The penultimate episode of series one is the first time we hear anything about Steve Austin's background. Okay, we know he's a colonel in the Air Force and he walked on the moon - but what we see here is of a more personal nature.
Steve's mission is to go to the Chinese border to recover some documents from a plane that crashed there during WWII. And not just any old plane either - but the plane that Steve's father piloted.
We learn a few things in this episode: 1. Steve's Dad supposedly died during WWII whilst piloting a plane. 2. Steve never saw his father. 3. We meet Steve's Mom for the first time 4. And also learn that Steve has a StepDad.
Not a lot of information you'd think, but this is the first scrap of a back story since episode 1 of the series - where we learned that Steve went to school 20 miles from a town called Norris.
Sulu (from Star Trek) helps Steve to climb the mountain - on top of which the stricken plane lies - but comes to a grisly end quite soon. Steve befriends an American who seems to have adapted to the area and he agrees to help him reach the plane instead.
The episode leads the viewer into thinking that this American is in fact Steve's father. It turns out in the end that he was not - but the storyline is left open enough for the viewer to make up his own mind about that nugget of information. Steve's father supposedly bailed out of the plane leaving his crew to die. This American who helps him has Steve's father's dog-tags and looks suspiciously like his Bionic son. Me? - I like to think that he was in fact his real father and ashamed of his actions all those years ago, puts his life on the line now for his son - the boy he never saw.
Not a particularly thrilling episode by any stretch of the imagination but an important one to flesh out some more information about the Six Million Dollar Man.
Steve's mission is to go to the Chinese border to recover some documents from a plane that crashed there during WWII. And not just any old plane either - but the plane that Steve's father piloted.
We learn a few things in this episode: 1. Steve's Dad supposedly died during WWII whilst piloting a plane. 2. Steve never saw his father. 3. We meet Steve's Mom for the first time 4. And also learn that Steve has a StepDad.
Not a lot of information you'd think, but this is the first scrap of a back story since episode 1 of the series - where we learned that Steve went to school 20 miles from a town called Norris.
Sulu (from Star Trek) helps Steve to climb the mountain - on top of which the stricken plane lies - but comes to a grisly end quite soon. Steve befriends an American who seems to have adapted to the area and he agrees to help him reach the plane instead.
The episode leads the viewer into thinking that this American is in fact Steve's father. It turns out in the end that he was not - but the storyline is left open enough for the viewer to make up his own mind about that nugget of information. Steve's father supposedly bailed out of the plane leaving his crew to die. This American who helps him has Steve's father's dog-tags and looks suspiciously like his Bionic son. Me? - I like to think that he was in fact his real father and ashamed of his actions all those years ago, puts his life on the line now for his son - the boy he never saw.
Not a particularly thrilling episode by any stretch of the imagination but an important one to flesh out some more information about the Six Million Dollar Man.