This season actually has a few major events for the overall series. Not only is this Leonard Nimoy's last season in the show (as The Amazing Paris), but the season also introduces two other regulars in Lesley Ann Warren as Dana and Sam Elliott as Doug, though Dana's role doesn't continue past this season either.
The season starts off with the team trying to stop an assassination being conducted by a hit man who leaves pretty much everything to a roll of the dice. In order to stay as untraceable as possible, he chooses his hotel at random, his taxi cabs and even his method of killing. So not only will the IMF team have to keep an ear on him to learn of his decisions, but work quickly every time one is made to keep him in their plans. For instance, each of the cabs in front of the airport has one of their guys driving, and once he decides on a hotel and tells the cabbie, that info gets relayed back to a stripped down hotel that is ready for labeling. So the rest of the team has to put up signs, monogram towels and type up letter headed documents in the mere 20 minutes it takes for Paris to drive this killer to the hotel.
In the episode "Flight", the IMF team has to stop a friendly country's leader from being taken out by an unknown assassin. To do this, they kidnap the one staging the coup (who is the only person to know the killer's identity), and fake a plane crash on a prison colony.
Meanwhile, in "The Rebel" the team must rescue a trio of scientists and destroy the notes that are being kept by an evil dictator. They are able to rescue two of them, but the third gets executed, and Jim and Dana must meet with his son, a rebel leader, to get the notes.
The last episode in Season Five puts Paris at a poker table trying to steal money from an illegal arms dealer so that he can't pay Jim (who is disguised as a terrorist trying to steal secret radar plans) and cause him to lose a hold of his upcoming multi-million dollar deal with guerrilla groups around the world.
This season has a couple of interesting episodes that actually develop the main characters some as well. In "Homecoming", Jim returns to his hometown, but when he learns that a series of murders is terrorizing the small town, he gets his teammates together to solve the crime. All isn't what it seems, especially when all the clues point to a recently returned Vietnam vet. The tricky part of this episode is keeping Jim's cover since no one back home seems to know what he really does for a living.
There are quite a few solid MI episodes in this season and anyone who was a fan of the show back in the day should find The Fifth TV Season an enjoyable experience.
