In the ruins of Ancient Athens Scotty is handed what appears to be a plum assignment. Befriend the beautiful African woman walking by. Okay. But that's not all, of course: Deceive her into giving you the list of armaments entering and leaving her emerging African nation. And when that is done... destroy her.
It's an ugly job in an ugly business, but necessary to keep the Cold War from becoming hot.
Scotty is a spy with that inconvenient quality of "scruples," as Kelly informs their control, Troy. Befriending Laya is a mission fast accomplished, but Scotty drops the ball on the rest of the assignment because, being a man of flesh and blood, he's fallen in love with her. Kelly is chagrined and tries vainly to stir a sense of duty in Scott, but he's gone gaga in love and decides he wants out of the spy racket.
Fans of spy shows are loyal to no single network or series or even nation (after all, England gifted the world with many of the best spy shows). We gotta watch 'em all! So fans of I SPY also watch MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. And if you do, you may also have discerned that "Laya" at its heart is a reworking of the December 1966 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episode "The Short Tail Spy." In that story, Cinnamon was assigned to befriend dashing enemy agent Eric Braeden, and she promptly fell in love with him, jeopardizing the assignment until clear-headed colleagues saved the day. Copy and paste, change a few names and details, and like a freshman comp class paper a new script is ready for submission. But the strength of the original source material carries over to the copy, and the new flourishes make the story sufficiently fresh and thus able to be enjoyed all over again.
Among those flourishes are the guest cast. Janet MacLachlan, an American actress I know primarily from seventies sitcoms, is impressive and believable as Laya, an African woman working in Greece, and one who could turn the head (and win the heart) of Scott. Laya is openly grateful and indebted to the colonialists who elevated her nation into the modern age. Though her nation is independent, the colonialist power still exerts tremendous influence, especially over Laya herself. She serves as a functionary at the consulate, is bullied by her boss, and speaks ruefully of simply going from one jungle to another.
Laya's control in her nation's consulate is Hamilton, played with authority by Michael Rennie. He is suspicious from the start about the "chance encounter" with Scott and of the budding romance. He's an old hand at the spy game himself, and of course he was correct in smelling a set up. That's why it was inconsistent for Rennie to meet Scott alone at Laya's. Miklos, the ill-fated underling, warned Rennie that Kelly was a trained fighter and that these two men are likely spies. Perhaps Rennie truly did want to make a secret deal, but I suspected that offer of "more where that came from" was just a ruse to trick Scott into lowering his guard. And it worked!
The character I enjoyed most was Keith Andes as Troy. He's a striking figure with a deep, commanding voice; in fact, he was voicing the BIRDMAN cartoon at this time. A few weeks after his appearance here Andes turned up as Akuta in "The Apple" episode of STAR TREK. Andes reminded me of Jim Phelps at times, and I wondered if that resemblance led to his casting. But he made only two appearances as Troy, which is unfortunate because he brought a lot to his couple scenes. A recurring control character, like Malachi Throne's Noah Bain on IT TAKES A THIEF, would have provided Kelly and Scott a foil to play off as well as some needed continuity to tie together the series through its geographical jumps and jaunts.
What wounded this episode, albeit not fatally, was the excessive emphasis on romance, the lunches in scenic locales (Laya was always hungry!), and the montages filmed throughout Athens. The screen time dedicated to travelogue bogged down many an episode, but it was made worse here when coupled with the cuddles, Cosby's cute voices, and way too many a meaningful glance.
The climax only underscored Kelly's words to Scott that spying can be a dirty business, and testified to the sobering truth of the adage that those who live by the sword... will die by the sword.
Scotty is a spy with that inconvenient quality of "scruples," as Kelly informs their control, Troy. Befriending Laya is a mission fast accomplished, but Scotty drops the ball on the rest of the assignment because, being a man of flesh and blood, he's fallen in love with her. Kelly is chagrined and tries vainly to stir a sense of duty in Scott, but he's gone gaga in love and decides he wants out of the spy racket.
Fans of spy shows are loyal to no single network or series or even nation (after all, England gifted the world with many of the best spy shows). We gotta watch 'em all! So fans of I SPY also watch MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. And if you do, you may also have discerned that "Laya" at its heart is a reworking of the December 1966 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episode "The Short Tail Spy." In that story, Cinnamon was assigned to befriend dashing enemy agent Eric Braeden, and she promptly fell in love with him, jeopardizing the assignment until clear-headed colleagues saved the day. Copy and paste, change a few names and details, and like a freshman comp class paper a new script is ready for submission. But the strength of the original source material carries over to the copy, and the new flourishes make the story sufficiently fresh and thus able to be enjoyed all over again.
Among those flourishes are the guest cast. Janet MacLachlan, an American actress I know primarily from seventies sitcoms, is impressive and believable as Laya, an African woman working in Greece, and one who could turn the head (and win the heart) of Scott. Laya is openly grateful and indebted to the colonialists who elevated her nation into the modern age. Though her nation is independent, the colonialist power still exerts tremendous influence, especially over Laya herself. She serves as a functionary at the consulate, is bullied by her boss, and speaks ruefully of simply going from one jungle to another.
Laya's control in her nation's consulate is Hamilton, played with authority by Michael Rennie. He is suspicious from the start about the "chance encounter" with Scott and of the budding romance. He's an old hand at the spy game himself, and of course he was correct in smelling a set up. That's why it was inconsistent for Rennie to meet Scott alone at Laya's. Miklos, the ill-fated underling, warned Rennie that Kelly was a trained fighter and that these two men are likely spies. Perhaps Rennie truly did want to make a secret deal, but I suspected that offer of "more where that came from" was just a ruse to trick Scott into lowering his guard. And it worked!
The character I enjoyed most was Keith Andes as Troy. He's a striking figure with a deep, commanding voice; in fact, he was voicing the BIRDMAN cartoon at this time. A few weeks after his appearance here Andes turned up as Akuta in "The Apple" episode of STAR TREK. Andes reminded me of Jim Phelps at times, and I wondered if that resemblance led to his casting. But he made only two appearances as Troy, which is unfortunate because he brought a lot to his couple scenes. A recurring control character, like Malachi Throne's Noah Bain on IT TAKES A THIEF, would have provided Kelly and Scott a foil to play off as well as some needed continuity to tie together the series through its geographical jumps and jaunts.
What wounded this episode, albeit not fatally, was the excessive emphasis on romance, the lunches in scenic locales (Laya was always hungry!), and the montages filmed throughout Athens. The screen time dedicated to travelogue bogged down many an episode, but it was made worse here when coupled with the cuddles, Cosby's cute voices, and way too many a meaningful glance.
The climax only underscored Kelly's words to Scott that spying can be a dirty business, and testified to the sobering truth of the adage that those who live by the sword... will die by the sword.