Sorry for the delay, but here are the second batch of Season 1 episode reviews for The Six Million Dollar Man. I’ll be grouping episodes in batches of four or so. Sort of similar to how they’d be done on the DVDs, but season 1 is a little different because the three pilot movies were in there as well mucking up my numbered groupings. There are only five episodes left in this season, so, after this I think I’ll just finish out the season in Part III and do five episodes instead of four.
Regardless, here are the next four episodes of Season 1 from The Six Million Dollar Man.
Episode 5 – Little Orphan Airplane
Special guests: Scoey Mitchell (Barefoot in the Park), Marge Redmond (The Flying Nun), Lincoln Kilpatrick (Soylent Green), Dale Robertson (Tales of Wells Fargo)
Synopsis: A spy plane crashes in Africa with secret microfilm on board. Steve is sent to retrieve the film and save the pilot.
Bionics: Steve uses his bionic night vision and it is presented in the way it would be done for the rest of the series with the electronic beeping and square overlay. We also get the missile sounds when Steve throws stuff. This would be used throughout the series.
Notes: The accents for the African soldiers are literally all over the place. Some are unidentifiable, some are thick. Major Chooka has an AMERICAN accent. Plus he dresses like James Brown with a decorative cane and jacket draped over his shoulders. The accents will be an ongoing thing throughout the series run. See next episode. When Steve is airlifted into Africa he lands with no gear, just his bionics and khaki pantsuit. Again, Steve reveals his supposed “top secret” bionics to the spy plane pilot making Steve the least “top secret” project ever. This episode is the first time that Steve Austin has not killed or caused someone to be killed.
Review: This isn’t a bad episode. The pilot played by Scoey Mitchell is entertaining. He actually asks Steve if his bionics come in black. That’s funny. I like that they used an African war lord as the villain, but they made him a little ridiculous. This is a fun and entertaining episode that I enjoyed.
Toy Alert: In one scene Steve lifts an engine block with his bionic arm. Presumably this is why one version of the Kenner action figure was packaged with an engine block accessory (see above).
Episode 6 – Doomsday and Counting
Special guests: Gary Collins (Miss America Pageant, Iron Horse, Wackiest Ship in the Army), Jane Merrow (Lion in Winter)
Synopsis: Colonel Zhukov (Collins) visits America to request a partnership in a space program with his Soviet Union. An earthquake at a secret Russian spacecraft installation initiates a self destruct sequence that threatens to destroy the entire island including Zhukov’s fiance. Steve travels to the island with Zhukov to save Zhukov’s fiance and the other trapped scientists.
Bionics: Steve blocks a falling steel girder with his bionic arm to save he and Zhukov. Steve uses a Geiger counter built into his arm to detect the trigger device for a nuclear bomb. Steve rips the electrical wires from the self destruct bomb and absorbs all the electrical current into his system to shut down the computer.
Notes: Again, accents are non-existent. Russian characters speak perfect non-accented English amongst themselves. There is A LOT of running through corridors in this episode. A LOT. Russian bases are 90% hallways, apparently. Oscar, for some reason, shows up on the island just as it’s about to explode in a pimping hat and awesome fur collar jacket. Zhukov surprisingly dies amidst a cacophony of terrible red laser effects. Looked more like the climax of a Journey concert. Steve continues to sodomize the phrase “top secret” by telling Zhukov about his bionics. Still no classic bionic sound.
Review: Not a bad episode to watch. Entertaining, despite all the running through hallways. Collins was enjoyable as the obviously not Russian Russian.
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Cavalcade of Awesome 
