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| Production 43028 Original Airdate: February 4, 1976 | |||
 Sasquatch, Steve, and Shalon
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| Produced by Kenneth Johnson | |||
| Written by Kenneth Johnson | |||
| Directed by Alan Crosland | |||
| Guest Cast | |||
| Guest Star(s) Stefanie Powers as Shalon Severn Darden as Apploy | |||
| and André the Giant as Bigfoot | |||
| Co-starring Penelope Windust as Marlene Bekey Donn Whyte as Tom Raintree | |||
| With Charles Cyphers as Faler Mel Allen as Ranger Alan Mandell as Technician | |||
| Broadcast Order | |||
| Season 3 | |||
| ← Previous | Next → | ||
| "The Secret of Bigfoot" | "The Golden Pharaoh" | ||
| Related episodes The Secret of Bigfoot The Return of Bigfoot The Return of Bigfoot (Part II) Bigfoot V | |||
Summary[]
Marlene Bekey is found safe and well in the mountains but Steve Austin remains in the aliens' mountain colony as the countdown to the man made earthquake continues. When he learns that Shalon has been sent to stop the underground explosion from happening he escapes from the colony and ensures that it takes place. Afterwards he accompanies Shalon back to the colony and with assistance from Bigfoot (Sasquatch) he helps the aliens by restoring their power supply and freeing them from fallen debris. Steve then has his recent memory erased and is returned back into the forest where he is found by Oscar Goldman and the earthquake team.
Novelization[]
Michael Jahn's novelization of the episode (The Secret of Bigfoot Pass) has a different ending than the episode. In the book, a cesium plate in Steve's skull prevents the aliens' memory eraser from working. Steve awakens shortly after Bigfoot leaves him in the forest and announces to the aliens that they have six months to leave before he returns with an Army division -- in the meantime, he will have the forest quarantined to prevent the aliens from capturing any new humans to experiment on. While more in keeping with the hard-edged literary personality of Steve Austin, it contradicts the friendly relationship Austin creates in the the TV version (and renders the future "The Return of Bigfoot" storyline untenable).
Deconstructed[]
Quotes[]
Apploy: I am delighted to welcome you to our colony, especially since you are a fellow space traveler.
Steve Austin: Then you are really not from Earth?
Apploy: As Shalon may have indicated to you, we come from a rather... eh, distant place.
Faler: Distant to say the least.
Apploy: And Faler here has developed a superficial allergy to your world.
Faler: In more ways than one.
Steve Austin: You know doctor, when I first met you, your bedside manner did surprise me a little bit. You treat all your patients that way?
Shalon: (laughs) Of course not, but I've been stuck here with those stuffy scientists for two years. You were like a breath of fresh air. Not only attractive and witty, but also bionic. My specialty.
Steve Austin: (referring to Sasquatch) Have you made others like him?
Shalon: No, he's my baby.
Shalon: (about to erase part of Steve's memory) You will not be forgotten.
Steve Austin: I wish I could say the same.
Trivia[]
- This episode originally aired on a Wednesday night in the "Bionic Woman" time slot. According to Kenneth Johnson in his bonus feature narration of this episode in the 2010 video release, this was because Lindsay Wagner had been in a car accident and this gave them more time to get an episode of Bionic Woman ready.
- This two parter is notable as being one of the few Six Million Dollar Man storylines in which there is, in fact, no true villain, nor even an antagonist.
Visual Effects[]
- The episode features a unique use of Austin's bionic eye. When one of the alien's becomes invisible, Austin is able to still view him with his bionic eye. While the standard crosshairs are visible, a different form of filtering is used for the image, a lower-pitched version of the "bionic eye beep" is heard, and the close-up of Austin's eye is different from the usual one used.
Gaffes[]
Credibility[]
- As Steve escapes down the ice-tunnel, notice that the tram-rails used on the Universal Tour are covered with cloth and a forced-perspective miniature has been placed at the far end of the tunnel, which is especially visible as Bigfoot stands before it.
- The underground nuclear explosion is shown to have no direct effect on the surface, only causing the natural energy of an earthquake fault to be released several seconds later. In reality, the detonation as described would have been worse than the earthquake, and immediately fatal to Steve and Shalon. The 50-megaton nuclear device ordered by Oscar is absurdly powerful, equal to the real-life Tsar Bomba test that produced a fireball 5 miles wide. Underground, such an explosion would be equal to a magnitude 8.35 earthquake, causing major damage hundreds of miles away. The largest real underground nuclear test by the United States had a 5-megaton yield and violently jolted the surface from 5,000 feet underground. The explosion Steve and Shalon survived was supposedly 10 times more powerful and centered only 500 feet below the spot they ran from a few seconds before.
Gallery[]
