I like it, but it's Preposterous

... Cinnamon Carter is a world famous fashion model who has appeared on magazine covers, but nobody ever recognises her.



What!!! No Gravy???

Check out the FAQ. http://tinyurl.com/cf6pvux

The plot is not preposterous. Here is a few things to consider.

1. The IM Force is a covert arm of the Department of State. (The Secretary will disavow...)

2. The IM Force has at its disposal a full range of logistics, information, and support. This includes the US Embassies where the IM Force might operate.(in "The Hostage", the episode begins with Paris thanking the embassy staff for their help).

3. During this time, paper documents could be forged, uniforms acquired and identities faked. There are episodes where an officer tries to confirm and identity, but the person they need to reach is not available, or Barney has hacked their phone and takes the call, or someone on the team has placed a fake file in the file room.

4. Both Jim and Dan were obviously rich. They both lived in duplex penthouse apartments in what looks like NYC. They would have their own contacts and recourses. We don't know who they are, but by their knowledge and skills, they could be ex-OSS. (The OSS was the pre-cursor to the CIA).

5. The IM Force is an "off the book" team. Jim and Dan recruited, or the State Department recruited, men and women with necessary skills who volunteered for this work. This may seem strange but this was very common for that generation of people fought in WW2. Many of them might even be ex OSS!

6. The reason why Jim or Dan get the tape in a off location, a book store or a theatre or shop is because this is OFF THE BOOKS. The State Department cannot send anything to his house, that would create a trail. So what happens. They probably use the method employed by the OSS and the SOE during WWII. Jim and Dan would be told to look for an classified ad section of a New York Newspaper. If an ad appears from a pre-dertermined name and the first sentence has a pre-determined code word, that ad contains a coded location for the first envelope that contains a key or a passcode and an address. This leads to a second address with the envelope with the tape. Now you have a complete double blind system. No one party knows the whole procedure. One person places the ad, one places the first envelope, one places the second. This gives the government complete deniability.

6. This brings us to Barney. It would have been ridiculous for a black man to be not only a mechanical engineer, but head of his own firm in the 1960's. He would have also stuck out like a sore thumb in an European country, especially cold war eastern Europe. However, MI and Star Trek were produced by Desilu as in Desi Arnez and Lucy Ball. They were passionate civil rights activists. Both shows had black men and women in positions of authority, Lt. Uhura and Barney Collier. This was intentional on their part.

It was meant to be a message. In fact, after Barney joined the show, southern stations refused to air MI. The two part episode "The Slave" was meant to shame those stations into changing their minds.

Think of the episode "The Condemned". In this episode, which was one of the few "non-official" episodes, Barney has to design and build a remote control and detonate system for a car. Impressive. Except that in 1960, there would few if no African-American's who had that skill, and certainly not shown on TV. Today it is no big deal, back then,it would be a shock to the audience.

Even consider how the rest of the force treats him. None seem to bat an eyelash over an African American colleague. That kind of situation did not exist in 1960. In NYC and Washington DC at this time, there were restaurants, hotels and apartments where Barney would not be welcome. One has to think what Jim and Dan's neighbors must of thought with them regularly receiving a "Black" man has a guest in his home. This would not be normal in the upscale neighborhoods of NYC at this time.

7. As for their prominence in society; Cinnamon was a model, Willy was a "strong man", Paris and Rollin were famous magicians. Remember, this is the 1960s. There is no internet, no 24 tv. Cinnamon might be famous in fashion circles, but not really known outside. Same with the rest. They were known, but not known. There was no internet or TMZ to make them known. Certainly, in Eastern Europe, they would not be known.

8. Also, this was a very delicate time. Both sides fought a very covert war. US Policy outlawed assignations. That is why the IM team would work to get the target killed by his own people. This kind of spy-v-spy stuff was part of both sides arsenal. I am sure the the USSR had their own IM Force! (We saw a glimpse of that in The Town and The Carriers).

9. When you watch this show, you have to remember this is the 1960's. It is the height of the cold war. The technology that we know does not exist. They have analog phones, so Barney can hack them. They have paper files, so documents can be faked. Information is not readily accessible. People still send letters, receive documents by couriers (who can be substituted).

10. Jim's signature was creating a con where the mark only saw what Jim wanted them to see. People, particularly uninterested draftee soldiers are easily fooled and will believe what looks correct. He and his IM force were really good at pulling this off.

I hope this insight helps understand the show.

HI Gavbrowno1:

1. See my lengthy reply at the end of this thread. It was to create a double blind system to separate the IM Force from the State Department. One person had an envelope which contained an addess/contact info and a key. The other had an envelope with a tape player. That way, no one person knew what was going on. The toll both operator, or the movie theatre would be asked to co operate with the government and in this time, at the height of the cold war, they did. Most were veterans, or may be ex OSS themselves.

2. This was a dramatic device. By not knowing the plan, the audience has to guess what is going on. In these days, audiences sat in front of a TV, with no internet devices for distraction and actually watched and payed attention.

As for the details, remember, this is government team. They may be off the books, but they have access to Embassy's of the US Gov't, friendly nations, NATO staff and local people on the ground who provide information. Jim and Dan are obviously very rich (notice they live in duplex penthouses in NYC). They have their own contacts and they are probably ex OSS operatives.

3. Remember, this is the 1960's. Everything is analog. Paper documents can be faked, identity's created by friendly's on the ground., double agents, or moles. As for the "bad accents", well that is just a conceit of hollywood storytelling. If they spoke the native language, the audience would be lost. In real life the IM Force would be fluent in the language.

As for Barney, this was an intentional political statement on the part of Desilu. Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball were civil rights activists. They produced Star Trek and MI and put black characters in high ranking positions, thsu they gave us Barney Collier and Lt. Uhura. This was meant to send a message to the rest of the country to accept Black people as equals. This was very dramatic for 1960's TV. It was the first time TV presented Black people in rolls other than maids or janators.

4. The plans are very believable. US Policy did not allow assassinations, that would draw attention. A complex plan that gets the bad guy to get killed by his own people is better from a plausible deniability standpoint. The poison umbrella event that you talk about was very public and everyone knew it was a KGB operation. Not very quiet.

Hope that helps.

The one thing I found most preposterous was that anyone could have been fooled by Peter Graves' attempts at foreign accents.

Just checking in. Hi Gav!

Well it makes great television, what are the most impossible things is the delivery of the mission information. The delivery method is vulnerable to interception and the information is not in a code.

The mission is so sensitive that the secretary will disavow knowledge if it's compromised. So it should be sent with a high-level code probably even a one-time pad.