[bionicbob]

Originally Posted by martok2112

To put my two cubits in. I think that for today's audience, there would have to be just a little bit more explanation added to the process of Steve's (yep, I'm a Steve too) cyberneticization (is there such a word? If not, I just invented it. ). I mean, given what Damocles just offerred up, there are a lot more people out there who would probably want to go with a more sophisticated take on bionicizing (ok...another one) Steve Austin. Lots of people today just won't buy "Ok, we've replaced this, this and that, with THIS." It does need to be a little more realistic (as close as possible without burdening the audience with too much technobabble.)

Personally, I could care less. I loved the original show as a kid, so if they keep it the same, or if they make it a little more sophisticated, I'll be happy either way, as long as they DON'T turn it into a comedy flick. Actually, I would like a more deadly serious story, perhaps involving international terrorism, or something like that. Keep some humor, obviously, but bring it into the new millenium.

I agree totally. If I were to bring back Steve to television, I would approach it as a reboot. Use the original series as an outline, take all the original stuff fans loved and remix and update it for the new millenium. In terms of storytelling, I would approach it like The X-Files, very real world, gritty, dark with a touch of the Fantastic. I would tie the series together with one underlying continuing storyline giving it a slightly serialized feel, but with plenty of stand alone episodes that the new viewer can easily tune in and understand what is going on. In terms of special effects and action, I would approach it much like Smallville. I would use the "slo-mo" (or "Bullet-time" as it is now called) and the classic Bionic sound effects only rarely, to make it more special and powerful.

In terms of characters, Steve Austin is still an Astronaut. He is engaged to school teacher Jaime Summers. Their love affair would be the heart and soul of the show. Jaime is Steve's inner strength, especially after the "accident", it is her love that keeps him sane and gets him out of the bed in the morning. Oscar Goldman would be a slightly darker, solitary character.... still a patriot, but more of an ends justify the means kind of guy. It would be through his relationship with Steve and Jaime that he moves slowly out of the darkness and more into the light. Oscar would be second in command of the OSI to Oliver Sempler (the original character from the first SMDM pilot Cyborg). Sempler will be a cold, ruthless character, a man who knows more than he is saying and has a very dark and dangerous agenda. I think I would make Dr. Rudy Wells an older woman, a dedicated professional who, though she did not invent Bionics, has finally perfected it. The OSI would be a more mysterious organization. To the world it would be government agency mandated with the security and development of new technology. But behind this facade, it is a far older secret agency that has its origins tied in with the Roswell Incident and the Majestic 12 Accords. It is an organization fighting a secret war for the very survival of the species. In many ways, they are the Men In Black, the flip side of the alien conspiracy.

The general story would go like this....

Steve is the piloting a Space Shuttle which is deploying a top secret satellite for the OSI. The shuttle comes under attack by a mysterious cybernetic entity, killing Steve's crew and seriously damaging the shuttle. The damaged shuttle begins to plummet back to Earth, on a direct collision course of a major American city. It takes all of Steve's amazing piloting skills to avoid hitting the city and he crashes the shuttle in a rural area. Steve is of course mortally injured. The OSI sweeps in and begins the cover-up of the accident and wisks Steve off to their Colorado Complex.

Of course the entire Shuttle diaster was televised on Cable and Jaime and her class were watching the whole event horrified. Demostrating classic Jaime initiative and investigation skills, Jaime is able to eventually find out about the OSI and track Steve down, but only after the Bionic Operation has occurred.

Sempler and Goldman realize the value of having Jaime around, firstly it keeps up Steve moral, but it also gives them a bargaining chip if Steve refuses to cooperate.

Goldman informs Steve and Jaime that the entity that attacked the shuttle was an extra terestrial life form. A cybernetic nano-virus that can take on any form and corrupt/control any technology. It is one of two different alien species that seem to be waging a war with each other with the Earth caught in the middle as the battlefield. The motivations of both aliens species is unknown, but they seem obsessed with slowing Human technological advancement and our progress into space. Goldman also reveals Steve's own bionics are derived from alien technology that was discovered at Roswell.


Through the course of the series, Steve and Jaime would work often together on cases involving everything from alien abductions, stolen technology, stopping terrorists with high-tech weapons, etc. All the while continuing their own private investigation into the OSI and its real motives. By end of the first season, they will discover Sempler is in league with one of the alien species, and Goldman will overthrow him and become head of the OSI, while Sempler will of course escape and continue to be thorn in their side in the future.

In the beginning of the second season, on their wedding night Jaime would become captured by the cybernetic aliens, and they will try to convert her into one of their agents by making her Bionic. Steve will of course save her, but as a result of the more intrusive, agressive alien operation, Jaime will have no memory of her past life and will be very cold and ruthless. Over the course of the second season, Steve will do everything he can to stimulate Jaime's memory and restore her humanity.

That would be my general guideline for the first two seasons, during which I would re-introduce many other classic characters....even Bigfoot. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, one of the cybernetic aliens ships crashed in what would be the American northwest. The ship was seriously damaged and was carrying some very important cargo, all part of the aliens millenium old agenda. In order to protect itself, the ship created it own personal protector until its own kind could rescure it. The ship finds the Sasquatch, last of its own species, and rebuilds the creature into it own eternal body guard.

I would bring back Barny Miller (the 7 Million Dollar Man, not the cop!). During Steves investigation of the OSI, he discovers he was not the first to receive the Bionic Operation. In fact, there have been many others, except they all turned insane and homicidal! And the OSI has kept them in suspended animation in a secret complex. Of course, one gets accidently free and Steve has to do Bionic Battle.

For the Death Probe, I would make it a secret Mars Rover that the OSI sent to the Cydonia to explore the FACE. The Rover is discovered by the other Synthetic Alien race, and is reprogramed and Bionic-ized, and is sent back to Earth to as a weapon to create havoc and test Earth response and defences, in particular, how powerful Steve is...

I would also bring back Dr. Franklin and the Fembots, but with a much more sinister edge. Franklin is an OSI scienctist, in fact he was in charge of the Bionic program before Wells. Franklin is a genius but also a psychopath.... he loathes women. Goldman discovers Franklin has been killing prositutes and has him removed from the project. Franklin escapes and resurfaces later with his killer Fembots. It will turn out Franklin's escape was arrange by Sempler and that he is still working for him and the aliens.


Those are just some of my ideas... in tems of casting, I dunno.... I would of course offer roles to all the original actors in either supporting roles or special guest appearances. After seeing Tim Daley in "From the Earth to the Moon" I always thought he would have made a good Bionic Man.

Of course, what would you call a modern bionic series??? Six Million Dollars just doesn't cut it in todays economy. The Six BILLION Dollar Man? The SIXTY Billion Dollar Man??? Any suggestions...???