By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
Evil twins are nothing new in sci-fi or drama and Knight Rider was no exception.
In season one of Knight Rider, KITT got his very own evil twin in the shape of KARR, the Knight Automated Roving Robot; the first in a bold new experiment. He was everything KITT was and had all his capabilities. KARR was KITT’s prototype built by Wilton Knight. And to top it all off, was voiced by Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen.
In Trust Doesn’t Rust, KARR debuts. He is identical in appearance and ability and Knight Industries’ darkest secret. He has been hidden in an old Knight Foundation lab which is closed down and being handed over to the city the following morning. However two thieves, Rev and Tony (don’t ask) have broken in and discovered the abandoned KARR. Michael and KITT are en-route to secure the building and walk into the break in. KARR breaks free startling them both. KITT is supposed to be a one of a kind but someone has been telling fibs. It has one difference from KITT; it tries to kill Michael. Michael demands answers from Devon. He thought it had been dismantled but obviously Wilton did not do that. He programmed KARR for self preservation and is capable of doing anything to fulfill that directive. In the wrong hands, KARR is a lethal force with a brain as evil as any criminal mastermind. He doesn’t see himself as just a car.
He wishes to repay his rescuers for freeing him. When Rev and Tony tell KARR about KITT, KARR is furious claiming that was a copy, an inferior model. His unstable personality comes to the fore when they stop for food at a drive through and displeased at how the staff speak to them, KARR smashes the intercom dummy. Terrified of being put back in the lab, KARR flees with the police hot on the trail. However, the police stop KITT instead.
Here, KARR is a bit naïve about human intentions as Rev and Tony intend to use him to get rich. Devon describes KARR as a loaded gun in the hands of a child. His words prove prophetic as a crime wave hits the city with a black car at its source. The only way to stop KARR is to fire a laser at his front sensor which will burn out all his internal circuitry but to do that Michael and KITT will have to be literally face to face with him.
However KARR is in need of repair and kidnaps Bonnie to put him back to full capacity. However, it is through the deceit of these two crooks that KARR is able to manipulate humans when he returns. Yet he fails to understand why Tony deactivates Rev when they argue about going to police. Tony went behind Rev’s back to kidnap Bonnie. Tony’s real target is a massive jewel heist during which KARR’s self preservation kicks in when KITT and the police arrive. The laser fails and KARR ejects Tony to save himself.
Michael sets them on a collision course with KARR declaring their lives are nothing to him but Michael is using KARR’s self preservation as a weapon. KARR will not allow himself to be destroyed. He swerves and goes over a cliff exploding on impact on the water.
In season three, couple John and Wendy discover KARR buried under the sand on a beach. There is no explanation as to how he survived or ended up here which brings to mind a Christine element. They unearth him and intentions of returning it to the rightful owner are put to bed when KARR beguiles John with the power of a car that can get him anything he wants. This is a much more savvy and smarter KARR than the first time round. KARR is clever enough to tug at John’s youth when he was behind the wheel of a car cruising and picking up ladies. KARR claims he is the genie to John’s Aladdin and make all his dreams come true.
In exchange he wants John to help improve KARR and alter his appearance. KITT picks up an impossible signal which they discover is KARR. They can’t believe he is back given they saw him explode. The novelisation provides the explanation that what we saw was the interior circuits explode allowing the shell to remain intact. However this doesn’t hold water as we saw pieces from the original explosion and KARR’s interior is virtually intact.
John refuses KARR’s offer. He repairs boats for poor wages and unless he can come up with the money he cannot buy the boat yard he wants. KARR is listening to him discuss it with the owner, Eddie. He has a pacemaker and if he dies John has no chance of getting the yard. KARR notes the pacemaker. Eddie suddenly has a heart attack that makes him offer the yard for $5,000 which KARR gets for him. KARR pushes on him on taking chances when you can.
In the meantime Michael and KITT search for KARR before KARR restores himself to full capacity. KITT’s mechanic Bonnie creates a new laser to battle their foe. However KARR brings the fight to them by smashing his way into the mobile lab by turbo boosting. He demands Alpha capacitors while John steals the laser itself. Miles (Edward Mulhare) and Bonnie (Patricia McPherson) are trapped and KARR has no problem killing them both to get what he wants. Desperate for the yard, John goes along with it.
Michael recognises John from the store when he earlier questioned Mandy if she had seen anything. He knows that he has to get to John to stop KARR. Despite his reservations, John gets the cash from an ATM thanks to KARR which sucks him deeper into KARR’s grip. But he doesn’t expect Eddie to be drawn in too. He wants to use KARR to hijack gold from an armoured security truck. John wants no part of it and walks away while Eddie and KARR create a new alliance. KARR has a way of knowing what makes humans tick and uses it against them to further his own needs. Michael knows it too and his mission is to save John from being destroyed by KARR. KARR uses swear words such as damn when things don’t go his way and has now changed the bottom half of himself to grey.
He kidnaps Mandy by impersonating John’s voice, a trick he then uses to lure John into his hijack. First he threatens to remove the air from the car and let Mandy explode from decompression then starts to boil her alive. John has no choice but to agree.
KARR has a tactician’s mind and with his powerful outer shell smashes apart a bridge to trap the armoured truck but he also uses it to lure KITT in for a final battle.
You can never beat a car battle especially with the Knight Rider model. KARR has been fitted with high tensile reflectors and is able to destroy the laser when KARR fires at them by reflecting it back at them It was awesome as a kid and this time they turbo boost at each other colliding in mid air. KARR is shattered into flaming pieces as KITT literally slices through them.
John gets his yard and all’s right with the world. However, the Foundation has not cleared KARR’s wreckage up and as the camera scans over the scene, a red light comes on. It seems it’s hard to kill a bad thing.
KARR would return once more in the reboot/continuation Knight Rider 2008 show starring Justin Bruening as the estranged son of Michael Knight. He changed his name to that of his father and continues the work he originally started in a Transformer like KITT now voiced by Val Kilmer.
There doesn’t seem to be a connection to the original here as this KARR was the original just like in the original series but not created by Wilson Knight. Indeed even this KITT is not related to the original. This time KARR reprogrammed himself when built and people died. Subsequently the program was scrapped. This new Michael Knight was the driver and had his memory wiped to prevent any recall of what happened to KARR which was quietly buried. Now agent Alex Torres wants the KARR programme revived. He wants to implant KITT into KARR hoping this mergence will iron out KARR’s issues.
However this KARR is also now a Transformer too and able to combine himself with a human to create one entity as Torres discovers. He wants to combine with Michael and destroy KITT in order to go forward. We have a Transformer versus KITT battle where like the original series KITT turbo boosts through KARR destroying him and killing Torres. Yet there is no word of the debris being collected but since the show was cancelled, we will never know.
KARR was an awesome creation and fueled many kids’ imaginations and deepened their love of fast cars long before Fast and the Furious.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 