Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Few series manage to undergo a drastic transformation and come out with their fans intact.  Usually some of the major characters depart and it just doesn’t have the same spark that it once had.  Other times, the setting is changed, such as from high school to college or the entire setting of the show is changed.  Usually done in the name of “freshening” up the show as stories have become repetitive, the changes don’t work.

Wonder Woman was one of the few shows that transformed themselves and actually did it very well.  Between the first and second seasons of the show, the setting moved from a World War II setting to the 1970’s, which was “modern”.  It also jumped networks, which might have had a lot to do with the changes.

Largely what made them work was the fact that the story evolved in a very good way.  In the first season, it seemed that most of the characters were a bit daft at times and all I kept thinking was how did we manage to win the war if people truly acted like this.  While Wonder Woman herself was a fairly strong female character, her alter-ego, Diana Prince, was intelligent but had to hide it.  Much of the time she seemed to be pining for Steve Trevor, who seemed less interested in the “plain Jane” while this sexy creature was running around in a bathing suit, boots, and a cape.

Moving into the 1970’s, the character of Diana Prince evolved quite nicely.  It isn’t a very sudden change, but more along the lines of as the season wore on both the actress Lynda Carter and the writers grew into what her role could really be.

One of the problems the series creators faced was that although it was established that "Diana Prince" was long-lived, that wouldn't be the case for Steve Trevor, so how could Lyle Waggoner continue to be in the show? They had him be the son of the man in the first season. It was more than a bit of a stretch, and probably one of the weaker areas of the script.  Fortunately, he takes a back seat to the character of Diana Prince.  The hints of a romance between the two are also gone.  In fact, if there is one major complaint I have with the series, it’s that Diana seems to have many men panting after her, but really never acquires any sort of a love interest or even hints of one.

Opening up the season, Steve Trevor is on a plane that coincidentally nearly crashes near the same island his father's did years before. The secret information he's carrying sparks the interest of the women on Paradise Island, and once again Diana Prince is sent into that world.  Once there, she's at Steve Trevor's side again. She manages to infiltrate a secret computer and create a phony background for herself.

In the 1970’s, this country was in the middle of the Cold War with Russia, allowing for a myriad of storylines.  However, Wonder Woman wasn’t about to be a one-note heroine who battled the evil Communists and nothing else.  She took on a musician who uses his music to control his fans and have them do evil for him; a scientists who has figured out a way to control volcanoes, an evil toymaker, con artists who target visiting dignitaries using their dead loved ones, and jewel thieves who target a visiting regent.  Computer theft is first visited here as the core of the super computer at the IADC is stolen, sounding an early warning about giving too much information and control to these machines that were evolving at the time.  In a storyline that sounds like it belongs in this time period, neo-Nazis attempt to clone Hitler.

What was nice was that by the middle of the season, Diana seemed to be taking on the role of an agent, rather than just Steve Trevor's secretary or assistant.  With the episodes The Man Who Made Volcanoes the title of the show changed to The New Adventures of Wonder Woman and the theme song had some synthesizers added to it.

However, it was also after this time that the hideous two-part episode Mind Stealers from Outer Space came about, which was really the low point of the season for me.  This brought back Diana's alien friend Andros (this time portrayed by the late Dack Rambo) and aliens called "Skrill" that look like they came straight out of a Doctor Who story-arc.

Lynda Carter really gets all the credit in my book for why the series worked so well back then and still holds up well now.  She was convincing as the character, even in the most outlandish of situations.  It’s also nice that she came back and talked about the show in the DVD extras.  Many stars want to forget the roles that brought them to prominence.  Lynda Carter actually seems to enjoy looking back and confessing that she gained cool Mom points by twice bringing the Wonder Woman costume out of retirement to go to show and tell at her sons’ school.

Many guest stars who appear this season will be familiar to people who grew up watching television around this time.  Those include celebrities such as Fritz Weaver, Jessica Walter, Beatrice Straight, Mel Ferrer, Gary Burghoff, and many others.

The opening credits on the first episode showed it hadn't been digitally remastered. They didn't have the crispness to it most other DVD re-issues have if they go through the remastering process. When both Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner are shown against a plain background, the background showed interference rather than actually looking like a plain background.  Overall, though, the DVD is a decent quality with only a few instances where there’s dirt or interference with the picture.  The sound is good as well, rather than being muddy.

My only other complaint is that the series seemed to be drawn out deliberately to fit onto more DVDs.  I suspect that it would have been fairly easy to cut out one DVD from this set, but studios regularly try to entice audiences to buy the DVD by making the set appear larger than it actually is.

Wonder Woman: The Complete Second Season is perhaps the best superhero show that was ever on television.  The characters were well-written and the stories actually flowed pretty well.  It sounds at times like they would be hard to swallow, but they actually work better than if I tried to describe them to you.  It’s a family-friendly show, so break out the popcorn and sit down for an evening with your kids.


Season Two Episodes:

The Return of Wonder Woman
Anschluss '77
The Man Who Could Move the World
The Bermuda Triangle Crisis
Knockout
The Pied Piper
The Queen and the Thief
I Do, I Do
The Man Who Made Volcanoes
Mind Stealers from Outer Space (Part 1)
Mind Stealers from Outer Space (Part 2)
The Deadly Toys
Light-Fingered Lady
Screaming Javelin
Diana's Disappearing Act
Death in Disguise
I.R.A.C. is Missing
Flight to Oblivion
Seance of Terror
The Man Who Wouldn't Tell
The Girl From Ilanda
The Murderous Missile


Special Features:

• Revolutionizing a Classic: From Comic Book to Television



Other comic book super-hero reviews:

Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Spider-Man ~ Spider-Man 2 ~ Superman Returns ~ Wonder Woman: The Complete First Season ~ Wonder Woman: The Complete Third Series ~ X-Men

© 2009 Patti Aliventi

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD