How to Build a Bionic Man - TV review

There were two main sides to the documentary: Bertolt Meyer showing us many of the state-of-the-art developments in prosthetics and bionic organs, and the other part of the show which took these components and assembled them together in order to create a fully 'bionic man' for the first time.

Now, far be it from me to criticise the work of respected roboticists, but I'll give it a go anyway: creating a robot out of these assembled parts was utterly and completely inconsequential.

I would put money on the fact that, at some point, the producers had to find a hook to the show to complement Bertolt simply showing us these incredible devices – something which ultimately wasn't necessary.

On paper, the concept sounds incredible – who wouldn't want to see a real-life Six Million Dollar Man? But in the end, it appeared as though the idea was stretched too thinly, especially when you consider that the main component to a life-like being is a brain, and that, apparently, is the most complex structure in the universe.

So what we ended up with were some boffins throwing pieces of ludicrously expensive technology together like an episode of Scrapheap Challenge.

"When finished, he will reveal how close technology is to catching up with the human body," the ominous voiceover asserted at the start.

Well, when the ending came along and we saw the creature bumbling through Harrods, I think it's safe to say that the bionic man was as close to being human as a Furby on low batteries.

The creation stumbled along like a drunken Johnny 5 and when questioned on music, he insisted that: "I like Eminem. Eminem is a famous crapper!"

Musical criticism aside, when the show was concentrating on the various body parts there were some wonderful insights into the pioneering work that were a marvel to see.

Notable scenes included a professor at MIT pulling his trousers up and showing his artificial legs that almost perfectly mimic the function of an ankle. Another interesting advance was in replacing areas of the brain in lab-rats with microchips; work that promises to one day cure Alzheimer's and enhance memory power.

However, the stand-out moment of the programme came with a look into mechanical hearts. Watching a live heart get transplanted with a man-made replacement was a truly remarkable event where the show really felt like it was giving you a peek into the near-future.

Although, with a price tag of over 120,000 dollars, it was quite rightly brought up that only the wealthy could afford such an operation.

"Is it acceptable that just the rich people get artificial hearts and live longer? I don't think so," said an expert.

While the programme mined an area that's not had as much coverage as it should – especially given the recent exposure from the Paralympics and returning soldiers wounded in war – it was fundamentally unbalanced.

Too much time was given over to future ethical questions, all of which was rather extraneous when that time could have been spent showing us more of the ground-breaking work being done.

Are we on the cusp of seeing man-made automatons roam the streets? Not on your nelly.

However, How to Make the Bionic Man did show us that life-saving and life-altering improvements are potentially just around the corner.

Robert Taylor