Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Leonard Nimoy on "Mission:Impossible" -- Paris When He Sizzles!


I'm down in Sarasota, Florida, for a few weeks this winter, and was pleasantly surprised to see that a local indie is playing the great Mission: Impossible series in the mornings. Sure, I know you can get them now on DVD, but there's nothing like turning on your television set and seeing something this terrific in front of your eyes in real time. I'm a great believer in the power of shared TV viewing, and I surely hope I wasn't the only Sarasotan watching this morning.

Anyway, they aired an episode from the fourth season of the show, when masters of disguises Martin Landau and Barbara Bain had left the show, and a just-off-the-cancelled-Star Trek Leonard Nimoy stepped in to co-star as Paris, a former magician who was also another master of disguise, a crucial job skill on Mission: Impossible. The episode this morning was the penultimate of that season, called "The Choice", and featured Nimoy in the dual role of Paris and Emile Vautrain, a Rasputin-like mystic who was trying to usurp the throne of a mythical country called Trent. Two Nimoys for the price of one! Very typically good episode, with a bunch of great character actors like Sid Haig and Arthur Franz running around and of course that great Lalo Shifrin music score making everything so dramatic.

I guess I'm trying to get you to try to watch some vintage Mission: Impossible! The show is iconic and eternally classy, and I'd never steer you wrong!

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