Little Orphan Airplane

	“Little Orphan Airplane” S1 E5
Production 40014; Original Airdate: February 22, 1974
	Steve aligns the plane for takeoff
	Produced by; Sam Strangis and Donald R. Boyle
	Written by; Elroy Schwartz
	Directed by; Reza Badiyi
Guest Cast
	Guest Star(s); Scoey Mitchilll as Major Chooka; Marge Redmond as Sister Anneti; Lincoln Kilpatrick as Captain Braco;
	Special Guest Star(s); Greg Morris as Josh Perkins;
	With; Stack Pierce as Bajad; Tierre Turner as Jajamin; Dave Turner as Farmer; Ji-Tu Cumbuka as Soldier; Arnold Turner as Sergeant; Donald Mantooth as 1st Radio Operator; Reb Brown as 2nd Radio Operator; Susan Gay Powell as Sister Terese;
	Uncredited; Dale Robertson as Himself
Broadcast Order
Season 1
"Day of the Robot"	"Doomsday, and Counting"

Summary

The ‘Little Orphan’ reconnaissance light aircraft makes an emergency landing in Africa during a secret operation to photograph the illegal supply of arms and men to the country of Katara – in direct violation of a treaty signed by all the major powers. Under the code name "blue sparrow," Steve Austin is tasked with parachuting in to locate the aircraft, destroying it, and returning the film safely. There is no news of the pilot, Josh Perkins, who is presumed dead. As Steve parachutes into the remote African terrain, he is spotted by a local farmer and his young son, Jajamin, who runs off to inform the Kataran forces. Steve soon locates a signal from the lost aircraft and comes across Sister Anneti and Sister Terese. After eventually earning their trust, the nuns take him to their small mission where Perkins, who was injured during the forced landing, is hiding in the cellar. As he is unable to walk without the aid of crutches, Steve pushes Perkins to the ‘Little Orphan’ aircraft on a trolley. There, he finds that the aircraft has been damaged during the landing and has been concealed by camouflage. Using his bionic strength, Steve repairs the landing gear and propeller of the aircraft and removes the engine in order to return it to the mission for further repair work, using parts from an old truck located there. While they are absent, Major Chooka of the Kataran army and some of his soldiers, who are looking for Steve, search the mission and warn the nuns of dire consequences if they are tempted to help him. One of the soldiers, Bajad, then takes up position nearby to keep watch on the mission. During their return, Steve spots the hiding soldier and captures him. Back at the mission, while the nuns, Perkins, and Steve are busy repairing the engine in the cellar, the young local boy sneaks in upstairs and unties the captured soldier. They flee and warn Major Chooka. Realising that it is only a matter of time before the soldiers return, early the next morning Steve persuades the nuns to leave with Perkins and himself. Back at the ‘Little Orphan,’ Steve refits the repaired engine and starts the airplane up. All four just manage to take off and escape as the Kataran soldiers close in and open fire.

Deconstructed

Quotes

Captain Braco: Now, where you are going, they put Americans up against the wall. So you'll be needing this.
He offers Steve a pistol.
Steve Austin: Oh, no thanks. Those things are dangerous.
Captain Braco: But if you get caught-
Steve Austin: I'll figure something out.

Sister Annett: Are you the Colonel Austin who walked on the moon?
Steve: That's right.
Sister Annett: (to Sister Terese) Get my camera!

Josh: Man, nobody can run that fast. What are you anyway?
Steve: What's your security clearance?
Josh: What... what's that got to do with it? I'm a five.
Steve: Sorry, I'm classified six.

Josh Perkins: What’s a fellow who walked on the moon doing out in the middle of Africa? Missed your splashdown?
Steve Austin: I came here for the film. Intelligence thought you were killed.

Steve Austin: I'll know as soon as I yank the engine out.
Josh Perkins: Yank the engine out? Do you know how much that engine weighs?
Steve Austin: Yeah, about 347 pounds.
Josh Perkins: No, it's 348 pounds, and you're crazy.
Josh Perkins: What I want to know is how you got that engine out of there?
Steve Austin: Would you rather stay here while I fly off?
Josh Perkins: No man, for all I know you'd be able to walk away from a 2500 foot drop, but me I'm just flesh and bone...

Josh Perkins: (Having already learned of Steve's bionic abilities) Uh, Steve, about those improvements?

Steve Austin: What about them?

Josh Perkins: Do they come in black?

Sister Annett: Sister, can you imagine what help colonel Austin would be building a new mission?

Josh: Steve, what is it?
Steve: An entire patrol climbing up.
Josh: We got a machine gun; I'll take care of 'em.

Trivia

This episode establishes that level 6 access is required for the secret of Bionics (it had previously been indicated in "Wine, Women and War" that level 5 is insufficient).
Austin says it has been about a year since his accident. Since the pilot film took place over the course of more than four months, that suggests all of Austin's missions to date have taken place in a timeframe of about half a year (which is about right if period of time between the first post-pilot movie and this episode is taken into account).
The Steve Austin universe seems to have a thing for red single-engine planes being used for parachuting, as this is the third consecutive appearance of such an airplane in a mission in which Austin uses a parachute.

Cast

Dale Robertson's cameo appearance does not feature in the credits.

Gaffes

Continuity

While having trouble with the airplane, Perkins relays the coded message "7, 0, 14, 2, 3, 5." He then repeats the message as "7, 0, 14, 0, 2, 3, 5."
When making radio contact about engine failure Josh Perkins says "can't contain altitude"; proper aviation lingo is "can't maintain altitude."
After Steve removes the engine from the cowl of the airplane, the crankshaft where the prop connects is still visible.