Day of the Robot

	“Day of the Robot” S1 E4
Production 40012; Original Airdate: 8 February, 1974
	; Steve Confronts the Robot
	Teleplay by; Del Reisman
	Story by; Harold Livingston
	Directed by; Leslie H. Martinson
Guest Cast
	Guest Star(s); John Saxon as Fred Sloan/Robot; Henry Jones as Chester Dolenz;
	Special Guest Star(s); Lloyd Bochner as Gavern Wilson;
	Co-starring; Charles W. Bateman as Master Sgt Parnell; Noah Keen as General Tarhill;
	With; Robert Rothwell as Al; Martin Speer as Neil; Buster Jones as Captain; Michael Alaimo as Bread Truck Driver; Louie Elias as Roy; (uncredited)
Broadcast Order
Season 1
"Operation Firefly"	"Little Orphan Airplane"
Related episodes
Run, Steve, Run; Return of the Robot Maker

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[edit] Summary

Steve Austin is assigned the task of escorting his friend Major Frederick Sloan to the important final test of a secret new anti-missile missile defense system. Major Sloan has developed a microwave circuit card which is the activator for the ignition unit on the defense system. However, both they and the OSI are unaware that a criminal gang has made plans to steal the activator by abducting Major Sloan and replacing him with an identical robot, developed and built by Dr. Jeffrey Dolenz. During the drive to the test site, Major Sloan is kidnapped at a gas station and the robot takes his place without Steve noticing. The robot is controlled by a remote from Dr. Dolenz's laboratory and images and sounds of everything it sees and hears are relayed back. Steve slowly becomes suspicious of the robot’s erratic behavior, especially when the two enter their motel, and Steve can hear the robot squeak as it walks. But before he can take any action criminals force his car off the road. The robot then knocks Steve out and steals the activator from him. At the missile test site, the robot places the activator in the ignition unit and the test initially goes as planned. However, the robot then suddenly steals both the activator and ignition unit and forces an escape. Correctly guessing that the robot will have headed to the test facility Steve intercepts it and, following a violent struggle, destroys the robot.

Back in Washington D.C., Oscar Goldman informs Steve that most of the criminal gang have been captured but that Dr. Dolenz is still at large. There is no sign of Major Sloan, and he is presumed dead. Later when Steve is out walking by the tennis courts where they played together, Steve finds Major Sloan who is suffering from amnesia but is otherwise well.

[edit] Deconstructed

[edit] Quotes

Steve: Let's let that car pass.

Robot: What car?

Steve: There's been one behind us ever since we left the station.

Robot: You weren't so nervous in the old days Steve. It's just a coincidence.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Storyline

The scene in which Steve hears the robot squeeking is referenced in the later episodes Run, Steve, Run and again in Return of the Robot Maker.

[edit] Sound Effects

The "bionic" sound effect is heard for the first time in this episode, but is used for the Sloan robot instead of Steve Austin.
When the Sloan robot inserts the activator into the ignition unit and presses the button, the ignition unit begins making a sound similar to Steve's bionic eye.
The sound effects used when the robot becomes "angry" and battles Austin, come from the 1971 Universal Studios film How to Frame a Figg.

[edit] Gaffes

[edit] Continuity

When Gavern Wilson shows the robot a photograph of Steve Austin, the close up shot of Steve is a different picture of the one he is seen holding immediately beforehand.

[edit] Illusion-Breaker

During the final battle between Austin and the Sloan robot: the back of the robot's jacket is torn and visibly loose, in the same area where the robot's back will explode when Austin later impales him with the I-beam steel girder.

When Austin kicks the car over on to the henchman about to shoot him, heavy duty chains can easily be detected by their shadows on the car as it rolls.

The steel girder bends visibly in the scene where Steve confronts the robot and is clearly not made of metal.

[edit] Gallery

"Mr. X"	Steve and Fred after a game of tennis	"I didn't know you had antennae."	Sloan's impostor attacks!
The bionic man vs. the robot	Unmasked!	Episode collage