Bionic Showdown The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman (1989)

The 2nd TV Movie (after the 1987 telefilm) with the famous Bionic characters of Steve Austin (Lee Majors) and Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) introduces us to the latest recipient of the bionics: young Kate (then-newcomer Sandra Bullock). She had been crippled and in a wheelchair since early childhood and now can run with the best of them.  I was never clear on why she was selected for the revolutionary procedure or even the extent of her bionics, but she seems to have roughly the same abilities as Austin and Jaime.  The problem for everyone is that there is yet another bionic man running around, an enemy who is always masked and may be a double agent from within OSI.  This dark figure injures Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) and, later, not even Austin and the bionic ladies are able to stop him.

Austin's son, introduced in the previous film, is mentioned to be in Florida at this time.  The bionic villain is eventually revealed, there is also another double agent, and the whole thing culminates during the International Goodwill Games, where a high-ranking official is the target.  This was a return to Cold War intrigue - ironic in that it was just before the fall of the Soviet Union. The villain's demise is somewhat anti-climactic. Bullock was actually declined by the network for her key role but at least one of the participants, a producer or writer, pushed for her because they saw that star quality and talent. She's her usual likable self in the role. Also reprising his role is Martin E. Brooks as Rudy Wells, as well as Lee Majors II as a young OSI agent from the previous TV film.  Austin & Jaime finally decide to get married at the end but this doesn't happen until the next and final TV film, Bionic Ever After? (1994).  BoG's Score: 6 out of 10


Bionic Trivia: this and the previous film mostly came about through the efforts of Richard Anderson, who persuaded all the other participants that such TV movies would be a great success. This TV-movie does place the spotlight on Oscar Goldman to some extent, as he quits OSI and gets drunk - not the scenes anyone expects if they're familiar with the seventies shows.  Star Trek TOS Actor Alert: Robert Lansing plays a general here who is at odds with the heroes during most of the story; he played Gary-7 in the famous episode Assignment:Earth