Lindsay Wagner never had to use jujitsu or save Canada from Bosnian terrorists – or worry about her boss watching her take a shower through her bionic eye.
Well, times have changed.
Today’s “Bionic Woman” (pilot re-airs 7 p.m. Saturday; regularly at 8 p.m. Wednesdays on KUSA-Channel 9) is one superhuman leap from the now-seems-tame series of the 1970s.
A spinoff of the hugely popular 1970s series “The Six Million Dollar Man,” the original starred Wagner as Jamie Sommers, the female recipient of some high-tech replacement parts who went on secret missions to stop bad guys.
But the similarities with the new NBC show stop there (her name is even spelled differently – it’s “Jaime” now).
“She’s the girl next door whose ability to kick your (butt) … you don’t see coming,” says executive producer David Eick of his vision for the character.
Known for reinventing the classic space series “Battlestar Galactica” into a current hit for the Sci Fi Channel, Eick wanted to give the new series a different twist.
After tossing around an idea for a show about a female crime boss, he decided to change his anti-hero to a hero and wrap the idea around the “Bionic Woman” title after several unsuccessful attempts had been made by other networks to bring the series back to life.
Unlike the original, Eick envisioned “a younger person, who, like Spider-Man’s Peter Parker, had these unique abilities hoisted upon her without asking for them, and then have her personal life be in constant competition with her newfound abilities.”
Sommers’ personal life consists mainly of watching over teenage sister Becca, for whom she’s now responsible following their parents’ split. The difficulty lies in the fact that, for the sake of her sister’s safety, she must keep her secret activities just that, a secret.
“Becca’s really at the center of it all for Jaime,” notes Michelle Ryan, the 23-year- old London-born actress who portrays Sommers.
Adds series co-star Isaiah Washington, who portrays Sommers’ mentor, Antonio Pope: “It’s what I call a ‘perfect imbalance’ – trying to figure out this new underground world, and still be the big sister at home.”
Though she started the series wandering through life as a young bartender, Sommers is now a “consultant” with the ubiquitous Berkut Group, a clandestine organization that fixes problems that can’t be handled by the police, military or FBI.
Part of the challenge, says Eick, was “we only had the rights to the show’s title and the character’s name, but, legally, we couldn’t depict mechanistic technology that involved parts being placed on the body.”
The solution lay in the use of “anthrocytes” injected into Sommers’ blood to regenerate the missing parts, instead of replacing them.
“They’re nanobots,” Eick explains. “They’re just microscopic anatomical machines in your body that you don’t feel or aren’t aware of. It’s like having cells with brains.”
The regenerated limbs give Sommers unusual strength and agility, something she needs when practicing the rough-and-tumble martial arts performed in the show.
