NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Turbine, out of Germany, bring the 70's sci-fi TV series The Six Million Dollar Man to a 12 Blu-ray disc package that includes all five seasons (99 episodes). Turbine also include the made-for-TV movie entitled The Six Million Dollar Man from 1973 starring Majors as Colonel Steve Austin, Martin Balsam, Darren McGavin and Barbara Anderson as the 'love-interest' nurse. It was re-edited for the later series and re-titled "The Moon and the Desert, Parts I and II". Both of which are included. As are the 1 1/4 hour TV movies The Six Million Dollar Man: The Solid Gold Kidnapping and The Six Million Dollar Man: Wine, Women and War ,part of ABC's Movie of the Week series, both the segregated two separate 49-minute re-edited broadcast shows included as options on the first (of 12 dual-layered) Blu-rays. The movies have text and titles in the German language and optional German DUBs (but no subtitles - they are included with the individual episodes.) Also include on Blu-ray 12 are the three reunion movies ( transferred in 720 X 480 SD); The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1987), Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1989) which featured Sandra Bullock in an early role as a new bionic woman; and Bionic Ever After?

While these Blu-rays are in 1080P the bitrate are low (up to ten 49-minite episodes on each BD disc), the image - which was shot in 35mm - looks very pleasing in HD with a high level of detail and plenty of depth. There are some occasional anomalies but they were few and far between and I was impressed with the original 1.33:1 visuals - towering over SD with each Blu-ray disc containing about 4.5 hours of entertainment content. 

These are presented in 2.0 16-bit DTS-HD Master Audio track in original English or a similarly encoded German DUB. Effects are 'of the time' with plenty of slow-motion, or sped-up film, that look relatively cheesy by today's standards. While the series music is credited to Oliver Nelson, J.J. Johnson, Richard Clements Bobby Bryant, Luchi De Jesus and Benny Golson - it was actually Dusty Springfield (1967's Casino Royale, Fat City), backed by Ron "Escalade" Piscina, who sang the theme song used in the opening and closing credits for the Wine, Women & War and The Solid Gold Kidnapping TV movies. The song was also used in the promotion of the series, but when the weekly series began the song was replaced by the instrumental theme by Oliver Nelson later with a voiceover narration by Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) stating the evolution behind the bionic man. There are optional German subtitles for the series episoides on these Region FREE Blu-rays.

For extras, as well as the aforementioned movie version, there are About the Sound Effects "Real Bionics" running over 11-minutes about the memorable sound effects from Steve Austin's low motion Cyborg effects as well as a 1/4 hour Celebration of the Guest Stars with producer Harve Bennett discussing the Season Two VIPs involved. There is also a booklet episode guide (German text.)

NOTE: One facet that I wasn't keen about - the package is two thick four-disc digipack cases that are holding 6 discs (2 overlapping on one spindle) inside a box with the booklet between the large cases. I found it promoted floaters (loose discs) and was not the most ideal method of packaging.

This memorable series, and made-for-TV movies, were stacked with guest stars including Farrah Fawcett (Mrs. Lee Majors), Martin Balsam, Britt Ekland, Lloyd Bochner, Stefanie Powers, Martha Scott, Gary Lockwood, Noah Beery Jr., John Saxon, Jenny Agutter, Dick Van Patten, Ted Cassidy, André the Giant, Martine Beswick, Robert Loggia, Mike Farrell, Farley Granger, William Shatner, Sonny Bono, Chuck Connors, Larry Csonka, Louis Gossett Jr., Donna Mills, Pernell Roberts, William Schallert, George Foreman, Elke Sommer, Suzanne Somers, Dick Butkus, Erik Estrada, Tab Hunter, Carl Weathers, Joan Van Ark, Yvonne Craig and many others, Who can forget the 'Bigfoot' episodes? The Blu-ray package is quite a handful with all the pilot, TV movies and extras included and a mass of vintage 70's TV entertainment on each disc. I loved stepping back into my childhood when I first watched this... "Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better...stronger...faster." This is a keeper. Absolutely recommended!

Gary Tooze