#38: Fembots in Vegas part 1

Air Date: 09/24/77  written by Arthur Rowe    Directed by Michael Preece

This was the 1st half of the 2-part return of the Fembots from the 2nd season's Kill Oscar trilogy. The start here is a bit inane: Jaime finds Oscar in the old records room of OSI where he's getting some info; among the artifacts here is one of the deactivated but in-one-piece Fembots - kept as a souvenir? Now why would OSI keep this dangerous machine here, where it might be reactivated - which is what happens. Once again, Callahan (Jennifer Darling) is replaced. Oscar & Jaime, meanwhile, are taking in the sights at Vegas; Oscar needs to make contact with a reclusive billionaire scientist (obviously copying Howard Hughes) about a super heat ray weapon. For flimsy reasons, Oscar had declined this proposed weapon in the past (citing it as "too futuristic" - as if that's a bad thing), but now those behind the Iron Curtain are developing their own. He spots the billionaire's lady friend (Melinda Fee) and wants Jaime to make contact with her but Jaime, due to her bionic ear, realizes that she's a Fembot. It's not long before there are more battles between cyborg and robots - there are about 3 or 4 already in Vegas and the Callahan model joins them there. The villain turns out to be the son (Michael Burns) of Dr. Franklin (the villain played by John Houseman in the Kill Oscar episodes).

This was obviously an action adventure a little beyond the norm for the show, with a scope that encompassed a threat to the whole world. There's also some emphasis on pulchritude - at one point Jaime dresses up as a Vegas showgirl. Some of this plot doesn't make much sense - the villain takes pains to have the Callahan Fembot get the same hairstyle as the real Callahan, presumably for subterfuge, but this Fembot never bothers to impersonate Callahan. The reclusive billionaire scientist is played by James Olson (The Andromeda Strain; Moon Zero Two), a well-known actor back then, though his peak had been several years before.; his Hughes-like existence is amplified by the revelation that he's contracted some rare disease that makes it necessary for him to stay sealed off behind glass doors, like The Boy in the Plastic Bubble - but he doesn't stay sealed thanks to the Fembots. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10