Season 4 premiered in January 1987 with an episode titled "PMR-1," tasked with the awkward mandate of explaining where the entire original cast went. Vincent agreed to appear in the opening episode for a single day of shooting, reportedly receiving a modest appearance fee simply to hand over the narrative reins. His brief screen presence remains painful to watch for longtime fans: visibly gaunt and lethargic, Hawke is quickly wounded in an off-screen explosion orchestrated by enemy agents.
Dominic Santini was killed off-screen in the same incident, while Hawke was placed into a coma at a military hospital. This abrupt plot maneuver introduced his long-lost brother, Saint John Hawke, played by Barry Van Dyke. Saint John took control of the supercopter alongside Dominic's niece, Jo Santini (Michele Scarabelli), and new agent Jason Locke (Anthony Sherwood). Hawke was never seen on screen again, quietly written out of the show's continuity while recovering in seclusion.
The resulting 24 episodes suffered from hollow production values. Canadian overcast skies clashed visibly with the recycled sunny Southern California aerial stock footage inserted into every dogfight. Audiences rejected the substitute cast and stripped-down presentation, cementing the season as one of television's most notorious syndication experiments.
