Knight Rider (TV Series) Knight of the Drones (1984) User Reviews

A mixed bag for a season premier

[Mr-Fusion · 6/10 · 5 April 2017]

On the surface, 'Knight of the Drones' carries the air of importance. It's a feature-length opener for the third season, offers a facelift for K.I.T.T. and even brings Bonnie back into the fold. But the quality varies wildly throughout. It's a big deal to see Michael tooling around the streets of San Francisco (there's some fantastic scenery here) but the props are surprisingly crude (a boombox Transformer that's pretty iffy). The bad guys consist of a foxy rich lady, her brainy conspirator and an array of goons. Between Jim Brown and the Barbarian Brothers, there's more beef than a meatpacking plant.

It's not bad, but it didn't have to be super-sized. This would've made for a decent standard length premiere.

A Two-Hour, Turbo-Boosted Third Season Opener!

[GaryPeterson67 · 8/10 · 27 December 2008]

A two-hour season opener is expected to stand out and set the tone for the rest of the season and "The Knight of the Drones" succeeds on both fronts. The murderer of Michael's predecessor escapes from prison and Devon taps Michael and KITT to capture him. But the standard revenge plot that appeared to be set up suddenly expands as we discover double agent Margo is recruiting men of specialized talents to commit an ambitious robbery of a highly marketable military device (one similar to the "Star Wars" missile defense shield that was ballyhooed back in those waning years of the Cold War).

The episode is packed with action as Michael's efforts are continually hampered by missile-firing drones, cars that Jared Martin's character Dr. David Halston is operating remotely. There are several well-done car chase scenes through the hilly streets of San Francisco that will evoke memories of BULLITT.

Jared Martin, a few years away from starring in WAR OF THE WORLDS, is the standout guest star as the heinous Dr. Halston. The pain test he gives to Michael as an unfriendly warning was similar but more sinister than that given by Bill Murray at the beginning of GHOST BUSTERS (and I wondered if that film didn't inspire its inclusion in this episode, which aired only three months after the film's release).

Jim Brown is always a welcome guest star and he plays his part well (especially his reactions when being driven in the drone car), but I was disappointed by how his character C.J. Jackson was ultimately treated. Here is the man who murdered Michael's predecessor. That information pointed to a revenge angle that was disappointingly never developed. I anticipated Michael or maybe even Devon having a climactic confrontation with Jackson, but they never do. Jackson is killed by Dr. Halston almost as an afterthought. One shot and the mighty man turns and falls. What a letdown.

The strong supporting cast contribute much to the episode. The Barbarian Brothers (twin bodybuilders David and Peter Paul) brought a perfect balance of humor and menace to their performances as Margo's muscle.

Another standout is Evan Kim as the affable "wire man" Peter Wong, an ex-con who wants only to go straight and start life over as a chef. His bungling in and firing from Fong's kitchen is a fun scene (and Wood Moy as Fong gets credit here too playing that tyrannical boss we've all had). I fondly remembered Kim from the 1982 movie MEGAFORCE (which film also featured Edward Mulhare) and was happy to see him at work again. He is so likable that even the show's producers decided only to incapacitate him with knockout gas and not to kill him as they did Jackson (Wong's girlfriend was not so fortunate, murdered off-screen by the Barbarian Brothers to underscore Margo's ruthlessness and perhaps to illustrate that crime not only affects you but the ones you love).

The episode features beautiful scenery of San Francisco and several shots of KITT and the Foundation's semi crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. There is also ample humor to relieve the tension, from the running gag of the elderly tourist couple who keep finding themselves between KITT and the drones to the hilarious kung fu fighting sequence where Fong's bodyguards furiously attack KITT after it insults them in Chinese.

A dangling plot thread: whatever happened to the woman chauffeur who picked up Jackson and Peter in the fancy British car? She reappears as Jackson's squeeze, but then disappears from the story without a trace.

And it wouldn't be a Glen Larson production without the obligatory cheesecake, here provided by a couple of lengthy and gratuitous scenes of dancing girls in the nightclub beneath which the baddies are tunneling.

Bonnie repairs and improves the missile-damaged KITT and rejoins the cast. Nothing against Patricia McPherson, but I would have loved to have seen Erin Gray take the role that she originated in the KNIGHT RIDER proto-pilot that aired as the "Cain's Cruiser" episode of Glen Larson's earlier series BJ AND THE BEAR.

"The Knight of the Drones" is a thoroughly enjoyable, turbo-boosted third season opener.

Knight of the Drones

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 18 May 2019]

Bonnie is back. She was always the more convincing engineer for KITT than April ever was.

Bonnie is working as a researcher at a university department. Her mentor happens to be David Halston who heads a company with malevolent intentions.

With the help of a ghetto blaster that turns into a robot, he has broken an inmate from jail. Together he is rounding up a gang to break into a vault in the depths of San Francisco.

It is good to see KITT going up and down the streets of San Francisco. It is nice to see Jared Martin playing the slimy villain, so long being in the receiving end of JR Ewing's wrath in the 1980s Dallas.

The transforming robot is a bit ridiculous even when shown on screen such as the way it manages to initiate a breakout.

One of the series's best; in a real location

[johnarazny · 9/10 · 28 February 2021]

Let's face it, the show hasn't always had the most stellar guest stars. However, this episode features Barbara Stock as a cunning and seductive villain. The plot has a lot of twists and turns, great shots of San Francisco and some exciting chases. Not to mention the coolest semi deployment shot of the series. All in all a fun ride.

Bonnie Back and Better Chemistry

[ShelbyTMItchell · 9/10 · 6 September 2020]

Glad that Patricia McPherson's characer Bonnie Baristow is back and the sexual chemistry with her and Hoff's Michael adds tension too bad they did not get together at the end of the show

As KITT is nearly destroyed yet again but a rocket and that he spares Michael's life there. As they try to rebuild KITT once again good and new and better and fast there.

It has wit, charm, and again sexual chemistry with Michael and Bonnie. But this is where I was beginning to not like Devon that much. As really Devon at times can be bossy and nosey as Michael needed time to himself. And he is really, really getting frustrated.

Devon needed to learn that life is not about all work and no play. Take life but not yourself seriously. Michael and he should had worked out some trust. Compromise on each other's parts so that it can be on an even playing field.

But still Michael gets the bad guys, got to go on his yacht trip despite some humor at the end. Welcome back Bonnie!

Not bad but seemed to be rushed at points

[mrogers1 · 7/10 · 22 January 2020]

Always nice when the show can provide us with a two-hour opening to get us back into the swing of things after a nice summer off. And they don't fool around here. They throw in everything and the kitchen sink this time around.

Bonnie makes her return to the series replacing April and boy is it great to have her back, she was definitely missed and takes over right where she left off from in the first season. We have all sorts of generic villains this time around making for a who's who in thuggery. Dr. David Halston who happens to be Bonnie's mentor at the college in San Fransisco needs to assemble a team of baddies to break into a vault that everyone assumes to be money but of course it turns out it is much more personal to him. He recruits C.J., played by Jim Brown who also happens to be an old adversary of the Foundation as they break him out of jail. And Peter Wong as the Wire Man who is an old criminal trying to go clean only to be talked into assisting David in his dastardly plan. Throw in the beautiful female sidekick to David, Margo who gets joy and delight in playing with Micheal and David's emotions all throughout and last but not least her boy toys the strong and comedic filled Barbarian Brothers to round things out and you got a who's who of characters here to keep the watcher amused for two hours.

Of course, that's not all. KITT gets destroyed half way through by a missile strike by one of David's remote control combat cars and has to be rebuilt by Bonnie into a more updated version of his previous self with new displays, button set ups and features. We have radios that transform into robots that spray knock out gas and push all sorts of buttons to cause chaos. Car chases all over San Fransicso and lots of random fight situations for Michael to get into involving the Barbarian Brothers and Peter's former boss at a Chinatown based restaurant sending his chefs to do battle. Its as crazy and overloaded as it sounds.

But its still fun I think for a Knight Rider episode. We get to see KITT in all sorts of situations and I do like the new look they give his interior. It definitely gives a fresh and updated look to the car. And there are plenty of car chases with David's drone controlled cars making for interesting opponents for our heroes to have to deal with. Of course they throw in the running plot of someone being the comic relief having to deal with all of Michael and KITT's situations and this time its an elderly couple riding in a taxi throughout the city only to get nearly hit each time KITT blazes through chasing the baddies.

I do have a few problems with the episode though and I think this all came down to they tried to squeeze too much into the two hours and couldn't really complete everything properly. They start the episode off with this very long and detailed situation where C.J. is helped out of prison by one of David's radio robots and Devon makes a point of saying he killed one of the previous Foundation agents and is a murderer and target number one. But his usage never really goes anywhere. If anything, it seemed like David just used him to dig a tunnel and not much else when all was said and done. The same can be said of Peter who David goes through great lengths to hire for his crew to invade this vault and it winds up killing Peter's girlfriend as she knew too much and all he does as well is dig a tunnel for the climax of the episode. I'm not sure what the point of C.J. and Peter were here I guess is what bothered me. You go through a lot of trouble to get these two specifically and it turned out you just wanted them to dig a tunnel for you and off them at the end anyway. Very bad plot device. C.J. and Michael should have had some confrontation and Peter should have avenged his girlfriends death. Both plots never go anywhere and it really made the inclusion of these two extra characters pointless for all the build up they had. C.J. is easily shot to death by David with one shot suddenly and Peter is knocked out by gas never seen or refereed to again for the rest of the episode, leaving his fate very ambiguous to the viewer.

And the real plot of the story here is David is going through all of this to steal a satellite as he didn't get the proper credit for its creation and will show everyone for that. I mean really? He goes through all of this. Hiring and freeing all of these people. And its just about digging a tunnel to steal a satellite and get revenge on those who are taking credit for it? Really? I wasn't surprised that it turned out not to be money he was after but it seemed really a bad plot device when it turned out to be that was all he was after here. But its Knight Rider and shouldn't be taken as anything more serious then an episode showing Michael driving around in KITT and beating up baddies as he saves the day at the end. And you get that here and more.

So its a good episode just could have been so much better if they actually used the characters and cast they had here better than they were utilized. They even had a female driver working for the baddies who was becoming a love interest for C.J. suddenly disappearing with no explanation of where she went. She shows up various times in the first hour and then its like she didn't exist after that. They have a dance club they are using to dig under to the vault with the satellite and its just an excuse to show a ditzy girl dancing on the stage to the same song over and over again. It was fun just thrown all over the place at times.

The episode should be seen as a way to get Bonnie back into the show and to rebuild KITT into a new and improved version. And if you like car chases, fight scenes and silliness that is found here in huge doses as well. Everything else is kinda eh. Story was weak and characters are under utilized and the plot is really on the lame side honestly. Not bad but needed a little more flushing out to be great.

The fast lane to Fun Town

[Fluke_Skywalker · 7/10 · 26 September 2018]

Plot; A beautiful and ruthless criminal mastermind (did I mention she was beautiful?) assembles a team of experts to break into the Federal Reserve in San Francisco. Can Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. stop them? Yes. Yes they can.

On this day in 1982 Knight Rider aired for the first time on NBC. Returning that evening from a trip to Virginia to visit family, I'll never forget urging my Mom to put the pedal to the metal of our '78 Mercury Cougar so that we would get home in time to catch it. Thankfully we did, and my childhood was the better for it. To honor this grand anniversary, I watched an episode; two actually, as it was a two-parter.

It is David Hasselhoff's performance as Michael Knight that inspired me to coin the phrase "Cheerful heroics", an almost uniquely 80s characteristic that sees TV and movie heroes go about the business of stopping the bad guys w/a smile and a seemingly inexhaustible enthusiasm. As we begin the episode, The Hoff is on his way to a much needed couple days off when he's contacted and told he's needed. What does he do? Whine? Complain? Nope, he shouts a cheerful "Let's go, buddy!" and hits the gas. I know it might sound a bit silly to call this a virtue, but in a time when so much of what's out there just oozes cynicism it's refreshing to see our hero saddle up and charge off because, well, he's the hero and that's what hero's do.

On its own merits, the two-parter is a lot of fun, w/some nice car action through the streets of San Francisco and a host of fun guest stars like the great Jim Brown, the sexy Barbara Stock and the oh-so-80s Barbarian Brothers, who were almost a thing for a minute there.

Radio killer

[Calicodreamin · 5/10 · 19 December 2021]

Glad to see Bonnie back in action, the vibe is better and the cast has better chemistry. The storyline was interesting enough save for one problem... why go through the trouble of breaking a bank robber out of prison when all you're going to have him do is dig a tunnel? Can't anyone do that?