The Bionic Woman & UFOs

"You know, Ray, some days I really miss 
my little private practice in Florida."

Some TV shows are like meteors hurtling across the midnight sky.  For a short while, they outshine everything else in the heavens.  But whether they reach the Earth or not, we forget about them in time, while above our heads hang the stars night after night, year after year, never decreasing in prominence or illumination.  From its continuing popularity on websites, conventions, and fan clubs, it would appear that The Bionic Woman resembles one of those fantastic orbs that burn for billions of years, rather than for just a short time.

In the third season episode "The Martians Are Coming, The Martians Are Coming," we see more proof that Dr. Rudy Wells' expertise extends far beyond the field of Bionics he's so successfully pioneered.  After overseeing development of a new radar tracking system at a secret government base, Rudy and fellow coworker Ray head for the Pacific Ocean to do a little fishing.  As they walk onto the dock, the sky fills with a strange hum, and a glowing craft appears in the sky.  The strange craft zooms toward them, hovers above the dock, and then the two scientists disappear amid a cone of orange light.

We find Jaime sitting on her couch, relaxing after a tough week teaching the children of service members at the nearby Air Force Base.  While surfing channels, she comes across TV coverage of the incident. When her German Shepherd Max whines, she assures him she'll feed him later. But Max can't wait any longer, and as another patient of Dr. Rudy Wells, he doesn't have to!  Max grabs a can of dog food from the cupboard, opens it with his bionic jaws, and dumps his self-serve meal into his bowl.  It's just as well, for when Jaime learns of Rudy and Ray's disappearance, she leaps off the couch and heads for her car.  

This episode continues the story-direction begun with "The Pyramid," and reminds us of our fascination with the stars.  While most of us may think of Flying Saucers and UFOs as outmoded concepts, these were mainstream stories in the 1970s.  Not only did Steve Austin, Jaime's boyfriend and star of The Six Million Dollar Man, occasionally encounter aliens, but later TV series such as "Project U.F.O." and "The X-Files" would remind us that governments will always investigate potential extraterrestrial incidents.  And why not?  With so many stars shining in the sky above us, is it so difficult to believe that another planet capable of hosting sentient life might circle one of them, and that its inhabitants might visit us?

Or that they might already have visited us?

In his novel One Door Away From Heaven, Dean Koontz tantalizes us with the idea that aliens might currently live among us.  We meet a shapeshifting alien named Curtis, who arrives on Earth to help us, only to see other aliens arrive and chase him across the United States, intent on killing him before he can do so.  Ironically, a group of U.F.O. enthusiasts take in Curtis, and he travels with them in their RV, going from one U.F.O. gathering to another.  While Curtis still wants to help us realize our potential, he also desperately wants to stay alive.  Like The Bionic Woman, Dean Koontz' novel takes us on a rousing adventure, while tantalizing us with the idea that we might actually be sharing our world with extraterrestrials.   And how knows?  Maybe there's less fiction in either story than most are prepared to believe.

Warning: The Next Paragraph contains Plot Spoilers!

As the episode continues, we follow Jaime's attempts to track the mysterious craft and rescue the two men.  Then we learn that the U.F.O. that abducted Ray and Rudy was actually a helicopter projecting a holographic image.  Worse, Ray has committed treason by selling his newly developed radar tracking system to another government, and their agents staged the abduction to quietly spirit Ray and his wife out of the country.  But they weren't counting on Jaime Sommers, the bionic woman!  Jaime cares so much about Rudy that she'd willingly lay down her life for him.  And she nearly does, when the enemy agents lock her in an industrial freezer, cooling her bionics below their operating temperature.  It'll take all her determination, creativity, and the help of an unlikely friend she meets during her investigation, to escape the freezer, rescue Rudy, and prevent the bad guys from stealing America's new radar tracking system.  The episode embodies all the ideas we love in the show, and reminds us why we continue to care about Jaime Sommers, 35 years after The Bionic Woman originally aired.  

But then, some stories and characters shine as brightly, and for as long, as the stars in the midnight sky.

Dragon Dave

An Unusual Bionic Blog

Ordinarily, there's a thousand-and-one things to write about, and I do my best to pick one topic and develop it in a sensible and worthy way.  But this weekend has flown by so quickly!  My wife was supposed to have Friday off, but right now she's got an unusually high workload, so she had to work part of the day.  This allowed me to put in a few pages on the Science Fiction novel I'm currently writing.  It's set on another planet several hundred years from now, and the rough draft is coming along nicely, even if my direction sometimes waivers, and the inspiration comes in fits and spurts.  Then we went out to lunch, ran errands, did some Christmas shopping, and spent some time wrapping up gifts.

Of course, that didn't mean that we couldn't bring a friend with us.  Or, for that matter, buy him lunch!

The manager, who always goes the extra mile to make his customers feel special, surprised us with two small orange ice cream shakes as we finished up our burgers and fries.  What a wonderful way to express the meaning of the holiday season!  

Of course, we shared our shakes with our friend.

Saturday we worked out at the gym, enjoyed another lunch out, ran more errands, and wrapped more gifts.  Sunday ditto, except that we stayed home all day, and took advantage of a few really nice hours outside to do some yard maintenance.  Oh yeah, and during lunch we took out an hour for Jaime Sommers.  As the third season of The Bionic Woman progressed, producers Harve Bennett and Kenneth Johnson departed the show.  (Kenneth Johnson would go on to helm The Incredible Hulk, and Harve Bennett to oversee the Star Trek movies).  

The episode we watched represents the direction the new production team wanted to steer the show, more toward science fiction topics than just slice-of-life or secret agent stories.  In "The Pyramid," Oscar Goldman oversees a program in which Saturn V rockets deliver chemical payloads to the upper atmosphere.  These are then exploded, and the dispersed chemicals intended to rebuild the planet's ozone layer.  Jaime accompanies a friend in Launch Control to investigate a radio signal that caused interference during a test launch.  

Warning: The next two paragraphs contain plot spoilers!

Underneath a former military bunker, they discover a forgotten pyramid, which has sunk down under the ground in the centuries since it was built.  During their exploration, they are incapacitated by an ancient Indian (Mesoamerican) warrior.  Jaime and her friend awaken to find themselves paralyzed by an old man with telepathic abilities.  From him they learn that another spaceship containing his people will arrive soon, but unless he can signal them to turn back, the chemicals recently dispersed into the atmosphere will destroy the ship, and his people will interpret its destruction as an act of war.  

Jaime and the Aztec warrior must steal an experimental crystal from Dr. Rudy Wells' lab, and Jaime must give up the atomic power pack in her bionic replacements, and hope that the old man can signal his people in time.  Needless to say, it's important to her that, in her weakened state, she can nonetheless return to Rudy's lab, and get a new power pack installed before she dies.  It's a fun episode, and a neat look back at the topics that fascinated us in the late 1970s, from Chariots of the Gods (the book that explored mankind's possible extraterrestrial origins), telepathy, pyramid and crystal power, UFOs and alien contact, and our depleted ozone layer.

Well, that's all from me for now.  A rather unusual (and bionic!) blog, covering topics of interest from a show made nearly forty years ago, many of which remain as relevant today as when the episode was filmed.  But then, this is a rather unusual season of the year, in which we all put out a little extra effort, to remind others that, even if we don't get to see each other as often as we would like, we still care for each other.  Now, I need to do my part, and stop by the Post Office this week, so that Santa can deliver all his gifts by Christmas day.

If my discussion of The Bionic Woman episode intrigued you, follow the link below, and watch "The Pyramid" on your computer.  Consider it my gift to you this holiday season.  Enjoy!

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links
Watch "The Pyramid"

Eating Mexican Food with Jaime Sommers

There’s this nice little Mexican restaurant in San Diego.  It’s called Palamino’s, named after the USS Palamino in the Disney movie “The Black Hole.”  We usually opt for their chimichanga combination plate.  (My wife likes the shredded beef; I go for carnitas).  They offer great tasting chips, hot carrots, and fresh salsas.  Eating there is a pleasure, and better yet, we end up with leftovers for home!

As we’re contemplating alternatives to cable TV service, we went to Fry’s Electronics on Saturday, figuring that their helpful staff could advise us.  Strangely, the store had completely redesigned their interior, and although they appeared adequately staffed, the workers just breezed past us, as if we existed in another dimension, one that allowed us to see them, but prevented them from seeing us.  I finally went up to the camera counter, and told a gentleman what we were looking for.  He shook his head.  “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”  So I repeated, telling him that Cox Cable seemed to be charging too much money these days.  “You want a coaxial cable?” he asked.  By this time, my wife and I had grown frustrated.  So I told him “Never mind,” and walked away.  Fry’s Electronics stocks lots of neat products, and we saw much that tempted us.  But when a store staffs its floor with people who either are uninterested in serving us, or incapable of doing so, we find ourselves reluctant to support them.

Oh well…off to Palamino’s for calories and consolation.

As we were leaving the restaurant, a woman stopped my wife at the door.  “Excuse me, but where did you get that shirt?” she asked.  While I had opted for warmth, my wife had braved wearing her Jaime Sommers T-shirt on this pleasant winter day.  We told her about meeting Richard Anderson at Stan Lee’s Comikaze, and she and her husband mentioned that they attended Comicon, but had never seen a shirt like my wife’s.  The woman shared that she had a big photo of Jaime Sommers hanging on the wall above her desk.  From the way she described it, it sounded more like a poster.  She said that Jaime Sommers was a big inspiration to her, which was why she had purchased the photo, and placed it in such a prominent location.

For so many people, TV shows such as “The Bionic Woman” are just passing entertainment.  If they like the show, and have bought them on DVD, more than likely they do so for the gentler, slower-paced stories than the studios make today.  It’s a special joy to connect with people who view one of your favorite fictional characters as a role model.  Those moments remind us that great characters take on a life of their own.  They never die, because they live on inside us.

Now, if only they could advise me on my alternatives to cable TV.

Dragon Dave 

Related Dragon Cache entries

My Meeting with Oscar Goldman

The Ghosts of Christmas

Nordhoff Cemetery, Ojai, California

When my father died, I simply couldn’t take it in.  Even though I was old enough (I thought) to accept what had happened, the situation retained a strange, unreal aspect.  My father couldn’t be dead: such an event was simply impossible.  So, I began to develop this fantasy that he was still alive.

This isn’t a process that I encouraged, nor did I ever truly believe in it.  Yet, there remained the lingering conviction that, if I remained alert, I might spot him somewhere.  Perhaps he was living another life now, using a different name.  Perhaps he wouldn’t recognize my mother and I if he saw us.  Nonetheless, he must be around, somewhere, and eventually I might find him, and get the reunion I craved.

Even in college, long after I had rationalized away this strange notion, I still dreamed that at some point, my father might whisk himself down from Heaven for one final visit.  Perhaps he would wake me up in the middle of the night (No easy task, as I’m a sound sleeper), and we could enjoy one last visit together, as I shared with him my past, my current circumstances, and my hopes for the future.

In the Bionic Woman episode, “Jaime’s Mother,” Jaime gets just such a reunion.  She awakens from a vivid dream of her mother, and over the course of the episode, she ends up at Nordhoff Cemetery, where she meets a woman who looks very much like her mother.  Earlier in the episode, she learned that during the 1950s, “when the Cold War was really hot,” her parents, both university professors, lived double lives as spies for the United States.  Now, she’s face to face with a woman who seems to know everything about her, and yearns to catch up with her.  But Jaime wonders: could this woman really be my mother?  Or is the situation too incredible to be true?

Anyone who has lost a parent, spouse, close family member or friend can understand what I went through in my youth, and Jaime’s dilemma in the episode.  We never get over the pain of losing someone dear to us; we simply learn to accept their absence.  Holidays can provoke relapses in this regard.  While our normal routines can divert our focus, when the holidays arrive each year--those special days of getting together with those who mean the most to you--the fact that those lost loved ones are no longer alive hits you all the harder.

This December, I haven’t been thinking of my father, or another close family member who died a few years back.  Instead, I’ve been thinking of a woman in my extended family.  She died earlier this year, and while she wasn’t someone I was close to--we lived too far apart for such a relationship to develop--we saw her every year, usually at Christmas.  We looked forward to seeing her, to talking with her, and to spending what time we could with her.  Now she’s gone.

The irony of all this is that life continually brings new people into our lives.  And those family and friends who grieve with you will usually try harder to help absolve your pain and focus on all that you have.  They’re right there, waiting to talk with you, to celebrate the holidays with you, to just hold you close and tight, if that’s what you need.  Still, it’s difficult to banish that sense of loss.  It’s difficult to really be present with them, when you feel so incomplete.  I wonder why our minds work like this, clinging to the ghosts of the past, instead of concentrating on the real people right before our lives.  It’s so illogical, it’s so pointless, it’s so incredibly, unarguably human.

Dragon Dave 

Related Dragon Cache entries

Awake with Connie Willis and Amaryllis

Related Internet Links

Bionic Wikia: Jaime’s Mother episode

Those Utopian Dreams: Part 2

 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:6, New International Version

In Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson, global warming causes a storm to flood Washington D. C.  Wild animals escape the zoo and roam the nearby parkland.  In the sequel, Fifty Degrees Below, Frank, a researcher from UCSD currently on assignment to the National Science Foundation, has been unable to find affordable housing due to the damage caused by the flood.  As he is an avid outdoorsman, he builds a treehouse and lives among the homeless and the wild animals in nearby parkland.  He volunteers to help track zoo animals that escaped during the flood.  He tours the heated shelters during the Winter, these large “toaster ovens” erected to protect the animals against the subzero temperatures.  One night he visits a shelter filled by deer, tapirs, foxes, a bobcat, ibex, and in the dark interior, what could be a jaguar.  The animals lay quietly, “none meeting the eye of any other; all pretending they were each alone, or with only their own kind.  As on an island created in a flood, it was a case of stay there or die.  Truce.  Time out.” 

Through his experiences, Frank begins to re-envision humans and society through a philosophy he call Repaleolithization.  He wonders if man might be happier if he were to adopt attitudes and behaviors from past hunter-gatherer societies.  In communities less defined by technology, humans might live more in harmony with nature, each other, and themselves.  He doesn’t go so far as to suggest that man and wild animal will ever become friends, however.  His character Frank, with nothing else to do that evening, decides to join the animals in the shelter.  He sits quietly, not looking directly at any of the animals.  But “the animals were not happy.  They stared at him, wary, affronted…the lion had lain down with the lamb, but man was not welcome.” 

At the San Diego Safari Park, I spoke with an employee by the lion enclosure.  She talked about the lions’ lives, their temperaments, and how well they got along together.  Despite their size and strength, they looked so loveable, and like the students in Jaime’s class, I longed to run my fingers through their fur.  But knowing their potential ferocity, I told her that I didn’t think I’d crawl inside and pet them today.  She readily agreed this was a good idea. 

Tippi Hedron, who played Susan Victor, the owner of the animal sanctuary in The Bionic Woman episode "Claws," was a great lover of wild animals.  Seven years after she appeared in “Claws,” she established The Roar Foundation, which maintains the Shambala Preserve in California.  She may not pet the animals, or believe that they can ever be tamed, but she cares for and protects them, much as her character did in the show.  In this way, she exemplifies how Fiction often translates into Reality.  Thus, she helps fulfill some of our dreams, and makes our world a better place, even if a return to Eden still seems so impossible.

This series will conclude tomorrow.

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Kim Stanley Robinson: Repaleolithation

Tippi Hedron & The Roar Foundation

Those Utopian Dreams: Part 1

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:6, New International Version

In The Bionic Woman TV show, Jaime Sommers teaches an elementary school class at an Air Force Base near her home in Ojai.  In the episode “Claws,” a student named Katie brings a male lion into the classroom for Show and Tell.  The lion walks into the circle formed by the students’ desks and lies on the floor.  Katie explains she is helping Susan Victor, who runs a wild animal sanctuary.  Jaime then allows the entire class to rise from their seats, and quietly approach the lion.  The children kneel down beside him, and gently stroke his soft fur and mane.  The lion closes his eyes, reveling in the attention.

Some of the charm of the bionic shows involves looking back on us, as a people, at an earlier stage in our societal development.  Before the rise of the Internet, and the so-called Information Age, people found it more difficult to share experiences and opinions.  Without detailed information readily at our fingertips, we didn’t realize how difficult it was to transform our dreams into reality.  Thus, when it came to embracing Fiction, we found it easier to suspend our belief.  We believed we could replace parts of our bodies that we had damaged beyond repair, and build better, stronger, and perhaps even wiser people.  There were no limits to what we could accomplish!  Through the application of Science and Willpower, we would return our world to the utopia depicted in the Bible.  Humanity would return to the Garden of Eden.  Farmers would sow and reap their crops, untroubled by weeds, insects, or pests.  Humans and animals would coexist harmoniously.  Like Adam and Even, even the fiercest species would bow to us, allow us to name them, and follow our every command.

With facts so readily available now, few still believe that bionic enhancements such as those Jaime Sommers and Steve Austin received lie in our immediate future.  And only a miniscule percentage of us still defy the Law, and keep wild creatures as pets.  There have been too many attacks, in homes, wild life sanctuaries, and zoos, to believe that we can ever tame such savage creatures.  Thus we can only look back on an episode like “Claws,” in which gentle children kneel beside a domesticated lion, as a relic of an earlier age: when we dreamed greater dreams than we do now.  Or, as Science Fiction author David Brin might say, at least until we can figure out how to uplift them.

Still, it's fun to look back.

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

The Bionic Woman: “Claws”

What Might Have Caught Steve & Jaime’s Eyes

Artists enhance Ojai's natural beauty.

A community is more than just a cluster of houses and buildings.  It does more than provide necessary goods and services.  A village, town, or city radiates the spirits of its inhabitants.  Ojai’s downtown shines with an unconventional artistic vision.  Murals and statues mingle with the town’s natural beauty, inspiring residents and visitors.  With so much to draw the eye, one’s footsteps naturally slow when walking the streets of this high desert community.

They celebrate Ojai's heritage.

In the Six Million Dollar Man story “The Bionic Woman,” written by Kenneth Johnson, Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers reunite after several years apart in Libbey Park.  During their hour-long walk through town, I suspect their attention remained mostly upon each other.  Yet they must have stopped occasionally, perhaps near statues and fountains such as these.  

Art pours from the creator’s heart.  It radiates ideas and emotions.  In its presence, we may find ourselves overwhelmed by joy or sadness.  Tears spring to our eyes unbidden.  Our hearts beat faster.  Thoughts race through our brains.  In such moments, we not only reinterpret the past and present, but glimpse potential futures.  The artwork in Ojai—whether it was a painting, a statue, or a fountain—increased our appreciation for everything else we saw there, and fired us with possibilities for how we might enhance our own house and yard. 

They fire us with
possibilities

I’ve never seen the Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman reunion movies, but apparently Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers married in the final one: "Bionic Ever After?" Perhaps Steve and Jaime set up house in Ojai, and still walk through (or speed through, or leap over) its downtown.  Perhaps they sometimes linger beside the same creations that stilled our own feet, reconsidering their present, and glimpsing possibilities for their future together.  It’s a pleasant thought, even if it’s only whimsy.  

Ojai is a thriving town, and provides welcome escape for many Los Angeles residents.  The whimsical nature of Ojai's inhabitants finds its way into their artwork, landscaping, and buildings.  The community's attractiveness suggests that everyone needs a little whimsy now and then, don’t you think?

Dragon Dave