"The Freeze" is similar in concept to Woody Allen's futuristic film "Sleeper", though it actually predates it by a few years. In the 1960's and 70's cryogenics was a popular topic, and some people did undergo the procedure, though there was no method to safely unfreeze people.
The Mission Impossible plot is not very believable. First of all the villain (decently played by Donnelly Rhodes) seems too gullible, not questioning the doctor's prognosis of his terminal illness. Plus one more big point, at the end (Spoiler follows), the success of the team's deception (regarding the statute of limitations running out) seems to hinge on the villain buying the newspaper outside the clinic. What if he got the newspaper elsewhere, or turned on the radio in his car, etc.?
Where I found this episode to be interesting is in the futuristic designs (more spoilers follow). The cryogenic chamber is very elaborate and impressive, like something out of "Metropolis". It is ironic, however, that in the scene where we see Jim designing the chamber, there is a schematic on the table displaying a vacuum tube circuit (transistors and other solid state circuitry were well on their way to obsoleting vacuum tubes by 1968)! After the villain wakes up, he is confronted by futuristic props such as Jetsons-like cars, instantaneous x-ray machine, videophone, and huge flat screen display (with plug in data modules like on the original Star Trek - these are not too far from modern USB drives). This is all supposed to be in 1980 - as usual, the filmmakers were too optimistic - most of these things did not appear until the 1990's or later. The flat screen monitor is particularly unbelievable - it's hanging from the ceiling, so projecting an image would be visibly obvious. I don't see how even Barney could pull this one off, even with an unlimited budget and more than a few days of development.
So, this is a fun episode to watch if you're not too picky about plot holes.
The Mission Impossible plot is not very believable. First of all the villain (decently played by Donnelly Rhodes) seems too gullible, not questioning the doctor's prognosis of his terminal illness. Plus one more big point, at the end (Spoiler follows), the success of the team's deception (regarding the statute of limitations running out) seems to hinge on the villain buying the newspaper outside the clinic. What if he got the newspaper elsewhere, or turned on the radio in his car, etc.?
Where I found this episode to be interesting is in the futuristic designs (more spoilers follow). The cryogenic chamber is very elaborate and impressive, like something out of "Metropolis". It is ironic, however, that in the scene where we see Jim designing the chamber, there is a schematic on the table displaying a vacuum tube circuit (transistors and other solid state circuitry were well on their way to obsoleting vacuum tubes by 1968)! After the villain wakes up, he is confronted by futuristic props such as Jetsons-like cars, instantaneous x-ray machine, videophone, and huge flat screen display (with plug in data modules like on the original Star Trek - these are not too far from modern USB drives). This is all supposed to be in 1980 - as usual, the filmmakers were too optimistic - most of these things did not appear until the 1990's or later. The flat screen monitor is particularly unbelievable - it's hanging from the ceiling, so projecting an image would be visibly obvious. I don't see how even Barney could pull this one off, even with an unlimited budget and more than a few days of development.
So, this is a fun episode to watch if you're not too picky about plot holes.