Changes: The Deadly Replay

	“The Deadly Replay” S2 E8
Production 41223; Original Airdate: November 22, 1974
	Steve makes peace
	Produced by; Lionel E. Siegel and Joe L. Cramer
	Written by; Wilton Denmark
	Directed by; Christian I. Nyby, II
Guest Cast
	Guest Star(s); Clifton James as Walter 'Shadetree' Burns; Jack Ging as Ted Collins; Robert Symonds as Jay Rogers;
	Co-starring; Lara Parker as Andrea Collins; Jack Manning as Carl Amison;
	With; William Scherer as Simcon;
Broadcast Order
Season 2
"The Midas Touch"	"Act of Piracy"
	Related episodes; The Six Million Dollar Man (Pilot)

Revision as of 16:06, 23 December 2009

Summary

Steve visits old friend Jay Rodgers at Edwards AFB, and Jay convinces Steve to fly the HL-10 again. The HL-10 was the experimental lifting body he was piloting when he had the accident which made him bionic. Oscar tries to talk him out of it, suggesting there may have been foul play in Steve's accident, and not to tempt fate. Steve is undeterred, and begins preparation while getting reacquainted with some old NASA friends.

He soon discovers he must prove himself in the simulator before making the flight. Was the accident a malfunction, or pilot error? A man is heard giving orders to stop Steve and the mission, but both he and the person he's speaking to are not revealed. Steve's prior romance with Ted Collins' wife Andrea creates tension between the men, which flares into violence in the parking lot. Steve handles Ted easily while keeping a low profile.

The next day is the simulator, where Steve will be monitored while he simulates his last mission - the one that almost killed him. Steve goes erratic while in the simulator, and passes out. Steve thinks he was drugged, and convinces Oscar to give him another crack at it, but secretly in case he is being targeted. He passes the simulator and the mission is a go. Steve correctly suspects sabotage, but decides to go forward.

During the flight, as he begins his descent from max altitude, the stick slams forward as Steve activates the altitude control. He must fight thousands of pounds of pressure to pull the stick back and keep the nose up for landing. Victorious, Steve lands to the news that one of thier own team, Carl Amison had been working against them. With his testimony, they know now that sabotage also caused the accident 2 years previously. Realizing that the HL-10 bore no blame for his troubles, Steve takes a moment with the HL-10, alone.

Deconstructed

Quotes

Rogers: The HL-10. We rebuild it from scratch. Modern technology can do wonders today.
Steve: Yes, I know...

Oscar: You are more to us, Steve than just a man on the payroll. You're...
Steve: A six million dollar investment?
Oscar: I was gonna say 'friend'.

Shadetree: You got to be kiddin. You hit that ball into next week!
Steve: Yeah, I guess I did kinda catch it on the screws, didn't I? That was a hundred, wasn't it pard?

Shadetree: (standing in a crowded buffet) This reminds me of the Saturday night picture show. Before the prices changed.
Steve: Like everybody at NASA decided to get coffee at the same time.

Ted: You've, eh, got a pretty good grip.
Steve: Well, it comes from squeezing a lot of orange juice.

Steve: Tomorrow, when I climb into that bird, my stomach's going to feel like a bag of bricks. But I'd still feel the same way without your suspicions. But Ive still got to fly it.
Oscar: Even though you know someone's trying to kill you?
Steve: I feel that's what I'd be doing to myself if I didn't fly it.

Shadetree: She looks like a changed person. What did you do?
Steve: I blew out a candle.

Shadetree: I feel like a long-tailed cat in room full 'a rockin chairs.
Oscar: I couldn't have said that any better myself, Shadetree.

Ted: All right Steve, baby you're just about to get the ball. Get this one for the home team, huh?
Oscar: Well I didn't expect to find you in the rooting section, Ted.
Ted: I may not like him down on the ground, probably never will, but if he's up there, he's the man, dig it?
Oscar: Dig it.

Oscar: How long does it take?
Ted: As long as it takes! He's got the ball.

Shadetree: Buddy, you are luckier than a skinny turkey at Thanksgiving.

Trivia

Storyline

The HL-10 is identified by name in this episode for the first time as the lifting body that Steve crashed in. The HL-10 is in fact, the Lifting Body used in producing the episode (and in much of The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)). This contradicts Martin Caidin's original novel, Cyborg which identifies the aircraft as the M3F5. The later reunion telefilm, Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, takes its cue from Caidin's novel and also refers to the crashed aircraft as the M3F5.

The events surrounding Austin's crash are also revisited (albeit in a more fantastical way) in the third issue of the Six Million Dollar Man comic book.

Gaffes

Credibility

When Steve is approaching the Air Force Base the tower gives him active runway and wind information of "winds 090 at 40, landing runway 27". If this were true wind direction, especially at 40 knots, he would be landing on runway 090 not runway 270, otherwise he would be landing with a 40 knot tail wind. Not likely!!

Continuity

This episode revisits the events of the pilot telefilm, which is itself in many respects out of continuity with the series. In particular the accident has been represented differently than the pilot since Wine, Women and War. The show intro continued this "tradition" of re-inventing those events, and The Deadly Replay does so once again.
In "The Deadly Replay," Steve's early flashbacks in the simulator are drawn from the show intro, a continuity quagmire when recreating the accident in long form. By using the show intro as a template for Steve's flashbacks (an approach which would recur in The Bionic Woman (episode)) the audience is prepped for a "blowout in damper three" and "She's breaking up, she's breaking up" an intro-only continuity that "The Deadly Replay" will not adhere to when showing an actual flight later.

Infamous-stick — Steve loses his grip as the flight stick snaps forward

The successful flight in this episode inserts "We have separation" from the show intro, in contrast to The Six Million Dollar Man (1973). The events following max altitude show a series of crises that do not match the events of either the show intro or The Six Million Dollar Man (1973). The flight stick is not shown in the 1973 version, where the rocking motion of the M2-F2 (the lifting body shown during this sequence) was originally unexplained (The footage is of Pilot Induced Oscillation, a "dutch roll" which plagued the M2-F2), while in The Deadly Replay this is a function of the flight stick malfunction. Finally, the episode concludes that both this flight and the original flight two years earlier were sabotaged, so this naturally reinvents the 1973 flight in retrospect.
"The Moon and the Desert," the syndicated version of The Six Million Dollar Man (1973), draws on "The Deadly Replay" for footage, in such a way as to make elements of the second flight retroactively part of the first. When the 1973 version was replaced, this led viewers that have seen only this version to conclude that "The Deadly Replay" got these elements from the pilot, rather than vice-versa. Thus, the flight stick coming forward, originally on a flight two years later, is now part of the original accident. This has the effect of changing the first flight in a fundamental way, making the cause less ambiguous. While other footage also makes its way in, such as the line "I am now a glider pilot", there is nothing as reconstructive as the flight stick material.
The mix of footage between the HL-10 and the M2-F2 from the pilot telefilm occurs even more extensively with some additional archival footage of the lifting bodies. This exacerbates the confusion that existed already.

@@ Line 81: / Line 81: @@
 ===Gaffes===
+'''Credibility'''
+*When Steve is approaching the Air Force Base the tower gives him active runway and wind information of "winds 090 at 40, landing runway 27".&nbsp; If this were true wind direction, especially at 40 knots, he would be landing on runway 090 not runway 270, otherwise he would be landing with a 40 knot tail wind.&nbsp; Not likely!!
 =====Continuity=====
 * This episode revisits the events of the pilot telefilm, which is itself in many respects out of continuity with the series. In particular the accident has been represented differently than the pilot since [[Wine, Women and War]]. The show intro continued this "tradition" of re-inventing those events, and The Deadly Replay does so once again.
@@ Line 86: / Line 91: @@
 [[Image:Infamous-stick.jpg|thumb|right|Steve loses his grip as the flight stick snaps forward]]
-* The successful flight in this episode inserts "We have separation" from the show intro, in contrast to [[The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)]]. The events following max altitude show a series of crises that do not match the events of either the show intro or ''The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)''. The flight stick is not shown in the 1973 version, where the rocking motion of the M2-F2 (the lifting body shown during this sequence) was originally unexplained (The footage is of Pilot Induced Oscillation, a "dutch roll" which plagued the M2-F2), while in ''The Deadly Replay'' this is a function of the flight stick malfunction.  Finally, the episode concludes that both this flight and the original flight two years earlier were sabotaged, so this naturally reinvents the 1973 flight in retrospect.
+* The successful flight in this episode inserts "We have separation" from the show intro, in contrast to [[The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)]]. The events following max altitude show a series of crises that do not match the events of either the show intro or ''The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)''. The flight stick is not shown in the 1973 version, where the rocking motion of the M2-F2 (the lifting body shown during this sequence) was originally unexplained (The footage is of Pilot Induced Oscillation, a "dutch roll" which plagued the M2-F2), while in ''The Deadly Replay'' this is a function of the flight stick malfunction. Finally, the episode concludes that both this flight and the original flight two years earlier were sabotaged, so this naturally reinvents the 1973 flight in retrospect.
 * "''The Moon and the Desert''," the syndicated version of ''The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)'', draws on "''The Deadly Replay''" for footage, in such a way as to make elements of the second flight retroactively part of the first. When the 1973 version was replaced, this led viewers that have seen only this version to conclude that "''The Deadly Replay''" got these elements from the pilot, rather than vice-versa. Thus, the flight stick coming forward, originally on a flight two years later, is now part of the original accident. This has the effect of changing the first flight in a fundamental way, making the cause less ambiguous. While other footage also makes its way in, such as the line "I am now a glider pilot", there is nothing as reconstructive as the flight stick material.
 * The mix of footage between the HL-10 and the M2-F2 from the pilot telefilm occurs even more extensively with some additional archival footage of the [[Lifting Body|lifting bodies]]. This exacerbates the confusion that existed already.