THE TWO "BIONIC WOMAN" PILOTS (1975)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

After THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN had enjoyed its first successful season, a two-part episode of the second season became a "back door pilot" for a new series-- though it might be the first such pilot that made a pretense of killing off the main character twice.

Before the introduction of Steve Austin's old girlfriend, Ausin has a run-in with another arms dealer, one Ronaugh (Malachi Throne). Oddly, this mover-and-shaker is compared to Aristotle Onassis, who had some controversies in his shipping industry but was not a criminal as such. Austin foils Ronaugh's counterfeiting operation but the villain sees Austin from afar and plots vengeance.

Meanwhile, having finished that mission, Austin re-visits his hometown of Ojai, California to see his mother, apparently widowed and now re-married to Austin's stepfather. I don't think either character had appeared before, but I assume they're present to lend verisimilitude to Austin's return. While in Ojai Austin meets once more with old girlfriend Jaime Sommars (Lindsay Wagner), and Jaime ends up throwing over her current beau to re-unite with Austin.

Though the earlier plot action suggests that the villain might interfere in the happy couple's life, Ronaugh never comes near the lovers. Jaime goes for a skydiving jaunt and her chute fails, so that she like Austin suffers such severe injuries that only bionics can save her from being a cripple. Austin himself persuades Oscar Goldman to use government money to save Jaime, even though she has no government involvement whatever. For once, Goldman is a bit less of a goody-good, warning that if he does this, the government will want its pound of flesh.

The operation is completed-- again, without the patient's consent. Jaime, like Austin before her, goes through a short period of rebellion before embracing her new life as a super-spy. As it happens, the duo's first covert assignment brings Ausin back into contact with Ronaugh-- though Ronaugh proves largely a paper tiger. The heroes escape with their lives, but Jaime's bionics fail and she dies.

It's likely her death was a stunt designed to make viewers empathize with the newbie agent, and if so it succeeded. The first episode of the third season, "The Return of the Bionic Woman," brought Jaime back from the dead through the use of cryonic technology. But she had selective memory loss, not remembering Austin at all but retaining knowledge of her training as a spy. 

So Austin and Jaime return to the field for another mission, with Austin deeply conflicted because his former love doesn't know him. Then Jaime begins experiencing painful memory flashbacks, and by the episode's end the two former lovers separate, because Austin fears that his presence is causing her mental pain. 

In due time, naturally, Jaime regains her memory and the two heroes intermittently guest-star on one another's shows. These two quasi-pilots aren't very well written, and the only thing that's a little interesting is the detail that Steve Austin's mother is remarried. Perhaps that's the main reason for the mention of Aristotle Onassis, since for Americans. his greatest cultural significance was becoming the second husband to none other than Jackie Kennedy. 

In addition, since Jaime is a civilian like the original version of Steve Austin, her conversion into a super-soldier lacks a comparable resonance. Further, even though the first pilot seems to set up Oscar Goldman as a nice guy enforcing a devil's bargain, this falls apart since Jaime isn't really forced to do anything terribly scurrilous.