Everything you love about Sean Connery's stint as James Bond is in this episode. The stunning femme fatale, the beautiful lead female, the unrepentant bad guy, daring-do and a little sexism.

This episode perfectly highlights the characters Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. While Napoleon doesn't skew the flirting with the ladies, and appreciatively looking at their backsides, Illya is closed off, almost emotionless. Otherwise, they're manly men carrying guns and talking with their fists.

This episode features a zany plot, involving fear gas, a mountain fortress and all sorts of stuff. Quite frankly, this episode is something I like to call 'cracktastic': Explaining what the episode is about is almost as much fun as watching it. This is basically an early James Bond movie wrapped up into 45 minutes.

The acting and really just everything about it is typical 60s; sometimes stilted and overtly dramatic, but a joy to watch. If you want to see and understand television from the 60s, you need to watch this episode, and you need to watch this show.

Traveler was a truly fascinating show. For eight episodes, the question "Who is Will Traveler?" haunted me. I'll never really know, the show cancelled before it could fully answer that question. Sure, I knew the details, but the person Will Traveler? That we would have found out at the beginning of the second season, as we could read in the creator's notes on the show's ending.

The show had a strong premise, an edge-of-your-seat plot and well written characters. Jay and Tyler took you with them on an adventure that could have filled the big screen. Every episode was nerve-wrecking. There was no certainty and as the mystery unfolded you could only ask yourself: why?

Why did this show never get the chance to flourish? Was it ABC, unwilling to promote this show, airing it in the summer no less? Was it the viewers, who didn't want to tune into a show with balls to the walls action and great characters, but would rather watch Survivor? There is no one answer. We have only one certainty.

This show was dead before it ever got the chance to live.

A pity.

Mexican Slayride is often lambasted for "fake Face", Tim Dunigan, so I figure we get critique of him out of the way first. Although Dirk Benedict is easily the better Face of the two, Dunigan does a more than passable job here. All of the Face hallmarks besides his womanising is nicely set-up, especially his friendship with Murdock.

The other characters are nicely introduced through the eyes of Amy Allen. The initial reluctance to look up the A-Team, and their reputation, one shrouded in mystery, adds here a certain air that The A-Team loses once it becomes a real hit show.

The members of the A-Team are urban legends, their specialities nicely described by Amy's reporter colleague. Face is "Mr. Ricky-Ticky", Hannibal the unorthodox leader and B.A. the angry mudsucker technician. Rumours are afloat about who they are and what they do, a nice contrast to the team's later fame. The offhand line of them breaking a senator's son out of a Turkish prison immediately intrigues.

The plot is simple but effective. It is essentially a vehicle to set-up the characters, as a good pilot episode should do. The relationships between all the characters are established, their quirks (such as B.A.'s fear of flying) and all the other elements that would be a recurring part of the show.

A show like this comes along once every decade and it is indicative of the spirit of that time. Had this been the pilot for a current show it would've been thrown to the rubbish shortly after airing. On the other hand, today's television climate could've made something out of this show that would've allowed it to go on longer than it did.

Namely, the characters and situations set up in this pilot are rife with dramatic potential. Similarly, the team's manner of operating is quite frankly, badass. It's the only episode that truly delves into the way the team selects their clients, and the way the team comes together. The code language Hannibal uses over the radio to gather the team is brilliant. We can never be sure what would've happened to The A-Team had it been created in today's climate, but I believe it could've outdone itself even more. As it stands, The A-Team, although it became progressively cartoony, is still an outstanding show, and a personal favourite.

Polished to the today's standards however, Mexican Slayride could've been a cinematic adventure. The characters draw you in and never let go. They have a mysterious edge to them that you can only feel as you meet them for the first time. They're quirky, they're adventurous and delightfully funny.

The next time you see this episode, think not of what it lead to. Heck, do not think of it as an episode, think of it as a movie. Let yourself be blown away again in a manner you did not think of before.

The fifth season of The A-Team introduced an, in my opinion, fascinating character: General Hunt Stockwell. He straddled the line of good guy/bad guy nicely. Morally ambiguous, strict and one with an interesting and mysterious past.

So it comes to no one's surprise when we learn in this episode that Stockwell spent some time as a spy in the far East. He steals the show, taking command of the team in Hannibal's absence. The team's attempts to find Hannibal on their own come off a little cheesy and are at times, a little disrespectful to their actual abilities. The emotional scene in which they confront Stockwell concerning Hannibal's supposed death is still a highlight though. The emotion in the scene is a rarity in the series.

The plot is rather simple and resolved rather easily and with an edge of corniness. There's no real tension as to whether Hannibal is dead. It allows this new character to steal the show, similar to how he did in the "The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair". For some hardcore fans of the series, it's hard to swallow.

For someone who can appreciate the fifth season for what it tried to do, namely to reinvigorate and partially revamp the show, it's an episode you'll want to watch. As an A-Team episode on itself, it's average.

This is an oddly contained episode. What I mean by contained is that the episode plays out in exactly three areas: The restaurant, the Langley house and just outside the restaurant. It gives a claustrophobic feel to the episode. So much so that even though you know Face won't die, you can't help but fear for his life.

This episode is often lambasted for its rather sane Murdock. However, considering the nature of the plot it is not that odd that Murdock would be relatively sane during this episode. It is after all his best friend that is dying.

Moving on though, this episode dared to do something different. Compact space, a tense atmosphere and the sense that it all could go horribly wrong (which it comes very close to doing). The focus is on the characters, rather than the plot. For that, the writers should definitely be commended.

Beyond that though, this episode has none of the usual A-Team trademarks (besides the opening, taken directly from a first season episode), which is why I can understand people not liking it. However, The A-Team needed something different. The preceding 97 episodes are, with exceptions here and there, rather formulaic.

This episode broke the mould, but did so a little too late.