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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 258182" data-attributes="member: 23">The Six Million Dollar Man - Season ThreeThe Return Of The Bionic Woman (Parts I and II) <img src="https://iv1.lisimg.com/image/6513622/400full-the-bionic-woman-screenshot.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />A random thought before getting to the episode itself:The title strikes me as a little clunky. Why not The Bionic Woman Returns? Well, “The Return Of [blah]” sounds a little more exciting and epic to my ears than “The [blah] Returns”. Case in point: the second Star Wars sequel wouldn’t sound quite so dramatic were it called The Jedi Returns. Along these lines, Return Of The Bionic Woman (sans the first determiner) would look a bit neater and still retain the essence. Still, it must be said that the title as used evokes excitement. And perhaps even more so because of that double determiner, suggesting that the Return is as important and exciting as the Bionic Woman in question. There are two things to get excited about here. It reminds me of how at some point in the Seventies, DC and Marvel comics began (or actually went back to) the practice of adding “The” before those superheroes they wanted to have an air of mystery or darkness. “The Batman”; “The Spider-Woman”; etc. It makes them seem somehow more “other” than the casual informality of “Batman”, in turn moving them away from the friendly and increasingly camp direction they had started to take. It was understood that this tiny word, so much a part of everyday language could add impact. There’s a psychology behind it that only works - so far as titles go - when it’s used judiciously. It’s a practice that, in sci-fi and fantasy seems to go through phases of being fashionable. This episode title is a great example of that because, for all its clunkiness, it stimulates excitement and anticipation in a way that perhaps it wouldn’t if anything was changed. continued… </blockquote>

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