Jaime Sommers is a fictional character from the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

action series '' The Bionic Woman'' (1976–1978). She is portrayed by American actress

Lindsay Wagner Lindsay Jean Wagner (born June 22, 1949) is an American film and television actress, model, author, singer, and acting coach. Wagner is best known for her leading role in the American science-fiction television series '' The Bionic Woman'' (197 ...

, who first played the role in the 1970s American television series ''

The Six Million Dollar Man ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin ...

''. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she reprised the role in several reunion television films. Jaime Sommers is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

star who suffers near-fatal injuries in a skydiving accident. Following cutting-edge surgery, she becomes the first female

cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

. She is assigned to spy missions as an occasional agent of the Office of Scientific Intelligence, while also teaching

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

students at a local airbase. Through the use of

cybernetic Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson ma ...

implants known as

bionics Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The word ''bionic'', coined by Jack E. Steele in August 1 ...

, Jaime is given an amplified bionic ear which allows her to detect sounds, at frequencies outside of the human ability to hear, over uncommonly long distances. She also has extraordinary strength in her bionic right arm and both legs, which enable her to run at speeds exceeding 60 miles per hour. Jaime is portrayed as the third cyborg, following the astronaut/test pilot

Steve Austin Steve Austin (born Steven James Anderson; December 18, 1964), better known by his ring name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, is an American media personality, actor, and retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most ...

and race car driver Barney Hiller (seen in the November 1, 1974, and November 9, 1975, episodes of ''The Six Million Dollar Man''). In the reunion specials, Jaime has become a clinical counselor after retiring from the OSI. She assists Doctor Rudy Wells in training others in the use of their bionics. She trains Austin's son, Michael Austin, and paraplegic Kate Mason to manage their new abilities and counsels them both as a therapist and as someone who faced the same challenges. In 2004, the character was listed in Bravo's ''100 Greatest TV Characters''.

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

named her one of the 100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters.

Cost

According to the opening credits of ''The Bionic Woman'', the cost of Jaime Sommers' bionic implants was

classified information Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to kn ...

. This lack of specificity has sparked frequent debates among fans as to whether it is appropriate to call Jaime "The Six Million Dollar Woman". The scripts reveal only a few contradictory clues. In the spin-off's opening story "Welcome Home, Jaime", she suggests to Oscar that she must have cost as much as Steve. He replies, "Well, not quite. The parts are smaller, after all." In a season-one episode, "Fly Jaime", where Jaime and Dr. Rudy Wells are trapped on a desert island and trying to get some food out of a tin, Rudy says, "Make way for my six-million-dollar can opener". In February 2016, Lindsay Wagner clarified in an interview with ''Headlines and Global News'' why the series that made her a star, unlike her "Six Million Dollar" counterpart, never revealed the final cost of ''The Bionic Woman''. "That was a whole political thing wasn't it?" Wagner says. "She

aime Aime (; frp, Éma) is a former commune in the Savoie ''département'' in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Aime-la-Plagne.

Character history

Before bionics

Born on August 18, 1948, Jaime is the daughter of James and Ann Sommers. Jaime was raised in

Ojai, California Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and ...

, and she showed high potential in tennis. Her parents were college political-science professors. Unbeknownst to Jaime, they also worked undercover for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

government. Both were killed (presumably murdered) in a car accident on April 16, 1966. Long-time family friends Jim and Helen Elgin became the 17-year-old Jaime's legal guardians. Helen's son,

, and she became high school sweethearts, but he left Ojai to go to college and later to join the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

, and the NASA space program as an

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

. Jaime graduated from high school and went on to study education at

Carnegie Tech Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technol ...

. Tennis—and not education—was her first career. After receiving her teaching degree, Jaime became a professional tennis player. By 1975, she had won many major tournaments and was ranked among the top-five female tennis players in the world. According to the pilot, "Welcome Home, Jaime", she has both beaten—and been beaten by—the real-life tennis stars

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943) is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's double ...

and

Chris Evert Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954), known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record ...

Accident

On a visit home to Ojai, Jaime is reunited with Steve Austin (now a colonel and former astronaut). With some

matchmaking Matchmaking is the process of matching two or more people together, usually for the purpose of marriage, in which case the matchmaker is also known as a marriage broker. The word is also used in the context of sporting events such as boxing, in ...

from Steve's mother, Jaime and Steve's relationship quickly blossoms, but their happiness is replaced by tragedy when the couple go

skydiving Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachut ...

. Jaime's parachute rips, and she plummets to the ground. Her injuries are critical; both legs and her right arm are crushed beyond repair. Severe head trauma also causes damage to her right ear. Steve, who is deeply in love with Jaime, contacts his boss Oscar Goldman at the Office of Strategic Intelligence (OSI) and pleads with him until he authorizes a top-secret procedure—bionic replacement. Steve knows it is the only way to save Jaime, because the government performed the same experimental operation on him two years earlier. Under the skilled hands of Dr. Rudy Wells, Jaime's surgery is a success. Her badly damaged arm, legs, and inner ear are replaced with state-of-the-art electronic

prostheses In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

. Upon learning of the radical surgery performed on her, Jaime is fearful of being a freak. However, with Steve's support, she soon learns to accept her new limbs after he reveals that he is bionic, too. As they are in the midst of planning their wedding, Jaime's body rejects her bionics. Emergency surgery is fruitless, and with Steve by her side, Jaime dies on the operating table.

Life after death

Jaime's life does not end here. Dr. Michael Marchetti uses an experimental

cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...

procedure to cool her body and prevent cellular damage. This gives the doctors time to repair the massive cerebral clot which had ended her life. Her heart is restarted, and she is revived. However, the radical operation is not a complete success. Jaime suffers brain damage, and the memories of her past life are lost. Another surgery restores many of her memories, but her love for Steve seems unrecoverable. Jaime's extraordinary strength rules out a return to the tennis circuit, so she returns to Ojai. She moves into a

coach house Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coa ...

apartment situated on Jim and Helen Elgin's ranch. She lands a job teaching school at the Ventura Air Force Base. Jaime feels indebted to Oscar and the government for saving her life, and she insists that Oscar contact her if the OSI should need an agent with her special abilities. Oscar does call on Jaime, and from 1976 through 1978 she is sent on numerous covert missions. However, Oscar's use of Jaime is considerably more reserved than his use of Steve. Whereas Austin is a full-time agent, Oscar is generally more reluctant to put Jaime into high-risk situations. She is often seen interjecting herself into missions over Oscar's objections. This hesitancy stems from several sources. At least initially, he accepts some of the blame for her death because he sent her out on a mission immediately after her bionic implant operation, using her as an agent before she was really ready. After her rebirth, he is loath to make the same mistake, since, after all, she had died from bionic rejection. Even when resurrected, her memory was not intact. Had she been a regular, non-bionic field agent, her mental issues would have disqualified her from being an agent. As Jaime and Oscar grow to form a working relationship, he exhibits paternalistic feelings for her which sometimes prevent a detached analysis of her suitability for missions. During her time of most intense involvement with the OSI, her relationship with Rudy Wells is also different from Steve's. Whereas Steve is occasionally distrustful of Rudy, and sometimes shows impatience with, or even hostility to Rudy's medical tests, Jaime views him as a helpful ally and a good friend from the moment of her resurrection. She is frequently in and around Rudy's lab, and generally more enthusiastic about the research obligations of being a virtually unique specimen. As her experience in the field develops, Jaime herself becomes increasingly self-assured. Her personality is more mercurial than Steve's, at once quick-witted and morally serious. After the trauma of rejection, Jaime's relationship to her bionics remains ambiguous. But as an operative she is courageous, resourceful with her abilities and increasingly circumspect about the militarism of her employers, preferring a more humanistic approach. Late in the series she adopts Maximillion (AKA Max), a

German Shepherd The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally bred as a herding dog, for ...

dog that had been used as a test case for implanting bionics into animals.

Vital statistics

When hackers hack into the government computer system in episode 48 ("All for One"), Jaime's OSI agent profile lists her height at 5'9" and weight as 120 lbs.

Personal life

Eventually, Jaime becomes romantically involved with fellow OSI agent Chris Williams, and she yearns for a life of her own away from the government and the constant peril of undercover work. Feeling that she has repaid her debt to the government, Jaime resigns from the OSI. However, the powers that be are not prepared to let her go. Jaime realizes that her bionics have become a permanent part of her life, but they do not have to rule her or the life she wants to live. She returns to the OSI and agrees to take occasional missions on the condition that she is free to pursue her life. Jaime and Chris continue their relationship and become very happy together. After years away from the OSI, Jaime accepts a mission. She travels to

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

with Chris, but the two of them are separated. After Jaime is caught in an explosion, she is rescued and hospitalized back in the US. When she recovers from the

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include loss of consciousness (LOC); memory loss; headaches; difficulty with thinking, concentration ...

, she starts to remember her past life and feelings for Steve. She also learns the shocking news that Chris had been held captive and killed. She acts on neither of these revelations, but instead returns to her life working as a therapist at the Los Angeles Rehabilitation Center. In 1987, after nearly 10 years with no contact, Jaime unexpectedly reunites with Steve Austin. Steve had left the OSI and had been enjoying life away from the government by running a charter boat. They meet in a restaurant where Steve was meeting his estranged son. Trying desperately to avoid being seen by him, she nevertheless is confronted by Steve, who finds himself being thrown through the restaurant window by Jaime. The couple come to terms with their years of separation and decide to see if they could rebuild their relationship. Jaime and Steve occasionally return to the OSI in times of international crisis. Their time together prove that the love they once felt for each other has never died, and in 1989, the couple become engaged. During the five years that follow, Jaime becomes a doctor. She moves to

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morg ...

, and establishes a family-counseling practice. Her experience with the government and her

top secret Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to kn ...

clearance also open the door for her to help government agents. A computer virus, however, corrupts Jaime's bionic systems. Dr. Wells informs Steve that "she may never be bionic again", but Steve's main concern is he wants her alive above all else. She undergoes a major upgrade, which not only increases the power of her bionics, but also gives her night vision. On September 4, 1994, Dr. Jaime Sommers and Col. Steve Austin marry. At the ceremony, Rudy Wells gives Jaime away, and Oscar is Steve's best man.

In literature and culture

Unlike Steve Austin, Jaime Sommers did not appear in the 1972 novel ''

Cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

'', the original story which started the first series. She was entirely a television invention of Kenneth Johnson, a writer of ''The Six Million Dollar Man'', under the supervision of executive producer

Harve Bennett Harve Bennett (born Harve Bennett Fischman; August 17, 1930 – February 25, 2015) was an American television and film producer and screenwriter. Early years Bennett was born to a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois in 1930, the son of Kathryn (n ...

. Sommers' only literary appearances to date have been in two novelizations of televised episodes released in the mid-1970s; Caidin had already concluded his series of ''Cyborg'' novels by the time her character was established on television. Johnson named Sommers after a water skier he met while producing whale shows at

SeaWorld SeaWorld is an American theme park chain with headquarters in Orlando, Florida. It is a proprietor of marine mammal parks, oceanariums, animal theme parks, and rehabilitation centers owned by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (one park will be ...

. The name "

Jaime Jaime is a common Spanish and Portuguese male given name for Jacob (name), James (name), Jamie, or Jacques. In Occitania Jacobus became ''Jacome'' and later ''Jacme''. In east Spain, ''Jacme'' became ''Jaime'', in Aragon it became ''Chaime'', and ...

" was predominantly a male name (a derivative of "James") before the television series began. It is probably not a coincidence that in 1976 the name Jaime became one of the 100 most popular names of the year in every one of the 50 US states. The female name Jamie (a variant spelling) also gained enormous popularity at the same time.See the timeline a
Namemapper
(Type Jaime or Jamie (female) into the search line).

Remake

In 2007, NBC launched a reimagined '' Bionic Woman''. Very few elements of the original series were kept, except for the first and last names of the main character. In the remake, Jaime's full name was Jaime Wells Sommers, a homage to the earlier series' character Dr. Rudy Wells. In the series, the new version of the "Bionic Woman" had the same basic bionic parts as the 1970s model. However, Jaime version 2.0 also received a bionic right eye (a bionic component previously associated with the original Steve Austin). As in the earlier series, Ms. Sommers was not the first bionic person. Her predecessor was the bionic woman Sarah Corvus (played by

Katee Sackhoff Katee Sackhoff (born April 8, 1980) is an American actress known for playing Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the Sci Fi Channel's television program ''Battlestar Galactica'' (2004–2009), Niko Breckenridge on the Netflix series '' Another ...

). NBC aggressively promoted the series '' Bionic Woman''. The weekly remake drew large initial audiences. The series went on hiatus when most of US entertainment was halted due to the 2007–08 writer's strike. The strike, coupled with diminishing ratings, led NBC to cancel the show after production of eight episodes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sommers, Jaime Bionic franchise Cyborg superheroes Science fiction characters Fictional cyborgs Fictional characters with superhuman strength Fictional characters who can move at superhuman speeds Fictional secret agents and spies Fictional schoolteachers Fictional tennis players Television characters introduced in 1975