episode #28 - Return of the Robot Maker

episode #15 of 2nd season / Air Date: 1/26/75    written by Mark Frost    Directed by Phil Bondelli



The diabolical Dr. Dolenz (Henry Jones), the closest we got to a perennial foe for the Six Million Dollar Man (like Moriarty to Sherlock Holmes) returns for his 3rd and final go-around with the bionic hero (following Day of the Robot and Run, Steve, Run). As he promised in his last appearance, Dolenz has perfected his robot-creating technique. This time, he replaces none other than Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson in a dual role) with a lookalike robot. The villain's actual goal is to use the robot and Austin to steal valuable secret blueprints from a military installation. At the same time, the plan should eliminate Austin, a thorn in Dolenz' side, and thereby assure the continued use of the Goldman robot. Dolenz is good at making plans.
As expected, this is one of the more entertaining episodes. During most of it, we are watching what we know is a fake Oscar Goldman playing the role of Steve Austin's boss. Richard Anderson is called upon to do some subtle acting here - the robot mimics the behavior of the real Oscar, but there is something a tiny bit 'off' about how Oscar now acts and speaks. There are also dead giveaways, like the robot drinking scalding coffee, but there's not enuff time for Austin to catch on. Also amusing is the inclusion of a character who is like OSI's version of Q from the James Bond films. He's barely tolerated here with his weird gizmos but ends up saving Austin's life. This climaxes, of course, with another titanic tussle between cyborg and robot - it looked to me like Austin had prepared himself for another such battle and developed a 'master blow' for just such an occassion   .
This isn't all great: the stuntman is too apparent in a couple of shots when no split screen is used; in one long shot of the 2 Goldmans getting out of a trailer, even though it's from far away, one of them is obviously not Oscar. Finally, it strikes me as quite a waste of talent for Dolenz to indulge in these nefarious schemes; his unsurpassed skills at robotics would have been well-utilized by organizations like OSI and he probably would have the prestige and make a pretty good living (think of it - robot agents!    ). BoG's Score: 7 out of 10


Bionic Trivia: unusual for the series, this episode has no pre-credits teaser; at one point, the Oscar replica mentions the possibility that an enemy power (probably the Soviets) may very well have developed their own bionic man, as happens in arms races. This was a great set-up for another story of Austin facing a counterpart (like the Seven Million Dollar Man), this time a battle between East and West, but this was never followed up on until far in the future, in the TV film Bionic Showdown (1989), and, at that point, Austin was past his prime, relying on younger Sandra Bullock!