The fictional Jaime Sommers is caught in the swirl of a transformed life.

She has new body parts, new powers, new fears. Everything has changed.

The actress who plays her on "Bionic Woman" can relate to that. "I like to keep the variety and have a challenge," Michelle Ryan says.

Now she has a challenge overload. At 23, Ryan has changed continents and accents; she has stepped into a role whose character has angst, anger and martial-arts skills.

For co-star Will Yun Lee, that last part is the easy one. He was a tae kwon do champion before he was an actor.

"To me, it's one of the parts I enjoy the most," Lee says. "It's just a lot of fun."

But for Ryan, it's one of those swirling changes. Back home in England, her fame started as Zoe in the prime-time soap opera "EastEnders," at 16. "(She) was actually quite a soft, even slightly weak character," Ryan says.

Then came more softness, with a supporting role in "Mansfield Park," the Jane Austen tale; it will screen on PBS as part of public television's Jane Austen project early next year. After that, she suddenly turned tough in "Jekyll" and fierce in "Bionic Woman."

The plan, says producer David Eick, "was to tell a story about a contrary woman." Eventually, he was adapting a classic contrarian.

The original "Bionic Woman" began in 1976. "The ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) movement was very much alive," Eick says. "'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."

As played by Lindsay Wagner, who has retired from acting and now works as a domestic-violence activist, the character was tough and determined. Three decades later, the time seemed right to revive her again.

"A lot of us are going to vote for a woman to be president," Eick says. "Certainly, as we sit in the room, trying to get permission to do the stories we want, the people we're asking are women."

It was time to revive "Bionic Woman" — with differences.

Eick had helped change the old "Battlestar Galactica" into a deeper, darker story. Now he wanted to try that again. The basics are the same: After an accident, Jaime was given bionic parts and asked to take on secret missions.

This time, there is extra responsibility (a younger sister) and intrigue (her late boyfriend apparently stalked her for two years before they met). And there's Sarah Corbett.

Sarah (played by "Galactica" star Katee Sackhoff) was the first bionic woman, gone wild. Jae (Lee) trained her, loved her, then had to kill her.

"He came out of it as a different person," Lee says. "I think the situation with Sarah Corbett made him this way."

Even after learning that Sarah is somehow still alive, he's intense and angry. There's a lot of that going around.

"Bionic Woman" faced mixed expectations, Eick says. Some people want Jaime to be funny; others want "a tortured soul who's had this thing perpetrated on her ... it's got to be very dark and twisted."

There have been many versions and many changes.

Glen Morgan, a favorite with "X-Files" fans, was dropped as one of the producers. The sister was re-cast. A supporting role as Jae's colleague was expanded and made temporary to fit Isaiah Washington, who was fired from "Grey's Anatomy" after making controversial comments.

"Bionic Woman" kept changing. So did its star. "I'm trekking up mountains," Ryan says. "I'm working with a personal trainer, dialect coach, acting coach."

She's transforming everything. Jaime Sommers would know the feeling.