The Six Million Dollar Man: Deadly Countdown (part 2)

episode number: season 5, episode 4 (1977)
viewing setting: home DVD, 7/23/12

episode synopsis: After recovering from his injuries, Steve decides to rescue the NASA administrator's daughter before launching into space in the backup rocket.

impressions: Space episode, part 2 (with a little break for some espionage action.) Entertaining, with another last-minute launch problem and another escape from the launch pad. But...it had some issues which probably only I noticed. For one thing, OSI/NASA high security procedures suck. Based on the events of part 1, they should have known that someone had tapped into their pre-launch communications, and acted accordingly. That would include noticing the large white yacht in the massive expanse of blue water near the launch pad, the yacht with the big radar dish on its roof. Also, Steve was slack - after rescuing the girl, he just stood there and watched the bad guy get away. I'd have chased him down and beaten the truth out of him. You don't even have to be bionic to do that.

notable guest stars: Jenny Agutter is the cute scientist who's set to go up into space with Steve. Philip Abbott is the head NASA guy. Lloyd Bochner is the #1 bad guy, and Mills Watson is the #2 bad guy. Martin Caidin - who wrote the novel that became the pilot for this series - has a minor role, I think he was the strange-looking bad guy on the yacht.

significant bionic antics: Steve chases bad guys' cars back to their secret base, spies with his eye, jumps up onto the roof and then down onto the bad guys, jumps out of a helicopter, throws a guy into a pool, and rips an electrical conduit apart.

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