episode #38 -The Price of Liberty

episode #3 of 3rd season / Air Date: 9/28/75 written by Kenneth Johnson Directed by Richard Moder

This is one of those episodes where several characters are sweating over trying to defuse a booby-trapped bomb or bombs; it seems like all thriller TV series, cop shows or crime shows, have at least one of these types of episodes. The difference here is that it involves a bionic man who may offer an advantage to the struggling workers. In the plot, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is stolen by a disgruntled rocket scientist (Henry Beckman) who is tired of looking for a job after the space agency cutbacks. Austin happened to be on the scene but fails to stop the thieves. The demand is $5 million dollars in ransom. As luck would have it, the scientist-gone-bad dies of a heart attack and the bell is rigged to explode in 7 hours. Austin finds the one man (Chuck Connors) close enough and expert enough to possibly outsmart the dead man's wiring. Only, this man is in jail and has a bad attitude.

By its nature, this story has a very limited setting - it's almost all near that truck with the rigged bell or inside it. But, these intense, claustrophobic stories almost always work to some extent. You figure someone will get blown up, someone will crack or someone will give up. This one is rather tame - having Austin involved actually lessens the tension - but Connors is always watchable and there's good support from all the players. Austin, again, reveals his incredible strength to civilians who have no business knowing about it - and this time one of them is a criminal! Will he get blown up or go straight..? BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10
Bionic Trivia: as mentioned elsewhere, many details such as the geography of where the bell is kept and the history/appearance of the bell itself are wrong, but, as stated in the thread for Outrage in Balinderry, this seems to be a parallel Earth where such deviations would be possible.