Clark Gregg reprises his role as Phil Coulson from the film series, starring alongside Ming-Na Wen, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward.

The episode begins after the end of the previous one, with Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie (Simmons) and Deke Shaw (Ward) stranded in the 1980s.

agents Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie and Deke Shaw are stranded in 1982 after their mobile headquarters, Zephyr One, unexpectedly jumps through time without them.

After losing his parents to the Chronicoms, a despondent Mack purchases a house and spends the next year in isolation while Shaw occasionally checks on him.

recruits and that the Phil Coulson LMD survived destroying the Chronicoms' ship by saving his "mind" onto an external hard drive.

Concurrently, having also survived after her "mind" was trapped in the local power grid, Chronicom predictor Sibyl manipulates lonely programmer, Russell Feldman, into building a crude robotic body for her.

aired in August 2019, showrunners Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeffrey Bell revealed that the seventh season would feature the team trying to save the world from invasion by the Chronicoms.

[2][3] Later that month, one of the season's episodes was revealed to be titled "The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D" and written by Brent Fletcher.

[10] The episode pays homage to various media from the 1980s, including Max Headroom (Coulson's resurrection), Short Circuit and Chopping Mall (the new Chronicom bodies),[10][7] Doctor Who's Daleks (a Chronicom screaming "Exterminate"),[11] The Breakfast Club (using "Don't You (Forget About Me)" in the episode), The Terminator (Chronicom hunters HUD), WarGames (Sybil reaching out to Russell), Weird Science (Russell falling in love with Sybil), Commando (Mack's suit up montage), Predator (Mack and Shaw's handshake),[7] The A-Team ("the classic montage intro" when Shaw introduces the members of his Deke Squad),[9][12][7] Top Gun, E.T.

[9] With the season renewal, main cast members Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, and Jeff Ward were confirmed to be returning from previous seasons as Melinda May, Daisy Johnson / Quake, Jemma Simmons, Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie, Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, and Deke Shaw, respectively.

[6] Guest stars returning from past episodes of the season include Tamara Taylor as Sibyl and Thomas E. Sullivan as Nathaniel Malick (uncredited).

[17] Several journalists, including Chancellor Agard of Entertainment Weekly, served as background extras at the bar during Deke Squad's performance.

[19] Matt and John Yuan had auditioned for another part in the episode "Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson" (also written and directed by Fletcher and Bochco) in season six and did not get cast.

However, Fletcher "loved them so much" and when crafting "The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D", knew the brothers would work as Deke's best friends.

[21] Discussing the remote controlled robots on set, Ward said, "When you see these things in the hallway on patrol and it just rolls in and turns — it feels alive."

This helped Ward create a backstory for Shaw, imagining that his time between seasons five and six was spent catching up on history, including watching Live Aid.

Pow!, Wesley Coburn gave the episode an "A+" and said it "was a standout standalone adventure that mixed humor with pathos, with just enough character and action to make things interesting.

It's a standalone work of eclectic, throwback joy — but cut down the middle with a year of mourning for one of the show's fan favorite characters."

Club, Alex McLevy felt as if the writers were trying to mimic the fun nature of the DC Comics series Legends of Tomorrow with the episode.

[18] Michael Ahr at Den of Geek said, "although the movie allusions were entertaining and appreciated, the stylistic narrative choices felt very much out of place" with "the whole episode feeling a bit like a parody of itself."

Mitovich conceded the episode was "every bit the love letter to the decade that it promised to be" but amidst all that, "it felt like actual storytelling opportunities were missed."