Everyone always said that a truly great piece of writing is never finished. I suppose this is a prime-example.

But then most people say that if something isn't broken, then don't fix it. This is true, and I can truly say that I never thought that Reborn was broken in the least. I was proud of it, and it remains one of the few pieces of fic I wrote that I am proud of.

What spurred this new project is a drastic change I made to the end of the story in replacing one character with another. A certain brunette mechanic would be replaced with a Southern Belle red-head. I made this change for the simple sake of future stories and where I intended the series to go. Don't worry both characters have a place in Eclipse of the Knight.

So, I went into the story to make the edits. When I finished, I saw the file for the Commentary Edition of Reborn (I wrote this as a challenge in the LiveJournal community of The KITTChen) and upon reading it, I found pieces where I marked "missed opportunities" and possible alternate scenes, and indicated where I originally wrote something differently and later deleted it.

That's dangerous.

But, by that point, there was no turning back. Once I made the changes I initially wanted to, I decided to go thru from the beginning, using the commentary as my guide to figure out what maybe to change or update, or delete all together.

The final result is a longer version of the first story published October 2005. which was a darker version of Knight Rider. This new version is even more darker, but a substantial portion of the beginning dwells on the "reluctant hero" aspect that Michael Long now faces as he prepares to become Michael Knight. Don't expect a quick transition between the lives. A number of brand new scenes were written that deals with Michael initially not wanting anything to do with the Knight Foundation. These changes were based upon me getting "into the zone" as I was re-reading through the story and a drastic plot change I am about to share with you.

Michael Long's death scene. This is a change that was spawned directly from the Commentary where I originally toyed with the idea of Michael not knowing who actually killed him, and finding Lonnie dead on arrival. By changing this, I essentially had to change everything that dealt with knowledge and intelligence of Tanya Walker from that point on. But I think it worked to my advantage, as it removes many of the borrowed elements from 1982's Knight of the Phoenix, and makes the story that much more original. And darker.

While that is the most drastic plot change in the story, it spurs the most drastic changes, and about 90 percent of the source of the 4000 extra words that are in this new version. Aside from the aforementioned "reluctant hero" plot, we get to see more of Michael interacting with Wilton Knight, especially his anger and distrust of The Old Man when he finds out that Wilton knew about Tanya all along.

As I continued with Michael's adjustment phase, I knew that it was only the man he presently hated who could convince him to join the team, not Devon. So instead of Devon taking Michael for a ride in the car (more on that later), it is Wilton. The "test drive scene" is then seamlessly merged with dialogue from "Wilton's Death Scene" in the original version. It is only then when both men gain and understanding for one another, and they ride off into the sunrise (a play on our heroes going off into the sunset).

I kept Wilton's death ambiguous, to the effect that we really don't need to see his death scene with the changes that I made that brought him and Michael a substantial amount of face time.

“The world needs more people like us,” Michael said, “but as you said, it’s not perfect.”

“All it takes is one man to stand up and change that,” Wilton said.

“One man can make a difference?” Michael asked.

Wilton smiled, “Now you’re on the right track.”

“Finally, right?” Michael asked with a laugh.

Wilton squeezed Michael’s shoulder and smiled, “Yes, and it’s about damn time.”

Both men laughed as the Camaro rocketed down the road into the sunrise.

I truly to believe that to be one of the most powerful scenes in the story, and one of the most I've ever written.

After that, I kept most everything the same. I threw a flashback scene into the middle of Michael's first break-in with ComTron that explains where he got his Com-Link, and what it is. Also, I extended that sequence a bit further showing Michael breaking out of the janitor's closet that shows from his point of view, his surprise that KITT is outside waiting for him, and not in the spot he first parked him at.

Later, when KITT busts out Michael from jail, I added a scene (that I included in the Commentary) that throws back to this scene. Michael is still surprised that KITT comes to his rescue (again) but in that scene, he is more accepting and appreciative. Whereas in the earlier scene, he is rendered almost silent.

After that, there are a few lines changed here and there, a few extra lines of dialogue. And then we end up back to where Michael is in jail, and the scene with Devon on the phone. As stated in the Commentary: "This next scene takes place solely at the Foundation headquarters near San Francisco. While I like seeing it from Devon’s perspective, I think it was a missed opportunity to get some POV from Devon and some thoughts." and later after that scene: I definitely should have written what was going on in Devon’s mind." So that's pretty much what I did. I extended the scene and showed it from Devon's point of view adding some inner monologue, and also showing how KITT knew to come get Michael.

Still around the jail sequences, I added a new scene showing how Gray and Wilson gained access to Michael, (I removed the phony court documents that I borrowed from the 1982 Pilot). This is more clever, shows the level of corruption and gives some extra banter between Gray and Wilson.

And after that, we go through the story as it was orignally written until we get to what started this in the first place. April replacing Bonnie. While I haven't written a story in over a year, I still conceived many, many ideas, and got some direction of what I want to happen to our characters. So it was necessary to include this change.

And finally... The car.

The most obvious, yet not change in the story, is that KITT is no longer a Cadillac XLR. Shortly after Reborn was released the plans for the Camaro Concept became more and more public, and more pictures started showing up. The car just screamed KNIGHT RIDER and that little intake on the nose of the car is the PERFECT place for a scanner. While I could have stayed with classic black, the silver paint job on the pictures of the concept car just stood out beyond belief. And the new(er) KITT was born (again).

The transition from Cadillac to Camaro was the very last thing I did to the story. I knew that once I finished that, the story would be finished for good, and I would have a satisfied vision of my new Knight Rider.

Enjoy!

-Scott Kirkessner
December 6, 2006




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