Time Bomb

Anton Malek is a mole sent years ago to monitor an Iron Curtain nuclear programme. Suffering from a terminal illness Malek has become a rogue agent, and has decided to go out with a literal bang, hence sabotaging the reactor to turn it into a bomb rigged to explode thus to kickoff WW3- what a kind and caring chap.

The IMF are there to stop him, so it's Que: Phelps masquerading as an artist with a beard and wig, the stained-glass window cracking as a cover for the smuggled-in Barney's explosive sabotage of a structural beam in the basement, and Wai Lee (Barbara Luna) who is a psychic that can sense Malek's terminal illness and offer an "ancient Chinese secret" herbal cure. At first, he's not interested in her cure but Paris as a government inspector deftly slips Malek a drug that fakes terminal symptoms so he can be taken out of the complex, and take the cure.

The stage is set, and it's nicely staged, if a little slow moving at first. The finale is quite tense- Malek realises the dupe when he notices the cover of the reactor clock has no scratch. Earlier, he had made a scratch. Luckily, Phelps notices this and advises Barney not to follow Malek's unbolting sequence and unbolt in reverse to that sequence. Love it when things don't go to plan.

Again, there's another guest female and Barbara Luna is very good- I think she would've been an interesting permanent addition with her exotic and mysterious looks, but then again all the female guests in season four were really good.

Fans of this series will feel right at home with this episode, as it occurs in that familiar setting, an unnamed Eastern European (presumed Communist?) nation circa 1969. The officers whom our MI team must outwit wear uniforms reminiscent of WWII Germany, or so it looks to me.

The setup for this episode is also classic MI stuff: a rogue agent has a fatal illness, and wants to set off a nuclear explosion at a reactor to which he's been assigned by the host country he's spying on.

Naturally, our team wants to prevent this disaster!

The deception is an elaborate one, and viewers will wonder (I did!) how it could possibly have been created in about one day! Well, just accept that plot point and enjoy the story!

Morgan Stern does a fine job as the spy who wants to set off a nuclear explosion, and Bert Freed is good as his commanding general.

The woman guest star this time is the beautiful BarBara Luna, who appeared in many 1960's TV series, and who always gives a good performance. In Season 4 of the show, Barbara Bain had left, and so the producers used a number of different actresses to be members of the MI team. This is rather fun for viewers, as we get to see some of the most beautiful and talented actresses of the time helping out Jim, Barney etc.!

This is a solid episode that builds the tension nicely as our key team members Jim and Barney race the clock to prevent the detonation that would wipe out a city, and also our MI folks! Worth watching.

For some time, an enemy agent has been working in some Eastern European nation. However, he's also recently learned that he's dying. So, with apparently nothing to lose, he's planning on detonating a nuclear power plant...killing many thousands in the process. Instead of just informing this country about this, the IM Force sets about trying to stop this maniac. This means sneaking into the power plant where he works...no small feat. Then, once inside, they need to find a way to get this rogue agent to show them how to disarm the mechanism without his realizing he's betraying his plans.

This is a very good episode and is worth seeing. Not everything about it worked (BarBra Luna's character for example) but overall a satisfying episode.