This appears to be the first episode in the series which has a "Your mission, should you decide to accept it" scene that is not followed by the usual Jim-selects-his-team-from-his-photo-dossier scene. The story moves directly from the flaming tape in the ash tray to the standard "final briefing" scene, where Jim and the usual team members (no guest stars on the good guys' side in this one) review the overall mission and the last details are confirmed.
The opening scene where Phelps receives the mission is re-used footage (slightly edited) from #2.13.
Writers came up with this story line taking place in a think tank. So they visited the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit global policy analyst. The chief of security conducting the tour, who was a fan of the show, inquired of the writers if they noticed any security deficiencies. They remarked that the chutes on each floor leading to the shredder provided access to offices even when locked. The security chief said it would be corrected.
At one point, as often happened on the show, defector Paul Shipherd is tranquilized and a masked Rollin in a "Shipherd" latex mask supposedly takes his place. Of course, in real life, guest star Bradford Dillman played both Shipherd and Rollin-with-a-Shipherd mask. Dillman related the story that one person upon whom this was lost was his mother-in-law. After watching he episode with Dillman, she told him that that fellow with the mask on did a better job playing Dillman than Dillman did himself.
This is the first of Bradford Dillman's two roles. He and Peter Graves co-starred in the 1965 television series "Court Martial", about a crack team from the Judge Advocate General's office that investigates crime all over Europe culminating in a court martial proceeding.