• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Knight Rider 2008 Series SPOILERS

Probably the latter. KITT could have turned into a Chevy Tahoe for all I care; it's still trying to accept that a sports car can transform into a pick-up truck. Does this technically mean that KITT's a triple-changer?
Actually he's not limited by "modes" so much as whatever the writers want to imagine him as.

I guess to me, KR has always been about "the fantastic". It's always struck me as scifi fantasy more than "hard scifi" where you're going to worry about things like mass and so on (within a degree, if he turned into a battleship I'd be crying bloody murder too). Having stared at quite a few Ford trucks and Mustangs the past few days, I can see how some models can "turn into" another if you take into account the nanotech's ability to seemingly sprout parts out of nowhere. If I had to rationalize, I'd dare say density of the nanites has something to do with it.

'course, I'm known to be more forgiving for the sake of having a good time with entertainment. I can understand how others have a hard time swallowing it.
 
Here's the season 1 intro for Viper. It shows the Defender's transformation. It wasn't nearly as good in the following seasons when the show was in syndication.

Also, here's a little quote that talks about Knight Rider 2000 and Team Knight Rider...

CS: There were a couple of other "Knight Rider" follow-ups including one David Hasselhoff was in, in the "Knight Rider 2000" TV movie. Do you consider those still having existed in this TV movie, or does it matter?

Bartis: I have watched all that stuff. I watched "Knight Rider 2000" and I even saw "Team Knight Rider." I don't think there are any inconsistencies. Nobody is going to watch this and go, "Wait a minute, that's contradictory to the mythology in "Knight Rider 2000."

Source
 
Do-de-do. Reading along and nice and friendly. Do-de-do...

A bit of Knight Rider news has begun to trickle out. Mods, I'm putting this here since I think some of KITT's demonstrated abilities clearly make him scifi at this point.

First is a one minute "sizzler" released by NBC: http://www.nbc.com/Knight_Rider/video/#mea=278575

And this was just released, some video showing behind the scenes filming at the "KITT Cave" (the FLAG facility where KITT's maintenance is performed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PJYtCxkSl8
Some general thoughts:
  • It seems Mike Traceur may actually take on his father's name. I'm thinking this may be more as a cover to protect his "real" identity, but I'm curious if somehow they're doing a twist on a "man who does not exist" idea.
  • You can see Gary Scott Thompson's "Fast and the Furious" influence, and I mean that in a GOOD way. The guy definitely has a better feel for filming car sequences than those who produced February's movie. Also, the upgraded "Attack KITT" definitely has a street tuner car look that I would expect from a "Fast and the Furious" pedigree. It also seems to take a tiny bit of influence from the classic KITT's "Super Pursuit" mode with vents out the sides and a super high raised spoiler.
  • KITT's new transformation capability is really nice, but of course this is coming from a die-hard Transformers fan so take that as you will. I did notice when he was in his pickup truck mode....


  • :wtf: :barf:

    Pick-up truck mode?!?

    What the...

    PICK-UP TRUCK MODE?!??!
 
I'm fine with Transformer-KITT, so long as they get the same guys who did the sound design for the Transformers movie to add all the same multilayered clunks, bonks, ka-chanks and zuk-zek-zak-ZAKs when he changes shape. The Barricade and Bonecrusher transformations were aurally awesome.
 
I'm fine with Transformer-KITT, so long as they get the same guys who did the sound design for the Transformers movie to add all the same multilayered clunks, bonks, ka-chanks and zuk-zek-zak-ZAKs when he changes shape. The Barricade and Bonecrusher transformations were aurally awesome.

I think it looks absurd and breaks the "physical reality" of the show.
 
I think it looks absurd and breaks the "physical reality" of the show.
I can see that. I guess for me if the TV movie already had sprouting spoilers and disappearing air intakes I am fine with panels shifting around (especially if the nanotech is morphing bits and pieces around in the process). I dig the effect and love how closely it resembles the transformation effect from the live action "Transformers" movie. The original writers/producers said they were influenced by "Transformers", it's nice to see that influence applied.
 
I think it looks absurd and breaks the "physical reality" of the show.
I can see that. I guess for me if the TV movie already had sprouting spoilers and disappearing air intakes I am fine with panels shifting around (especially if the nanotech is morphing bits and pieces around in the process). I dig the effect and love how closely it resembles the transformation effect from the live action "Transformers" movie. The original writers/producers said they were influenced by "Transformers", it's nice to see that influence applied.

Well, I thought it was dumb in Transformers too, and the "nanotech" I dislike too.

Say what you will be I liked how... :sigh: the original was "more gounded in a bit of reality."
 
Say what you will be I liked how... :sigh: the original was "more gounded in a bit of reality."

Despite how oxymoronic that statement sounds, I actually know exactly what you mean. The original KR felt a lot more like it was in "our reality" of the 80's, whereas this feels like a much more scifi version of the late 2000's and it is a bit weird.

I think this is not just an effort to be "kewl", but is in fact a direct reaction (or overreaction according to some) to the frequent comments that the TV movie didn't "push technology" far enough into scifi territory and instead was too grounded in reality (KITT's AI and bullet proofing being exceptions of course). Like most fantastic elements of such shows, you either buy it or not. I hope it adds to the fun and in some cases, the storylines with KITT relying on disguise for certain missions.
 
Say what you will be I liked how... :sigh: the original was "more gounded in a bit of reality."

Despite how oxymoronic that statement sounds, I actually know exactly what you mean. The original KR felt a lot more like it was in "our reality" of the 80's, whereas this feels like a much more scifi version of the late 2000's and it is a bit weird.

I think this is not just an effort to be "kewl", but is in fact a direct reaction (or overreaction according to some) to the frequent comments that the TV movie didn't "push technology" far enough into scifi territory and instead was too grounded in reality (KITT's AI and bullet proofing being exceptions of course). Like most fantastic elements of such shows, you either buy it or not. I hope it adds to the fun and in some cases, the storylines with KITT relying on disguise for certain missions.

Agreed. No matter how ridiculous the idea of a Turbo Boost might be in our world, the fact they actually went through the trouble of jumping a REAL car on the original series did a lot to make it feel believable anyway. Same goes for a lot of the fantastic features KITT had back then.

That said, I don't really mind giving KITT a transformer effect this time out. Considering the level of technology people are accustomed to today, there just aren't a lot of other things you CAN do with a car that will amaze people.

Plus it's a LOT more visually interesting than that tired morphing effect.
 
The "Transformer effect" (my sould crushes a little bit each time I read/type this) would be all fine and good if it was attempted to be fit into a level of "reality." If the creators took a moment to think about where parts would go, where they would come from and so on. Instead, like Transofrmers, parts and panels to flip and fly around to make object-A become object-B.

It's silly. Looks dumb and crushes my soul.

There's plenty of things they could've done to make KITT technologicaly awesome by today's standards and why does he even NEED to have a "WOW" factor. Is that why we love KITT? Because he's WOW! He can play Pac-Man and Intelivision games inside of him! WOW! He has a microwave jammer and in-dash dot-matrix printer... WOW!!!

I'd rather they had worked on his character and his interplay with Mike.
(Which, granted, they may well have.)

It just seems like they said, "Instead of coming up with any substance we'll just make some CGI wowzadry to make teenage boys ejaculate into their pants!"

A car that can transform into a truck! How it can do it, where do certain panels and pieces go and come from? Who knows and who cares!

Sigh. I had such promise for this show but now I'm not so sure.

I'll give it a try but if the story, characters, characterization of KITT and the goal of the series isn't impressive enough to make me overlook the absurd.... :sigh: "Transformer Effect" I'm not going to be around long.

Dammit!

And I still hate the nano-tech body. :rolleyes: Just another excuse to interject more style in place of substance. "So we can show the bullets hitting the car and then the car "repairing" itself!" And the notion the car has to be ON for it to be invulnerable. :rolleyes: Yeah. That's a VAST improvement over the original KITT and they should've had the girl of been the new driver. That would've been fun and her "chemistry" with KITT was better and KITT needs a new voice and a better personality.

And...

:sigh:

Ok. I'm going to stop, calm down and try and not put any more energy and emotion into my thoughts on this series. A series that looks every bit as much like it is made of FAIL!!
 
Last edited:
I think the crash and bullet-absorbing body was just an offshoot of the morphing thing. I assume now that they abandoned the morph, we'll see bullets sparking and richocheting off KITT again.

At least I sincerely hope so. Because sparks are just a hell of a lot cooler, dammit. :D

I definitely agree though that the most important factor is going to be KITT's personality. If they don't get that right, then it won't matter how cool and flashy his abilities are.
 
I posted a similar thing awhile but I have to reinterate

I'm sick of nano tech being the scifi tech for practically everything these days. Last time it was wormholes now this.
 
I think the crash and bullet-absorbing body was just an offshoot of the morphing thing. I assume now that they abandoned the morph, we'll see bullets sparking and richocheting off KITT again.

At least I sincerely hope so. Because sparks are just a hell of a lot cooler, dammit. :D

Albeit totally fictitious. Bullets don't spark when they hit stuff; that's just a conceit invented by FX artists to give viewers a visual impression of what the bullets are doing.

I posted a similar thing awhile but I have to reinterate

I'm sick of nano tech being the scifi tech for practically everything these days. Last time it was wormholes now this.

Well, get used to it. Nanotechnology isn't a passing fad, it's a real development that's still only in its earliest stages. You might as well say you're sick of stories using computers or cars. They're not going anywhere.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top