episode #47 - Divided Loyalties

episode #12 of 3rd season / Air Date: 11/30/75 written by Jim Carlson, Terry McDonnell Directed by Alan Crosland

This was one of those stories about getting a defector back to the USA. The defector, a scientist (Michael McGuire), has changed his mind about communist states due to his 15-year old son (Radames Pera), whom he feels needs to live in freedom. The son, of course, is used to his present way of life - he's especially fond of a guard named Boris (Ned Romero). The issue presented is, of all things, proper parenting - the scientist realizes at this late stage that he has concentrated too much on his work and neglected his son. It takes the great Steve Austin to point all this out, while they're en route to a border.
The key scene is when they reach this gorge or canyon - it looks like an impressive matte painting. They need to cross this to reach freedom. In all, it's a standard adventure, reminding one of average Mission:Impossible episodes, but less innovative. BoG's Score: 5 out of 10

Bionic Trivia: for the first time, the pre-credits teaser shows some quick scenes from the rest of the episode, like Mission:Impossible. When I saw this for the first time, I thought I'd started watching in the middle of the episode by mistake. Radames Pera is best known as the young Kane in all the flashback scenes in the Kung Fu series.