lunchmeat wrote:The whole KITT vs KARR thing...
Bringing him back into the here and now wouldn't really make any sense, no matter how they did it. KARR's CPU is old, the car itself is old....there really isn't a viable way they could do like, a 1-to-1 thing where it's like "oh look, it's KARR from the 80s!"
The new KARR would have to be an AI comparable to KI3T, with abilities to match...
A lot of people are saying bring the old CPU back, or bring the old body back. I don't think the body would be a great idea....but I think that they could make KARR similar to a virus. He's an AI, right? If they took his chip to study it, they probably would have had to analyze it with computers....and KARR's "mind" could infiltrate or infect said computers. KARR's core programming could merge with a new AI system (what happened to Prometheus?) and create something on the level with KI3T, only with KARR's sensibilities (or lack thereof). Eventually, he could make his way into some type of mobile body and begin to wreak havoc. Maybe, just maybe, he could even hack into KI3T....
I think that'd be the only way to really bring KARR up to date while still retaining his original character. Anything else really wouldn't make sense - as someone said, you can't stick an NES chip into an Xbox360 and expect to get great things. Additionally, you can't expect a Commodore 64 to beat out a PS3... instead of focusing on KARR's body, or physical chip, we need to focus on his core personality and programming. I think it would be a true testament to KARR's resilience if he came back as a virus and either corrupted KI3T or manipulated others into doing his bidding and achieving his ends. Since they've already got the episode made, though, I guess it's moot.
Sorry about all the ellipses.
Only those who don't seem to have ever seen or don't remember KITT vs KARR are saying "bring KARR back as a Trans-Am" or maybe they're idiots I don't know. That would be almost as bad as saying KARR didn't exist in the original mythology.
Now in a bout of not feeling like writing another short novel, I'm taking something I wrote before, retrofitting and expanding it to work in this post.
Yes we know that in comparison, KARR's CPU should be a snail in molasses compared to today's CPUs but the AI unit that is KARR or the original KITT is more than just a CPU. In the original series, the AI and the vehicle were two separate entities as the car itself had a computer on board. The AI was there giving instructions to the other processors that were controlling the car. This separation was shown multiple times during the original series with KITT being removed from the Knight 2000 including at least one episode, Sole Survivor in season two where KITT was hacked by a teenager (on a Commadore64 of all things) and removed from the car, which ended up in control of Adrianne Margeaux, operated by said teenager in a hilariously fashion with an Atari joystick. Of course Adrianne went on to reappear in a later episode, Goliath Returns.
Anyway, the point is that, in some ways yeah it'd be odd to just use the original KARR's AI unit, due to potential compatibility issues though they could easily have that sorted out with the body designed for the AI and KARR not having brains advanced enough to handle things that should be more intensive and require more processing power though, from what we saw, KARR(E)'s transforming looked a lot more simplistic than what the new KITT is doing, he could simply just be able to tell the on board computer what to do similar to how KARR and KITT interacted with their versions of the cars they were in before or they could have simply upgraded KARR with the original AI unit, transferred the AI into a newer unit as an upgrade or simply have it be a new AI based on KARR's design. Though since KARR's memory banks (unless the memory bank was contained in the AI unit) were likely destroyed with the car he'd be like a new AI anyway and unlike KITT he had no where to upload himself to at the last moment in a similar way as KITT did in Junkyard Dog. There should be no expectations for KARR to return in a Trans-Am by anyone, that would just be silly since the body was destroyed in his second appearance, but the AI Unit/CPU was still "alive" as shown at the end.
Either way, there's no reason not to have a new KARR that is at the very least, an AI based off the original, maybe developed by the military after the government clearly gained control of KI, thus retaining the history of KARR and maybe even saying the original AI for something else. What would be so hard about that? Hell like I already said, the original AI might not even have access to his memory banks so either way it'd be like a brand new AI.
But I'm sorry, I can't stand by and support the idea that the writers are revising and defecating on the original's history and mythology in such a way if that is the case, nor can I be excited or happy about it because it's a horribly stupid decision. Michael Knight having a son he knew about the entire time (if they're keeping that he did) and Charles Graiman being the real inventor of KITT were bad enough and at least a bit forgivable and still something that could be changed and fixed. It's such a bogus cop out and I'd have to say that I'd be a little disappointed in anyone who is, first and foremost a fan of the original series buying this and being so gung ho about the potential retconning one of the only two villains of the original series had that a lot of people know about, if that's the thing they're really doing. This show was sold as a continuation and not some half-assed pick and choose what they want to keep and what they don't. That isn't a continuation, that's a remake with convenient history. It's stuff like this that would make me give up on it, no matter how much I like the cast or improvements they've made in the retooling or how awesome this new KARR might be.
It really is a good thing I don't have any interaction with the people in charge or the writers, while I could keep it civil, I couldn't let it slide without telling them exactly what I think if they do go the route of removing KARR from the OS history. I'd probably end up getting tossed out.
I just hope they keep it vague so they leave things open. Because it sucks that as things go on, the more it seems like those who I thought of as being "Chicken Littles" (except in this case, it's not the sky that's falling) seem to have been correct in what they were saying.
EDIT: D'oh! I was thinking of one of the KARR topics when I made this so long but oh well, it can still stand as a response to lunchmeat...