Colonel Steve Austin, Astronaut....a man barely alive

These words were ingrained into many many children's minds during the 1970s, as the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man opened, and for five seasons, TSMDM was the coolest show on the air. From high stakes espinoge to Bigfoot, Steve Austin used his amazing cybernetics and skills to save the day, in slow motion no less.

Based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caiden, the changes from the novel were significant enough to separate the Steve Austin from the book from the Steve Austin in TSMDM. Most notably was the decision to portray Austin as a more heroic hero with occasional pathos than the assassin he served as in the Cyborg novels. Steve Austin in TSMDM was the all-American idealized hero: An astronaut who worked as a special agent in the field for a government agency against those who would seek to destroy freedom and liberty. With that being said, even when the show went more sci-fi (Bigfoot), TSMDM didn't veer from those ideas.

Played by Lee Majors, it is doubtful a child from the 1970s could not see Lee Majors and not hear the Bionic sounds, or instantly recognize those sound effects when seen elsewhere. The 'slow-motion' effects to represent Austin's superhuman speed were novel, and I think everyone as a child who grew up watching the show either pretended to have that level of super speed on the playground.

Why Steve Austin?

There are several reasons for Steve Austin. As a child, I absolutely adored the Six Million Dollar Man (including having TSMDM electric Toothbrush and action figures, both Steve and Bigfoot). I think that Steve Austin was the first non-comic hero I had, and fell in the trinity of early childhood heroes Prior to the 1980s (Cap and Batman the other two). One of the things I liked was the idea that episodes could run from the grim to the fantastic, and the enemies could be spies or aliens. The biggest thing was the no matter what, Austin prevailed and never gave up.



Colonel Steve Austin



The Six Million Dollar Man


F: Ex (20)
A: Ex (20)
S: Rm (30) (Right Arm)
E: Rm (30)
R: Gd (10)
I: Ex (20)
P: Ex (20)

Health: 100
Karma: 50
Resources: Gd (10) personal/In (40) for OSI
Popularity: 15

Talents:
Military
Astronaut
Pilot
Detective/Espionage
Knowledge: History (It was shown Austin had his degree in history)
Athletics
Martial Arts: A (Standard American Judo)
Jury-Rig*
Knowledge: OSI Operations
Celebrity: Austin was a known Astronaut

Powers:

Cyborg: Austin is a Cyborg who suffered a traumatic accident and required extensive surgery. Austin's right arm, both legs, and right eye were replaced, his skeleton was reinforced, and nuclear power packs were installed to provide necessary power. Due to his cybernetics, Austin had the following abilities:

- Rm (30) strength for his right arm, including punching and or lifting. According to TSMDM bible, Austin possessed the power of a bulldozer.
- Ex (20) telescopic and later night vision, able to magnify up to 20X current vision scope. Austin could spot the tiniest of details
- Ex (20) Hyper Running: Austin's exact top speed is not known, but it is commonly accepted Austin could cruise at 66 MPH easily.
- Hyper Leaping: Ex (20) Austin could leap three stories easily, and could drop from heights without injury. As seen with the spin-off the Bionic Woman, however, Austin had limitations and couldn't drop from extensive heights without shearing off the bionic legs.


Contacts:
Oscar Goldman: An old friend and director of OSI
Dr. Rudy Welles: The cyberneticist who designed Austin's Cybernetics
Jaimie Sommers, The Bionic Woman: Austin's fiance and later wife
Various US Airforce contacts
Michael Austin: Steve's bionic son.

Limitations:
Cold: Austin's cybernetics are not shielded against intense cold and begin to shut down. Cold effects of Gd (10) or better, Austin begins to suffer a -2CS to abilities until his cybernetics shut down. Austin can immediately regain full use within 1-10 rounds after the cold effects are removed.

Radiation: Austin's cybernetics have been known to react to radiation similar to the cold effects, but it is not something easily predicted. So far, Austin's cybernetics have been shown to be affected by cosmic radiation and solar flares.

Code Vs. Killing: Unlike the Steve Austin from Cyborg, Austin is no killer and attempts to go out of his way to preserve life.


The classic Six Million Dollar Intro

I would give Austin Martial Arts B as well. Just from watching the show, he seemed to know some standard boxing/striking forms. Also I'd give him Martial Arts E, due to his bionics, he should have an initiative bonus.

Very good points, and excellent additions to Steve. Thanks!

I do like this, and you're right those of us who were young boys in the 70s had Steve Rogers and the Bionic Man as an icon and favorite TV show character as we grew up. I can remember the action figure I had with the removable bionic parts and the 'repair station' that came with it. Oh but that was such a fine period.

For the episodes I can remember I think some of my favorites were those featuring the master villain who crafted the pure robots that were superior in physical strength and durability (they were shown taking hits from I-beams with mostly minor damage although their faceplates came off extremely easily) requiring some epic battles for the time for him to win through to victory. Hmmm given Steve could and did use an I-Beam held up by his right arm against his side in one of those battles as a bat is his Strength more limited to Remarkable or closer to Incredible? Also would be nice to see stats on those robots. I can remember when Jamie Summers had her bionic legs exploding in a shower of sparks after she was forced to jump from too high a structure to escape one of the killer robots.

The Venus probe also proved quite the challenge, both the original and the villain-produced copy. A fight where he couldn't just beat down his opponent as long as he was free he had to be creative and innovative to succeed.

There was also a 'Seven Million Dollar Man' who was retconned in as a prototype I think yet for some reason had superior bionics until he was later turned down to normal human levels for abusing his bionics, and I remember one episode that could have been seen as a precursor for the later more fantastic movies with a kid who got a prototype spine implant to restore his mobility but inexplicably gave him superhuman strength and speed in his legs (but was also killing him slowly).

I also liked when he went against the Fembots, but I agree that the face plates tended to come off too easily. I am not sure if his strength should be remarkable or incredible because some of the later things he did would suggest greater than remarkabele strength.

My favorite episodes were the venus probe ones. I preferred the second version myself.

The seven million dollar man, did not have superior bionics, just more of them. He had both arms and legs replaced, there fore he was just a bit stronger and faster. I don't remember him having and eyes or ears replaced though.

I remember the episode with the kid and the implant as well, but I remember the one with the infected monkeys that were injected with something and gave them bionic like abilities that were driving them insane and then Rudy got those powers as well.

The aliens hiding out on the island shielded by the invisibility barrier were also interesting, although had spent a bit too much time hiding instead of learning to get along with humans. Mixed on what the deal with the leaking radioactive satellite was though, since the radiation mutated the aliens and gave them protection from disease that they didn't naturally have but seemed to have an underlying 'radiation makes you evil' theme.

Version I did as well of Steve Austin

FANTASTIC! I would love to see someone's take on Jaimie Sommers, Michael Austin & Kate Mason

Hmmm, I think Repair/Tinkering talent would be more suited to Steve than Jury-Rig talent. While he did tinker things up I think it was more covered by his general knowledge he'd had to pick up in order to deal with being bionic.

Oh, and a limitation that's generally missed is the fact that he should be more susceptible to being drugged or poisoned and make Endurance checks at penalties. Remember much of his natural body mass is missing and while his effective Endurance is higher for many things as his heart's only sustaining his torso, left arm, and head someone slipping him a drug intended for a man his size is going to be overdosing him like crazy when the actual body weight for him is probably 20-40 lbs lighter than he appears.

A Very Good Write up Thanks

Having cleared the first season I think Steve qualifies for Electronics talent not just Repair/Tinkering, he's clearly stated as having completed advanced college courses and demonstrated enough understanding of things like bio-electronics that an expert in the field was impressed.

Also his bionic eye had infra-red Vision allowing him to see heat patterns and even track by the signs. He might even qualify as having actual Tracking talent.

I think Rudy Wells could use some statting, he was quite impressive for his appearances. His abilities went well beyond the field of medicine and engineering as related to bionics and was incredibly quick on his feet (perhaps from actual training or just natural talent coupled with his time dealing with people like Oscar Goldman). His ability to instantly come up with a convincing lie to dupe enemy agents was impressive and his ability to pre-plan astounding, such as when he planned an obvious deception that Steve still had a normal leg in order to trick agents into thinking he was drugging Steve via an injection in the 'real' leg giving him a surprise advantage.

FYI; they put the series on DVD.

Found a missing talent: Stage Magic. Steve had to pretend to be a magician in a season 3 episode and was trained in various stage magic tricks and legerdemain.

You know, if you watch the original pilot for the series it's clearly his left, not his right, eye that's been destroyed and has to be replaced.