The Six Million Dollar Man (TV Series) Rescue of Athena One (1974) User Reviews

the best from season one

[trashgang · 8/10 · 22 May 2012]

I don't review all episodes from series but this one stands out of season one due a few reasons. First of all Steve Austin goes back into space. Secondly, his powers fail in space and finally he has to play together with his wife Farrah Fawcett.

This has so much to offer. When America's first female astronaut Major Kelly Wood (Farrah Fawcett) goes on her maiden trip into space things go wrong. Being trained by Steve Austin he is listening what is wrong. So he decides to go on a rescue mission to safe the astronaut he has trained. Once we go into space this episode is full of footage from real missions and it works out completely. But here Steve get in trouble by seeing that his body doesn't stand the radiation out in space. This episode even got some suspense. Naturally Steve got the girl at the end...

It is really weird that when Farrah died in 2009 due cancer she wasn't noticed at the Oscars. A perfect example of a star from the seventies being forgotten nowadays. Just watch her beauty once again in this episode.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Lady Astronaut

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 21 May 2015]

Lee Major's real-life wife Farrah Fawcett guest stars as Major Kelly Wood, whom Steve Austin is reluctantly training to make her maiden outer space flight, making her the first woman American astronaut. Despite some friction, they form a grudging respect, and Steve must take quick action when her flight runs into trouble after an unexpected explosion injures her male co-pilot, but Austin discovers that his bionics seem to be malfunctioning in space, leaving Kelly the one to bring them back home... Farrah Fawcett is good here, and clearly well cast, with a smart story and efficient direction making this one of the better early episodes.

Beautiful Farrah Fawcett Majors

[markymark70 · 8/10 · 11 October 2007]

This is an excellent episode of the SMDM and this is in no small way because of the presence of Lee Majors' then wife Farrah Fawcett. My word - she is gorgeous. There are not too many starlets then or now who could come close to her beauty and lucky Lee is all I can say.

Now - enough fawning over Farrah and on with the episode.

Farrah Fawcett is Major Kelly Wood (I kid you not - Major Wood ???? - do you think the scriptwriter's were having a not too subtle laugh/dig here ???? I think so) who is to pilot the next expedition to space. Steve is her instructor. However, something goes wrong. An explosion on the journey upwards forces Wood to dock with the space station to try and provide medical support to her co-pilot injured in the accident. But problems still persist and she cannot open the hatch door to the space station. Steve and a doctor take off from NASA headquarters to the rescue. (Handy that they just happened to have another rocket standing by for just an eventuality !!).

Steve docks the ship to the space station, opens the hatch for Farrah and the doc tries to treat the co-pilot. However, not all is as it seems as Steve too, experiences some side-effects on his bionic parts. His vision becomes blurred, his arm effectively useless. It transpires that all 4 of them must come back to Earth immediately for the proper treatment of the co-pilot - and Farrah has to guide them back through the atmosphere. Something nobody has done before manually.

But with Steve by her side - Wood manages to get them all back safely. And Steve once again gets the girl.

Worth a watch just for Farrah alone. One word - beautiful.

Rescue of Athena One

[coltras35 · 7/10 · 25 August 2023]

Steve Austin is posted to NASA where he is tasked with training America's first woman astronaut - Major Kelly Woods. Despite initial problems, Major Woods completes her training and is launched into Earth orbit in Athena One with fellow Astronaut Osterman on a mission to discover new sources of energy. Shortly afterwards, Athena One is rocked by an explosion which seriously injures Osterman. Fortunately, Major Woods is able to dock the crippled space capsule with the orbiting Skylab space station, where it is intended she will await the arrival of a rescue team and doctor. However, the explosion has jammed the capsule's hatch, trapping Woods and Osterman inside.

Steve is launched into space alongside a Flight Surgeon to treat and rescue the trapped astronauts. Upon docking with Skylab, Steve manages to force the trapped hatch open, giving Woods and the still unconscious Osterman access to the space station, however, during a spacewalk to carry out repairs to Athena One, Steve's bionics begin to malfunction due to the higher levels of radiation present. As a result, Major Woods has to command the Athena One Rescue capsule, containing all four astronauts inside, back to Earth.

What appeared to be a dull episode soon transforms into a tense one with some good special effects for its time ( interjected with real space-related footage) and good acting, especially Lee Majors, who still comes across like he's haunted by his accident. The story is really good - there's no bad guys for Steve to battle, only the elements of space and his own malfunctioning bionics.

Steve, We Have a Problem

[boscofl · 8/10 · 2 February 2017]

A pretty slick episode from Season 1, "Rescue of Athena One" launches Col. Steve Austin back into space where he must perform a rescue operation. The most notable aspect of this show is that it co-stars Farrah Fawcett-Majors as the first female astronaut and Steve's pupil during her training.

Steve is shown to be uncharacteristically cruel to her during training when her mistakes during a simulation results in mission failure. Naturally she will need to perform a similar maneuver later on and the tough love will prove beneficial. Steve softens his stance toward her pretty quickly and will volunteer to come to her rescue later on.

There are some gaps in logic but that doesn't detract from the tense story that develops. I'm pretty sure that NASA could never launch a rescue operation into space as depicted in this episode. Then again, logic or realism were never a selling point for this series.

The episode becomes more suspenseful when Steve's bionics begin to malfunction in space. Naturally he manages to perform all the necessary tasks to get them headed home but it is up to Farrah, educated by Steve's tutelage, to guide the space capsule through reentry.

Needless to say, Farrah (impeccably made up and manicured) never convinces anyone that she's a Major let alone an astronaut but she is clearly the selling point for this episode. I'm sure no astronaut in human history ever looked as glamorous while attempting reentry.

"Rescue of Athena One" is heavily bolstered by actual NASA footage and benefits greatly from the appearance of Jules Bergman, who covered all of the early space programs for ABC.

Dreadful.

[kindofblue-78221 · 2/10 · 5 August 2022]

To call FFM wooden and untalented is an understatement.

Add this is a dreadful plot and you've got disaster.

FFM didn't get into acting for her ability. She was well connected. She's not alone there.

Only William Shatner was missing from this terrible episode. Don't worry, his episode is even worse than this one.