I was 7 years old when i first saw "The Moon and the Desert" and i gotta tell you, i was marveling at all those fictional physical capabilities Col. Steve Austin were able to perform. I watch the series to the very last season and very last episode. I'm a fan of pilot episodes and "Made for Television" movies which of course is mainly produced as a test run for the possibilities of a series. My friends and i would play Steve Austin running slowly sown the block and we would add on "Barney" The Seven Million Dollar Man just in case we wanted to have fight scenes. But my greatest joy was on Christmas Day 1976 and what i saw under the Christmas tree was my very own Six Million Dollar man "action figure" with the red jumpsuit and the small magnifying hole in the back of the head Ha Ha I'm watching "The Moon and the Desert" right now on CoziTV 4/30/2014 and i'm somewhat focusing on actress Barbara Anderson solely because i'm noticing how beautiful she is, beautiful lips,eyes and hair Wow! Too bad she walked away from permanent work in Hollywood after 1975 because she may have been an excellent candidate for the role of Jaime Sommers of Bionic Woman fame. Seasons 1,2, & 3 are the best for me wasn;t crazy about Lee Majors growing a moustache. A very Iconic character with a very Iconic actor.

I was brought up in the seventies and by stupid coincidence I found a box of The Six Million Dollar Man. I remember it from my youth but was afraid to pick it up, I had seen so many old series that didn't stand their time. Before I would start with the series of The Six Million Dollar Man I wanted to pick up this flick. This is were it all started with. The original version is still available on VHS but the re-edited version was brought out on DVD under the name 'The Moon And The Desert' and it's exactly what this flick did, going to the moon and rescuing a prisoner in the desert.The first 45 minutes is were you see how Steve Austin (Lee Majors) got involved in his terrible accident. And this is a must see. Okay, it's based on the book Cyborg by Caidin. But the editing of his accident and going to the moon was edited with real footage of the crash of the Northrop M2-F2. It did work out fine and still works nowadays. Once his accident happened it's decided that Steve needs some robot arm to become a cyborg, even his legs and eye were replaced making him the six million dollar man. The second half of this flick Steve had to agree with making him some cyborg and starts to life with it which results in being given orders to use his strength. Some pieces were a bit slow but the acting was top notch, Lee Majors surely gives the feeling that he can't go on with his new body but once he's used to the prosthetics the six million dollar man is (re)born.The score used is a bit out dated and the traditional bionics sound effects are not heard in this film, what they did was the use of slow-motion, another thing that became a trademark for the series. Just after this flick Barbara Anderson (Joan Kahn) made the horror Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark. Weird to see is that the personalities used here was played by actors never appearing again in the series but what a popular names they were, Martin Balsam (Dr. Rudy Wells) of Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) fame and Darren McGavin (Oliver Spencer) , he is most fondly remembered by cult TV fans as heroic newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak in the classic but short-lived horror TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-75), both sadly died.This is a must see with some effects still used today, just watch when his arm is injured during a rescue, and long before the Cyborg flicks from the Cannon Group became notorious in the eighties. Recommended for all sci-fi geeks. Even as it had a few mistakes in editing, suddenly 2 moonwalkers while Steve is on his own, and script, his bionic eye wasn't used even as they showed it a lot. Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 4/5 Story 4/5 Comedy 0/5

It was the start of a series that lasted 5 years. Lee Majors plays the role of Colonel Steve Austin, Barbara Anderson plays the role of Jean Manners, Martin Balsam plays the role of Dr. Rudy Wells, and Darren McGavin as Oliver Spenser. While testing an experimental aircraft the aircraft crashes and Austin is badly injured. Enters Oliver Spenser who works for the ***. Spenser tells Dr Rudy Wells that he can get everything that he needs to put Austin back together again. Therefore, Wells gives Austin a new left eye, a new right arm and two new legs. However, as Austin starts to recover even though he feels faster and stronger he wants to know why he was built back together and who's paying the bill. When it comes time for Austin to start paying his bill, he doesn't care for the person caring that bill. This was the start of the very successful Six Million Dollar man.

Steve Austin is a rebellious NASA test-pilot who is critically injured in a horrific crash, losing both legs, his right arm and his left eye in the process. His doctor, with the backing of a mysterious government agent, uses experimental prosthetic surgery to give him new limbs and a new eye, which will give him superhuman strength and sight. The surgery is a success, but what does the government have planned for him ? This pilot TV-movie for one of the most successful US TV series of the seventies is a surprisingly low-key but intriguing story, with a great central idea. The rotten intelligence services want a super-agent, capable of incredible feats of strength and agility, who can infiltrate situations by stealth where a team of operatives could not. Their solution - take a man as good as dead and rebuild him as a cyborg; a bionic man with artificial limbs and senses infinitely more powerful than a normal man. Henri Simoun's script, based on a book by Martin Caidin, is really just a three-character play (Anderson, as a bit of totty, is pretty but unnecessary) between the unwilling roboman (Majors), his doctor (the always-reliable Balsam) and a control agent (McGavin), but it explores the Frankenstein theme with surprising subtlety and the relatively few action scenes are handled well. Also good, in the classic seventies style, is the depiction of government as ruthless strategists with limitless resources and no compassion - they see their creation not as a man, but as their product, which is only worth having if it is an asset to their operations. Perhaps a little too sober and ponderous at times, but a great story nonetheless.