I watched this episode last night, and it fits right in with the rest of the 80s Mission Impossible episodes. The technology, the acting, the plot line...
A military figure plans to use war games as a cover to launch an invasion of a neighboring nation, to acquire their oil fields. The IMF team arrives, playing a variety of roles to trick him into playing his hand.
While the episode is roughly as fun as any of the other 80s episodes, this one bugged me the longer I thought about it. It boils down to two specific points. First, there's a gimmick to this episode, that the military figure is very into astrology. It's implied that this will be a key to the mission.
Second, a spin off of the first point, they put Shannon undercover as a countess. I'll ignore that it's usually a bad idea to fake being royalty, but there doesn't seem to be a point to her story. She attempts to blackmail the general. So she's arrested. She tries to persuade him that his astrologer is incompetent. He argues this. He tries to have her killed on the field during the war games.
As far as I can tell, she didn't accomplish anything in this episode, except getting captured on purpose, necessitating a rescue. Sure, this adds a little drama to the ending. But what was her goal? She didn't distract the general. She didn't gather any intelligence.
I could be wrong. Maybe there was some aspect that I missed, but I don't know what it was. I even checked the episode a second time to be sure that I didn't miss anything.
A military figure plans to use war games as a cover to launch an invasion of a neighboring nation, to acquire their oil fields. The IMF team arrives, playing a variety of roles to trick him into playing his hand.
While the episode is roughly as fun as any of the other 80s episodes, this one bugged me the longer I thought about it. It boils down to two specific points. First, there's a gimmick to this episode, that the military figure is very into astrology. It's implied that this will be a key to the mission.
Second, a spin off of the first point, they put Shannon undercover as a countess. I'll ignore that it's usually a bad idea to fake being royalty, but there doesn't seem to be a point to her story. She attempts to blackmail the general. So she's arrested. She tries to persuade him that his astrologer is incompetent. He argues this. He tries to have her killed on the field during the war games.
As far as I can tell, she didn't accomplish anything in this episode, except getting captured on purpose, necessitating a rescue. Sure, this adds a little drama to the ending. But what was her goal? She didn't distract the general. She didn't gather any intelligence.
I could be wrong. Maybe there was some aspect that I missed, but I don't know what it was. I even checked the episode a second time to be sure that I didn't miss anything.
