episode #23 - Stranger in Broken Fork

episode #10 of 2nd season / Air Date: 12/13/74    written by Bill Svanoe    Directed by Christian Nyby II

In a slightly hokey plot turn, a short in Steve's bionic arm causes him to lose control of the jet he is flying and, on top of that, gives him amnesia (this secondary effect on his mind was a stretch, I thought, but I'm not a bionics expert). Even stranger, a doctor (Arthur Franz) is telling Goldman about this possible problem as Steve has this latest accident. Steve ends up wandering in the boonies near the town of Broken Fork. He first meets a woman (Sharon Farrell) who runs a local institution for mental patients. She herself has problems with the locals, who don't want this house of crazies in their area. The main troublemaker (Robert Donner) is a shopkeeper who decides to get physical about it.

It seems like almost every action-oriented TV show has at least one episode with a central heroic character losing his memory; this one is very similar to a later Star Trek TNG episode, Thine Own Self, in which an amnesiac Data wanders into a village and becomes the mysterious super-strong hero. In fact, at one point in this Six Million Dollar Man episode, Steve thinks he may be a robot.    It's a classic type of premise, with the hero wondering about who he really is and the locals getting a taste of astonishment at the mystery man's abilities. There's also the theme of accepting those who are different from us (some of the townfolk come across as true rednecks). It's rather lightweight by the end, though.  BoG's Score: 6 out of 10
Bionic Trivia: as mentioned above, a doctor we've never seen before is the one advising Oscar Goldman about Steve's bionic problems. Dr. Rudy Wells has gone missing  (actor Alan Oppenheimer was probably unavailable).