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As the first regular episode of the series, Deadly Maneuvers appears to take place quite some time after the events of the pilot. Knight Rider is about as episodic as television gets, but it does make you wonder whether the slightest touch of serialization would have hurt. Even so, it’s a memorable outing, thanks in no small part to its explosive finale.
The Plot
While on his way to meet Devon, Michael Knight stops to help Army Lieutenant Robin Ladd after her car breaks down. When he drives her to her father’s military base, Robin instead learns that her father, Colonel Ernest Ladd, has supposedly died in a traffic accident. Refusing to believe the official story, she convinces Michael to help investigate. Their search uncovers a conspiracy involving corrupt Army officers and stolen nuclear weapons, forcing Michael and KITT to race across an active military test range to expose the truth and rescue Robin before it’s too late.
My thoughts
As the first regular episode of the series, Deadly Maneuvers firmly establishes the formula that Knight Rider would follow for most of its run. Michael meets an attractive young woman who becomes entangled in a criminal conspiracy, prompting him and KITT to step in and save the day. A hint of romance is usually part of the equation, but one thing is certain: by next week’s episode, Michael will have moved on to a completely different woman.
At this point, Knight Rider is very much a show with two faces. Much like the pilot, the opening is surprisingly dark, beginning with a man being murdered in cold blood to set the story in motion. Once that groundwork has been laid, however, the episode shifts into a much lighter, more playful gear. Michael loses a video game to KITT, flirts with a young woman, and even attempts to go undercover as a snack vendor. It’s this blend of serious action and lighthearted banter that quickly becomes one of the show’s defining characteristics.
One thing that stands out is that this is only the second mission we see Michael undertake, yet the episode implies he has already completed several assignments for the Foundation. It’s an interesting choice. Perhaps it was made because the pilot and this episode originally aired nine months apart, with the assumption that viewers would already accept Michael and KITT as an established team. Or maybe it reflects the realities of early 1980s television, where episodes were expected to stand on their own since reruns were often broadcast out of order. Either way, Knight Rider shows little interest in serialization, preferring to drop viewers into the adventure with minimal concern for continuity.
The story in Deadly Maneuvers becomes sillier the more you think about it. The entire episode appears to take place over the course of just a day or two. Michael meets Robin after helping her with her car trouble and drives her to her father’s Army base. Under normal circumstances, that would probably be the end of their interaction unless they happened to meet again later. Not Michael. He accompanies her to her father’s office, where she learns of his death, and before you know it he’s attending the Colonel’s funeral. Remember, he met this woman only a couple of hours earlier, yet he’s somehow become an invited guest at a military funeral.
The investigation doesn’t get much more believable. Michael and Robin visit the site of the supposed traffic accident and, naturally, discover a spent bullet casing lying in plain sight, immediately confirming their suspicions of murder. Michael’s brilliant plan? Return to the very same Army base he has just visited, where he has already met half the cast and attended a funeral, and disguise himself as a snack vendor. Unsurprisingly, nobody falls for it. Ironically, getting caught works out in his favor, as it gives him the opportunity to steal documents from the military police. That’s pure luck rather than the result of any carefully thought-out plan.
Then there’s the central conspiracy itself. The idea that tactical nuclear weapons could simply be painted to resemble conventional armor-piercing missiles so they can be stolen without anyone noticing is stretching credibility to its limits. Apparently, all it takes is a coat of blue paint to fool the U.S. Army into misidentifying nuclear weapons. Considering the extraordinary security measures surrounding nuclear arms, it’s one of those plot points that’s best enjoyed without giving it too much thought.
The episode also spends most of its runtime on an Army base, giving it a smaller sense of scale than the pilot. KITT is surprisingly passive throughout, with the flamethrower being the only notable gadget he gets to use. Fortunately, the finale makes up for it. Michael and KITT race across an active military test range to rescue Robin, who has been locked inside a disabled tank. It’s a genuinely tense sequence and one that has stuck with me ever since I first saw it as a kid in the ’80s. The destruction of the snack vendor’s truck also makes for a great comedic payoff, even if the poor vendor did absolutely nothing to deserve it.
Overall, Deadly Maneuvers is a solid but unremarkable episode. On a ten-point scale, I’d probably give it a 6.5. Since I use a five-star rating system, that translates to 3½ out of 5 stars.
Knight Rider tropes
KITT shenanigans
KITT doesn’t really get to cut loose until the finale, spending most of the episode serving as Michael’s sarcastic sidekick. His dry wit and sassy remarks provide plenty of entertainment, but when the action finally kicks into high gear, he gets a memorable moment by pinning two henchmen against a wall, leaving them looking utterly bewildered.
Damsel in distress
The pilot featured a damsel, but she was rarely in actual distress. Deadly Maneuvers more than makes up for that. It first has Robin Ladd conveniently stranded with car trouble, allowing Michael to play the knight in a shining black armored car. Later, the episode fully embraces the trope when she’s kidnapped and locked inside a disabled tank on an active target range, giving Michael and KITT every reason to charge straight into what is essentially a live-fire shooting gallery to rescue her.
Child in peril
There are no children in peril this time around. Considering the episode takes place almost entirely on an Army base, that’s probably for the best. This isn’t Child’s Play 3, after all.
Michael’s undercover identity
Michael briefly goes undercover as a vendor in an attempt to gain access to the Army base. The disguise lasts all of a few minutes before he’s apprehended. Nobody seems remotely convinced by his cover, making this one of Michael’s least successful undercover identities.
The Villains
The villains this week are a group of Army officers, which unfortunately makes them fairly generic. Beyond their uniforms, there’s little to distinguish them from one another. The episode does include a twist revealing that General Duncton is the mastermind behind the operation, but it’s telegraphed so heavily that it’s hardly a surprise. It doesn’t help that Duncton only appears in a couple of scenes before the reveal, leaving him as a rather underdeveloped antagonist. More importantly, the episode never gives him a convincing motive. For a story about military officers betraying their own country, the absence of any real explanation for their actions feels like a missed opportunity.
Notable gadgets
This is a relatively low-key episode when it comes to KITT’s gadgetry. The standout feature is a built-in flamethrower, which he uses on two separate occasions. KITT is also instructed to activate “Surveillance Mode”, although the episode never actually shows what that entails.
Memorable guest stars
Alan Oppenheimer appears as General Duncton, the episode’s secret villain. While his face may not be immediately recognizable, his voice almost certainly is. Oppenheimer has enjoyed a prolific voice acting career spanning more than five decades, lending his talents to countless animated series. He is perhaps best known as the original voice of Skeletor in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Remarkably, he is still active in the industry well into his nineties.
Random observations
The finale relies heavily on stock footage of soldiers firing weapons and explosions. Watching the episode in HD, it’s often obvious that these shots were sourced from video rather than film, making them stand out from the newly shot footage. That said, the integration is handled better than in shows like The A-Team or The West Wing, where the use of stock footage is far more jarring and immediately noticeable.
The opening setup of a stranded woman with car trouble leading into the episode’s main storyline would later turn up in The A-Team as well. In that episode, Face stops to help a young woman whose car has broken down, only to discover that she’s actually working with the military.
This episode also casually introduces Dr. Bonnie Barstow as KITT’s mechanic, along with the Knight Foundation truck, which always seems far more spacious inside than its exterior would suggest. At this stage, the truck still has a plain white semi-trailer, lacking the distinctive branding it would later receive.
The military base is also surprisingly well-labeled, with boards and signs describing just about everything. It’s very reminiscent of the way the 1960s Batman series would put labels on objects and equipment.
