I’ve added two series to the round-up, by popular demand: “Charmed” and “Tru Calling.” Problem is, even with the extended text option, it’s getting unwieldy. So I’m splitting them over two entries to simplify life. This section contains “Charmed,” “Alias,” a brief mention of “Tarzan,” and “Smallville.” The second section has “Angel,” “West Wing,” and “Tru Calling.”
And for those folks who want it even more broken up or no spoilers or whatever…sorry, guys. Either you can read it or–if you’re concerned about spoilers–don’t read it. It’s called freedom of choice. Choosing what you wish to see or not see. Remember that it’s what makes America great…because not everybody does.
CHARMED: Ah, Paige…her heart’s in the right place, but her brain is somewhat south of that. Determined to save an innocent who’s already dead, she makes a deal with Holtz from Angel that nearly costs her both body and soul. Meanwhile Leo and Chris have a bogus journey, wandering on prehistoric terrain previously trod by Bill and Ted (and Kirk and the Gorn before that.) I’m just guessing here, but I think the Charmed folks thought Brian Krause (Leo) was going to be departing the end of last season…and then he didn’t. It no longer makes sense that Leo and Piper aren’t together since he’s around as much as before, if not more. Chris’s motives remain an annoying seesaw mystery and there’s no clear big bad, but who cares? You watch Charmed for the sister’s interaction, and it’s worth the investment of time. Also, I think Piper has the best diction of any character on TV. Every word is crisp, every sound enunciated. You don’t see that so much anymore.
ALIAS: I get the sense that things are being set up…but I’m fuzzy as to what they are. We get the return of fake Marcie, which is fine because, frankly, Sark is boring the crap out of me. I miss the crackling chemistry and quadruple crosses of the Syd’s dad/Syd’s mom/Sloane triangle of last year. Vaughn’s wife appears to be registering Syd as a threat, and she’s probably right. She’s rebound girl and she knows it. Meanwhile the Covenant continues to be a catch-all, nebulous evil organization of little interest. Can we PLEASE put a human face to them?
TARZAN: Okay…has anyone actually called him “Tarzan?” Why, for that matter, IS he Tarzan? Basically it’s “Beauty and the Beast,” except he’s prettier than she is.
SMALLVILLE: A truly great origin is rooted in simplicity. Young Bruce Wayne sees his parents gunned down and decides to fight crime by dressing as a bat (I said simple, not necessarily sane.) The last survivor of a dead world is rocketed to Earth, found and raised by a Kansas couple, and becomes his new world’s greatest defender. The problem with simplicity is that there’s a temptation to “clutter the myth.” The simplicity becomes, not a strength, but a tempting easel to scribble upon. Which is how you wind up with Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman, Supergirl, Kandor, and Krypto. In this week’s episode, “1961,” “Smallville” begins to fall prey to that. Personally, I’d have been happy never to refer to those dámņëd cave drawings again, but now it appears they’re rooted in some sort of “rite of passage” that had Jor-El and God knows who else swinging by Earth, and by the way, Jor-El may have “chosen” the Kents. Huh? The purity of the Superman origin is that Kal-El was basically a Hail Mary pass from a planet that was going buh-bye. Now it appears Clark’s arrival may have been decades in the making, and that Jor-El was aiming Clark right at the Kents themselves…which makes you wonder why he didn’t land the kid right in their back yard rather than the middle of a field where anyone could have found him. It creates more problems than it solves, attempts to explain that which doesn’t need explaining, and clutters the myth. “1961” was well-written and well-acted, and boy was the love scene steamy, but I’m not lovin’ the concept.
• 
Peter David: You watch Charmed for the sister’s interaction, and it’s worth the investment of time.
Luigi Novi: Uh, yeah, sure, that’s the reason most heterosexual males watch that show……… 😉
Peter David: Also, I think Piper has the best diction of any character on TV.
Luigi Novi: Ooh! Ooh! Must……resist……temptation……for running themed joke……
Peter David: SMALLVILLE: In this week’s episode, “1961,”…
Luigi Novi: Actually, the title of the episode is Relic. The “Smallville 1961” thing was just a promotional name for commercials and promos.
OTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT “YESTERDAY”:
So Lionel told Lex that the Luthors are descended from Scottish nobility? Hmmm…………I wonder if Lionel copied this little tidbit from a fellow millionaire’s backstory? A guy by the name of Wayne, perhaps?
Someone else on another board asked, after the octogonic hole in the cave closed up, did Lionel suddenly just lose interest in it all, and stopped posting security at the cave?
Man, didn’t Chloe look HOT in this episode? More and more I’m noticing how attractive she is.
Hiram’s wife tells “Joe” that the baby’s name is Jonathan, and that they’re still deciding. Clark later learns they were deciding between Jonathan and Gene. Um, how did they know it was a boy? Did the medical technology to determine a fetus’ gender exist in 1961?
The ending? AWESOME!!!!! Yeah, maybe it does clutter the myth, but since this is not canonical to the comics, the show has something of my blessing to tinker around with it, in part because at least one of the writers of the Superman books writers for it, and in general, the show has been well-written. They’ve been tweaking little things here and there that diverge from the established premises in the books for the past two seasons, so let’s see where they go with this one. I don’t think I’d like it if it were established in the comics (sounds like the kind of retcon John Byrne would do if he got his hands on Superman again), and it may make things less simple, but at least it has the virtue of being a very interesting revelation.
Since I only watch Smallville:
Although the preview package looked horrific, I thought this week’s ep was actually pretty good.
What seems to be happening is that the producers looked at fan reaction. They saw when they did Mutant Girl With Three Breasts and Murderous PMS Rage eps, all the fans complained “I don’t like the Kryptonite Villain of the Week.” So now they’re doing more stuff on the Superman mythos (IE: Krypton, Jor-El, Clark’s powers/destiny/future). And they need more material to keep feeding the beast.
Obviously, we’re dealing with a totally new continuity here. So being fanatical that it adheres to the movie version or the Byrne version is kind of silly at this point.
I’m torn on the idea of the Kents being “chosen.” My initial reaction was the same as PAD’s.
However, if you think about other versions: in the movie, I believe Jor-El gave young Clark lessons in Earth history (in the first Fortress of Solitude scene)…in the Byrne comics, Jor-El seemed to have a decent idea of what Earth was like.
My point is: how did they find out about us? Use a big giant telescope and act like the Peeping Toms of the Universe?
Some of the coincidences bothered me. Running into the Kents. Luthor’s grandpa being a crook, robbing a Lang, stopped by Jor-El. Although I am sure this will tie into the eventual Lionel-Lex split. I bet Lionel knows what happened, maybe even had a part in his parents’ death. I am almost sure Lex will one day kill his Dad (or let him die) and this will be one of the precipitating factors.
The SHIRTLESS CLARK WATCH (SCW) is now at 4.
The sex scene was okay but if they need to start asking the actresses to put out. Know your audience, dûmbáššëš.
Your dealing with mostly comic geeks watching the show. Comic geeks are overwhelmingly male. They are also overwhelmingly virgins (or dámņ close to it). We need to see some breasts somewhere, somehow, and that’s what Lana and Chloe need to start doing. Hëll, what about Annette O’Toole? I’d be all over that in a second.
Speaking of Chloe, what was with that Olivia Newton John “Let’s Get Physical” get up this week? I agree, she’s blossoming into a nubile young lady but she’s clearly at the point where she doesn’t quite know her personal style and so she switches from goth to glam to grunge trying to “find herself” while listening to Tori Amos records and burning incense candles.
All in all, a good ep but I think that rating will be adjusted up or down depending on how they handle the ramifications of the things they revealed.
A great origin may be rooted in simplicity, but a great character is rooted in complexity.
Batman’s origin may be summed up in simplicity, but I think you would agree that it makes for some pretty goofy story-telling if we keep everything simple. Batman’s appeal, to me, anyway, is more with why he does what he does. It may be rooted in that one event, but seeing as a person is a sum of his/her experiences, upbringing and who knows what, there is more than just that simple root.
Similarly, Superman’s appeal is (or should be) why he became Earth’s greatest defender (and consequently, why he stays that), which is what Smallville is trying to do. The simplicity of the root is still there: Krypton went boom, and Kal-El was sent to Earth just in time. That may be Kal-El’s origin, but I doubt that’s what defines him. It may be what sets him apart, but it doesn’t make him who he is – Clark Kent. That part is what’s shown in Smallville, his upbringing, the experiences that will culminate in his becoming Earth’s greatest defender.
Now, Jor-El’s coming to Earth doesn’t negate anything in his origin. It adds to it, and enhances that particular character, making him more real to Clark.
It does leave a lot of questions, which, depending on their answer, may enhance or ruin the story. But that is a matter of execution, not potential. If done right, this could enhance the character and make for a great story.
Granted, it’s not the pure Clark Kent/Superman we’ve been reading about for decades, but then, we’ve been reading that for decades, so we know that story. Do something new instead.
As for this episode: Yet another criminal Luthor in Smallville? Too convenient for my tastes, but glossing over that, the knowledge of Lionel’s squalid beginnings and his building Luthor Corp literally on the ashes of his parents make him even more intriguing than he is. For a while, though, I thought it was Jor-El who was responsible for his Luthor’s death. Who knows, he may yet be revealed to be. It would add motivation to Lionel’s interest in Clark.
I find myself intrigued in where this will be headed.
Oh, and Jor-El probably missed the Kent farm, due to his aim being screwed up by his planet exploding around him.
Also, I’m all for more shirtless Clark.
As for Tarzan (also often shirtless), he introduced himself as such (Tarzan, not shirtless) in the pilot episode.
The only show of these that I watch is ‘Tarzan’, so I can answer that question. In the pilot, when Jane first called him John he said, “I am Tarzan, he calls me John.” The ‘he’ meaning Richard Greystoke, his hated uncle. Why she still calls him John, who knows?
You need a face for the Covenant?
How’s Sloan grab you?
Surely I’m not the only one convinced that Sloan is the head of this secret organization?
He’s too deeply entrenched in the evil of the world to be changed by the word peace. I don’t care if it came from an ancient relic. He’s playing everyone for his own goals once again. Think about it. He took thirty years to collect the pieces of the Rimbaldi artifacts. Two years to gain the trust of the CIA for revenge against Sid and her dad for betraying him is nothing.
I begin to suspect the “1961” episode was concocted with one important function in mind; getting Clark and his family out of the corner they’d painted themselves into. In the previous season, Clark believed he was destined to be a conqueror, “in hoc signo vinces,” and Jor-El looked like a Kryptonian fascist. Made for a deep season-ender, but if carried to its logical end, it would make Clark avoid anything and everything Kryptonian to avoid his “evil destiny.”
This episode showed Jor-El (if that is who it was – they never made that entirely clear, did they?) as a nice guy, who likes American girls as much as the Beatles did, and someome smart enough to know that on Earth he could fly.
This deepens the mystery – is that “conquer” business a result of interference by some other party in the ship’s journey (who could plant that message in the ship that way? General Zod? Darkseid?) or is it simply a mistranslation from the Kryptonian? After all, it’s been a basic part of Superman’s heritage that he “leads by example,” by showing people they can perform heroic acts themselves.
One last crumb for thought: since Clark visualized “Joe” flying, in that remarkable romantic embrace, hasn’t it given him any ideas? Like maybe playing around with ways of doing it himself? I know the producers supposedly don’t want Clark flying, but still…who can resist that romantic image?
I really wanted to see “Jor-El” to put on a pair of glasses.
Frankly, this episode went a long way towards improving my view of the backstory. I’d much rather have the El-Kent connection (in light of the cave paintings) be intentional, because otherwise the level of coincidence was starting to strain my suspension of disbelief. (And it’s very much the sort of thing they did all the time in the Silver Age, when they told stories of Superman’s youth. Not that they should necessarily be aiming to copy the Weisinger-era comics; the point is that the Superman mythos wasn’t destroyed by those stories, any more than bringing Alfred back to life because he was on the TV show hurt the Batman mythos in the long run.)
As to Jonathan’s parents “knowing” he was a boy: Why do you assume the backup name was “Gene” and not “Jean”? (I suspect that, if pressed, his mother would have said she didn’t really know it was a boy, but that’s clearly what they wanted.)
Something else that occurred to me.
It’s true that sending Kal off the planet as it blew up was a final act of desperation (albeit one Jor-El had been preparing for since he knew the planet was doomed; he didn’t just happen to have an interstellar rocket lying around, after all). But it’s also true that, since the Krypton mythos became prominent in the 60s, Superman’s had a healthy dose of destiny about him. (Ads for the first movie referred to Jor-El “[sending] his only son to save the world,” which only needs the word “begotten” added…)
And the two don’t have to be incompatible; you really can have your cake and eat it too on this one. The planet is about to explode, so Jor-El, as a last resort, launches his son into space. However, not being completely careless, he aims him at a place where he knows he’ll be taken care of. (It’s like Moses’ mother leaving him in the reeds; she didn’t just trust him to the current, but did what she could to give him a better chance than he currently had. That doesn’t make it any less an act of desperation.)
Your dealing with mostly comic geeks watching the show
Sorry, but this has a much bigger viewership then any comics. Figure the best selling books right now are in the 100,000 to 200,000 range. Smallville’s viewers and in the millions, not thousands.
You need a face for the Covenant?
How’s Sloan grab you?
I don’t think so. I think they are going to lay a thousand clues that Slone is behind it all. And at some critial point in the story, when it looks like he is in a total gain situtation, and the Covenant he will save Syd and/or her father. Why? Becasue Alias is mostly about the shock and the unexpected. Everyone expects Slone to turn. That makes me think he won’t. He’s more involved with it then he wants the CIA to believe though. Why do I say that? Where did that page from the renalte (sp?) book come from. How did the Covenant get it if it didn’t come from slone?
Smallville left me cold. Good thing Clark looks EXACTLY like his dad. At least Lana had tons of makeup on to make her look paler. And why does Lana have the only “exotic” features in her family? Anywho, we get a Rebellious youth version of Joe Rell (ugh), PRE-English accent to boot!, and we learn that 1) he hates his dad’s meddling in HIS life and 2) likes chicks. Seems odder and odder they picked “Zod” to play him, eh? It was nice to see Lionel was a lil’ bášŧárd who killed his crtiminal pa and set up a good life for himself. Way to go, LL! Of course, Lex obviously suspects and this tension should carry it thru at least another handful of eps. It was also nice to see the CSM from X-Files playing against type(?). And I want to throw my vote into getting rid of the caves. It was stupid to bring them in and it’s been more and more of that since. Especially if they can’t keep Lionel interested in them consistently. And I have always supported Clark being more romantically interested in Chloe than Lana. Chloe’s nowhere near as whiny and him loving HER would set up the eventual Lois fetish. Lana works best as the friend. Maybe the childhood girlfriend. that’s my opinion, anyway, but then I just haven’t been overly impressed with kreuk. especially with Ma Kent there to remind people how Lana SHOULD be played.
As for the “Did they know it was a boy?” bit…they must have since John states that gramps wanted “Gene” for Gene Autry. Maybe they “knew” cause of all those old wives tales about telling the sex of a child. They ARE simple, farmer folk after all.
I worry about the future of this show and find it funny that people talk of how good it’s gotten since Loeb came on staff but he always downplays his role in interviews. I don’t see him doing too hot a job protecting the mythos. Supes works when he is carried by fate. I accepted the revision(s) showing Earth was selected instead of a true hail mary pass but Jorel narrowing it down to that particular farm…without allowing for the man who knew to die… seems silly. Made for an interesting cliffhanger, I guess, until you think about it’s ramifications.
Oh, and Tarzan sucks. Can’t watch it even with Lawless and Pileggi(sp) in it. Nice stunt work in the pilot but then felt shallow and dull after that. It feels like they want to play like the Disney film but don’t want to go too kiddy. And I have to feel that the Jane in it is too much a vapid femme to hold Tarzie’s interest for too long.
now on to the next round up!
Re: Cluttering the myth…
Certainly, to some degree the entire Jor-El subplot does muck with a successful formula. I could argue that it’s not the first time this has been done – Jor-El visiting Earth is not new, and so forth – but in terms of Superman, we’ve seen how all that clutter gets swept away every so often. I am enjoying the questions being raised about Jor-El and about Clark’s mission, but I think you are right. This is not the best of ideas, especially since I fear they don’t really know where they are headed with it. But it’s also not the kind of idea that will sink the program.
However, on this topic, I think I’d note that sometimes messing with a simple myth fails – John Byrne’s reworking of Spidey’s origin – and soemtimes it gets accepted – JMS’ alterations on the same hero. Sometimes a writer should be permitted to have a chance to tinker. But how often? That I can’t say.
For what it’s worth, didn’t Byrne’s MOS mini have Jor El showing lara images of seemingly American farmers…Not too much of stretch to suggest that he was aiming for Kansas.
I enjoyed the episode – and I’m also most curious to see Lionel’s search for the real murderers. Anybody else feel like he did it?
Charmed , I also get the feeling that they were implying that Krause was leaving the show after last season, but going back and looking at the season finale (taped) also shows that they left it open for Krause to return.
I still find it funny that the guy playing Chris is the same guy that played Paige’s boyfriend in the first episode with Paige.
I liked Smallville. The whole “Jor-El visits Earth thing” is something I can deal with. It makes the fact that he sent his infant son there a bit more understandable. This development is something I like a lot better than the whole “you shall rule them all” thing. The coincidences of him meeting a Kent, a Luthor and a Lang are the kind of thing that would come straight out of an old comic book. This is almost one of those stories that would boast the phrase “Everything You Knew Is Wrong!”
As for Tarzan, I only watch it on and off. The main problem I have with this show is that I could never picture the Jane Porter I’m used to becoming a cop. She always struck me as more of the intellectual type, maybe a teacher or a professor at a university.
The puzzling thing about “Relic” being set in 1961 is that it only gives us 40 years to get from where the characters were then to where they are now. Lionel Luthor seems to be about ten years older than that (he’s clearly older than Jonathan Kent), yet he mentions being born in Suicide Slum, not Smallville. If he is only 40ish now, then wouldn’t he have had to be about 15 when Lex was born? And at what point, I wonder, did Jor-El develop his British accent?
For what it’s worth, didn’t Byrne’s MOS mini have Jor El showing lara images of seemingly American farmers…Not too much of stretch to suggest that he was aiming for Kansas.
Not only that, but he also specifically refers to the place he’s showing Lara as “the sub-section known as Kansas.”
The puzzling thing about “Relic” being set in 1961 is that it only gives us 40 years to get from where the characters were then to where they are now. Lionel Luthor seems to be about ten years older than that (he’s clearly older than Jonathan Kent), yet he mentions being born in Suicide Slum, not Smallville. If he is only 40ish now, then wouldn’t he have had to be about 15 when Lex was born?
Maybe Lionel had already been born at that point and as growing up in Suicide Slum then. Grandpa Luthor might have been in Smallville trying to drum up some criminal business, or maybe he was actually from Smallville and was there on personal business. It could give Lionel an extra reason to set up operations in Smallville.
SMALLVILLE:
I agree about “cluttering the myth,” however this is a “Superboy” series essentially, which was one of those “cluttering the myth” elements. All of this has lots of roots in pre-Crisis storytelling.
However, I don’t like the attempts to make Clark’s origin very Christlike (the movie and the show to a degree). Given Superman’s creators, it’s more apt to say that this is the ultimate Moses story. He was shot into space as the planet died and the rest that happened was providence, as they say.
I keep going back to the ship and the wall and thinking – huh, that’s not Jor-el, but a computer simulation of him. Ladies and gentleman, meet the Eradicator!
It does clutter the myth somewhat, but I always had problems with a “Hail Mary pass” idea as well. We’re going to die instantly as the planet explodes so let’s send our son off into space to die a slow painful death if he doesn’t find a planet, or die on a planet which can’t support him. I’ll take the idea that Jor-el knew where he was sending his son and did for a reason.
As for the all the talk about Lana not being the one for Clark, I disagree. She is the small town girl who will give him his intital grounding and ultimately teach him that he can’t stay in Smallville. His gifts belong to the world. However, that first love will always keep Clark’s head down to earth. Chloe is just a prep for Lois. Lois will become the one who eventually shows Clark the world (the one part of the current mythos I like is that she is an army brat used to travelling. She can and does give Clark a larger perspective; whereas Clark returns Lois to a belief in the simple things in life as important.
As for the episode, come on, how many of you are sitting out there waiting for the scene when Clark picks Lana up and flies with her? Well, you got your tease.
There was one other thing I noticed and it was probably in the way they shot each scene of Clark as Jor-el, how different he looked with his hair combed back. I think it was more a result that he was always shot in profile as Jor-el, but one of my first thoughts was add a pair of glasses and he might be able to pull it off (take slumping lessons from Chris Reeves first).
The plot does deepen. Is Clark supposed to rule the world, or is his father testing him to see if he can stay amongst these humans (which as we have just seen, he can love)? Is Lana going to ultimately be tested about her love of Clark? As I said before is she being toughen up so that she can deal with Clark’s secret? It’s got my daughter and I rooted to it every week. (By the way, I’m a comic geek having started reading them at age 4 and just having turned 50 back in September and a. I’m not a virgin and b. I don;’t need to see a woman’s breast all the time. Stop stereotyping everybody).
I agree that the ‘hail Mary pass’ was part of ‘my’ Superman but it’s amusing and ironic that PAD, having worked on the cinema Spiderman has these feelings.
Take comic book canon and it was during a TV appearance that Petey let the burgular go. NOT after the wrestling match and certianly not after being stiffed (in fact it gave a ‘eye for an eye’ type justification for this Peter)
Also didn’t Raimi get into (or chose not to) a bit of controversy over the webbing? Comic book canon: Petey invented it, Ultimate canon: Petey finished a formula by his father, Cinema: it’s part of him.
What’s the point? We’re getting old!!! LOL! And these guys in tights got to do like Madonna and reinvent themselves to the new generation.
My problem with RELIC was it kept reminding me how old I AM!
Actually, I liked SMALLVILLE’s explanation of Jor-El “aiming” Kal-El at the Kents a whole lot more than the one Elliott S. Maggin came up with in his late 70s SUPERMAN novel, “Last Son of Krypton”, in which the Kents come to the attention of Jor-El due to the intervention of…Albert Einstein?!?
Is anyone else vaguely wondering if Lionel is the one who killed his parents? This is based on nothing more than the fact that the reference to his background reminded me of “The Unauthorized Biography of Lex Luthor,” mind you, but it’s not entirely out of character. The investigation could be a diversion to keep Lex from getting too curious in the wrong direction. (I’m unclear as to what his motive would be–in “Unauthorized Biography” it was insurance money–so take the idea for what it’s worth.)
On Tarzan, can we say cancelled ? (It has been, btw.)
Travis
Well, here’s the real continuity problem from this episode, at least relative to the classic Superman origin.
Namely, this established that Krypton, and specifically the -Els, had simple and quick interstellar travel. Jor’s not portrayed as being on a mission or the first to travel to another planet, and clearly he’s able to get back to Krypton at significant FTL speeds. Instead, his being on Earth is treated almost casually.
So how come Kal-El’s the only one to survive whatever happened to Krypton? Note that Jor says his friends will be picking him up, implying multi-person ships. So how come Jor, Lara, *and* Kal weren’t in a ship? Why didn’t, apparently, anyone else survive?
Doug Atkinson: As to Jonathan’s parents “knowing” he was a boy: Why do you assume the backup name was “Gene” and not “Jean”?
Luigi Novi: Because Jonathan said they chose that name after Gene Autry.
Doug Atkinson: Is anyone else vaguely wondering if Lionel is the one who killed his parents?
Luigi Novi: I’m not vaguely wondering. I outright suspected it as soon as the info about the “fire” came up. I’d suspect many other viewers did as well, since IMHO, it seems like the obvious direction in which it would go.
You’re quite right about Gene Autry–this is what I get for posting when not fully awake…
SMALLVILLE:
First, on the question of Hiram Kent and his wife knowing the sex of their unborn child, well, I remember the days before ultrasound, and lots of people in those days knew the sex of their baby before birth, and picked out names accordingly. Of course, they were often surprised when the baby came and had to run back to the baby-name books…
As for comic book geeks being mostly virgins, I think we should let Chris go on believing that if it makes him feel better…
And as for the episode itself, I liked it a lot.
A common device in sci-fi TV shows it to put the characters or actors in another era. I see this episode mainly as a device to put Clark and Lana (or, more specifically, the same actors playing very similar characters) in the early 60’s. And they did it so well! I was impressed that they were able to do an early 60’s themed show without relying on top-ten doo-wop music to set the mood.
I liked the murder-mystery theme, and I liked seeing Clark and Lana, I mean Joe and Louise, flying. And I really liked the implication that Lionel killed his own parents. Hmmm, how did Lex’s mom die again?
As for the caves, well, I’m glad they are going somewhere with that, and not just leaving it as a loose end. Obviously, Kryptonians have been coming there for centuries. I want to know why, and it interests me to see that subplot continue to develop.
SMALLVILLE:
I’m almost puzzled by the comments wondering how Kryptonians could have had interstellar travel and yet perished on Krypton. It was a standard part of the myth that Jor-El warned his superiors about Krypton’s impending destruction and even had suggested ways of evacuating the entire population. Unfortunately, Krypton society’s arrogance ultimately doomed it.
As for why Jor-El could not have saved himself — there wasn’t enough time to create a vessel for his family — just a test ship for himself. Other takes on the legend, including the movie, had Jor-El under close watch — obviously his evacuating would have created a panic and his superiors threatened to send him to the Phantom Zone if he did this.
how come Kal-El’s the only one to survive whatever happened to Krypton? Note that Jor says his friends will be picking him up, implying multi-person ships. So how come Jor, Lara, *and* Kal weren’t in a ship? Why didn’t, apparently, anyone else survive?
In one of the early Superman continuities it was established that the planet wasn’t evacuated for political reasons. The majority of the leading governmental body, the Science Council disbelieved Jor-El’s theory that Krypton would explode and actively rejected Jor-El’s motion to produce a fleet of “Space Arks” constructed for the purpose of planety of evacuation.
Space flight wasn’t a problem, it was transporting large populations that was an issue.
In the Byrne/Stern/Grummet/Perez/Jurgens continuity (many cooks) the Eradicator had mutated the basic Kryptonian DNA so that the people would be bound to the planet, and if they left they would soon die. Jor-El purposely mutated his son so that the sheer act of migration wouldn’t kill Kal-El. Before he even arrived on Earth, the boy who would become Superman was a mutant of sorts.
Jor-El was always engaging in rocket-tests. That he actually mastered interstellar flight to the point where personal transportation to and from Earth is this casual is an entirely new twist, at least this early in Jor-El’s life. That it’s possible at all isn’t a twist. Kal-El was sent out in a functioning test rocket in at least on of the origins.
There’s more than one origin story and I know most of them.
I loved Maggin’s “Einstein made it happen” origin but it’s too dated. Having its very status quo rooted into Einstein’s lifespan makes it un-viable for use now.
CJA
How come Kal-El’s the only one to survive whatever happened to Krypton? Note that Jor says his friends will be picking him up, implying multi-person ships. So how come Jor, Lara, *and* Kal weren’t in a ship? Why didn’t, apparently, anyone else survive?
Next week in SMALLVILLE…
Clark Kent: Hey Dad, do you think there are other Kryptonians out there? …On Earth? …In Space???
Beau Duke: Well Son, based on the fact that Jor El didn’t hop on his space ship, and came to Earth with you; I’d wager that Kryptonians only send other Kryptonians into space as a form of punishment.
Clark Kent: So, you ARE saying that there are other Kryptonians out there!
Beau Duke: YUP! Buckloads!!! And all of them SUPER-CRIMINALS!
Clark Kent: That’s okay Dad. Now I know that every drawing in my Cave of Solitude is really a secret compartment that I can open with the space ship’s key!!! Plus I have Super-Flight, Super-Deja Vu/ESP and Super Intangibility!!! I’M GOING TO KICK ÃSS!!!
Beau Duke: Son, son, son! Don’t you know???? You’re going to forget all that come next week!
Clark Kent: No way!
Beau Duke: Yup! And Lana Lang really is your half-sister!
Clark Kent: Really!!!
Beau Duke: Nah! Just messing with you son. Just messing with ya’.
I still want the season cliffhanger this year to be:
“You shall bow before Zod, son of Jor-El”
That’s me, I guess.
Travis
I interpreted the “Gene” thing like this: Jonathan would have been named Jean if he had been a girl, in honor of sound-a-like Gene Autry. Granted, this is not super-clear from what was said. Closed-captioning may shed light on this; I still have the show saved and will check it out when I get home.
Closed-captioning said “Gene”…
(I love it that hearing people use it too-reminds us that it’s not just a thing for us deaf people.)
I think the matter has been settled since Jon said “after Gene Autry”
eddie
Oh yeah one other thing that everyone missed in all the hullaboo about the sex scene- apparently it IS possible for Kryptonians (or at least, teenage Kryptonians) to sex up earth girls.
No need to worry about Larry Niven’s “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex”syndrome here… so that means there’s a green light for Clark to hook up with Lana, Chloe, or even Pete if they continue on their revisonist curve heh
Believe me, I’m well aware of all the various comics Krypton explosions (OK, who else knows that Lara Lor-Van was an astronaut before marrying Jor-El? But said missions in the continuity at that time were limited to Krypton’s moons). My point is that in this Smallville episode, travel between Krypton and Earth is presented as something very casual. They have ships that can carry multiple people between the two places, and it’s used for a minor reason, namely giving a teenager some, pardon the expression, space.
Given that, the idea of Jor-El and Lara not being able to also come to Earth needs to be covered. So far, this is the only “Krypton” that’s had casual interstellar flight established several decades before whatever happened to Krypton happened.
ALIAS:
Can see Sloan secretly working for (and maybe schemeing to someday gain control of) the Covenant, but not currently in the upper echelon.
But what would he have to offer them for a memebership fee?
SYDNEY! If the two missing years are actually two missing years instead of my theory that Sydney will wake up back in the ‘present’ at some point trapped next to or inside the Rimbaldi device (and BTW: just where is that thing now?), then Sloan used the Rimbaldi device to gain control of Sydney until either whatever he needed done (???) was taken care of, or she escaped.
SMALLVILLE:
Didn’t buy the past sequences, except for the Luthor moments. But the 1961 romantic scenes played out more like the Clark/Lois/Superman scenes from the first Christopher Reeve movie to me.
Just one man’s opinions.
About the John Byrne MOS scene where Jor-El has scenes from Kansas, I can’t believe that so many tasteful comics readers (you know and apreciate PAD works, after all) don’t remember that in Starman 51 (or 52), Jack Knight meets a young Jor-El and gives him a serie of data about Earth.
The Smallville story seemed straight out of the Silver Age to me. And it’s interesting that the current DC continuity of Lex offing his parents for the insurance money has been transplanted to Lionel. Plus, you just know Morgan Edge was involved, as well. Overall, I liked the episode–it was a good stand-alone story, yet advanced this season’s various subplots.
1. As for “quick and easy” interstellar travel, we don’t know that Krypton had it – merely that Jor-el was sent. Could have been a hard journey, as part of his lesson.
2. Just realized that Jor-El flying Louise might be a nice reference to Loeb’s “Superman – A Man For All Seasons.” Don’t know why I didn’t think of that…
CHARMED
I think Chris is Pru, the dead sister come back as a whitelighter to her own family. Remember the story where she turned herself into a male? I can see her taking that option to watch over her family. This way they only have to bring back Shannon if she agrees.
Piper: Holly’s from Texas.
SMALLVILLE
a red-herring for superman fans… in the original superman issue 1, I’m informed, superman destroyed a slum, because he was mad. So until we find out about “incindary device” we wonder if they are going to reveal that Joe-rel in rage discovered his heat vision and destoryed the tenement.
I like the eradicator angle.
Think about it, “joe” says that he hates his father for controlling him: What if his father is Zod and Joe is actually the eradicator, created by Zod?
Zod creates the eradicator to learn about earth in preparation for his own invasion of it. In the 40 years since, he was found out, sent to the phantom zone, and that is where he now resides. That would explain where Johnathan Kent went when he was bestowed with powers by “Jor-El”. The phantom Zone is probably accessible through the technology in the ship and cave and he is now trying to control the son of Jor-El in an attempt to finish his pet project and escape from the phantom zone, which I see happening at the end of this season.
I also really enjoyed this week’s episode of SMALLVILLE. I like the new layers they are adding to the mythos. It’s better than the usual, “let’s create a krypotonite-mutant just kill him/her off without anyone mourning or batting an eye in shock” like they did all through the frist season and most of the second. Just my humble opinion. Anyway, to add to the flying and ship-aiming controversy…
No one has mentioned (unless I completely missed it) that Clark “floated” in the opening of the pilot, dreaming about romance with Lana. Now he sees his father flying with his love–Lana’s ancestor. Hmmm… he knows he can float/fly, but needs to figure out how to do it consciously.
Also, if I remember correctly–like they did in the comics and the movie–Clark’s ship landed near the Kent’s while driving in their car. Maybe his ship is programmed with Kent DNA to land near them, but not so near as to risk destroying their home or any people. Hence, the “choosing” of Jonathan and Martha–members of a family that Jor-El knows and trusts–hoping that they will do right by his son, just as Grandpa Kent did.
Thoughts?
Adding Charmed to the Roundup is very cool; I’ll have to start witching it (whoops – Freudian typo?) – watching it again …(ESPN NFL Sunday Night Football!). I did catch the season premiere, for the most part – glad Leo’s not killed off, but they’d better have thought Brian Krause might have been leaving, or breaking he and Piper up – for an apparently no-longer extant reason – seems even stupider. (Of course, they do have a history of changing things for change’s sake – they kept messing with Cole until finally it just seemed like “We don’t know what we’re doing, we’d better just get rid of him”. Even if it was because Julian McMahon was leaving for “Nip/Tuck” [loved that joke a couple of Roundups ago about his palstic surgeon character shooting fireballs, btw], after all of the development they had given the character in his first couple of seasons, it felt as though they could have come up with something better than that.)
Um, interstellar travel by definition (unless you discover a short cut) is hard. Figure out just how far it is to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. Now calculate how much energy you need to get a 90 or so kilogram mass there from Earth. Given Jor’s age in 1961, clearly one can quickly travel between Krypton and Earth (thus the short cut reference; they’ve pretty much got to be doing something other than just Einsteinian/Newtonian thrust for travel).
And the other reason it’s got to be easy? Because if it isn’t, why the heck do you use it for the purpose of “teaching a teenager a lesson”? That’s got to be *way* down on NASA’s priority list; “Hello? Donald Trump? You want to teach your daughter a lesson by sending her up in the shuttle for to the space station for several months? Uh huh. Yeah. Right.”
And this is several orders of magnitude beyond that. This isn’t just a few months in the space station with other Kryptonians. This is letting a teenager go off on his own to another planet with sentient beings. First contact scenarios anyone? If Krypton doesn’t have casual interstellar flight and a lot of experience with alien races, well, then sending Jor-El to Earth just blew up my suspension of disbelief worse than both Voyager *and* Enterprise have managed.
The problem I have with Smallville 1961 is the fact that they established Jonathan’s age as 42. I’m 42. NO WAY Do I look as old as John Schneider. Really, I don’t. I’m not kidding. I don’t.
One other comment….
In MOS, when Jor-El tells Lara about the powers Kal-El will have on Earth, she says something to the ffect of “then he will rule them” while Jor-El has more of an idea of Kal not being a conquerer but a benefactor.
Maybe we’ll finaly get that Mon-El story we never got on Lois & Clark.
Well, Jon Schneider is older than 42. He’s 43, born, per IMDB, April 8, 1960. Or you can assume farming is a hard life that ages you prematurely (apparently Martha’s been slacking off though :-))
And yes, the transition of realizing one can no longer think of one’s self as “a bit older than Superman” but rather must think of one’s self as “I’m the same age as Pa Kent!” is a jarring one. 🙂
Charmed: The whole bit w/Chris seems aimless to me as well.
Tarzan: IS prettier than Jane–hooh-hah! (Now if the actors could generate more personality than Birds of Prey..)
Angel: (sputter..sputter.. PPHHAAAAHHAHHAHAH–we will miss you Numero Cinco)
Smallville: More shirtless Clark. Maybe w/ some shirtless Lex–that would be worth a poster or 2.