Team Knight Rider | |
Episode 114: The Return of Megaman | |
Air Date | 26 January, 1998 |
Written by | Rick Copp David Goodman |
Director | Gil Wadsworth |
Episode guide | |
previous Episode 113: Out of the Past |
next Episode 115: Angels in Chains |
Recruiting a reluctant former member is the team's only chance to diffuse a satellite weapon that crashed into Earth after falling out of its orbit.
Guest Cast[]
Plot[]
A team of geeks from the "First Contact Society" watch a rocket-tank craft land in New Mexico. They approach it bringing greetings from Earth, but the vehicle blasts them with an energy ray. The (spaceship) is actually the Neutron 5XE, a weapon developed for the Chinese twenty years ago. Two 5XEs were launched into orbit and were programmed to land back on earth, drive to a specific location and detonate a Neutron bomb, destroying anything in its path. The first 5XE came down by accident in 1981 in upsate New York and was stopped by Ken Savage, a Foundation operative during the pre-Michael Knight era. General William Simonson is sent to lead an army blockade to stop the 5XE. Jenny knows the General and goes to the blockade to assist. Kyle sends Duke along to keep an eye on her. The rest of the team begins looking for Ken Savage.
The military blockade launches a full-scale attack against the 5XE, but can not stop it. The tank fires an electro-magnetic pulse against the blockade, rendering all weapons useless against it. Jenny and Duke want to pursue the tank, secure in the fact that their vehicles had EMP shields installed after they went against a similar weapon. Kyle warns them not to engage the 5XE until they can get more information.
Trek finds and address for Ken Savage from records of his F.L.A.G. pension. Trek an Erica find him sleeping in an office in a very bad part of town. They wake him and tell him they are with F.L.A.G. and need his help. Ken picks up a filing cabinet and throws it at them and runs out of his office. Trek & Erica chase him in the combo-car as he runs down the street at sixty-two mile per hour. Kat and Plato separate, and Kat trips Ken using a grappling hook. Trek then recognizes Ken as being an agent from F.L.A.G.'s "Megaman project", which used genetic engineering to give humans enhanced strength, speed, hearing and vision. Ken was one of Trek's heroes: while at M.I.T., one of Trek's doctoral thesises was on genetics and he downloaded many of F.L.A.G.'s files. Kyle briefs Ken on the second 5XE, but Ken refuses to help. Kyle quotes the reserve activation clause which states that F.L.A.G. has the right to re-activate Ken as an operative.
Ken accesses F.L.A.G.'s "Death Probe" file and tells the team about the tank. It was designed by "Megaman's" arch-enemy Nigel Davies, who is now deceased. Ken says that although he stopped the first 5XE, it's too powerful and he can't stop this one. Erica goes to the gym persuade him to help. Ken tells her that he had a partner who was killed trying to stop the first one. Erica berates Ken for passing up on the chance to make his partner's death mean something. Trek researches the original mission. Ken's partner was his new wife, Summer James. Erica feels guilty for being so hard on Ken.
Duke and Jenny try to evacuate a farmer from his home which is in the tank's path, but he refuses to leave. They try to get the 5XE to change its course by having it target them. Mechanic Gil tells Kyle that the EMP shields have been removed from the vehicles; the last mechanic was a saboteur, Kyle had told GIl to remove any parts he didn't recognize. Duke and Jenny return to the farmhouse. Not having time to argue, Jenny punches out the stubborn farmer and they take him and his daughter to safety.
Kyle, Erica and Trek study how Ken and Summer stopped the original 5XE. One of the tank's defensive systems was designed to release a deadly electrical shock if it detected any additional weight on the vehicle. Ken and Summer ran alongside the 5XE and Summer jumped on the tank while Ken tore off an antenna weighing about the same amount as Summer. The defense system stayed off, but a secondary system killed her. Ken comes to the situation room and says he has changed his mind and wants to help stop the 5XE, but he weighs too much. Erica weighs only seven ounces less than the antenna, so she volunteers to board the tank. Ken briefs Erica how to deactivate the security systems. During the briefing, Ken opens up to Erica and tells her that is has been a long time since a woman has affected him the way she has. They almost exchange a kiss, but Kyle and Trek interrupt.
The team follows the 5XE. Ken and Erica climb on top of the combo car, and Ken tosses Erica on to the tank. Dante fires a grappling hook at the antenna and tears it off just as Erica lands on the tank. She blows the hatch with an explosive charge, climbs inside, and cuts the wires to deactivate the security systems. She triggers a back-up system, which closes a back-up hatch and plays back a pre-recorded video message of Nigel Davies addressing Ken. The message explains that this 5XE was programmed to come down in 1998, around Ken's 40th birthday, as his final revenge. Trek scrambles to put together a device that will create magnetic interference deactivating any booby-traps around the bomb. Ken jumps aboard the 5KE and tears open the hatch, freeing Erica. During the leap, he smashes Trek's device so must stop the tank unprotected. He rips out the necessary wires and circuit boards while subjecting himself to constant shocks. The 5KE comes to a halt. Ken dies in Erica's arms, after thanking her for making him want to live again.
Back on Sky One, Trek and Erica mourn the loss of the country's greatest unknown hero. Erica suggests that Trek email Newsweek with all of the files he has, so the world will know what a great hero Ken Savage was.