a5c7b9f00b Air Force Colonel Steve Austin, an astronaut who had walked on the moon, is almost killed in a plane crash. Many of his damaged parts are replaced by experimental bionic limbs, including his right arm, his left eye, and both legs. These bionics give him superpowers suchincreased speed and strength and the ability to see long distances. To pay the U.S. Government back the six million dollars it cost to rebuild him, Austin goes to work for the Office of Scientific Investigationan Agent, investigating foreign spies, mad scientists, bombers, space aliens, and Bigfoot. When ace test pilot Colonel Steve Austin's ship crashed, he was nearly dead. Deciding that "we have the technology to rebuild this man", the government decides to rebuild Austin, augmenting him with cybernetic parts which give him superhuman strength and speed. Austin becomes a secret operative, fighting injustice where it is found. I bought the DVD of #4 of SMDM series yesterdaya nostalgia of the 70s' when I was a ten year old kid. (SMDM was also aired in HK) As a kid I was totally absorbed and amazed by the stories, but now things have changed. I found the plot just too naive and stereotypic. Villains were always Russians or foreigners. African Americans were always the subordinates. "We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man." can reveal the eccentricity of the USAthe world's first power at that time. Now I understand why the Hawks had the belief that USA would finally win the Vietnam war. Also, stories were written without much research. In the episode Population:Zero, Steve Austin wore a spacesuit to probe into the all-silent city! If the case had been classified and reached the Washington level, why couldn't they send a whole team of specialists with biochemical hazard proof clothings? (as in Outbreak) To understand the genesis of the show, watch first Harve Bennett's "The Astronaut" (1972) –-with the music of Gil Mellé– and "Texas, We've Got a Problem" (1974). With a good, solid, realistic in treatment (psychologically and artistically), 1973 pilot produced and directed by David Irving and starring Martin BalsamDr. Rudy Wells (see H. G. Wells?) and Darren McGavinthe crippled cynical and manipulator Intelligent head Oliver Spencer who is also knownnewspaper "Kolchak, The Night Stalker"; the show starts very well with Gil Mellé's electronic and jazzy score a la Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew", then comes a terrible second pilot "Wine, Woman and War", produced by Michael Gleason and written by Glen A. Larson with a dreadful main title and a horrible song by Dusty Springfield in which Steve Austin is a kind of reluctant second-rate James Bond whose mission ends with an atomic explosion. The series really finds its format with the third pilot: "The Solid Gold Kidnapping" with Jack Cole's famous techno medical main title (made with footages from the two pilots, video effects and body animations). During the middle of season 1, the music department decided to add sound effects from Universal's stock music library to highlight the bionic motions (some were already used in a previous series like the 1972 E.S.P. series "The Sixth Sense"–-oddly enough, you can hear a noise from a missile when Austin launches an object into the air). The series had three Dr. Rudy Wells: one played by Martin Balsam (first pilot), by Alan Oppenheimer (pilot 2 & 3 and season 1 & 2) and by Martin E. Brooks (season 3, 4 & 5). The first two seasons –-produced by Sam Strangis/Donald R. Boyle and Lionel E. Siegel/Joe L. Cramer–- were in the line of the pilots and then occurs the transitory season 3 –-in 1975, the main composer Oliver Nelson and the music supervisor Hal Mooney left–-, a season 4 with some drastic changes (bad writers and producers, the lead wears a ridiculous thin moustache, Goldman has a new office's decoration and the music is composed and renewed by J. J. Johnson) and therefore an un-inspired season 5 –-without Harve Bennett–- in which the protagonist wears a pre-"Fall Guy" haircut. TSMDM is basically an espionage series with a shallow sci-fi canvas (everybody remember the zoom shot bionic left eye with the frames or the infrared vision); notice the various martial music themes to grasp the concept of this pro-gov/militaryNASA/technology drama. The first pilot shows an offhand and rebel Steve Austin who refuses his injured disabled condition (even try to commit suicide) and his involvement in the scientifical department of the C.I.A. (here, O.S.O.: Office of Strategic Operation, and, later O.S.I.: Office of Scientifical Intelligence): official Oliver Spencer (later Richard AndersonOscar Goldman) even receivs a cold slap. From season 2, we are introduced to another bionic man: paranoid auto racing Barney Miller (with a season 3 sequel) in "The Seven Million Dollar Man", and a woman: tennis champ Jaimie Sommers, in a two-parter (with a season 3 sequel too) in "The Bionic Woman". From that point, the show slips into cheap bionic new products (Bigfoot, boy, dog) with a comic book leaning. The best episodes are those which deal with the space program/Austin's background ("The Rescue of Athena One", "Burning Bright", "The Pioneers", "The Deadly Replay": where we learn about Austin's near fatal plane accident) and the dangers of technology in the hands of America's inner enemies ("Population Zero", "Day of the Robot", "Run, Steve, Run").
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