Blu-ray Review Mission: Impossible: The Original TV Series Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

I have not watched The Wild Wild West in many years, though I bought the complete series set and I haven’t watched it yet. I used to watch it a lot in syndication many years ago! I did play one episode from the set a couple of years ago. It looked good. I did wonder if there would ever be a blu ray. But I suspect not. I liked the concept of secret agents like James Bond set in the 1870’s concept.

Those actors you named were showing up in a lot of shows if I recall correctly. I think it is as you said, the pool of actors at that time period were the reason we see them. It seems the only connection with Star Trek is Fred Frieberger. From what I understand, his was a very short stay on the series.

I was surprised to learn that Bernie Kopel at that time was on Get Smart, Bewitched and That Girl. I guess his being a recurring character ( and character actor on Bewitched) on those shows allowed him time to jump from show to show.

 

[David Weicker]

Just watched the Season 3 episode The Freeze.

Team convinces criminal Donnely Rhodes to undergo cryo-sleep (for fake illness) to persuade him he's passed statute of limitations on a crime he committed. He awakes in '1980'. Very prescient. Flat Screen TV (hanging from ceiling), data cartridges for computer with recorded programs, credit cards replace cash.

 

[The Drifter]

I gotta say, watching the first season, I love Dan Briggs. I really wish Steve Hill had remained with the series. No offense to Peter Graves, but I prefer Brigg's more dark and ruthless portrayal of team leader. It also probably has to do with the series being a little more action oriented in that first year than in later seasons.

I also like Steven Hill as Dan Briggs in S01. I saw these episodes for the first time on the DVD set(s), and before watching them wasn't even aware that Hill played the lead in S01, and was replaced by Graves from S02-on.

That being said, I don't believe the show would have become as popular and iconic if Dan Briggs had been the lead throughout the series. The quote, "Your mission, Jim, if you choose to accept it..." has become part of popular culture. Even people who have never seen the series know that quote & are familiar with Peter Graves.

That also being said, we'll never know at this point - given that Hill left after S01.

 

[Nelson Au]

Interesting to hear your thoughts about Dan Briggs and the what-if question. In my childhood, before I became more aware of things like this, I would think of the first season like I thought of the very first few episodes of Star Trek, including Where No Man Has Gone Before because the cast amd crew as we know them are different, so my child mind wanted to see Kirk, Spock and McCoy. But now I can appreciate the differences with Dan Briggs and I also really like Pike in The Cage.

I’d seen the Dan Briggs episodes before, but on this current viewing I’m doing now, I am seeing things I had not quite realized before. He had a life before this and was more human then Phelps was. Nothing against Phelps as he is how I know the show too. From what I understand, the writers were to take away all that humanity and make these characters with their specific roles in the team who do their jobs.

 

[bmasters9]

The quote, "Your mission, Jim, if you choose to accept it..." has become part of popular culture. Even people who have never seen the series know that quote & are familiar with Peter Graves.

Also, "If any member of your Impossible Missions Force is caught or killed, the IMF will disavow any knowledge of your actions," IIRC.

 

[David Weicker]

Also, "If any member of your Impossible Missions Force is caught or killed, the IMF will disavow any knowledge of your actions," IIRC.

Actually, it’s “the Secretary” who would do the ‘disavowing’, not the “IMF”

 

[Sam Favate]

Just finished the two-part season 2 episode The Slave. This was the show at its best.

 

[Museum Pieces]

I wish The Slave would have been one episode. I generally don't enjoy the two parters because they're so padded. Jim walking around his office, thinking more than normal, etc. 7 minute recaps. The only show that I thought did every two-parter well was The Fugitive. Those scripts needed two parts.

 

[ScottRE]

Some shows did two-parters really well without padding. I agree The Fugitive did them splendidly. For the most part Battlestar Galactica did as well, in fact those are the best of the run. The Incredible Hulk also had some great two part episodes. There was a time when a two-parter was a huge deal. "Omg this is a two parter!" Which usually meant something big was happening. David Banner got married, lost his memory, met a previous version of the Hulk and got captured by the government while being trapped in mid-transformation. All of those were deserving of two parts. Hawaii Five-O's epic Vashon trilogy was amazing.

Some shows, though, didn't do them as well. The latter two years of The Six Million Dollar Man had some really slow going two part episodes. Mission: Impossible was a show that needed nail-biting suspense and a two part episode made that difficult. Kind of like those one hour Twilight Zone episodes. Sometimes a series format won't support expansion.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yes, I have to admit, most of the two-parters don't rank among my favorites. I do like "The Contender" from season three.

 

[bmasters9]

There was a time when a two-parter was a huge deal. "Omg this is a two parter!" Which usually meant something big was happening.

Like at the outset of the fifth and final go on The Streets of San Francisco, the two-parter "The Thrill Killers," where Michael Douglas leaves and gives way to Richard Hatch (Insp. Steve Keller giving way to new Insp. Dan Robbins).

 

[Museum Pieces]

Here's an apparent Mission Impossible crew member who likely wasn't visible on the old TVs but sure was on my 60 inch last night in the opening moments of episode 210, Charity.

 

[Museum Pieces]

After writing above that I don't particularly care for MI two-parters, I watched "The Council." I'm not saying it was great, but I thought they did a good job of filling the extra time with tension-filled sequences of the processes through which they really go through to pull off their capers: the tediousness of making a mask, of putting it on, of removing it, as well as many other detailed sequences of their required skills that I thought filled the time nicely (if not entirely justified it).

As I'm going through this set, I'm ranking episodes with either "Pass," "Okay," Good," or "Great." I give "The Council" a "Good" rating, much to my surprise.

Here are my ratings for season one. I include them as part of the label on my ripped episodes, which are 8GB .mp4 files. If an episode got a "Pass" rating (which means I probably won't watch it again), I simply don't add anything to the title.

 

[Harry-N]

Here's an apparent Mission Impossible crew member who likely wasn't visible on the old TVs but sure was on my 60 inch last night in the opening moments of episode 210, Charity.

View attachment 90437

With old TVs he was probably not seen, but he's always been visible from the DVD days. Here's a grab from my DVD:

Then again, this was some kind of factory/lumber yard, so random people might be seen.

 

[Nelson Au]

I watched Fake Out last night. That was a fun one and interesting to see Lloyd Bridges in a guest role. And I watched The Carriers last week. I always thought that was a good episode, and fun to see George Takei cross over to the other soundstage next door between assignments on the Enterprise.

It’s interesting having watched Star Trek all my life, to see some of the supporting cast show up on other shows at the time Star Trek was made. I realize that actors had to hustle for jobs so they probably took what they could to advance their careers. I recently picked up It Takes a Thief complete series DVD set, and I know Takei had a small role on one episode there. But I’ve never seen the episode in full. I saw Doohan in Bewitched before Star Trek started and Deforest Kelley before Star Trek on Route 66. I’m watching The Twilight Zone too, so I know Takei did a controversial episode in the 5th season, so I’ll be watching that.

Back onto Mission Impossible, I was noticing on recent episodes that during the titles sequence, the images of the main cast looked extremely grainy. I wonder if the clarity of the blu ray is making it look as it actually looked and the DVD lower resolution masked that.

 

[Harry-N]

Here's what I think is going on there. Someone who knows better can correct me.

I think the grainy pictures were always grainy - and they were still pictures in a motion picture setting. By that I mean that the still was used and then filmed with motion picture film. Each frame has its own grain.

The DVD (and Blu-ray) compilers took an easily digitally cleaned version of the "MISSION" lettering and inserted one frame of the star's image with its inherent grain structure. It's like hitting "pause" on an old, grainy movie. While the grain jumps around in motion, it's frozen in one still image.

I believe that there are a lot of artifacts inherent in title sequences that use lots of process shots, and that DVD and Blu-ray compilers use modern techniques to either re-do them or try to enhance them. Think about the old process shots on STAR TREK and how they look so grainy when freeze-framed. And consider that in addition to re-doing the spfx on STAR TREK, they also re-did the title sequence to enhance the image (and sound).

Way back when the movie VERTIGO was getting its big new DVD release and everyone was concerned with the sounds of the gunshots, Mr. Harris explained quite clearly about the process shots and how difficult they were to clean up. He went into great detail about the scene in Kim Novak's apartment while Jimmy Stewart awaited her to transform to his image, and how a lot of process shooting made the upgrade to DVD quite difficult. I think TV title sequences can also present the same kinds of problems.

Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Wiseguy]

Back onto Mission Impossible, I was noticing on recent episodes that during the titles sequence, the images of the main cast looked extremely grainy. I wonder if the clarity of the blu ray is making it look as it actually looked and the DVD lower resolution masked that.

On DVD, on the episodes "The Ransom" and "Fakeout" the shots of the actors in the opening credits appeared darker than normal. By coincidence (or not) these were the same episodes where the music is slightly out-of-sync* with the video.

*"Operation Rogosh" also had an issue with out-of-sync music because the music played while the fuse was being lit was shorter than normal.

 

[Wiseguy]

After writing above that I don't particularly care for MI two-parters, I watched "The Council." I'm not saying it was great, but I thought they did a good job of filling the extra time with tension-filled sequences of the processes through which they really go through to pull off their capers: the tediousness of making a mask, of putting it on, of removing it, as well as many other detailed sequences of their required skills that I thought filled the time nicely (if not entirely justified it).

"The Council" was released as a movie in Europe under the title "Mission: Impossible vs. the Mob." Odd that they didn't also release "The Falcon" there as well.

 

[Wiseguy]

I have not watched The Wild Wild West in many years, though I bought the complete series set and I haven’t watched it yet. I used to watch it a lot in syndication many years ago! I did play one episode from the set a couple of years ago. It looked good. I did wonder if there would ever be a blu ray. But I suspect not. I liked the concept of secret agents like James Bond set in the 1870’s concept.

Those actors you named were showing up in a lot of shows if I recall correctly. I think it is as you said, the pool of actors at that time period were the reason we see them. It seems the only connection with Star Trek is Fred Frieberger. From what I understand, his was a very short stay on the series.

Gene L. Coon was also a producer in the first season after Freiberger.
Apparently, I'm not the only person to think an unusually high number of actors appeared on both Star Trek and The Wild Wild West.
The Wikipedia page for The Wild Wild West includes a chart of actors who appeared in both series, including many lesser-known actors I've never heard of or didn't recall:

List of The Wild Wild West episodes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey Harry, yeah that makes sense the grainy images are due to them being stills. I never noticed before how grainy it was before as the Blu Rays seemed to really bring it out. Erich, yes, I noticed those images looked a little dark too.

Interesting that the wiki entry on the Wild Wild West would list the guest stars that also appeared on Star Trek!