There wasn't much in the way of quality genre television produced in the 1980's. Doctor Who was on the decline, Star Trek The Next Generation didn't really get going until the last year of the decade and Knight Rider was the general level of popular action/science fiction that was being churned out of the USA circa 1984. Occasionally an American drama managed to climb above the standard level to deliver something a fraction more mature and a touch smarter. One such show was Airwolf which started a trend (along with Miami Vice and The Equaliser) to veer away from slightly dumber action adventure fare (The A-Team, The Fall Guy) with a more serious, thriller tone. It being the 80's, the quality of the stories and dialogue didn't improve much so there was a tendency to be corny and cliched a lot of the time, but the direction and acting was more somber and moody. It also helped that Airwolf often played on the larger canvas of an espionage thriller, rather than the crime of the week show that U.S. TV normally transmitted.
Aside from the pilot episode which had an impressively cinematic production level, the best episode of the show was early in the second season with "Moffett's Ghost". It brought the ruthless creator of Airwolf back for a cameo in which his character is revealed to have implanted a computer virus in Airwolf's electronics prior to his death, in essence possessing the super-copter like a demon might inhabit Linda Blair. With a race against the clock to rescue a stranded scientist from enemy soil, the heroes must exorcise the 'ghost' without killing themselves, shooting innocents out of the sky or destroying Airwolf herself.
The pairing of Jan Michael Vincent as silent-but-strong hero Stringfellow Hawke and Ernest Borgnine as chirpy mechanic Dominic Santini was inspired, effectively counter-balancing their characters in an engaging dynamic. Alex Cord, playing CIA director Archangel, does a good job of being the guy that gives them the orders yet cannot be trusted and provides the episode with the narrative thrust with the high stakes of nuclear Armageddon. Like Seaquest's Games episode, this is again a case of clever people trying to out-think and outwit each other, and those kind of mind games are always compulsive viewing.
Many of my favorite TV episodes work better than others simply because they exist within the context of a TV show rather than a stand alone story. The backstory a previous TV episode can not only add weight to to an new episodes story but it also makes the loyal audience who have seen the returning plot element or character before feel rewarded because they're 'in on it'. With actor David Hemmings returning to play Moffett, it's an episode that gets right to the heart of Airwolf...Airwolf herself...and deepen the mythology of a show back in an era when TV show mythologies were largely ignored beyond the pilot episode.
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