Bruce Geller was the creator of not just "Mannix" but "Mission: Impossible". Because of this and because "Mission: Impossible" stopped filming in 1973, I think it's very safe to assume this was actually originally intended to be an episode from that series and NOT "Mannix". The entire tone, location and case have NOTHING to do with "Mannix" and you could easily see Jim Phelps and the gang doing this stuff...and doing it much better.
The show begins with Mannix getting a mission...not from a tap recorder but from some odd man from an unnamed secret government agency! This NEVER happened on the show before...nor did anyone ever ask Mannix to go on a covert mission abroad. Perhaps all their spies were on sick leave or perhaps they were out on strike!! All I know is that having a California-based private eye involved made zero sense. After all, the mission is to sneak a world famous into a country where there is a totalitarian military dictatorship in order to do what seems to be a relatively simple heart operation on the head of the resistance. That is another huge problem...why sneak a Nobel Prize-winning doctor in to install a pacemaker?! That's NOT a super-specialized sort of heart surgery...even for 1974. Yet, they say that this doctor (John Colicos in a rare appearance as a good guy) is the ONLY one who can do it!! Is it starting to sound as if none of this makes sense?
Once in the country, the pair of undercover guys find that the place indeed sucks. There are secret police and military thugs (with very non-military haircuts) everywhere and by the end of the episode, Mannix and the Doc are with the resistance ('Libra') but they've just discovered that the pacemaker they brought in was destroyed by some unknown person...perhaps by someone with Libra!
Other than some tense chases, there really isn't a lot that is good about the show because it not only makes no sense but seems like you're not even watching "Mannix". I agree with the other reviewer...this is a bad episode and the next isn't any better.
The show begins with Mannix getting a mission...not from a tap recorder but from some odd man from an unnamed secret government agency! This NEVER happened on the show before...nor did anyone ever ask Mannix to go on a covert mission abroad. Perhaps all their spies were on sick leave or perhaps they were out on strike!! All I know is that having a California-based private eye involved made zero sense. After all, the mission is to sneak a world famous into a country where there is a totalitarian military dictatorship in order to do what seems to be a relatively simple heart operation on the head of the resistance. That is another huge problem...why sneak a Nobel Prize-winning doctor in to install a pacemaker?! That's NOT a super-specialized sort of heart surgery...even for 1974. Yet, they say that this doctor (John Colicos in a rare appearance as a good guy) is the ONLY one who can do it!! Is it starting to sound as if none of this makes sense?
Once in the country, the pair of undercover guys find that the place indeed sucks. There are secret police and military thugs (with very non-military haircuts) everywhere and by the end of the episode, Mannix and the Doc are with the resistance ('Libra') but they've just discovered that the pacemaker they brought in was destroyed by some unknown person...perhaps by someone with Libra!
Other than some tense chases, there really isn't a lot that is good about the show because it not only makes no sense but seems like you're not even watching "Mannix". I agree with the other reviewer...this is a bad episode and the next isn't any better.