episode #41 - The Deadly Test

episode #6 of 3rd season / Air Date: 10/19/75 written by James D. Parriott Directed by Christian Nyby II

An episode that takes place all at Edwards Air Force Base and has the look of a big budget episode, thanks in part to the creative use of stock footage. Steve Austin is in an unusual role here - taking over command of the base for a couple of weeks while the general in charge (Tim O'Connor) goes off fishing. All is expected to proceed like routine, but it won't - not with the bionic man around. There is some tension there already: a special program trains foreign pilots and one of them is a haughty prince, no less (Erik Estrada of C*H*I*P*S fame in an early role). He's at odds with another pilot (Martin Speer) and also with a female engineer (Leigh Christian), since women are 2nd-class citizens in his own country. But the big problem is that some guy (Frank Marth) disguised as a soft drink delivery man is pointing a super-duper electro-gun or something at flying jets, trying to make them crash! - not good.
There's the bit of mystery - who is the actual target of these attacks (my money is on the prince) - but the big plus of this episode is the locale and the feel of almost a small film for this episode. Most of the time, it's difficult to tell what is stock footage and what was shot for this episode. The key bit of footage is a pilot ejecting from a jet and the jet itself crashing - real life footage, looks like (I also wonder if the producers got their hands on such footage and then decided to write a story around it). There's also a commentary on the Israeli-Arab relations & hostility, still topical today, unfortunately, and the happy tie-off here is only wishful thinking. On location filming at the desert site adds to the whole thing, though the climactic action (see below) comes across as silly, kind of comic-booky. BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10