episode #80 - Sharks

episode #1 of 5th season / Air Date: 9/11/77 written by Arthur Weingarten directed by Alan J. Levi

The first part of a 2-parter to kick off the 5th and final season: sharks were a popular topic during this time, ever since the film Jaws in 1975; in the plot, Oscar assigns Austin to a nuclear sub which is on its way to check on a deep sea warning device that stopped working abruptly. A saboteur cripples the sub; thanks mostly to Austin, he and the crew manage to quickly exit the sub, but Austin ends up going back; his obstacles? - you guessed it: a bunch of sharks. The actual culprits are a father-daughter team (Pamela Hensley and Stephen Elliott) who aim to steal the sub. The daughter has a method to control the sharks. They are not ruthless as villains go, but their henchmen are a different matter: the main henchman (Gregory Walcott) has different ideas about getting things done.
As it afflicts many 2-parters of TV series, this one has a slow pace for the most part. In addition, much of this involves deep sea diving, underwater scenes and so on... so this slows things down even further; there is a sense of filler material to fill out the 2 episodes. The best scene is when Austin demonstrates the strength of his bionic arm, ripping out the sub's steerage, to the astonishment of the villains. But, it's also silly: Austin again reveals his top secret abilities as if it doesn't matter; and, the next actions of the villains are odd - rather than shoot Austin in fear, they just coax him into captivity as if they already forgot what he just did. William Sylvester also guests as an admiral, a role he played in an earlier episode. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10