User Reviews

Steve Austin(Lee Majors) is in a restaurant with his friend and boss Oscar Goldman(Richard Anderson) when he sees a woman named Barbara Thatcher(played by Linda Marsh) who was an old flame of his seven years prior. It turns out that her thought-dead husband of three months Orin(played by Jeff Corey) who is a research scientist is in fact alive, but living in Lisbon, a presumed defector that wants her to come stay with him now, though Steve insists on coming with her, which was a smart move, as the situation is more complicated and dangerous than they believed... Better than expected episode with fine acting and well paced direction.

This episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man" marks a kind of low watermark for the series. It's seriously conflicted with itself, wanting to have it's cake and eat it too by being a grown up sophisticated character driven drama about the yukky mushy lost love affair involving a bionic super aged with miraculous powers. Give us a break: We wanted to see the Bionic Man busting through walls and slapping the Russians around, not dating.

The problem is that on their own either one would have probably resulted in interesting stories. It's always interesting to take a look into the back story of what made Colonel Steve Austin what he was, and one can never grow tired of international intrigue involving kidnapped genius scientists who are perfecting their uranium enrichment techniques under the thumb of a James Bond like evil villain. The problem is that by crossing the two the show stumbles on exactly what it is that we watch the Bionic Man for, and instead relies on mushy contrived TV romance crap to justify the bionic spectacles -- which are few and far between.

One thing that is interesting about this installment is that it provides another odd "Star Trek"/SMDM connection with "Gamesters of Triskelion"'s Joseph Ruskin (Galt, the villain master of games) and "The Cloud Minders"'s Jeff Corey (Plasus, the obnoxious chief of state) heading the supporting cast, along with a miscast Linda Marsh, who isn't quite saucy enough to justify the longing brought on within our Six Million Dollar Stud. She looks too made up and composed and facelifted, plus the two have zero on screen chemistry together. Though the episode's dialog does have one great line where Steve remarks "Well I'm very good at climbing up and down walls, and don't like being locked in my room like a prisoner."

So the love story in this is a contrivance to a degree and leaves me non-plussed, though apparently feedback from viewers who were intrigued with seeing this side of the Bionic Man was apparently encouraging enough for the producers to trot out Lindsay Wagner as The Bionic Woman for the season's conclusion. They made a much more satisfactory & believable couple, not just because Ms. Wagner had the legs for the tennis shorts but because the writers allowed her Jamie Sommers to be a person rather than a plot device. She also made a compelling enough character for us eight to ten year old boys to contemplate the prospect of having her as a girlfriend. No offense to Ms. Marsh but she comes across more as an affectionate young librarian than somebody you'd want to hold hands with at the fairgrounds during the absurd, groan-inducing romantic interlude scene where they eat hot dogs and Steve wins her a stuffed toy by unscrupulously using his bionic skills to win at a carnival game. Talk about a hustler.

So I don't know: In another comment I just posted about "The Cross Country Kidnap" I praised the episode as a great example of what SMDM would have been like if it had stayed a show for grownups. Here's the opposite side of the coin, an episode that seems to forget why the series was fun in it's attempt to try and be more mature. The result is probably the most dry and uninteresting example of the show from the second season, which I think is otherwise probably the series' most dynamic & interesting period. Also, what's up with those ornate high-backed chairs during the cocktail lounge scenes? To keep the lunch hour drunks from getting whiplash?

5/10, though crummy "Six Million Dollar Man" is always better than no "Six Million Dollar Man".

Steve consoles a woman-with whom he was once romantically involved-after her husband apparently dies in a plane crash en route to Lisbon. The romance begins anew and Steve is on hand to thwart a kidnap attempt on Barbara by unknown assailants. Then comes a telephone call from her supposedly dead husband. Steve then flies to Lisbon with her to confront the husband, who is holed up in the consulate of a foreign power.

Not a bad episode, it's just a little uneven in terms of being watchable - the first half is so-so with Austin rekindling his romance with the professor's wife - their interaction is quite good, however it was about to fizzle out but then when the lady's supposedly dead husband rings her, asking to come to Lisbon things prep up with some neat plots twists and a serpentine villain in Joseph Ruskin.

The 1960's and 1970's were great decades for showing fortunate TV viewers some of the most beautiful and talented young actresses anyone could imagine! And among that impressive group, Linda Marsh was one of the very best, with superb acting skills. She's so good! It's a joy to watch her on screen. She really makes you believe the characters she plays are real people, and she does that here.

Perhaps because Linda is so good, Lee gives us an exceptionally sensitive performance also. It often works that way; when a star like Lee, in a series, gets a really fine actor or actress to work with, they raise their own game.

So for me, the romance in this episode was poignant and very effective. We get more than enough chances to see Steve Austin battle robots, etc.; it's refreshing to see an emphasis on his feelings, his inner self. He always does show us what a fine human being he is, and here it's really personal. I liked this episode a lot!

Oh, and Joseph Ruskin and Jeff Corey, who are the top bad guy and a scientist, are both fine actors also; always reliably good.