BIONIC SIX, Episode 1 “Valley of Shadows” (5 out of 10) – Directed by William Hurtz and Toshiyuki Hiruma; Written by Gordon Bressack; Starring Norman Bernard, Carol Bilger, Bobbie Block, Jim MacGeorge, Alan Oppenheimer, Hal Rayle, Neil Ross, and John Stephenson. Originally aired April 19, 1987.
The Bionic Six are a family team of superheroes “brought together by faith and given super powers through the miracle of modern science.” The family is comprised of two parents, Jack Bennett (Bionic-1) and Helen Bennet (Mother-1) and their four multiracial kids Eric (Sport-1), Meg (Rock-1), JD (IQ), and Bunji (Karate-1), each member of the family has been infused with a different set of bionic powers. The seventh member of the team is a gorilla-like robot called F.L.U.F.F.I. Together they fight and keep the world safe from the evil Dr. Scarab. The series ran for 65 episodes between April 1987 and November 1989, it also spawned a series of toys and action figures as well as a picture book, a comic book was planned but never happened.
In “Valley of Shadows” the family has their breakfast interrupted by Professor Amadeus Sharp, a genius doctor who gave the family their bionic powers. Amadeus tells them that an explorer, Brent Holworth, has been investigating a mythical valley rumored to give its inhabitants eternal life. After having made an important discovery, Holworth was kidnapped by Dr. Scarab and it’s up to the Bionic Six to save him and stop Scarabs nefarious plot. Amadeus provides the Six with a medallion, the only evidence of the valley’s existence.
The team takes their jet, complete with flying mini-van into the jungle in search of Holworth and the Valley of Shadows, where they split up into teams. JD, Eric, and F.L.U.F.F.I encounter an indigenous tribe (not immortal) who flee at the sight of the medallion while the rest of the family search for Holworth. Luckily they find a guide who offers to take them into the jungle in search of the valley but he isn’t who he seems.
The guide transforms, revealing that he in fact works for Scarab and attempts to kill the boys. Eric escapes back to the rest of the family and JD makes his way through the mountain with the medallion, along with F.L.U.F.F.I.
Meanwhile Scarab has located the stone of live, an orb that will give him the power over death and over the whole of the world. JD an F.L.U.F.F.I make their way to the Valley of Shadows were they find a 5000 warrior chief who tasks JD with stopping Scarab and returning the stone, he is given a different medallion to aid him in his task. Once reunited with his family they are captured by Scarab but JD uses the medallion to reverse the stones power, aging Scarab in the process.
Scarab sends his army of robots after the Six but using their bionic powers, they dispatch them with little problem and return the stone to its rightful place.
Despite clearly being an attempt at forward thinking and inclusiveness with the focus on science and the multi-racial family, there are some moments in the episode that are borderline racist, the “language” of the indigenous tribe and the way the kids speak to them stick out in my mind. That being said, I imagine it was fairly revolutionary for the time giving children of different races heroes they could look up to and challenging the notion of what makes up a family.