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Once I started to get in to watching six million dollar man, I considered how it must have been hard on Lee Majors, as unlike with many modern series the show didn’t have a regular cast of characters, just Steve Austin, Oscar Goldman and one or two recurring small parts. This was confirmed when I read that he had found it hard with 16 hour days on set, and all that running (Though, thankyou very much for all that running, I definitely appreciate seeing a very fit Lee Majors charging across various landscapes in slow motion!). So a seed was started in my head of an alternative universe, where Steve was joined by other characters who were there every week, supporting him in the field, helping him getting the most out of his bionic parts, and maybe even offering friendship, companionship and the potential for a love interest. And then it didn’t take me long to transport it into the modern day – or maybe perhaps when the modern day would have been like if the 70s perception of how far our technology would have come had been true. I am not a medical professional of any sort (my only knowledge of the human body comes from the fact that I happen to own one myself), and neither am I anything to do with technology. But this is a science fiction story, so hopefully you will all be happy with my magic boxes: technology so advanced to us that you put input in and get the desired output, without worrying too much about how it works.
Changes to the bionic technology.
Power supply: in the 70s nuclear was king when it came to unlimited power. This is a less desirable source of power, especially after the Chernobyl accident in the 80s, so the source of power I have come up with for Steve’s bionic parts is some unnamed power bank that we in the real world have as yet not discovered. I am considering putting a port in his arm somewhere so he can charge his phone from it.
The original series stated that no-one would be able to tell which of his arms was real – skin texture, patterns of hair growth, fingerprints would all appear real, as too would its temperature. They somehow managed to forget to put in a pulse, which if they could manage all the rest of it I would have thought would be easy. And while it does have its advantage for storytelling occasionally, the number of times Steve was injected into a bionic limb without the doctor in question noticing it was real kind of jars in me with the absence of a pulse. Although I haven’t got quite there yet, I am assuming my Steve’s limbs will all have a suitable pulse too.
They never covered how the join between bionic limb and existing body would be seamless. My Dr Wells (or rather an associate) has come up with a synthetic skin. Manufactured in the lab, but grown from a composite of artificial and organic materials, the skin will join seamlessly with the patient’s own skin – useful for skin grafts too (as tested on Adam). Maybe it is kept ‘alive’ on the bionic parts by the appliance of a weak electrical current. There is a possibility for story telling for it to not tan/get sunburn (thus showing up a clear line between ‘real’ skin and the artificial skin. Or maybe they have worked out how to get that to work too. We’ll have to find out.
Changes to the pilot episode.
Pilot episodes often change to be turned into the final series (and even within the series previously claimed facts have a tendency to change as different writers put their spin on the story). I have tried to keep fairly closely to the pilot, but err more towards the feel of the series. Steve is definitely a Colonel (civilian in pilot episode). In my world he hadn’t met Dr Wells before the accident – I couldn’t come up with a reason why he would have known him, and that Dr Wells continued to operate even with the emotional attachment he would have had. I also don’t want Steve to have a thing for his nurse – very unprofessional – so I have brought in a recurring female character who hopefully allows for the emotional aspects of that relationship without it being a bit icky. I’m guessing that the original OSO representative Oliver Spencer was unliked enough that he was removed from the series, so I have done so here too – though he will pop up with a bit part where a ‘baddy’ is needed in order to propel Steve to his final position. So we do have Oscar as the OSI director taking an interest in Steve right from the start. Steve’s test flight take place at an Aeronautical Test Facility, rather than NASA (how is NASA these days, has anyone heard from them recently? But I didn’t want to use any of the existing “branded” space companies), he never got to stand on the moon, but was an astronaut – or at least an orbital flight pilot, and he is now a test pilot.