Some of S.I.D.'s sounds are from Star Trek TOS and floating round S.I.D. looks sort of like Nomad in The Changeling.
This is the only episode in which Michael and K.I.T.T. utilize S.I.D. (the Satellite Infiltration Drone), a flying radio-controlled robot designed to scan places where K.I.T.T. can't go. Normally seen in the form of a metallic box, here S.I.D. is disguised as a soccer ball. Bonnie is able to camouflage the device as virtually anything. It's also equipped with Audio, Video, Heat Sensors and a Homing Pulse.
S.I.D. was conceived much more ambitiously than what was seen on-screen. Tiny rods telescope out of S.I.D.'s equator and converge to form a gyrostablizing ring. Three metal probes pop up and out of him. He hovers a feet few above the ground. As written, he is slightly more bearable than he is on-screen, although there is still no real motivation for the main characters' love for him.
Tess Hubbard was written as "fifty-five, a heavyset, backwoods type; a gruff manner that covers a heart of gold." Sandra Rusk was envisaged as "a chic and yuppie-sexy brunette in a three-piece-suit." Wilson is described as "tough, leathery, an ex-soldier of fortune." He and Sandra Rusk are more than friends - a fact that doesn't make it to the episode.
K.I.T.T. is fitted with traction spikes on his tires and it's CPU is set to control SID, or Satellite Infiltration Drone.