View source for User:Zythe/Jaime Sommers

{{Infobox character
| name       = Jaime Sommers
| image      = [[:Image:Jaime Sommers (Bionic Woman).jpg|250px|]]
| occupation = '''Classic:'''<br>Tennis player<br>School teacher<br>'''Modern:'''<br>Bartender
| family     = '''Classic:'''<br>[[Steve Austin  (fictional character)|Steve Austin]] <small>(husband)</small><br>'''Modern:'''<br>Becca Sommers <small>(sister)</small><br />Ethan and Madeline <small>(parents)</small>
| portrayer  = [[Lindsay Wagner]]<br>[[Michelle Ryan]]
| creator    = [[Kenneth Johnson]]
}}
'''Jaime Sommers''' is a [[fictional character]] appearing in the [[1970s]] [[United States|American]] [[science fiction on television|science fiction television]] [[television series|series]] ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'', its [[spin-off]] ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'' and the failed [[2007]] [[franchise]] [[reboot (continuity)|reboot]] ''[[Bionic Woman (2007 TV series)|Bionic Woman]]''. Originally portrayed by [[Lindsay Wagner]] in a 1975 two-parter of ''The Six Million Dollar Man'', the character's popularity led to her own television series and continual crossovers with the parent series throughout its run and in eventual "reunion" [[television movie]]s. In the 2007 re-imagining of the concept, Jaime Sommers is portrayed by [[United Kingdom|British]] actress [[Michelle Ryan]] and combines aspects of the original with those of ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' [[protagonist]] [[Steve Austin (fictional character)|Steve Austin]]. In both depictions, Jaime is a woman whose life is saved from near-fatal injuries through the use [[bionics]] and becomes a [[cyborg]] possessing many [[superhuman]] physical attributes.

The character was introduced to ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' in the episode "The Bionic Woman", written by [[Kenneth Johnson]], based on concepts and characters by [[speculative fiction]] novelist [[Martin Caidin]], who had written the ''[[Cyborg (novel)|Cyborg]]'' which inspired the original ''Six Million Dollar Man'' television movie and series adaptations. The 2007 re-imagining of the character was created by [[David Eick]], a loose adaptation of both Caidin's Steve Austin character and Johnson's Jaime Sommers. Eick had previously worked as an [[executive producer]] in the re-imagining of the ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' franchise three years previously.

==Conceptual history==
In 1972, the speculative fiction novel ''Cyborg'' was published, written by Martin Caidin. The book told the story of Steven Austin, a man given internal bionic upgrades which granted him superhuman abilities. The book was later adapted into a television movie (1973) and series (1974-1978) with the title of ''The Six Million Dollar Man''. Part-way into the run of the television series, writers found story ideas scarce and development hit a wall. Kenneth Johnson, a writer on the series, had come up with the idea of a introducing a character to serve both as a "[[Romantic interest (theater)|love interest]]" [[stock character]] and bionic counterpart to Steve Austin, drawing influence from the 1935 film ''[[Bride of Frankenstein]]'',<ref name="Kenneth Johnson interview"/> naming his creation "Jaime Sommers" after a water-skier he had met at [[Sea World]].

The character's introduction promised the possibility of a boost in viewing figures, potential attracting a greater adult audience. This bid was successful, and when Jaime Sommers debuted, portrayed by Lindsay Wagner in ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' two-part episode, "The Bionic Woman,"<ref>{{cite episode |title= The Bionic Woman |series= [[The Six Million Dollar Man]] |credits= Writer: [[Kenneth Johnson]], Director: [[Dick Moder]] |network= [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|airdate= 1975-16-03}}</ref> ratings began to "soar out of sight".<ref>{{cite news |first= Vernon |last= Scott |title= Six Million Dollar Man Spin-Off Will Be Superheroic 'Bionic Woman' |publisher= Galveston Daily News |date= 1975-12-04 | quote=  ratings soared out of sight when Lindsay appeared in the double dip episode }}</ref>  In creating the character, Johnson "endeavored to write a character and a story that would interest [both himself] and hopefully a broad audience" as well. With an emphasis on keeping Jaime incredibly relevant, realistic and human - Jaime was to have flaws and weaknesses just as any other humans, her superpowers being irrelevant to this. Johnson credits comedian [[George Burns]] for this aspect of his writing style, who had told him to "put as much truth into a fictional story as possible". 

The character in its development stages had originally not been considered for spin-off potential. In writing up the script for Jaime's first appearance (originally under the working title of "Mrs Steve Austin,") the network, [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] pushed for the character to be killed off to maximize the emotional impact upon the audience. Johnson's original idea had been to put the character "on ice" for potential future use. The studio reconsidered after a massively positive reception, angry letters from fans and ratings that could not be ignored; ABC executive [[Fred Silverman]] ordered the character be resurrected, in what would later be the two-part story "The Return of the Bionic Woman," [[retroactive continuity|rectonning]] her apparent death with the revelation she had been saved by "revolutionary new [[cryogenics|cryogenic]] technology." For the first time, ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' had achieved top ten ratings. The success of the episode led to ''The Bionic Woman'', a spin-off starring Lindsay Wagner as its titular character. The rights for ''The Bionic Woman'' would later shift to [[NBC]], although Wagner's final appearance was in the 1994 [[CBS]] TV movie ''Bionic Ever After?'' alongside the Bionic Man, where the two were married after a long courtship. 

<!--Discuss the casting of Lindsay Wagner -  big "Bionic contract", "The Rockford Files" pilot, etc.-->
<!--Discuss the casting of Michelle Ryan-->
In 2007, years after the "''Bionic''" franchise ended, a new series entitled ''Bionic Woman'' (having dropped the "The" of its predecessor) aired on NBC, starring Michelle Ryan as a re-imagined and more contemporary Jaime Sommers. While ''The Bionic Woman'' was a spin-off of ''The Six Million Dollar Man'', which in turn is based off of the ''Cyborg'' novels, the new series' mythos excludes the Steve Austin ("Bionic Man") [[back-story]], with the Michelle Ryan-portrayed Jaime Sommers being a largely new interpretation of the character.<ref name="Scifi.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/interviews/sfw17035.html|title=Michelle Ryan reinvents a cyborg superheroine for David Eick's reimagining of the 1970s hit ''Bionic Woman''|accessdate=2007-12-11 |format= |work=SciFi.com|last=Spelling|first=Ian}}</ref> Ultimately, the series revival and the Michelle Ryan portrayal would be short-lived, as lackluster ratings and the [[2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike]] (which forced the show into a season one hiatus), contributed towards cancellation after just seven episodes.

==Fictional character histories==
Jaime Sommers, having being essentially reinvented as a new character, carries two distinct although superficially similar character histories. As such, the two characters can be separated by their actresses. The original character lasted over episodes of ''The Six Million Dollar Man'', television movies and a spin-off series whereas the latter's story is restricted to a half-season of the reimagined series. The below is a concise overview of both characters, largely for comparative purposes.

===Lindsay Wagner (1975-1994)===
'''Jaime Sommers''' was introduced in ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' episode "The Bionic Woman", where protagonist and "Bionic Man" Steve Austin traveled to his hometown of [[Ojai, California]] and rekindled his relationship with his high school sweetheart, Jaime, herself unknowingly the daughter of two US government agents, and now a rising [[tennis]] star in her own right. In a skydiving accident, Jaime is injured and Steve pleads his friend Dr. Rudy Wells for her to be given similar internal bionic repairs to those he received from after his near-fatal car accident. Jaime is enhanced with two bionic legs, a bionic ear and a bionic right arm. In her episode, she is assigned to become an agent for the "[[Office of Scientific Intelligence]]" and on a mission, discovers her body is rejecting its bionic enhancements and in surgery, she appears to die on the operating table.

After the character's debut received high ratings, she was reintroduced in the following season. Jaime had been placed in [[suspended animation]] while Dr. Wells removed her cerebral clot, although consequently Jaime had developed amnesia and lost all her memories of Steve. The two would later reestablish a friendship without romantic suggestions. In her own spin-off series, ''The Bionic Woman'', Jaime adopts a bionic [[German shepherd]] dog. Jaime faced a series of plots and enemies before the series end, and subsequently Jaime and Steve would again rekindle their romance in three made-for-TV reunion movies in the late [[1980s]] and early [[1990s]]. Jaime meets Steve's bionic son Michael, regains her lost memories and in the final movie, ''Bionic Ever After?'', marries Steve Austin and receives a bionic upgrade which not only enhances her abilities, but grants her new ones such as night vision.

===Michelle Ryan (2007)===
'''Jaime Wells Sommers''' received bionic implants following a nearly fatal car accident, much like Steve Austin in ''The Six Million Dollar Man''. The first episode sees her inform her boyfriend, Dr. Will Anthros, that she is pregnant with his child before an attempted assassination of him by a previous bionic woman, Sarah Corvus, results in Jaime being critically injured and repaired by her boyfriend with use of his father's [[nanotechnology|nanite]] "anthrocytes" and bionic limb technology. The nanites heal Jaime's wounds, while her other enhancements grant her superhuman vision, strength in one arm and speed which greater resembles Steve Austin of the original ''Bionic'' franchise. The pilot would later see Sarah Corvus successfully kill Will by [[sniper|sniping]] him, before she and Jaime engage each other in a battle over Will's death, where she comes to term with her new bionic abilities.

The new character also has a younger sister with whom she is charged, having become estranged with her father following the death of their mother. Looking after her sister meant having to turn down a place at prestigious universities and become a bartender to support the two of them. As the series continues, Jaime agrees to work as a secret agent for the mysterious "Berkut Group" which funded her life saving operation, as she also discovers similarities between her and Sarah Corvus as well as the fact that her deceased boyfriend Will had preselected her for bionic enhancement as far back as two years before they ever met.

==Bionics and prosthetics, blurring fact and fiction==
<!--Needs better heading-->
*[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=prosthetics%20bionic%20woman&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=ws Some google scholar results]
*[http://www.laptopmag.com/Features/Bionic-Woman-Fact-vs-Fiction.htm?Page=3 Laptop Magazine article about New Jaime]
*[http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,23663,22510895-5007183,00.html Bionic Woman a blast from the past]
*[http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/bionic-arms-turn-science-fiction-to-fact/2006/09/15/1157827157936.html Bionic arms turns science fiction to fact]
*[http://www.future-drugs.com/doi/pdf/10.1586/17469899.2.2.145?cookieSet=1 ''Retinal neuroprosthesis: science fact or science fiction?'']

==Characteristics==
{{Quote_box |width=35% |align=right |quote="''What’s important to me is how someone reacts to a situation and how they come away from it. When I created ''The Bionic Woman'' I viewed Jaime simply as a real human being who was suddenly given powers beyond human and who struggled to deal with them.''"|source=—Kenneth Johnson<ref name="Kenneth Johnson interview">{{cite web |url=http://www.lindsaywagner.co.uk/lindsaywagnerinterviews.html |title=Interviews - Kenneth Johnson|accessdate=2007-10-18 |last=Stowe|first=Jenny|work= LindsayWagner.co.uk}}</ref> }} 
Feminism! Expand! Shift elements from critical reception here!
{{-}}
{{quote box|width=45%|align=left|quote="''[S]he has these deeper abilities, but at the core of it it's this young woman's journey of self-discovery and her rise to empowerment, and I feel like I'm on that journey, and I just felt an instant connection.''"|source=—Michelle Ryan}}
<div class="boilerplate metadata plainlinks" id="stub">
{| cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color:transparent;"
| [[Image:Wiki letter w.svg|17px| ]]
| ''&nbsp;<sup>This short section requires [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} expansion].''
|}</sup></div>
{{-}}

==Critical reception==
The original Jaime Sommers was considered a feminist icon, described by [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] as "the most appealing argument for feminism" in 1977,<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947821,00.html The Year's Most], ''TIME'', Monday, Jan. 03, 1977</ref> as well as a "latter day [[Wonder Woman]],"<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,879699,00.html The $500,000 Timex], ''TIME'', Monday, Apr. 26, 1976</ref> referring to the [[DC Comics]] [[superhero]]ine and feminist champion. ''The Bionic Woman'' had been of an era where "The ERA ([[Equal Rights Amendment]]) movement was very much alive," according to the new series' producer, [[David Eick]]. "''Bionic Woman'' was the first television show where the ... female was not the wife of or the girlfriend of or the mother of the guy."<ref>[http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/1015bionic1015.html New, improved Jaime Sommers isn't your mama's 'Bionic Woman']</ref> Despite these accolades, others note the inherent contradiction among the feminist characters of the [[1970s|70s]], such as Jaime Sommers, [[Lynda Carter]]'s [[Wonder Woman (TV series)|''Wonder Woman'']] and the ''[[Charlie's Angels]]'' - that these women are objectified by men in order to relay a "lipgloss feminist" message.<ref> {{cite book|last=White|first=Rosie|year=2006|title=Lipgloss Feminists: Charlie's Angels and The Bionic Woman|url=http://heldref-publications.metapress.com/link.asp?id=r72nhx1345263617|accessdate=2007-10-16}}</ref>  

The the new incarnation has been criticized by television analysts as more of a gender-stereotypes portrayal than the original,<ref>[http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/64187/ Modern Bionic Woman, Retrograde Feminism]</ref> citing that Sommers is no longer an independent careerwoman (tennis pro and teacher) but rather a college dropout and bartender, who despite being described as having a very high [[intelligence quotient|IQ]] is otherwise in no position to be the "ultimate [[Feminist movement|women's lib]] heroine" the original had been. Among critics of the new interpretation of the character are Lindsay Wagner herself, who disparagingly comments upon the perceived "dark and broody and violent" atmosphere of the new series.<ref>[http://www.buddytv.com/articles/bionic-woman/new-bionic-woman-wants-to-do-i-12410.aspx New 'Bionic Woman' Wants to Do it All while Original Thinks Remake is Nothing Special]</ref> Describing the new Jaime, Michelle Ryan comments that "She is a strong, feisty female character ... She has a vulnerability to her. She's very warm and compassionate. I think she has high morals. She always questions things. She says, 'We're the good guys, and I don't think that's right.'"<ref name="newsday">[http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettell5413466oct16,0,435882.story It's not easy being bionic], newsday.com</ref> Ryan continues describing the character, adding "She's a real tomboy as well. She's real. I think she's very grounded, and she has a good heart, but she also has an edge to her as well."

Parallels have been drawn between the new Jaime and her [[1990s|90s]] female [[action hero]] predecessors, some commentators remarking on a likeness to [[Buffy Summers]], protagonist of supernatural drama ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'',<ref name="newsday"/> in the sense that she has been unwillingly given a superhuman burden. This also extends to the relationship between Jaime and her [[foil (literature)|foil]] and [[antagonist]], her tragic [[nemesis]] Sarah Corvus, which has been described by reviewers as sharing similarities with the Buffy/[[Faith Lehane|Faith]] dynamic in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''.<ref>[http://www.syfyportal.com/news424284.html SyFyPortal review of "Sisterhood" (part 1)]</ref> Other commentators mention that the relationship between Jaime and the Bionics program director Jonas Bledsoe parallels that of Buffy and her mentor [[Rupert Giles|Giles]], much as the Berkut Group serves similar functions within the storyline as the [[Watcher (Buffyverse)|Watcher's Council]] does in ''Buffy'': that of patriarchal oppressors.<ref>[http://blog.zap2it.com/ithappenedlastnight/2007/09/premierewatch-1.html Premierewatch: 'Bionic Woman'], Zap2it.com</ref> Noting similarities to [[Sydney Bristow]] of spy drama series ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', SyFy Portal described the new series and, by extension the character, remarking "If you throw the original series into a blender along with "''Alias''" and "''Buffy [t]he Vampire Slayer''" this is what you would get. "''Bionic Woman''" borrows all the best bits of all three shows and gives them a fresh and interesting twist."<ref>[http://www.syfyportal.com/news424248.html SyFyPortal review of "Paradise Lost" (part 2)]</ref>

The original Lindsay Wagner interpretation was popular alongside the other high octane female heroes of her generation, as would later be their 90s counterparts in ''Buffy'', ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'', ''Alias'', ''[[Dark Angel (TV series)|Dark Angel]]'' and ''[[Charmed]]''.[http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-4136421_ITM] The ''[[Washington Post]]'' notes the show's popularity with [[gay]] and [[lesbian]] [[gay community|audiences]], noting "emotional connections to characters like the Bionic Woman can run deep for countless gay viewers who see isolation and repression reflected in heroes who must harbor secret identities and who can't show off their fabulousness in their everyday lives."<ref name="Washington Post">{{cite news|first=Jonathan|last=Padget|title=The Bionic Woman's Toughest Mission|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090700719.html|work= |publisher=[[Washington Post]]|pages= 2|date=2007-09-09|accessdate=2007-10-17}}</ref> The new character has yet to reach the similar levels of popularity within the gay community, however "lesbian icon" [[Katee Sackhoff]]'s own "bionic woman" character Sarah Corvus has largely proved instantly popular.[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ib288c71798ef1aead804cffdbeab1d21][http://blogs.outzonetv.com/breakoutnews/2007/07/bionic_lesbian.php][http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/09/will_the_gays_love_bionic_woma.html][http://www.ourchart.com/node/124239] The ''Washington Post'' attribute the rebooted character's lukewarm reaction from gays partially to her casting alongside [[Isaiah Washington]] (who purportedly abused a ''[[Grey's Anatomy]]'' co-star with a [[homophobia|homophobic]] slur) whose presence may detract from gay viewership in ''Bionic Woman'' as a whole.<ref name="Washington Post"/>

==References==
<div class="references-small"><references/></div>

==External links==
* [http://bionicwiki.com/Jaime_Sommers Jaime Sommers at BionicWiki.com] An in-universe character biography.
* [[wikia:bionic:Jaime Sommers|Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner)]] and [[wikia:bionicwoman:Jaime Sommers|Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan)]] at the Bionic [[Wikia]] projects.

<!--
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommers, Jaime}}
[[Category:The Bionic series|Sommers, Jaime]]
[[Category:Science fiction characters|Sommers, Jaime]]
[[Category:Fictional cyborgs|Sommers, Jaime]]
[[Category:Fictional characters with superhuman strength|Sommers, Jaime]]
[[Category:Fictional characters who can move at superhuman speeds|Sommers, Jaime]]
[[Category:Fictional secret agents and spies|Sommers, Jaime]]
-->