episode #53 - The Secret of Bigfoot, part 2

episode #18 of 3rd season / Air Date: 2/4/76    written by Kenneth Johnson  Directed by Alan Crosland

In the 2nd part of this Bigfoot/alien visitors episode, Austin gets to know the alien inhabitants of the interior of a mountain: they've been there studying humanity only  a couple of years time, their time, but over two centuries our time (hence the legend of Bigfoot going back so far - guess he's an old fella). They're able to manipulate the passage of time somehow; one of their favorite tricks is to pop out of sight in an instant and reappear elsewhere. However, Austin's bionic eye can follow them in this sped up mode    right, tell me another one. The conflict arises when it's found out by Goldman and his staff that a huge earthquake is about to hit the west coast; the only way to stop it is to create another manmade quake before it - with a 50-megaton nuclear explosion, underground. Sounds simple. But, the aliens plan to halt this manmade quake since it would damage their base (no kidding).
As indicated above, some of this attempt at wild sci-fi seems laughable now, but back then, to kids in their early teens, this was stuff to eat up. This 2nd part of the Bigfoot adventure didn't quite have the suspense and action of the first, but it was still one-of-a-kind TV sci-fi adventure. There was this ice tunnel, for example, which looked pretty impressive back then (little did I know that it was an existing Universal Studios tourist attraction). It was also intriguing as to how far Austin would get with the foxy alien lady, Shalon, who came across as a rival to Jaime Sommers for the bionic man's affections, even if Jaime wasn't around. Austin & Bigfoot had one more brief scuffle but were mostly buddies at this point (btw, Bigfoot was explained as a bio-synthetic creation, a step up from bionics, grown from a lower form of life   ). Unfortunately, Austin's memories of the events here were wiped away by alien science, so it rendered a lot of things moot. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10
Bionic Trivia: writer Johnson got Shalon's name from Shalon Drive, a street name he found to be beautiful-sounding.
Bigfoot's saga would continue in The Return of Bigfoot, another 2-part episode at the start of the 4th season, but without Andre the Giant, who was replaced by Ted Cassidy.