Jaime Sommers, sister and Bionic operative: born NBC 29th September 2007, died due to WGA-action and ailing ratings early 2008.
Despite a perchance for erratic behaviour, mood swings, and poor ratings Jaime had an un-realised potential for greatness. Taken before her time, she leave behind a disappointed, though loyal, fan base.

The above says it all. But just WHY was this new Bionic Woman, a show for a new generation and a new century 'killed' by the network so soon? It's certainly something a lot of fans are asking themselves. On paper it seemed a no-brainer: Take a previously successful show/format, re-imagine and update it for a new audience, get a successful, sometimes controversial, producer onboard, hire a diverse but talented cast of actors, pump millions of dollars into a state-of-the-art, special effects laden, Pilot, give it a dark and edgy mythology, and away you go, instant hit! If only.

The show was one of the most anticipated of the 2007 Fall season. The Pilot got a mixed, but generally enthusiastic reception via internet forums, in preview showings to industry executives and at the summer's San Diego Comic Convention. Web sites for the show, and it's star Michelle Ryan, sprang up throughout the summer months even before the Pilot had aired. Everything was looking rosy.

If you were to hazard a guess at the point where everything started to un-ravel, you could probably pin it down to the announcement that Mae Whitman was being replaced in the role of 'Becca Sommers, after NBC received negative viewer reaction on the fact that the character was deaf, but being played by a 'hearing' actress. Rumours circulated that the role would either be dropped, or re-cast, and in mid-July it was announced that Mae was being droped and that the role was now re-cast with actress Lucy Hale… and the character was no longer deaf AND was a computer hacker to boot. This looked like pure network intervention and that the suits upstairs had already started to dictate policy on the show from a relatively low number of users on it's web site fourm. This, months before the show had even been seen by the public at large. NBC insisted it was common practise to re-cast and tweak Pilots before they actually aired, and this is true, however this smacked of a knee-jerk reaction and nothing to do with improving the show creatively. This, was the start of the end.

Following this Glen Morgan was brought onboard to help steer the show, a successful producer/writer from the X-Files/Millenium stables, but he left following 'creative differences' in early September. Episode 2 was suddenly re-written completely and footage from episodes 2 and 3 combined together for the shows all-important second episode. The show initially started out with Berkut Group being an independent contractor who developed the Bionics project to make super soldiers. In the Pilot we saw one of these 'soldiers' Sarah Corvus, go rogue and break out of the complex 4 years earlier. There was a back-story of other rogue cyborgs out there, along with their 'creator' Dr. Anthros . As the series went to air and different producers/writers took the reins it was noticeably visible that the series back-story and characters motivations were being changed. Jaime's boyfriend was written out in the 2nd episode, Dr. Anthros and Sarah Corvus were ignored after the third and fourth episode and their history and connection to Jaime not mention again. 'Becca went from being banned using the internet and owning a computer in the Pilot, to owning and using a computer in-front of Jaime in episode 3. The Berkut group went being a shadowy private weapons-development organisation to working with the CIA and 'saving the world' by episode. The character of Jaime Sommers went from not wanting to be Bionic and resenting/rebelling against her creators, to virtually being their best friend within a couple episodes. Character development was all over the place, when it was there at all. What started out as an edgy On the back of all this change, ratings plummeted week-on-week from the Pilot down.

The series apparently had issues with copyright in that they couldn't show 'bionics' inside the body or talk about it in specific detail - why would you agree to do a show under these conditions when the show itself is called The BIONIC Woman? They also couldn't use any of the original characters, aside from Jaime Sommers. Because of this the producers seemed to struggle to do anything dynamic in terms of showing Jaime use her Bionics for the first couple of episodes, after the Pilot. They tried showing her running fast and it just looked silly. They tried having her use her Bionics with no sound effects… it didn't seem right. As the show went on they seemed to find a compromise and for the running had Jaime start running, go to slow motion and then speed off camera, including a sound effect. They developed a specific sound effect for use of her eye and ear. Aside from the running, general fight scenes were done at normal speed, but still felt alitle awkward as they hadn't found a natural rhythm for them. However, they did show Jaime using her Bionics and enhanced strength more confidently and more often towards the last few shows.

So what worked? Well, actually quite a bit. The casting was one of the areas that the producers got right. Whilst Michelle Ryan, a Brit and who's previous acting experience was primarily from a British soap opera, at first appeared an unusual choice for a lead in a high-profile US show she had the looks and physique which seemed made to play the new Jaime Sommers. A physically demanding role in terms of the action, Michelle was more than up to the challenge and embraced a rigorous work-out regime to prepare her. Some have complained she was winey and un-focused, unable to deliver her lines with any conviction. This was more the fault of the scripts and constantly changing storylines, than any fault of Michelle's. In the last couple of episodes of the shows' short run you could see both Michele, and the writers, finally finding their feet with the character. The supporting actors in Miguel Ferrer, Will Yun Lee and Molly Price all performed admirably from the Pilot. Miguel Ferrer's character of Jonas Bledsoe softened and developed a father/daughter relationship with Jaime, which was contrary to his initial view of Jaime as company 'property', whilst the change was out of character it did work, thanks to Miguel's delivery. Jae [Wil Yun Lee] and Ruth [Molly Price] had less well defined characters, but even in the Pilot you felt they has a history and background which the actors brought to the fore with the limited lines/scenes that they had. The actors, aside from Miguel, may not have been instantly recognisable to audiences, but Will Yun Lee had a string of successful supporting roles in movies and TV guest spots, and Molly Price spent 6 solid years in the role of Faith Yorkis in the hit show Third Watch, amongst her credits.

The special effects and photography on the show was also good, although in this day and age you would expect it should be. The one area the show remained consistent in was a quirky and documentary-style photography which included putting characters at the extreme of the frame, not always having them in focus, perhaps have something else in the frame obscuring them. It really worked and gave the show a distinctive style, something I am sure which would have been noticed had the series amange to remain around for a couple of seasons.

An un-related event which probably sealed the shows's ultimate fate was the WGA [Writer's Guild of America] strike which started at the beginning of November, and at the time of writing is still on. With writers striking over payment for internet-based material and DVD extras, the networks were forced to suspend production on their regular weekly shows and one by one production studios shut-down and staff were put on indefinite suspended pay. It was during the early months of the Fall season when this took place and during the time new shows struggled to find an audience and get sanctioned for a full season. Bionic Woman was naturally a victim of the strike as it continued to bite and production shut down on. It was at this time that the producers were looking to re-launch the show in January with a 2-part episode. The strike put a halt to this and episode 8, 'Do Not Disturb' was the final episode completed and aired. NBC then had 5 weeks to decide whether to cut their losses with the show, or greenlight additional episodes, when the strike ended. The trouble was, with no end in sight, the network would have been forced to continue paying the staff on reduced wages, or accepting a contract clause which allowed the actors and crew to take-up work elsewhere. NBC ultimately canned the show, but given it's week-on-week declining ratings, in a business driven by ratings and the mighty dollar, can you blame them?

To sum up, yes, the show was cancelled before it's time, but it was a victim of it's own internal wrangling. Left alone with the original premise and production staff, I feel sure the show would have found an audience and could have explored numerous ideas of isolation, technological progress, and the like, within an entertainment weekly Sci-Fi/Drama format. Is it the first show to be cancelled before it got off the ground? No. Will it be the last? Alas, likely not.

To mis-quote the great bard… "Alas, poor Jaime, we knew her well."