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** In "Cold Warriors" a retired secret agent appears to fight the bad guys. He is driving a Ferrari 250 GTE which does look similiar to an [[{{Goldfinger}} Aston Martin DB5]]. Everytime this secret agent appears a Bond-like music is played in background and its also mentioned that it has some gimmicks (but only a secret storage under the seat is revealed).
*** Aside from this gag it could be also mentioned that the controls for the gimmicks we see are labeled as "Head lights", "dashboard lights" and "fog lights". We do not see what the rest of the gimmicks are labeled so this could just be an inside joke.
*** Aside from this gag it could be also mentioned that the controls for the gimmicks we see are labeled as "Head lights", "dashboard lights" and "fog lights". We do not see what the rest of the gimmicks are labeled so this could just be an inside joke.
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*** The german synchro made this gag more obvious in case that people didnt know that this was the Batmobile. Cole says to Frankie "Did you change your car for the Batmobile"?.
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** Inverted in case of the EMP gun effects for Season 3. The new design was supposed to look more impressive but it didnt work out well. This is especially the case when the EMP is hitting a car. All other EMP effects stayed the same as in Season 1 and 2.
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* ImprobableAimingSkills: We already know that the Viper is a cool car because it has {{EMP}} and PlotSensitiveItems that are [[AsLethalAsItNeedsToBe as lethal as they need to be]]. But did you know that you can perform awesome aiming? If you aim at the front of a car you can also hit the side of the car. [[http://abload.de/img/_20140920-00192548k5swt.jpg]] Even if you dont actually aim at the car you can hit it. [[http://abload.de/img/_20140920-00484106y8spn.jpg]] The [[ATeamFiring A-Team]] would love it.
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* LampshadeHanging: Cole is aware that he needs PlotSensitiveItems if he doesnt want to hurt someone. This applies for several Season 2 and 3 episodes.
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** You are the bad guy and you think you are safe inside a car because ConcealmentEqualsCover? "The Best Couple" proves wrong. Even when Cole is setting his machine gun to the smallest amound of caliber the bullet rips through the passenger door and injures the driver.
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* HarmlessElectrocution: Hitting a man with an EMP cannon seems to only tickle a little bit.
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* PlotSensitiveItems: The EMP gun is this. It can shut down an engine and make it almost uncontrollable but if you hit a human with it, it just [[HarmlessElectrocution tickles]] you.
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* [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/Viper Trivia page]]
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* HeyItsThatGuy:
** [[FullMetalJacket Dorian]] [[TheSarahConnorChronicles Harewood]] as Julian Wilkes.
** And then a much younger [[Series/BreakingBad Bryan Cranston]] played the villain in "Wheels of Fire."
** This can happen to any [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/StargateSG1 Stargate]] fan when watching "The Best Couple" with [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/EUREKA Garwin]][[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/Stargateatlantis Sanford]].
* HeyItsThatVoice: James [=McCaffrey=] would later become the voice actor of VideoGame/MaxPayne.
** [[FullMetalJacket Dorian]] [[TheSarahConnorChronicles Harewood]] as Julian Wilkes.
** And then a much younger [[Series/BreakingBad Bryan Cranston]] played the villain in "Wheels of Fire."
** This can happen to any [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/StargateSG1 Stargate]] fan when watching "The Best Couple" with [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/EUREKA Garwin]][[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/Stargateatlantis Sanford]].
* HeyItsThatVoice: James [=McCaffrey=] would later become the voice actor of VideoGame/MaxPayne.
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** This can happen to any [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/StargateSG1 Stargate]] fan when watching "The Best Couple" with [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/EUREKA Garwin]][[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/Stargateatlantis Sanford]].
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* AsLethalAsItNeedsToBe: This could be applied for the Season 3 Episode "Hidden Agenda". The machine gun of the Viper makes an enormous amount of damage to a Dodge Intrepid. But the bullets from the weapon of the bad girl only put a dent into the car parked next to her. It actually looks more like damage from a firecracker.
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** ImpressivePyrotechnics were subverted again in "Hidden Agenda". A Dodge Intrepid is loaded with bullets from a machine gun until every part of the car is damaged but still it doesnt explode. The car standing right next to it gets bullets from another impressive gun but it doesnt get a scratch. Only a small dent is seen from the firecracker hitting the car.
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* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Almost everytime you see a Dodge Intrepid in Season 3 it gets loaded with bullets because someone is hiding inside or behind the Intrepid. This gets really crazy in "Hidden Agenda" when three guys hide behind a Dodge Intrepid. After the Defender emptied his magazine, the car is completely ruined. But the three guys stay unharmed. [[http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=272872 Look here at bottom of the page, last picture is from "Hidden Agenda"]].
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* SubvertedTrope: In "White Fire" the Viper shoots with the EMP cannon at a van loaded with Napalm. The best chance to justify ImpressivePyrotechnics, isn't it? But all we get is a tiny explosion. Ironically after the explosion only tiny pieces of the car survive and Thomas Cole comments that he has never seen anything burning so much. Exactly the same happens with another car fitted with a napalm bomb at the end of the same episode. But this time we even see the bomb car driving away from the explosion with only small scratches.
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*DelayedExplosion: In "Shutdown" the [[spoiler: real]] Defender shoots a Rocket at [[spoiler: the fake Defender]] which goes under the car. It takes two seconds until the explosion appears. This might be a goof caused by the MiniatureEffects.
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typo
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* Styrofoam Rocks: In "Cold Storage", the stunt men are running away from an explosion. The Styrofoam Rocks flying around have been broken and you can clearly see the white unpainted inside of the Rocks.
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* Styrofoam Rocks: StyrofoamRocks: In "Cold Storage", the stunt men are running away from an explosion. The Styrofoam Rocks flying around have been broken and you can clearly see the white unpainted inside of the Rocks.
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* EveryCarIsaPinto: "Firehawk" and "On a Roll" both include a scene where the Defender shoots with an EMP cannon at a junk car which is in such a bad shape that its beyond a chance for repair. However it still explodes despite the fact that an Electromagnetic Pulse (= EMP) cannon could only damage electronic equipment. But this junk car has obviously no electronic equipment anymore that could set off an explosion.
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* PursuedProtagonist: In the beginning of the Pilot episode of Season 2 "Winner Take All" Thomas Cole is chased by the Police for speeding.
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* SequelEscalation: The Defender in Season 2 has even more insane gadgets like a flying drone.
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* MiniatureEffects: When in "Shutdown" the used car dealership is blown up, all cars are just miniature models. The main reason is that there were two at the time brand-new Sebring Convertibles parked that were exploding.
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** The transformation of the Viper looks way better in Season 2.
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* Styrofoam Rocks: In "Cold Storage", the stunt men are running away from an explosion. The Styrofoam Rocks flying around have been broken and you can clearly see the white unpainted inside of the Rocks.
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** In "Shutdown" we see an used car Dealership full of 13 Chrysler Corporation cars. 5 Dodges, 4 Chrysler and 4 Eagle (Eagle was part of Chrysler).
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** And then a much younger [[BreakingBad Bryan Cranston]] played the villain in "Wheels of Fire."
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** And then a much younger [[BreakingBad [[Series/BreakingBad Bryan Cranston]] played the villain in "Wheels of Fire."
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* SpecialEffectsEvolution: A minor example- The transformations for ThePilot and season 1 were by Creator/MetrolightStudios of ''Film/TotalRecall''. from seasons 2-4, the scenes were done by two people.
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* SpecialEffectsEvolution: A minor example- The transformations for ThePilot and season 1 were by Creator/MetrolightStudios of ''Film/TotalRecall''.''Film/TotalRecall1990''. from seasons 2-4, the scenes were done by two people.
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* SpecialEffectsEvolution: A minor example- The transformations for ThePilot and season 1 were by MetrolightStudios of ''Film/TotalRecall''. from seasons 2-4, the scenes were done by two people.
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* SpecialEffectsEvolution: A minor example- The transformations for ThePilot and season 1 were by MetrolightStudios Creator/MetrolightStudios of ''Film/TotalRecall''. from seasons 2-4, the scenes were done by two people.
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* VillainEpisode: [[spoiler: "Split Decision."]]
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* VillainEpisode: [[spoiler: "Split Decision."]]"]]
----
----
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* HighTechHexagons: The titular high-tech supercar had an armored body/shell comprised of hexagonal tiles. Though they were normally blended together in such a way that the seams were invisible, they manifested when the vehicle suffered damage, or transformed to or from its 'less conspicuous' street car mode.
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With a heavy emphasis on identity and morality, and featuring a soundtrack composed by [[RoxyMusic Eddie Jobson]] and [[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Shirley Walker]], the first season had incredible writing and production values for something that was basically [[ProductPlacement a weekly Dodge commercial]]. This creative style [[ExecutiveMeddling was abruptly dropped at the end of the first season]] and [[AdaptationDecay was never really picked up again.]]
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With a heavy emphasis on identity and morality, and featuring a soundtrack composed by [[RoxyMusic Eddie Jobson]] and [[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Shirley Walker]], the first season had incredible writing and production values for something that was basically [[ProductPlacement a weekly Dodge commercial]]. This creative style [[ExecutiveMeddling was abruptly dropped at the end of the first season]] and [[AdaptationDecay was never really picked up again.]]
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* SpecialEffectsEvolution: A minor example- The transformations for ThePilot and season 1 were by MetrolightStudios of ''Film/TotalRecall''. from seasons 2-4, the scenes were done by two people.
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Seasons 2 and 3 are far less ambitious in design, but can still be entertaining on their own merit. The setting is shifted back into a strictly modern (i.e. lower budget) environment, despite still taking place in Metro City and explicitly being set ''after'' the events of the NBC series. Here, the Viper team is a legitimately employed police force fighting their city's latest crime wave. The show is almost completely recast, with Frankie being the only permanent character over the course of the entire series. The storytelling is also much more episodic, following a traditional CopShow format where the heroes try to take down a different random criminal each week. There is no overarching group of villains, and the episodes carry little to no continuity between each other. Jay Ferguson takes over as soundtrack composer and maintains this role for the rest of the series.
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Seasons 2 and 3 are far less ambitious in design, but can still be entertaining on their own merit. The setting is shifted back into a strictly modern (i.e. lower budget) environment, despite still taking place in Metro City and explicitly being set ''after'' the events of the NBC series. Here, the Viper team is a legitimately employed police force fighting their city's latest crime wave. The show is almost completely recast, with Frankie being the only permanent character over the course of the entire series. The storytelling is also much more episodic, following a traditional CopShow format where the heroes try to take down a different random criminal each week. There is no overarching group of villains, and the episodes carry little to no continuity between each other. Jay Ferguson takes over as soundtrack composer and maintains this role for the rest of the series.
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* HeyItsThatVoice: James [=McCaffrey=] would later become the voice actor of MaxPayne.
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* HeyItsThatVoice: James [=McCaffrey=] would later become the voice actor of MaxPayne.VideoGame/MaxPayne.
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* DistaffCounterpart: "Female CommissionerGordon" is probably the single most accurate way Delia Thorne can be described.
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* DistaffCounterpart: "Female CommissionerGordon" Commissioner Gordon" is probably the single most accurate way Delia Thorne can be described.
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* DiesWideShut: Payton, just after the car crash.
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* DiesWideShut: DiesWideOpen: Payton, just after the car crash.
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''Viper'' is a live-action science fiction TV series that was created by [[Film/TheRocketeer Paul De Meo]] and [[TheSentinel Danny Bilson]] and aired from 1994 to 1999. The show revolves around a modified Dodge Viper that can transform into the Defender, [[CoolCar an armored supercar]] designed for catching the most dangerous criminals. The first season aired as an NBC exclusive from January to April 1994 and disappeared from the network after completing its first run. The show came back for a syndicated second season in the fall of 1996. It retained this format up through its concluding fourth season.
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''Viper'' is a live-action science fiction TV series that was created by [[Film/TheRocketeer Paul De Meo]] and [[TheSentinel [[Series/TheSentinel Danny Bilson]] and aired from 1994 to 1999. The show revolves around a modified Dodge Viper that can transform into the Defender, [[CoolCar an armored supercar]] designed for catching the most dangerous criminals. The first season aired as an NBC exclusive from January to April 1994 and disappeared from the network after completing its first run. The show came back for a syndicated second season in the fall of 1996. It retained this format up through its concluding fourth season.
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Undetailed examples and YMMV
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* CoolCar
* CriminalAmnesiac: Inverted.
* CriminalAmnesiac: Inverted.
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* {{Dystopia}}
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* TheFutureIsNoir
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* HeelFaceBrainwashing
* HeyItsThatGuy: [[FullMetalJacket Dorian]] [[TheSarahConnorChronicles Harewood]] as Julian Wilkes.
* HeyItsThatGuy: [[FullMetalJacket Dorian]] [[TheSarahConnorChronicles Harewood]] as Julian Wilkes.
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* HeelFaceBrainwashing
* HeyItsThatGuy:HeyItsThatGuy:
** [[FullMetalJacket Dorian]] [[TheSarahConnorChronicles Harewood]] as Julian Wilkes.
* HeyItsThatGuy:
** [[FullMetalJacket Dorian]] [[TheSarahConnorChronicles Harewood]] as Julian Wilkes.
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* LaserGuidedAmnesia
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* MagnificentBastard: Councilman Strand, played appropriately by ''MillersCrossing'' star Jon Polito.
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* QuestForIdentity
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->''"The perfect weapon for an imperfect future."''
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vipercast_5419.jpg]]
''Viper'' is a live-action science fiction TV series that was created by [[Film/TheRocketeer Paul De Meo]] and [[TheSentinel Danny Bilson]] and aired from 1994 to 1999. The show revolves around a modified Dodge Viper that can transform into the Defender, [[CoolCar an armored supercar]] designed for catching the most dangerous criminals. The first season aired as an NBC exclusive from January to April 1994 and disappeared from the network after completing its first run. The show came back for a syndicated second season in the fall of 1996. It retained this format up through its concluding fourth season.
Season 1 takes place [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in the near future]], where the fictitious Metro City is being overrun by a [[TheMafia mafia]]-like organization of [[{{Cyberpunk}} cyberpunk]] thieves called the Outfit. The only thing that ''should'' be standing in their way is the Viper, but one thing is stopping the project from coming to fruition: The car is so powerful and requires such quick reflexes to control that every commissioned police driver to date has failed their field test. With funding running out and no hope of success remaining, the program is on the verge of cancellation.
Meanwhile, Michael Payton, the Outfit's lead getaway driver, lies in a coma after wrecking his [[EverybodyOwnsAFord Dodge Stealth]] in a botched heist. Seeing this as a final chance to save the Viper Project and promote his own political career, [[BigBrotherIsWatching Big Brother]]-type Councilman Strand secretly orders for Payton to be pronounced dead and have a microchip surgically implanted in his brain to erase his criminal persona. After the operation, Payton wakes up with total amnesia and is told he is Officer Joe Astor, a false identity invented by Strand to explain why a supposed expert pursuit driver was transferred to Metro's police district just in the nick of time. Astor proves to be a suitable driver, but things quickly turn sour.
Parts of Astor's previous memories begin surfacing in the form of dreams and bizarre flashbacks, and he quickly puts together he's not exactly who the police say he is. He ultimately accepts his [[{{Mindrape}} mindrape]] as a second chance to live a clean life and, upon realizing both sides of the law are corrupt, he hijacks the Defender with the help of its civilian inventor, Julian Wilkes, and a sympathetic Metropol motor pool officer, Franklin X. Waters. The three crime fighters spend the rest of the season working out of a [[ElaborateUndergroundBase secret base]] converted from an abandoned power station. This course of action regularly puts Astor up against his old allies (and enemies) within the Outfit, who all easily recognize him despite being total strangers to him.
With a heavy emphasis on identity and morality, and featuring a soundtrack composed by [[RoxyMusic Eddie Jobson]] and [[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Shirley Walker]], the first season had incredible writing and production values for something that was basically [[ProductPlacement a weekly Dodge commercial]]. This creative style [[ExecutiveMeddling was abruptly dropped at the end of the first season]] and [[AdaptationDecay was never really picked up again.]]
Seasons 2 and 3 are far less ambitious in design, but can still be entertaining on their own merit. The setting is shifted back into a strictly modern (i.e. lower budget) environment, despite still taking place in Metro City and explicitly being set ''after'' the events of the NBC series. Here, the Viper team is a legitimately employed police force fighting their city's latest crime wave. The show is almost completely recast, with Frankie being the only permanent character over the course of the entire series. The storytelling is also much more episodic, following a traditional CopShow format where the heroes try to take down a different random criminal each week. There is no overarching group of villains, and the episodes carry little to no continuity between each other. Jay Ferguson takes over as soundtrack composer and maintains this role for the rest of the series.
Season 4 sees Joe Astor returning as the story's main protagonist and becoming a member of the Season 2-3 cast. It serves as a compromise between the show's two distinct formats, combining elements of both while trying to maintain a single canon. There are a few notable throwbacks to Season 1 spread throughout, but this season's true MagnumOpus is the two part finale entitled "Split Decision." In addition to ending the series as a whole, it can be seen as the proper (albeit [[{{Retcon}} somewhat flawed]]) conclusion the first season never received.
Think of it as a '90s version of ''KnightRider''.
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!!''{{Viper}}'' provides examples of:
* ActionGirl: Gerraro in Season 1; Westlake in Seasons 2-4.
* ActionSeries: In varying degrees.
* AffablyEvil CorruptCorporateExecutive: Both leaders of the Outfit (Mr. Townsend in the pilot and Lane Cassidy for the rest of Season 1) are this. Cassidy manages to hide his corrupt motives by being a VillainWithGoodPublicity.
* AmnesiacDissonance: Season 1 toys around with it, but "Split Decision" hits it ''hard.''
* AnimalMotif: The Defender has narrow, snake-like headlight "eyes" and battering ram "fangs." Then there's the fact the transformation sequence for Season 1 was deliberately modeled after a snake shedding its skin.
* AscendedFanboy: Automotives nut Frankie is infatuated with the Viper. He weasels his way into serving as the team's underground liaison for the first season, then becomes the car's lead mechanic for the second season onward.
* BadassDriver: Obviously.
* BeardOfEvil: Payton in the pilot, then Connor during his return in "Ghosts."
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Alec Connor.]]
* {{Bookends}}
** For the Season 1 pilot: "They'll have to catch us first."
** For the series as a whole: In his first on-screen appearance, Payton is shown stealing an experimental satellite component. [[spoiler: At the end of "Split Decision," the final line of the series is Astor telling Westlake how he "stole" the Viper for their skiing vacation.]]
* BrainUploading: The episode "Once A Thief" deals with Joe meeting one of the [[ReluctantMadScientist Reluctant Mad Scientists]] responsible for his brain implant. The doctor reveals he has a backup of Michael Payton's ''entire mind'' on a small harddrive and offers to digitally re-install it onto Joe's microchip in true ''JohnnyMnemonic'' style. [[spoiler: Joe eventually declines the offer and destroys the backup, fearing the potential evil his own criminal half could cause in his new position.]]
* CarFu: Payton uses it as a means of escape in the pilot [[spoiler: and "Split Decision."]]
* CartwrightCurse: Joe had a bad case of this in Season 1.
* ChekhovsGun: The Jabberwocky virus in "Firehawk."
* CoolCar
* CriminalAmnesiac: Inverted.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Inverted, as the microchip implant ends up making Joe ''more'' human.
** Played straight in the episode "Thief of Hearts," where a dying Outfit boss becomes so obsessed with stealing an '''artificial''' heart to extend his own life that he doesn't care he's sentencing the IllGirl it was actually designed for [[MoralEventHorizon to death.]]
* DiesWideShut: Payton, just after the car crash.
* DistaffCounterpart: "Female CommissionerGordon" is probably the single most accurate way Delia Thorne can be described.
* DoesntLikeGuns: Julian. He strongly vetoes adding any sort of assault weapons to the Season 1 model of the Defender, citing his hatred of guns after gang crossfire left him paraplegic as a child.
* {{Dystopia}}
* {{EMP}}: The Defender often uses a miniaturized version of this as its primary weapon. If you're being chased by it, you better pray your vehicle is equipped with [[TechnoBabble a static pulse collector or a negative ion field.]]
* EverybodyOwnsAFord: In the future, everybody owns a Chrysler. Nearly every vehicle used in Season 1's production was either an available Chrysler model or a Chrysler concept car. Examples of the latter include Julian's EPIC minivan and Strand's '93 Thunderbolt.
* EvilBrit: Alec Connor, who regularly crosses the MoralEventHorizon and serves as a contrast to show Payton was never really ''that'' evil.
* EvilCounterpart: The Firehawk, which is driven by a former Viper test driver who went AxeCrazy after failing to cope with rejection. Going back to the ''KnightRider'' analogy, it's basically the unholy fusion of KARR and Goliath.
* ExpandedUniverse: DCComics released a 4-issue comic book miniseries in late 1994. It features an original plot set in Season 1.
* [[FantasyForbiddingFather Fantasy-Forbidding Mother]]: The kid in "Safe as Houses" idolizes Joe as a superhero and often calls ''him'' the Defender. His mother doesn't believe in the rumors about a top secret crime fighting vehicle roaming the streets and scolds him for believing in what she thinks is pure fantasy. [[spoiler: She finds out she was wrong.]]
* FiveManBand: The Outfit's Highwaymen division is a corrupt version of this.
** TheHero: Michael Payton
** TheLancer: Alec Connor
** TheSmartGuy: Yuri
** TheBigGuy: Nichols
** TheChick: Andi
* TheFutureIsNoir
* GeniusCripple: Julian Wilkes.
* HeelFaceBrainwashing
* HeyItsThatGuy: [[FullMetalJacket Dorian]] [[TheSarahConnorChronicles Harewood]] as Julian Wilkes.
** And then a much younger [[BreakingBad Bryan Cranston]] played the villain in "Wheels of Fire."
* HeyItsThatVoice: James [=McCaffrey=] would later become the voice actor of MaxPayne.
* HopeSpot: Elizabeth tries desperately to tell Joe that she really cares for him despite being (a reluctant) part of the brainwashing plot. Joe abandons her, but then Julian persuades him to accept her and let her help him put his life together. [[spoiler: Just as he arrives at her house to forgive her, [[StuffedInAFridge she's blown up by an Outfit-planted bomb to punish Joe for not bringing the Viper to them.]]]]
* IJustWantToBeYou: In "Past Tense," [[spoiler: the woman who was hired to impersonate Payton/Astor's missing wife so she could assassinate him ends up breaking down and revealing she feels this way about the real Claire.]]
-->[[spoiler: "A hundred times a day, we'd go over the story, every detail. Lang taught me to speak like Claire, to move like her. I cut my hair the way she did, wore her clothes. And then I started to think the way she thought and feel what she felt. Whoever Claire really was, I got swallowed up inside her. Right now, I can't even remember my own name. I became someone else, just like you did."]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Season 1 heavily implies Payton was always this, [[spoiler: and "Split Decision" confirms it in its closing moments.]] [[FridgeBrilliance Hence why it was in his nature to accept the new life he had been forced into.]]
* LaserGuidedAmnesia
* MagicPlasticSurgery: Subverted. Payton's eyes are dyed a different color and a few minor adjustments are made to his facial structure to hide his real identity, but ''nobody'' fails to recognize him once they see him in person.
* MagnificentBastard: Councilman Strand, played appropriately by ''MillersCrossing'' star Jon Polito.
* MidSeriesUpgrade: The Viper RT/10 used for the first three seasons is replaced by the newer Viper GTS at the beginning of Season 4. The corresponding Defender model gets some new gimmicks, including a [[AwesomeButImpractical hovercraft mode.]]
* MoodWhiplash: [[spoiler: Strand being sent to sleep with the fishes]] immediately cuts to innocent children laughing and playing.
* MythologyGag: Two big ones in Season 1
** KITT's most recent appearance before ''Viper'' was made was in ''KnightRider 2000,'' where he was installed in a Dodge Stealth that [[http://kr2k.com/bts1.html the studio customized to look like a Plymouth Banshee]]. One could interpret the events of the pilot episode to mean Joe wrecked KITT to upgrade to the Viper.
** The Season 1 episode "Wheels of Fire" involves the Baxley, a legendary concept car that Julian states was his inspiration for the Viper. It was depicted as a red Lincoln Futura: The same model of car used for the [[{{Series/Batman}} 1960's Batmobile.]]
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Frankie speaks with a obvious Brooklyn accent for all of Season 1, then drops it for no discernible reason for the rest of the series.
* QuestForIdentity
* RecycledSoundtrack
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDfAma4h830 This]] early Season 1 promo features Basil Poledouris's "Anvil of Crom" from the ''ConanTheBarbarian'' soundtrack.
** Jay Ferguson would later reuse the opening theme he created for Season 4 in [[{{Tremors}} Tremors 4: The Legend Begins.]]
* {{Retcon}}
** In "Winner Take All," Westlake's commander refers to the Season 2 car as "The latest prototype," marking it as a new, completely separate model and leaving the fate of the Season 1 car open for speculation. In "The Return," one of the very first things Joe does is refer to the Season 3 [[CliffHanger cliff hanger]] by asking which member of the new cast "blew up [his] old Viper." And they roll with it.
** "Once a Thief" establishes Joe's microchip completely erased his original consciousness and the only way to reverse the effect is to re-install his memories from an external backup. "Split Decision" suddenly changes this, stating all of the older memories are actually still there and the microchip just generates some kind of active firewall to prevent him from using them.
* StockFootage: Season 1 occasionally reused one of the Viper's earlier transformation sequences as a transitional shot. It got worse later on, where Season 2's "On a Roll" and Season 3's "Wilderness Run" copied and pasted entire chase sequences from Season 1's "Firehawk" and "Thief of Hearts." The former example even used [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpwH-HqVhRw#t=8m40s almost the exact same dialogue]] as the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZg_VAOwV_g#t=45s original scene]].
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Claire]] in "Past Tense."
* VillainEpisode: [[spoiler: "Split Decision."]]
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vipercast_5419.jpg]]
''Viper'' is a live-action science fiction TV series that was created by [[Film/TheRocketeer Paul De Meo]] and [[TheSentinel Danny Bilson]] and aired from 1994 to 1999. The show revolves around a modified Dodge Viper that can transform into the Defender, [[CoolCar an armored supercar]] designed for catching the most dangerous criminals. The first season aired as an NBC exclusive from January to April 1994 and disappeared from the network after completing its first run. The show came back for a syndicated second season in the fall of 1996. It retained this format up through its concluding fourth season.
Season 1 takes place [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in the near future]], where the fictitious Metro City is being overrun by a [[TheMafia mafia]]-like organization of [[{{Cyberpunk}} cyberpunk]] thieves called the Outfit. The only thing that ''should'' be standing in their way is the Viper, but one thing is stopping the project from coming to fruition: The car is so powerful and requires such quick reflexes to control that every commissioned police driver to date has failed their field test. With funding running out and no hope of success remaining, the program is on the verge of cancellation.
Meanwhile, Michael Payton, the Outfit's lead getaway driver, lies in a coma after wrecking his [[EverybodyOwnsAFord Dodge Stealth]] in a botched heist. Seeing this as a final chance to save the Viper Project and promote his own political career, [[BigBrotherIsWatching Big Brother]]-type Councilman Strand secretly orders for Payton to be pronounced dead and have a microchip surgically implanted in his brain to erase his criminal persona. After the operation, Payton wakes up with total amnesia and is told he is Officer Joe Astor, a false identity invented by Strand to explain why a supposed expert pursuit driver was transferred to Metro's police district just in the nick of time. Astor proves to be a suitable driver, but things quickly turn sour.
Parts of Astor's previous memories begin surfacing in the form of dreams and bizarre flashbacks, and he quickly puts together he's not exactly who the police say he is. He ultimately accepts his [[{{Mindrape}} mindrape]] as a second chance to live a clean life and, upon realizing both sides of the law are corrupt, he hijacks the Defender with the help of its civilian inventor, Julian Wilkes, and a sympathetic Metropol motor pool officer, Franklin X. Waters. The three crime fighters spend the rest of the season working out of a [[ElaborateUndergroundBase secret base]] converted from an abandoned power station. This course of action regularly puts Astor up against his old allies (and enemies) within the Outfit, who all easily recognize him despite being total strangers to him.
With a heavy emphasis on identity and morality, and featuring a soundtrack composed by [[RoxyMusic Eddie Jobson]] and [[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Shirley Walker]], the first season had incredible writing and production values for something that was basically [[ProductPlacement a weekly Dodge commercial]]. This creative style [[ExecutiveMeddling was abruptly dropped at the end of the first season]] and [[AdaptationDecay was never really picked up again.]]
Seasons 2 and 3 are far less ambitious in design, but can still be entertaining on their own merit. The setting is shifted back into a strictly modern (i.e. lower budget) environment, despite still taking place in Metro City and explicitly being set ''after'' the events of the NBC series. Here, the Viper team is a legitimately employed police force fighting their city's latest crime wave. The show is almost completely recast, with Frankie being the only permanent character over the course of the entire series. The storytelling is also much more episodic, following a traditional CopShow format where the heroes try to take down a different random criminal each week. There is no overarching group of villains, and the episodes carry little to no continuity between each other. Jay Ferguson takes over as soundtrack composer and maintains this role for the rest of the series.
Season 4 sees Joe Astor returning as the story's main protagonist and becoming a member of the Season 2-3 cast. It serves as a compromise between the show's two distinct formats, combining elements of both while trying to maintain a single canon. There are a few notable throwbacks to Season 1 spread throughout, but this season's true MagnumOpus is the two part finale entitled "Split Decision." In addition to ending the series as a whole, it can be seen as the proper (albeit [[{{Retcon}} somewhat flawed]]) conclusion the first season never received.
Think of it as a '90s version of ''KnightRider''.
----
!!''{{Viper}}'' provides examples of:
* ActionGirl: Gerraro in Season 1; Westlake in Seasons 2-4.
* ActionSeries: In varying degrees.
* AffablyEvil CorruptCorporateExecutive: Both leaders of the Outfit (Mr. Townsend in the pilot and Lane Cassidy for the rest of Season 1) are this. Cassidy manages to hide his corrupt motives by being a VillainWithGoodPublicity.
* AmnesiacDissonance: Season 1 toys around with it, but "Split Decision" hits it ''hard.''
* AnimalMotif: The Defender has narrow, snake-like headlight "eyes" and battering ram "fangs." Then there's the fact the transformation sequence for Season 1 was deliberately modeled after a snake shedding its skin.
* AscendedFanboy: Automotives nut Frankie is infatuated with the Viper. He weasels his way into serving as the team's underground liaison for the first season, then becomes the car's lead mechanic for the second season onward.
* BadassDriver: Obviously.
* BeardOfEvil: Payton in the pilot, then Connor during his return in "Ghosts."
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Alec Connor.]]
* {{Bookends}}
** For the Season 1 pilot: "They'll have to catch us first."
** For the series as a whole: In his first on-screen appearance, Payton is shown stealing an experimental satellite component. [[spoiler: At the end of "Split Decision," the final line of the series is Astor telling Westlake how he "stole" the Viper for their skiing vacation.]]
* BrainUploading: The episode "Once A Thief" deals with Joe meeting one of the [[ReluctantMadScientist Reluctant Mad Scientists]] responsible for his brain implant. The doctor reveals he has a backup of Michael Payton's ''entire mind'' on a small harddrive and offers to digitally re-install it onto Joe's microchip in true ''JohnnyMnemonic'' style. [[spoiler: Joe eventually declines the offer and destroys the backup, fearing the potential evil his own criminal half could cause in his new position.]]
* CarFu: Payton uses it as a means of escape in the pilot [[spoiler: and "Split Decision."]]
* CartwrightCurse: Joe had a bad case of this in Season 1.
* ChekhovsGun: The Jabberwocky virus in "Firehawk."
* CoolCar
* CriminalAmnesiac: Inverted.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Inverted, as the microchip implant ends up making Joe ''more'' human.
** Played straight in the episode "Thief of Hearts," where a dying Outfit boss becomes so obsessed with stealing an '''artificial''' heart to extend his own life that he doesn't care he's sentencing the IllGirl it was actually designed for [[MoralEventHorizon to death.]]
* DiesWideShut: Payton, just after the car crash.
* DistaffCounterpart: "Female CommissionerGordon" is probably the single most accurate way Delia Thorne can be described.
* DoesntLikeGuns: Julian. He strongly vetoes adding any sort of assault weapons to the Season 1 model of the Defender, citing his hatred of guns after gang crossfire left him paraplegic as a child.
* {{Dystopia}}
* {{EMP}}: The Defender often uses a miniaturized version of this as its primary weapon. If you're being chased by it, you better pray your vehicle is equipped with [[TechnoBabble a static pulse collector or a negative ion field.]]
* EverybodyOwnsAFord: In the future, everybody owns a Chrysler. Nearly every vehicle used in Season 1's production was either an available Chrysler model or a Chrysler concept car. Examples of the latter include Julian's EPIC minivan and Strand's '93 Thunderbolt.
* EvilBrit: Alec Connor, who regularly crosses the MoralEventHorizon and serves as a contrast to show Payton was never really ''that'' evil.
* EvilCounterpart: The Firehawk, which is driven by a former Viper test driver who went AxeCrazy after failing to cope with rejection. Going back to the ''KnightRider'' analogy, it's basically the unholy fusion of KARR and Goliath.
* ExpandedUniverse: DCComics released a 4-issue comic book miniseries in late 1994. It features an original plot set in Season 1.
* [[FantasyForbiddingFather Fantasy-Forbidding Mother]]: The kid in "Safe as Houses" idolizes Joe as a superhero and often calls ''him'' the Defender. His mother doesn't believe in the rumors about a top secret crime fighting vehicle roaming the streets and scolds him for believing in what she thinks is pure fantasy. [[spoiler: She finds out she was wrong.]]
* FiveManBand: The Outfit's Highwaymen division is a corrupt version of this.
** TheHero: Michael Payton
** TheLancer: Alec Connor
** TheSmartGuy: Yuri
** TheBigGuy: Nichols
** TheChick: Andi
* TheFutureIsNoir
* GeniusCripple: Julian Wilkes.
* HeelFaceBrainwashing
* HeyItsThatGuy: [[FullMetalJacket Dorian]] [[TheSarahConnorChronicles Harewood]] as Julian Wilkes.
** And then a much younger [[BreakingBad Bryan Cranston]] played the villain in "Wheels of Fire."
* HeyItsThatVoice: James [=McCaffrey=] would later become the voice actor of MaxPayne.
* HopeSpot: Elizabeth tries desperately to tell Joe that she really cares for him despite being (a reluctant) part of the brainwashing plot. Joe abandons her, but then Julian persuades him to accept her and let her help him put his life together. [[spoiler: Just as he arrives at her house to forgive her, [[StuffedInAFridge she's blown up by an Outfit-planted bomb to punish Joe for not bringing the Viper to them.]]]]
* IJustWantToBeYou: In "Past Tense," [[spoiler: the woman who was hired to impersonate Payton/Astor's missing wife so she could assassinate him ends up breaking down and revealing she feels this way about the real Claire.]]
-->[[spoiler: "A hundred times a day, we'd go over the story, every detail. Lang taught me to speak like Claire, to move like her. I cut my hair the way she did, wore her clothes. And then I started to think the way she thought and feel what she felt. Whoever Claire really was, I got swallowed up inside her. Right now, I can't even remember my own name. I became someone else, just like you did."]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Season 1 heavily implies Payton was always this, [[spoiler: and "Split Decision" confirms it in its closing moments.]] [[FridgeBrilliance Hence why it was in his nature to accept the new life he had been forced into.]]
* LaserGuidedAmnesia
* MagicPlasticSurgery: Subverted. Payton's eyes are dyed a different color and a few minor adjustments are made to his facial structure to hide his real identity, but ''nobody'' fails to recognize him once they see him in person.
* MagnificentBastard: Councilman Strand, played appropriately by ''MillersCrossing'' star Jon Polito.
* MidSeriesUpgrade: The Viper RT/10 used for the first three seasons is replaced by the newer Viper GTS at the beginning of Season 4. The corresponding Defender model gets some new gimmicks, including a [[AwesomeButImpractical hovercraft mode.]]
* MoodWhiplash: [[spoiler: Strand being sent to sleep with the fishes]] immediately cuts to innocent children laughing and playing.
* MythologyGag: Two big ones in Season 1
** KITT's most recent appearance before ''Viper'' was made was in ''KnightRider 2000,'' where he was installed in a Dodge Stealth that [[http://kr2k.com/bts1.html the studio customized to look like a Plymouth Banshee]]. One could interpret the events of the pilot episode to mean Joe wrecked KITT to upgrade to the Viper.
** The Season 1 episode "Wheels of Fire" involves the Baxley, a legendary concept car that Julian states was his inspiration for the Viper. It was depicted as a red Lincoln Futura: The same model of car used for the [[{{Series/Batman}} 1960's Batmobile.]]
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Frankie speaks with a obvious Brooklyn accent for all of Season 1, then drops it for no discernible reason for the rest of the series.
* QuestForIdentity
* RecycledSoundtrack
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDfAma4h830 This]] early Season 1 promo features Basil Poledouris's "Anvil of Crom" from the ''ConanTheBarbarian'' soundtrack.
** Jay Ferguson would later reuse the opening theme he created for Season 4 in [[{{Tremors}} Tremors 4: The Legend Begins.]]
* {{Retcon}}
** In "Winner Take All," Westlake's commander refers to the Season 2 car as "The latest prototype," marking it as a new, completely separate model and leaving the fate of the Season 1 car open for speculation. In "The Return," one of the very first things Joe does is refer to the Season 3 [[CliffHanger cliff hanger]] by asking which member of the new cast "blew up [his] old Viper." And they roll with it.
** "Once a Thief" establishes Joe's microchip completely erased his original consciousness and the only way to reverse the effect is to re-install his memories from an external backup. "Split Decision" suddenly changes this, stating all of the older memories are actually still there and the microchip just generates some kind of active firewall to prevent him from using them.
* StockFootage: Season 1 occasionally reused one of the Viper's earlier transformation sequences as a transitional shot. It got worse later on, where Season 2's "On a Roll" and Season 3's "Wilderness Run" copied and pasted entire chase sequences from Season 1's "Firehawk" and "Thief of Hearts." The former example even used [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpwH-HqVhRw#t=8m40s almost the exact same dialogue]] as the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZg_VAOwV_g#t=45s original scene]].
* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Claire]] in "Past Tense."
* VillainEpisode: [[spoiler: "Split Decision."]]
