The New Movie of the Week: The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman

Astronaut Steve Austin (Lee majors), after crashing an experimental aircraft is rebuilt using bionic replacements including both legs, his right arm and right eye.  The operation cost $6 million giving him the nick name “the Six Million Dollar Man”.  After years as an OSI agent, Steve retires after a friend, Chris Williams, is killed on a mission and he now runs a fishing charter boat.  He has never forgotten about the love of his life and ex-fiancé, Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) who was in a skydiving accident and was biconically enhanced, but her body rejected the bionics which caused her to lose the memory and the feeling of love she had for Steve. Jaime worked for the OSI as well but retired when her boyfriend, Chris Williams was killed, and she partially blames Steve for that but has since regained her memories and feelings for Steve.  It is now ten years later and neither Steve nor Jaime have seen or spoken to each other. Lyle Stenning (Martin Landau) is the leader of a paramilitary mercenary group named Fortress and has been in prison for the last ten years, put there by Steve.  Recently, Fortress, has reactivated and has begun targeting munitions depots stealing weapons and explosives to use in domestic terrorism using the moto “America for Americans” and desiring to stop the liberal agendas that they believe is destroying America.  Michael Austin (Tom Schanley), Steve’s estranged son from a marriage before Jaime and his bionic enhancements, is training at a nearby Air Force base and about to graduate pilot school.  He is a great pilot, but a bit too impulsive and the Air Force asks Steve to meet with his son and talk to him, but after their first meeting, Stenning has his men attempt to kidnap Steve and Jaime to gain access to their bionic parts and use them in his plan to reshape America.  Michael is injured in a crash and is saved by Dr. Rudy Wells (Martin E. Brooks), the bionic pioneer who saved both Steve and Jaime, who implants more advanced bionics into Michael.  Stenning, unable to get either Jaime or Steve kidnap Michael using Rudy as a hostage to force Michael into complying.  The head of the OSI, Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson), Steve and Jaime mount a rescue operation along with members of Michael’s Airforce class. Together with the team and using their bionic superpowers, they are able to stop Fortress and save their friends.

The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman is a made for television movie based on the original television series, The Six Million Dollar Man and it spinoff series The Bionic Woman. The film aired on May 17, 1987, on NBC and reunited the original cast.  The movie also served as a back door pilot for a potential ongoing series featuring Michael Austin as the lead.  Although that series was never made, the ratings for this film were good enough that two additional films were made, Bionic Showdown and Bionic Ever After. The idea for the reunion film came after Richard Anderson and Lee Majors were vacationing together and did an improvised scene giving them the idea.

I was a fan of both the original series, although I always liked The Bionic Woman a bit more than The Six Million Dollar Man as I felt the stories, acting and writing were just better possibly because it focused more on character development as opposed to action scenes.  I do love a good reunion show bringing together fond characters who often feel like family and catch up on where they are and what has happened in the years away from the screen.  One of the problems with reunion shows though is that people age at different rates and some are less graceful than others.  Lee Majors just doesn’t feel like he had that edge or vitality he had when he was younger that helped make his show what it was.  Lindsay Wagner on the other hand felt a lot more comfortable in the role especially when she was interacting with Tom Schanley’s character, Michael. In addition to this, the choice of music for the film felt out of place using overly synthesized compositions which detracted from the scenes instead of enhancing them.  Overall, it isn’t a bad TV movie, but was just slightly disappointing.