Bionic Woman: The Deadly Missiles

"The Deadly Missiles" is the sixth episode of season one of the 1970s sci-fi/action series The Bionic Woman. The episode was directed by Alan J. Levi with a script written by Wilton Denmark. It first aired on ABC on Wednesday, March 3rd, 1976.

Synopsis
Jaime Sommers is outside with her class teaching her students about the stars. One of them points out a missile launching in the distance, which causes Jaimie no small measure of concern. The payload from the rocket lands harmlessly in the Los Angeles Resevoir. OSI agents Oscar Goldman and Steve Austin arrive the following morning to inspect the rocket. Steve tells Oscar that an unknown source blocked all radar transmissions from the Military Early Warning System (M.E.W.S.), which is why they were unable to detect the rocket's trajectory. They eventually determine that the point of origin may have been somewhere on the estate of millionaire industrialist J.T. Connors. Oscar goes to visit Jaime Sommers and tells her about the incident. Jaime has known J.T. Connors ever since she was a little girl and has difficulty believing that he would be some "mad scientist" bent on launching missiles across the United States. The OSS needs to investigate every possibility however, and Goldman wants Jaime to use her history with Connors to gain access to his ranch. Jaime does not care for this idea at all, and only reluctantly agrees to accept the mission.

Jaime drives out out to the ranch and reunites with her old friend. Connors is kind-hearted but is also an extreme right-wing conservative, whose hatred for government bureaucracy has intensified ever since he lost his son in Vietnam. Connors introduces Jaime to the Chief Engineer of his company, Warren Rayker. While driving across the ranch, Jaime takes note of a bunker sealed off with barbed wire. She asks J.T. about it, but he warns her off, saying that it is top secret and that not even the State Department is aware of its secrets. Jaime grows uncomfortably suspicious that Goldman's fears might be accurate. That night, Jaime sneaks out to the bunker. She bionically leaps over the fence and enters the building. She finds the equipment used to block M.E.W.S. radar systems. The bunker's security measures come on line, and Jaime has to make a quick exit. She leaps across the tiled floor and tries to kick her way through the door, but the door is electrically charged, and it shorts out her right leg. She manages to get through but is momentarily stunned. J.T. Connors and Warren Rayker come out to the site and discover her. Connors is shocked that Jaime would break into the site. Rayker wants to interrogate her intensely, but Connors waves him off, telling him that he will take care of things.

Connors brings Jaime back to his house where he drugs her. She awakens the following morning to J.T. sitting beside her. He apologizes to her for slipping her a sleeping pill, but he still feels betrayed by her. Jaime comes clean about her work with the OSI and why she has come to the ranch. Connors admits that he has developed a prototype radar jamming device along with Rayker, but insists that he had nothing to do with any missile being launched towards Los Angeles. He then leaves the room. Jaime gets up later, but her injured leg is slowing her down. The electric shock has torn open a part of her skin, exposing the bionic components beneath. She goes to find Connors, but when she locates him, he is unconscious upon the floor. Connors revives and it becomes clear that his engineer, Warren Rayker, is the man behind the missile plot. He captures both J.T. and Jaime and brings them to the bunker.

Warren Rayker then contacts Oscar Goldman, who is at the M.E.W.S. Operations Control facility. He tells them that he has Connors and Sommers hostage and demands fifteen million dollars or else he will launch a missile with a live payload at an undisclosed location. He gives them his deadline then hangs up. When Jaime asks him where he intends on firing the missile, Rayker tells her that he is targeting M.E.W.S. Operations Control. Rayker promises to deactivate the system once he receives his money, and is safely out of the way. Rayker leaves Connors and Sommers locked up in the room. After he is gone, Jaime reveals to J.T. that she has bionic limbs and that one of them is damaged. He wants to help, but has no idea what to do with bionic circuitry. Jaime tears some wiring out of a panel box on the wall and J.T. uses them to basically jump-start Jaime's leg. Jaime then gets up and kicks down the door. J.T. punches the guard standing outside, momentarily stunning him. After they leave, the guard gets up and calls Rayker, telling him that the captives have escaped.

They get back to the radar bunker, but J.T. warns her that all of his security systems are still active. She uses bionic-speed to dig up a junction box and destroy it, thus shorting out the electrified fence. Once inside the area, she leaps onto the roof and knocks out the laser-camera system. Just then, Rayker appears with two of his armed guards. Oscar Goldman arrives via helicopter to deliver Rayker his ransom money. Before he can hand the briefcase over to him however, J.T. Connors tackles Rayker to the ground. As he falls, he accidentally hits the remote in his hand, which begins the missile launch. Jaime Sommers takes out Rayker's guards, but then has to run quickly to take out the antenna array that is jamming the military's radar so they shoot the missile the down. She hurls a metal fence post at the array, which causes it to explode. Once the jamming signal ceases, Colonel Steve Austin can target the missile from the M.E.W.S. center and shoot it down.

Later, everyone meets back up at J.T.'s ranch. Oscar Goldman is very interested in working with Connors on future projects. Everyone thanks Steve and Jaime, and the other men leave to give the bionic agents some private time.

Notes & Trivia

 * The Bionic Woman was created for television by Kenneth Johnson. Based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin. Produced in association with Harve Bennett Productions.


 * This episode is included on disc two of the Bionic Woman: Season 1 DVD boxset collection.


 * Actor Lee Majors is given a "Special Guest Star" credit in this episode.


 * This is the second episode of The Bionic Woman directed by Alan J. Levi. He directs thirteen episodes of the series in total.


 * This is the first episode of The Bionic Woman written by Wilton Denmark. He writes two episodes of the series in total.

Allusions

 * Jaime Sommers makes reference to Rudy Wells in this episode. Rudy is the one who developed the bionic systems for both Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers.

Logical incongruities

 * Jaime pricks the finger on her bionic hand on an exposed screw on the end of her oven, and reacts with pain. Immediately afterward she pushes the screw down into place with the same hand. She should not have reacted to all since there are no pain centers in her bionic limbs.


 * Moments after having some patchwork repairs done on her leg, Jaime uses it to kick down the door. It would've made more sense to use her bionic arm, which was still working properly, rather than the leg that was still malfunctioning.


 * Although she limps during all of her walking scenes due to the injured leg, Jaime Sommers runs perfectly fine while taking out the laser camera on the bunker.


 * Between the moment when Jaime blows up the radar display and Steve shoots down the missile, she apparently takes some time to re-apply her lipstick.

Quotes

 * J.T. Connors: Your leg is bionic?
 * Jaime Sommers: Both of 'em. But right now, this one needs a repairman, and you're elected.

....
 * Jaime Sommers: J.T., that might be equipment to you, but its my leg.

....
 * J.T. Connors: How're you gonna get up there?
 * Jaime Sommers: Well, all in one piece, I hope.

....
 * Steve Austin: Remember I told you something fouled up our radar defense system near here?
 * Oscar Goldman: Yeah.
 * Steve Austin: Well, it wasn't exactly just near here. Our entire Military Early Warning System was temporarily jammed last night.
 * Oscar Goldman: Jammed?! Well, that's impossible - we don't have a radar jamming device.
 * Steve Austin: We don't, but somebody does. Our entire radar defense system was totally useless for nine minutes and thirty-six seconds.
 * Oscar Goldman: If somebody has a radar jamming device, they could drop a nuclear warhead on any place they want! Steve: Right. But the big question is, who are they?