Steve Austin (Lee Majors) is a daredevil astronaut - who's just too cool for school. But then he has a near-fatal accident that destroys quite a few pretty important bodyparts, including an eye, an arm and both legs. Dr. Wells (Martin Balsam), Steve's best friend, does everything to keep him alive - but that's all he can do, lacking the resources to provide him with experimental limbs. Enter shady gouvernment type Spencer (Darren McGavin), who offers 6 million Dollars to make Steve into a superhuman cyborg, with artificial bodyparts and all, if only he does some work for the gouvernment. Doc Wells has his reservations, but it's really the only way for Steve to go back to having a normal life, but once rebuilt, Steve has his reservations as well, something lovely nurse/love interest Jean (Barbara Anderson) tries to help with. Eventually, Steve gets his first assignment, to go to the Middle East save a prisoner from the Palestinians - but once he arrives there he learns he has been walked into a trap as the prisoner had been executed weeks ago. Still, he makes it back in one piece, and Spencer tells him this was to test both his loyality and his flexibility in a battle situation. And that said, new adventures are awaiting of course ...

Quite a rating success back in the day, this TV movie, the first of three pilots for the popular TV series, hasn't aged well, and it's not so much that the science fiction parts of the concept don't seem all that special anymore and date the premise instantly, it's more that the whole thing rides just on that one gimmick, which it is quick to sell to the audience, and all the plot points that come with it, like Steve's self doubts and doubts regarding the righteousness of his future missions, seem terribly contrived. And really, when the actual action - Steve's rescue mission - sets in, it's not only too little too late, it's also terribly run-of-the-mill, and knowing how invincible Steve is, it lacks any feel of real danger. In retrospect, one can of course see what contemporary audiences saw in this, it just didn't age well. The musical score, especially in the third act, is first rate though.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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