inside bionics

by rod rehn

Let's take a closer look at bionics. There were at least five episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man in which it's stated that bionics don't work in the cold. This was certainly just a device to create situations where Steve or Jaime couldn't easily escape. "Oh, no! My bionics don't work! What am I going to do?" If we were talking about temperatures like minus 60 degrees Celsius or lower, I could believe it. The bionic's lubricants would thicken, and the plastiskin could become brittle. But at those temperatures, Steve or Jaime would die from the exposure long before their bionics failed.
Steve also had difficulty once with his bionics while in space. His eye goes blurry and his bionic limbs become weak. Later, Oscar tells Steve that with a "new extra layer" to his plastiskin, he will be able to go back into space without having to worry. What the hell? I think Steve suffering from space madness would have been much more interesting.
Just how bionics work is never explained. The most viewers were told was that Steve and Jaime had internal atomic power packs. This would mean fissionable material, most likely enriched Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239. The process of fission would generate tremendous heat, which could be converted to electricity to power actuators in the limbs. But how is the heat converted to electricity? There are only two plausible ways:

Turbine. Use the heat to boil a heat-transfer medium, probably water or perhaps liquid sodium. Then use the medium to spin a turbine that's connected to a generator.

Thermoelectric. Apply the generated heat to a thermocouple, which is two dissimilar metals that are joined to each other. Because the metals are not the same and are in close proximity, an electrical potential will be generated which causes a flow of electricity.

I would have to go with the first possibility. Thermoelectric power sources are notoriously inefficient and sometimes bulky — even if they do have the advantage of no moving parts. Also, in The Moon and the Desert, when Dr. Wells shows Steve the bionic arm, he mentions it has an atomic-powered generator. That nixes the idea of a thermocouple.
Something that bothers me is the energy supply to Steve's eye. The show seems to hint the power pack for the eye is inside his head. This is much too dangerous. (It's not a battery, although it should be. And power isn't fed from the limbs, either.) In this case, it would have to be a thermocouple. There's not enough room for a turbine and generator inside Steve's skull.
Another source of consternation is the bionic arm. Many times on both shows, Steve and Jaime treated both arms as being bionic. For example, in one episode of The Bionic Woman, Jaime grabs a falling bad guy and ties one of his feet to the rail with some electrical cord. The problem is that when she does it, with bionic speed, she's using her left hand. Tsk, tsk. In the Love Song for Tanya episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, a bad guy swings at Steve, who blocks the blow with his left arm. Why, then, do we hear a bionic thud?
Another thing with the arms: Steve always manages to get himself out of a fix by breaking the ropes or cuffs binding him. Somehow, his normal arm is never broken from this stress. Did they secretly replace it with bionics? The Bionic Woman writers generally avoided this blunder. In both Rodeo and Which One is Jaime?, Jaime even explains to a fellow captive that if she breaks the bonds, she'll break her arm.
There are many other bloopers that have less to do with the dynamics of bionics and more with simple carelessness. In Doomsday and Counting, Steve is clearing away rubble at an underground Russian base when a rock bops him on the head. (Ouch!) In The Song and Dance Spy, when Steve lifts John Perry (Sonny Bono) to the top of a crate, Bono's hair makes it apparent that the scene is being shown in reverse. In The Golden Pharaoh, Steve and Oscar pretend to be workers for a fictitious gas company but remove a manhole cover that reads Electric Power (some spies you guys are). And in A Bionic Christmas Carol, notice how Steve grabs a magnifying glass to examine a piece of metal. Whatsa matter, Steve, your bionic eye busted?
The Bionic Woman had its share of gaffes. In diving scenes during the episode Deadly Music, there's a lot of talking going on even though everyone is wearing mouthpieces. And in On the Run, after Jaime decides to quit the agency and runs off, the government puts out a nationwide all-points bulletin. Some secret undercover agent she'll make now! No wonder the show was canceled.

Bionic Limitations

Running Speed: 66 mph
Swimming Speed: 35 knots (40mph)
Jumping Height: 30 feet
Jumping Length: 45 feet
Lifting Weight w/arm: 1000 lbs
Lifting Weight w/legs: 4500 lbs
Applied Force using arm: 2100 ftlb/sec.
Applied Force using legs: 9500 ftlb/sec.
Bending Abilities: 1-inch thick steel
Penetrative Abilities: Able to punch or kick through at least 6 inches of concrete, and punch or kick through thin plates of solid metal (say, 1/8 inch).
Zoom Distance: 200 yards (Steve’s eye)
Hearing Distance: 1/2 mile (880 yards) for a person speaking at normal volume (50 decibels) (Jaime’s ear)