episode #62 - H+2+O=Death

episode #5 of 4th season / Air Date: 10/24/76 written and directed by John Meredyth Lucas

One of the strangest titles of the series and one that doesn't make sense (H2O is water but what's with the plus signs?). I'm just guessing here but I think this is an attempt by the writer-director to capture some of the quizzical nature of some of those spy thrillers of the sixties and early seventies. These films usually had complex plotting and many characters running about, and viewers needed to keep track of all the doings and names. In the plot here, top secret documents are stolen from an OSI safe (the method is hi-tech in the best safecracking/spy tradition). Then it gets complex: the papers involve a most secret project ("Fusion") but Oscar & Rudy explain that it's been a failure so far. Then Austin makes a suggestion in regard to his atomic module power source and light bulbs go off in Oscar's & Rudy's heads. Later, Austin is sent undercover as a fake scientist to trackdown the infamous "Omega" - the preeminent spy ring head.
This episode resembles a short, sixties-styled spy film - there appears to be a lot going on but it's mostly surface fluff. Besides the main villain, Omega, Austin also contends with a rich European industrialist (John van Dreelen) and a femme fatale scientist (special guest star Elke Sommer, who was in similar films in the sixties) who is either an Omega agent or a secret operative of the Defense dept. that even Oscar doesn't know about. Austin also has problems with his bionic arm in this one. One might enjoy the intrigue and there's also some unusual underwater action photography in the last act, but it also seems much ado about nothing. My sense is towards the end that Austin and his buds should have just given Omega the macguffin without all the rigmarole and let him deal with the consequences - simple, no? BoG's Score: 6 out of 10
Bionic Trivia: Dreelen also appeared in a 1st season episode, Dr. Wells is Missing, as a different yet similar character. Writer-Director Lucas also performed double duty on a Star Trek TOS episode.