Oliver Spencer
From The Bionic Wiki
| Played by Darren McGavin | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Oliver Spencer | ||
| Job/Title | OSO Director (presumed) | |
| Appearances | ||
| SMDM | The Six Million Dollar Man | |
| BW | none | |
| Reunion | none | |
Oliver Spencer was the ostensible, though not explicit, head of the Office of Strategic Operations. It was Spencer who oversaw the operation to rebuild Steve Austin after his near fatal plane crash. (The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)).
His precise relationship to Oscar Goldman (if any) was never explored, because Spencer was not seen after Steve's first bionic mission. Little is revealed about Spencer in the telefilm, other than he comes across as somewhat world-weary and cyncial, and has adopted an "ends justifies the means" approach to his work with OSO, treating human beings as tools to be used and, if necessary discarded. His initial mission for Austin is designed to be a suicide mission should he fail, Spencer's justification being he can always build another bionic man. After Austin returns, Spencer asks Rudy Wells about the feasibility of keeping Austin in electrosleep full-time, reviving him only if needed. Another aspect of the character is that he walks with a cane due to an unexplained leg injury or medical condition.
[edit] Deconstructed
Much of what is "known" about this character is largely assumption based on a single appearance. Confusion exists as to his place relative to Oscar Goldman's. Largely because they occupy the same narrative space — that of Steve Austin's government "boss" — they are often assumed to have the same job. However, this is rendered difficult to believe because they don't claim to be working for the same organizations. Spencer repeatedly refers to the OSO, while Goldman consistently uses OSI, as does the series proper and The Bionic Woman.
A character named "Mrs. McKay" — likely a reference to the literary Jackson McKay — is seen to be at the head of the table when Spencer makes his Cyborg presentation. Moreover, she subsequently conducts Steve's first post-bionic mission briefing, even though Spencer is in the room. If McKay is Spencer's superior, and that Goldman actually replaced her. The disappearance of the OSO after the pilot could be the result of departmental reorganization which folded the OSO's activities into the larger OSI.
Further confusion arises from the opening credits of the second telefilm, Wine, Women and War, which shows Oscar Goldman, not Spencer, convincing Rudy Wells of the need for the bionic operation. Goldman is also heard being in direct communication with Austin during his crash, which contradicts the first telefilm which had no such communication and established Spencer as being in another location (the aforementioned conference with Mrs. McKay) at the time of the crash.
It is also possible that Austin's missions were tranferred to the OSI after initial testing, though "Operations" begs a different conclusion. Given Spencer's relationship with Austin, it's concievable such a transfer could have been at the request of Austin or Dr. Wells, who objected strenuously to Spencer's approach.
If the syndicated version, "The Moon and the Desert" — is canonical, then this opens several additional avenues of speculation. Since this version, alone, is narrated by Rudy Wells, one could assume that he has, for security reasons, changed the names "Oscar Goldman" and "OSI" into "Oliver Spencer" and the "OSO". Although he doesn't obscure the name "Steve Austin", it's possible that by using "fictional" organizations and personnel, he would've sufficiently confused anyone who might have come into possession of his narrative. The narration references that it is some three years after the accident, by which time Rudy knew precisely how Oscar and the OSI were involved in his bionics program. On the other hand, if Rudy was trying to protect Oscar and the OSI, then The Moon and the Desert is a sloppy job, since OSI is on a door and Oscar is in the intro. Perhaps the plan is to make it seem as though the OSI is the fake cover story, and the OSO is the real McCoy, when in fact it's the other way around.
