Page "Mission: Impossible" Paragraph 19

Although a Cold War subtext is present throughout the series, the actual Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is rarely mentioned over the course of the series.

( See, for example, the mission objectives for " The Trial " and " The Confession " in Season One.

) However, in the early years, specific locations behind the Iron Curtain are named ( such as Lubyanka prison in the episode " Memory ") and many of the targets appear to be leaders of fictional Slavic countries.

Major named enemy countries include the " European People's Republic " and the " Eastern European Republic ".

Additionally, real languages spoken in Eastern Europe are used.

In the Season One episode " The Carriers ," one of the villains reads a book whose title is the ( incorrect ) Russian Na Voina ( About War ); police vehicles are often labelled as such with words such as " poliiçia ", and " poIiia ", and a gas line or tank would be labelled " Gaz " which is a Romanian translation.

This " language ", referred to by the production team as " Gellerese ", was invented specifically to be readable by non-speakers of Slavic languages.

Their generous use of it was actually intended as a source of comic relief.

Uniforms of the target regime frequently include peaked caps, jackboots, and Sam Browne belts, hinting at connections with Nazi Germany or the Warsaw Pact.