5, Episode 6)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

While en route to rendezvous with the IMF in Switzerland, Paris is captured by a team of enemy agents...

Plot Keywords:

Number 16 | Shot To Death | Walk In The Woods | German Shepherd | Geneva Switzerland

Cast

Peter Graves	...	James Phelps
Leonard Nimoy	...	Paris
Lesley Ann Warren	...	Dana Lambert (as Lesley Warren)
Greg Morris	...	Barney Collier
Sam Elliott	...	Doug Robert
Peter Mark Richman	...	Dr. Paul Tabor (as Mark Richman)
Bruce Glover	...	Ernst Bandar
Wesley Lau	...	Karl Maur
Jill Haworth	...	Enid Brugge aka Marla Kassel
Tony Giorgio	...	Meerghan
Chris Holter	...	Inga
Aaron Fletcher	...	Desk Clerk
Edward Bach	...	Guard #1 (as Edwrad F. Bach)
Bart La Rue	...	Guard #2
Walt Davis	...	Attendant (as Walter Davis)

Runtime:

60 min

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Television

Trivia:

The shot of Leonard Nimoy used during this season's opening credits (showing him in a red shirt with a colorful neckerchief knotted around his throat) comes from this episode - the scene in the bar when he first talks to Enid (Jill Haworth).

One of Season Five's Better Efforts Boasts a Fine Supporting Cast

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Like "Decoy," "My Friend, My Enemy" is another offering from the fifth season in which the story follows the IMF's enemies almost as much as the main characters. This episode postulates that Paris (Leonard Nimoy), coming back from a successful mission, is identified by an East German agent (Wesley Lau) whom he had once arrested, who then turns the tables by arranging for Paris to be waylaid on his trip and delivered into the hands of Dr. Tabor (Peter Mark Richman), a cold, calculating psychologist working for the Other Side.

Tabor knows that Paris will likely never give up useful information about his true identity or his fellow agents; instead, he goes at Paris indirectly, performing some regression work to discover that Paris had been abandoned by his mother -- something for which he still blamed his father -- and that he had lost Inga, a young woman he once loved, when she was murdered by Meerghan, the Dutch magician for whom she worked. Lau's character dismisses such information: "As I warned you doctor, he will tell us nothing of consequence," but Tabor knows better: "You're quite wrong. He's already told us something of . . . consequence."

So, for once it is the IMF's enemies who orchestrate a "mission," hoping that one of "our" agents can be manipulated into killing his superior. The "turnabout" plot is handled smoothly, and we get not only some insight into Paris' background, but also into the IMF's own procedures. Because Paris may have been captured, he must be "cleared" before he can be sent on any future missions, and because of the medical and psychological tools used (an electrode implanted in Paris' hypothalamus), for once Doug's training as a physician is genuinely useful.

The director and editors do an excellent job showing Paris' gradual deterioration, as he begins to mistake his new love interest Enid (really an enemy agent working for Tabor) with Inga and his current "control," Jim Phelps, with Meerghan, who killed the woman he loved. The scenes in which Paris mistakes the one set of characters for the other are well-shot and inter cut, something not always easily done since they have to show the characters from Paris' point of view.

As well-written and produced as the show is, however, the real attraction here is the supporting cast. In addition to Richman (making his second of three appearances), there's Bruce Glover (father of Crispin Glover) sporting a beard as Richman's assassin/henchman, Jill Haworth as Enid, and Lau as the agent who spots Paris and nearly undoes him. (Lau would go on to provide the story for this season's best episode, "The Field," a taut tale that would put Barney in one of his most desperate predicaments.) Mention also must be made of professional magician, frequent behind-the-scenes contributor to "Mission," and (as here) occasional bit player Tony Giorgio who plays Meerghan in Paris' flashback sequences; and of the truly beautiful actress Chris Holter as Inga, who was given on-screen credit even though she never speaks a line.