"Mission:Impossible" bit off more than it could comfortably masticate with this three-part story.
One of the best TV shows ever, it was forever testing its boundaries. I don't know how this three-part story played over three weeks in the 1960s because I wasn't there. But occasionally binging on the show I often skip this story because it's just too long and not worth the wait for the payoff.
The IM Force has to rescue some royalty that comes right out of pre-World War I Ruritania.
Jon Vernon plays Sabatini (whose name comes from a writer of historical romances like "Captain Blood.") Sabatini wants the throne but to get it he has to marry a princess.
On the throne is Noel Harrison (Rex's boy on real life), playing a king suitably like Louis XVI, more interested in clocks and mechanical marvels than ruling. He's actually keeping the throne warm for a cousin of his, buried deep in a prison on Sabatini's orders. Everyone thinks he's dead but the I:M Force, in its mystical way, has divined where he is.
The I:M team must rescue all three of the nobles and get the right backside on the throne. Or some such.
This three parter has sumptuous values and it also has some neat tricks up its sleeve. But, ultimately, it just goes on too long. With the extra time the team's clockwork precision seems slow. And with the indulgence of time it tends to ramble. That's the writers' fault.
I like these weird monarchies this show invents that have somehow survived into the modern world. But two episodes is quite enough for exploring them. Three is overkill.
One of the best TV shows ever, it was forever testing its boundaries. I don't know how this three-part story played over three weeks in the 1960s because I wasn't there. But occasionally binging on the show I often skip this story because it's just too long and not worth the wait for the payoff.
The IM Force has to rescue some royalty that comes right out of pre-World War I Ruritania.
Jon Vernon plays Sabatini (whose name comes from a writer of historical romances like "Captain Blood.") Sabatini wants the throne but to get it he has to marry a princess.
On the throne is Noel Harrison (Rex's boy on real life), playing a king suitably like Louis XVI, more interested in clocks and mechanical marvels than ruling. He's actually keeping the throne warm for a cousin of his, buried deep in a prison on Sabatini's orders. Everyone thinks he's dead but the I:M Force, in its mystical way, has divined where he is.
The I:M team must rescue all three of the nobles and get the right backside on the throne. Or some such.
This three parter has sumptuous values and it also has some neat tricks up its sleeve. But, ultimately, it just goes on too long. With the extra time the team's clockwork precision seems slow. And with the indulgence of time it tends to ramble. That's the writers' fault.
I like these weird monarchies this show invents that have somehow survived into the modern world. But two episodes is quite enough for exploring them. Three is overkill.