The Seven Million Dollar Man

Steve Austin(Lee Majors) is surprised to learn about a second bionic man named Barney Miller(played by Monte Markham) who was a former race car driver badly injured in a crack-up, and used as the subject of the same operation, only he has four bionic limbs, not three, and cost seven million dollars, not six! Still, Steve proves to be truly special when Barney can't psychologically adjust to his new condition, becoming overly violent and aggressive, requiring Steve to stop him before he does real harm... Intriguing episode with a fine performance from Markham, though it strangely introduces another character(named Carla) as one of Steve's original nurses, instead of bringing back Jean Manners(played by Barbara Anderson)!?

I watched The Six Million Dollar Man first time around, and was 13 when this episode first aired. I was glued to the show every week, but this episode has stayed with me more than any other. Having just watched it for the first time in nearly fifty years, it's almost exactly as I remembered it (always loved that arm-wrestling scene). Lee Majors was the perfect choice for Steve Austin, conveying a fine balance of physicality and humility - but Monte Markham was apparently an early candidate for the role. He wouldn't have been right as Steve, but he is perfectly cast as Barney Miller, the Seven Million Dollar Man. Markham, always enjoyable to watch, is entirely convincing as a man becoming increasingly unhinged (full marks to him too for clearly doing ALL the action himself). Special mention to the stunning Maggie Sullivan as nurse Carla Peterson (sadly, she died in 2020, at the age of just 71).

Despite featuring a battle between two bionic men, this is one of those earlier episodes that delved into the psychology of someone having to come to terms with being not entirely human and possessing physical abilities beyond those of any other person on Earth. It's an absolute cracker. 9/10.

This episode is one of the best episodes of SMDM -second season. Steve is astonished when he discovered hes not unique and there is another bionic man ready to take his place in case he ever becomes incapacitated.When former auto-racing champion Barney Miller is badly injured in a car crash, he becomes the new candidate for bionic replacements.This new bionic man has 4 bionic limbs and cost seven million dollars ,one million dollars more than Steve bionics;In simple words,Barney becomes better than Steve.But Barney becomes unstable ,unable to assume his new abilities.He got mad and decides there must be only one bionic man.Dr. Wells can do nothing and Barney so powerful decides to destroy the plans about the secrets of bionics. Only Steve is supposed to stop him.At the end we see a great battle between two bionic men.A real match,Barney seemed to be more powerful than Steve but Steve defeated him and showed hes the best.Because of that we realize that Steve Austin is unique.

Oscar has had another man fitted with bionic limbs but he becomes power hungry and wants to be even stronger, then heads out to destroy bionic blueprints and Steve must stop him before he can destroy the bionics source files.

If they - the scientists - were successful in installing bionics into Steve Austin, then they would definitely try again, and probably try to better the prototype and they do and the result is: the seven Million Dollar man. An ex-racing driver who got injured on the track. He's played excellently by Monte Markham. He captures the tormented persona of his character very well- the inability to cope with his new found powers and bitterness of being made of part machine. Lee Majors does well as Austin, showing enough sympathy for Monte. But as Monte's psyche gets rattled, they clash and this good episode ends with a lively fight.