"The Return of Big Foot" Part 1
(Original air date 09/19/76)
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Steve is asked to stop Big Foot from helping a group of aliens
control the world
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Writer: Kenneth Johnson
Director: Barry Crane
In the wee hours of the night, a strange creature breaks into the Federal Gold Repository to steal one million worth of gold ingots.
Early next morning Steve and Oscar drive to the scene of the crime to take in the damages. Evidence show that only a human with bionic strength could have been capable of such feat.
Outside, Steve’s infrared eye catches sight of a giant footprint in the street, instantly hurling him back to the time when it was first discovered in the San Andreas Mountains.
This discovery troubles Steve to the point where his friends begin noticing changes in his behavior. During a routine test at the lab, Jaime confides in Oscar her concern of Steve’s unusual taciturnity. At Oscar’s request she goes to Steve to probe into the nature of his preoccupation. He shows them the cast of the footprint that pricks the buried memory of his journey with the alien colony, though the images are still fuzzy.
Jaime suggests talking a walk outside. Instead they compete in a bionic sprint during which Steve’s memory of Big Foot comes back to haunt him. When Jaime’s bionic ear picks up a sound, Steve’s eye catch sight of a woman that instantly disappears, leaving him increasingly disturbed.
At night in his home, the mysterious woman, Gillian (Sandy Duncan), appears in his living room and explains that she came on behalf of Shalon (Stefanie Powers) to seek his help in saving them from a group of rebellious members who fled the complex after a nuclear explosion killed several and left many others, including Shalon, fighting for their lives. Their leader, Nedlick (John Saxon), promised his people control of the world and is using Big Foot (Ted Cassidy) to achieve his goal. She helps jog his memory of his journey in the underground complex by applying a device onto his temple.
Faler (Charles Cyphers) is getting impatient. His leader Nedlick promised that earth and all of its wealth would be theirs as soon as they got outside the complex. Nedlick stresses the importance of acquiring all the elements needed to insure the impregnability of their new base before they can control the world.
Next on the list is the theft of emeralds. Once again Big Foot is successful at eluding the guards’ grasp. In spite of his better judgment, Oscar’s suspicions begin to fall on Steve as the mysterious robber.
Back at Steve’s house, he and Gillian rack their brains as to the reason why Big Foot would steal emeralds and leave a fortune in diamonds. Steve surmises that the gold and gems must enter in the composition of some sort of device. With Gillian's wrist communicator they contact the expert Shalon who believes that Nedlick is assembling a tool that will enable him to erect a powerful magnetic field around his new base. All he needs now is the isotope boron and some titanium. Steve and Gillian will be waiting for their furry friend when he comes to steal that precious cargo at the San Carlos Nuclear Research Center.
Inside the control station, Neglick sends Big Foot an electric current though the brain threatening him to kill Shalon should he refuse to attack Steve Austin who has come to prevent him from stealing the isotope. Steve tries in vain to stop the creature but gets arrested instead by the guards.
At Rudy’s lab Jaime eavesdrop on an acrid discussion between Oscar and Steve on the subject of the recent theft. Steve explains about the alien colony and Big Foot to incredulous Rudy and Oscar but is unable to convince them of such people hiding in the mountains. Once Oscar informs him of the NSB’s decision to deactivate him, Steve jumps out to window to single-handedly pursue his quest to stop Big Foot.
Faler reports to Nedlick about Steve Austin’s arrest for larceny and that he took off in a helicopter that is coming their way. Nedlick rejoices at the fact of killing two birds at one stone with the stealing of titanium and Steve’s death.
Aboard a helicopter, Steve follows the isotope’s radioactive trail with his infrared eye all the way to a nuclear facility. There, Nedlick orders Big Foot to kill the man. A bionic fight to the death ensues ending with Steve’s legs getting crushed.
At the hospital while awaiting news on Steve’s emergency surgery, Oscar fills Jaime in on the recent events. She mocks his firm belief that Steve has flipped and turned criminal.
Minutes later a weary Rudy comes out of the operating room to deliver the grim news: due to radiation poisoning Steve has only twenty-four hours to live.
He allows Jaime to visit the dying patient who whispers his final demand; to find Shalon and help her stop Big Foot’s path of destruction before it’s too late.
Part Two
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