| Damn, that was a nice car, weren't it? :)
Populated with largely unfamiliar faces, although I was happy to see
William Russ as the Mafia Don type leader of the shady criminal
organization.
It wasn't quite as thin as most of these pilot/premiers tend to be, and
you just know Chrysler had a good time showcasing its cars. I would
have liked a bit more explanation to exactly *why* the Viper needed to
change shape to function as the crime deterrent it was supposed to be--
was the two modes supposed to be "Taking Babe to Movies" mode and "Now
We Mean Business" mode? Why not just have it look one way?
(Other than the obvious: If we only had one mode, we couldn't show off
some nice computer morphing effects.)
Anyway, I'll probably watch it again. Those sorts of you who liked
Knight Rider and vigilante type shows, as well as anyone appreciate of
slick technology, tune in Fridays. You might like it.
A synopsis of the show: (it's long, it's got spoiler, and it's slighty
tongue-in-cheek)
We open up on a police lab sometime in the Near Future in some unnamed
Metropolitan area that looks a bit California-ish. Crime is rampant, a
fact which isn't really shown very much, but the commericials and the
cops in the show say so a lot. In this lab, there's the Viper project,
headed by Julian. He's got a souped up, slicked-out,
technologically-advanced Dodge Viper which is supposed to be the
stopping force the MetroPolice need. Problem is, the car outdoes the
driver ("The *human* factor," Julian sez rather derisively, at one
point). It's too quick, too powerful.
The fairly sleazy City Councilman/Mayor Wannabee and his somewhat
officious yet not really corrupt Commander of Police (he called her
commander, I think she was supposed to be either the Chief of Police or
the Commissioner) are hot to get this project out of the lab and onto
the road. "We're going broke on this," the Councilman complains.
I found it interesting that the entire city crime fighting budget was
apparantly being put in this one basket, but I guess that's why I'm
working at DEC and not in politics. Anyway, Julian protests that the
car WILL work, but only if the right driver can be found.
Cut to Vectorcom, some big company in a snazzy building. It's night.
Five black Dodge Stealths are purring up the road, in formation. (The
yellow divider means nothing in the future, I guess.) The drivers all
have headsets and fancy monitors on the dashboard -- clearly, these are
the bad guys, complete with our scruffy hero to be, a Blonde, Sexy Woman
in disguise as delivery person and the Rival with Snotty English Accent.
It's revealed that these guys work for the Outfit, a shady organization
with a lot of clout and criminal activities. Apparantly, the Outfit
contracts out to these "highwaymen", who go around do and nasty deeds.
Like robbing people.
They break into Vectorcom and make away with what looks like a handheld
satellite (the kind you shoot into orbit). They make a sorta quick
getaway, in formation. The cops pursue. A not very exiciting car
chase takes place on deserted streets at oh, 35 MPH or so. (Well,
that's what it looks like). Our hero to be makes lots of comments
about how the stupid cops "Have to catch him first", and does some tame
by movie standard car tricks (donuts in the street, dodging buses,
etc.) Right at his smugest, he loses control and slams into a
concrete wall. Ouch. That's gotta hurt.
Cut out hospital, where our scruffy hero to be (I cannot, for the life
of me, remember his name. Paul, I think), is out cold, on an operating
table. Above, in the gallery, the Councilman is gloating. "A little
memory loss, and we have our driver!" The Commander isn't all that
keen on this form of criminal rehabilitation, but she goes along with
it. Officially, Paul, the bad guy, will be listed as DOA. Paul, the
good guy, will be someone else entirely. They hope.
Our hero, completely with new idenity, wakes up with amensia. He asks
the pretty doctor attending to him where he is, who he is, all that
thing. She feeds him the planned info (reluctantly, we can tell): He's
{insert name that eludes Kim}, a veteran cop, a good cop. Best driver
ever, but got hurt in an accident. He goes along with this pretty
well.
Time passes. He recoops from his injuries, he and the doctor exchange
"You'll be sleeping with me soon" smiles and glances. We end up at the
lab again, where Paul (?) is introduced to Julian as "The New Driver to
save the Viper Project". Julian is skeptical. The Councilman is still
gloating. The Commander and the doctor are still reluctant. Paul is
friendly and eager to please.
He takes the Viper out on a test drive, does well (I guess. He didn't
crash.) Raves about car. Trys out all the goodies. It changes shape
(literally) from a red, regular-looking convertible to a grey, roofed,
slicked up thing that looks REAL hard to get in and out of. It has a
3-pack missle launcher to knock out other car. Has a drone that can go
look in places the car won't fit. And so on. Everyone is impressed,
except for the Councilman who wonders: "So where's the guns?"
Julian is appalled. He didn't create the Viper to KILL people, he did
it to apprehend them. Guns are what made him a parapalegic, he
explains, he doesn't want nothing to do with shooting people. Some
chagrin among the police types: Criminals got guns. What is the driver
supposed to do? The car is bulletproof, but then what?
The Councilman demands Guns. Sensing a rift, Paul suggests taking it
out on the street one night as is, to see if it works. He wants to
carry a gun, of course, since he has to get out of the car to apprehend
folks, but this would be a good test of the car. Everyone agrees.
The night test goes well. Everyone is happy, more or less. But one
problem: One of Paul's old robber buddies spots him and wonders the
obvious: "I thought he was dead!" Word gets around to the Outfit and to
Paul's other old friends, including the Blonde who was once in Disguise
as a deliveryman (his old squeeze) and The Rival with a Snotty English
Accent. We sense trouble on the horizon....
To make a long story shorter, everything turns out OK. The bad guys
go after Paul, the pretty doctor gets killed, Paul feels guilty, Paul
gets his memory back and becomes a good guy, the Councilman turns out
to be sold out to the Outfit and gets his, the other bad guys get
caught, there's a lot of car scenes, the Viper project gets cancelled,
but the car, Paul and Julian set up shop in an abandoned (and "forgot
about") hydroelectric dam to "use the car for what it's supposed to be
used for".
So we know they'll be back on Friday nights, fighting crime, only
outside the law. (ba-dumm!)
cheers,
kim
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