Smallville (TV series)
|
|
Template:Infobox television Smallville is a television series that airs in the United States on the WB television network. Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the series follows the adventures of the young Clark Kent in his hometown of Smallville before he became Superman. It is primarily filmed in the Lower Mainland in and around Cloverdale, British Columbia, Canada which has a sign at its entrance saying "Home of Smallville".
The WB television network airs new episodes on Wednesdays at 8:00 PM EST. It was announced the show was renewed for a fifth season, for which the show will move to Thursday nights.
| Contents |
Plot
The first season, while relying heavily on kryptonite as a plot element, eventually established its cast of characters and backstory, and rose steadily in popularity, currently in its fourth season. The series is loosely based on the established backstory for the character of Superman.
The most significant plot arc is the relationship of Clark and his best friend, Lex Luthor. The editors are laying the groundwork for how their relationship will inevitably slide into the legendary conflict between superhero and supervillain. The relationship of Clark and Lana Lang is also a significant plot arc with Clark's need to hide his alien nature endlessly complicating matters between them. A probable conclusion could reflect the comic books with Lana Lang having Clark's nature revealed to her by Clark and they settle their relationship as simply a close friendship. At the end of the 3rd season, we begin to see the demise of Clark and Lex's relationship as best friends. Clark discovers that Lex has not stopped investigating Clark as he had promised. Clark ends the friendship although several questions are left unanswered.
Season four began with the answer to the cliffhanger posed by the third season finale. Not surprisingly, all regular members of the cast survive their death sentences through a series of technicalities used by the writers of Smallville. As season four starts, Clark breaks away from his Kryptonian destiny yet again in the season opener through the help of the Black Kryptonite. An interesting relationship between Lois Lane and Clark Kent develops as they join together to solve many mysteries in Smallville.
The first episode of season 1
In the beginning of the series we are introduced to all the characters by mean of the meteor shower that brought Clark to earth.
The opening scene of the pilot introduces a nine year old Lex in a helicopter with his father, Lionel. Lionel is telling him to look out the window, because Luthors are not scared.
Jonathan and Martha Kent talking to a very flirtatious Aunt Nell, whom is babysitting a three year old Lana at the time. Aunt Nell explains that she's being the "good aunt" while Lana's parents are at the Homecoming game. Lana is dressed as a fairy princess and grants Martha one wish. When Martha and Jonathan get back in the truck he states that he knows what she wished for. She replies with "I see a little face. It's all I ever wanted", implying Martha wants a child. As they sit in the truck they watch the Homecoming parade pass by. It's obvious Smallville has won again.
The scene goes to the Ross Cremed Corn factory where Lionel is talking to Pete's grandfather. Lex is walking out into the cornfield and hears a voice repeatedly saying "Help me". Lex falls to the ground and backs up to a scarecrow which turns out to be nothing more than a living teenager with an red S painted across his chest. Then the meteors began to hit the atmosphere, and Lex begans to run, but is taken over by the debris, as is the teenager.
Meanwhile Lana and Aunt Nell come out to see the commotion, and then the meteor shower begans to hit Smallville. Lana watches from across the street as her parents are struck by a meteor.
Martha and Jonathan are driving home, and a meteor hits the side of the road, causing Jonathan to swerve off the road.
Lionel is walking across the cornfield that was once there calling Lex's name. Lionel finds a piece of Lex's hair, and then turns around to find Lex on the ground quivering with only a tiny patch of hair on his head. Lionel shows a look of disgust on his face.
Meanwhile Jonathan and Martha are in the truck that is now flipped over, and a young naked boy smiles at them from Martha's window.
After getting out of the truck, Martha holds the baby in her arms wrapped in a blanket as Jonathan tries to find evidence of where he's from. They find a pod in a crater. Martha states that whoever his parents are that they aren't from around here. Jonathan tells Martha they can't keep him, and what would they tell people; they found him in a field? Martha responds by saying "We didn't find him. He found us."
Regular cast
- Tom Welling - Clark Kent, Kryptonian name Kal-El
- Also plays the young Jor-El, Clark's biological father from Krypton
- Kristin Kreuk - Lana Lang
- Michael Rosenbaum - Lex Luthor
- Eric Johnson - Whitney Fordman, Lana Lang's boyfriend (1st season)
- Annette O'Toole - Martha Kent
- John Schneider - Jonathan Kent
- Sam Jones III - Pete Ross (2001-2004)
- Allison Mack - Chloe Sullivan
- John Glover - Lionel Luthor
- Jensen Ackles - Jason Teague
Recurring and significant characters
- Terence Stamp - Voice of the elder Jor-El (5 episodes as of the end of season 3)
- Christopher Reeve - Dr. Virgil Swann is a scientist who discovers a message from Krypton. (appeared in #2-17 (aired February 25, 2003) and #3-17 (aired April 14, 2004))
- Erica Durance - Lois Lane
- Jill Teed - Maggie Sawyer, police lieutenant in Metropolis' Special Crimes Unit.
- Rutger Hauer - Metropolis crime boss Morgan Edge (2 episodes)
- Joe Morton - Mad scientist Dr. Hamilton (4 episodes)
- Patrick Bergin - Metropolis crime boss Morgan Edge (1 episode)
- Ian Somerhalder - Adam Knight died in a car crash but was revived by Lionel Luthor who discovered a method of keeping dead people alive by using Clark's blood (8 episodes)
- Kelly Brook - Victoria Hardwick, Lex Luthor's girlfriend (4 episodes)
- Emmanuelle Vaugier - Dr. Helen Luthor (née Bryce), Lex Luthor's ex-wife
- Camille Mitchell - Sheriff Nancy Adams (#2-19 ff.)
- Sarah Carter - Alicia Baker, a girlfriend of Clark's who has the ability to teleport. She revealed Clark's powers to Chloe before being killed. (3 episodes)
- Margot Kidder - Bridgette Crosby, a colleague of Dr. Swann introduced in season four who was killed off in the episode entitled, "Spirit".
Clark's history
The boy known today as Clark Kent (played by Tom Welling) first arrived on Earth as a young child in a space ship that crashed near the farm of Martha and Jonathan Kent in 1989, during a meteor shower in Smallville, Kansas. The Kents named the young boy "Clark" after Martha's maiden name. Jonathan and Martha took the boy home, where he shocked them by crawling under a bed and lifting the 500 pound wood frame over his head. The Kents decided to take Clark to a doctor, but while waiting to see the doctor, Martha warned Jonathan if they told anyone about the boy's abilities, they'd likely never get to see Clark again. This prompted them to return home without seeing the doctor. With the help of Lionel Luthor, the Kents were able to fake an adoption of the boy. In return for helping the Kents, Lionel asked them to aid him in a business deal in Smallville, something they later regretted.
When Clark first started school he met young Pete Ross. When Clark and Pete were attacked by a school bully, Clark impressed everyone by throwing the boy through a door, but after that he learned to better hide his abilities.
Clark set up the loft in the Kent barn as his own; his father refers to it as his "Fortress of Solitude".
When Clark was in junior high, a girl named Chloe Sullivan enrolled in Clark's school. Chloe had moved to Smallville from Metropolis and Clark was assigned to show her around school. When Clark invited her back to his barn she kissed him; it was Clark's first kiss.
Clark later attended Smallville High School, where he worked for the school newspaper and became good friends with Chloe Sullivan. Clark soon developed a crush on schoolmate Lana Lang, but unfortunately, she dated school jock Whitney Fordman.
Clark eventually saved the wealthy Alexander "Lex" Luthor from a car crash, and since then Lex has tried to help Clark, while being suspicious of Clark's abilities. Soon afterwards, Clark's parents told him of his unworldly origin, which led to Clark feeling guilty over the all the bad things that have happened in Smallville because of the meteor shower. Clark did his best to make things better for others, and together with Pete and Chloe started to investigate the strange happenings in Smallville linked to the meteor shower.
Clark and Pete used to hang out with another boy named Greg Arkin, but later they grew apart as Greg became obsessed with insects. Clark later came into conflict with Greg when he was transformed into an insect-boy thanks to the meteor rocks. Greg was killed in the fight with Clark.
Clark developed the ability to see through solid matter about the same time he first came into conflict with Tina Greer. Tina had gained the ability to change shape and possessed increased strength because of exposure to meteor rocks; Clark soon uncovered a plot by her to take over Lana's life.
The Kents eventually took in a young runaway boy named Ryan who could read minds. Ryan learned Clark's secret, but because he saw Clark as a hero and older brother, he kept the secret.
When Pete discovered the space ship Clark came to Earth in, Clark revealed his secret. Although Pete was shocked at first, he kept Clark's secret and their friendship became closer.
Eventually, Clark learned he could emit infrared-wavelength beams from his eyes.
Clark was once exposed to a red meteor fragment, which altered his personality to be more amoral for a short time, but he was soon cured.
After being exposed to a piece of alien technology Clark learned to read the language on the various artifacts within his space ship. Clark eventually learned from a scientist that his ship came from a planet called Krypton, and named the meteor fragments that fell with his ship "kryptonite".
Clark's powers
Clark is a human-looking alien who has great strength, enabling him to lift cars with ease. He can also move so quickly he is a blur to others and can resist most conventional physical damage. Clark has displayed the ability to see through objects and has at least a small level of telescopic vision, as well as the ability to emit infrared beams from his eyes. Clark is also capable of making lightning fast calculations rivaling that of a computer and has a photographic memory. Clark has proven immune to telepathic mind reading, something that his comic book incarnation was not invulnerable to (along with psionic attacks and magic). Clark has also recently displayed enhanced hearing.
Clark's powers seem to be increasing with age, and it is possible he will discover other abilities as he grows up. Clark once dreamed he was flying and woke up floating over his bed, but he cannot control that ability. Clark is diminished by the presence of kryptonite, which litters the ground in Smallville. Although he can be hurt when under its influence, he will heal from any damage quickly when away from the fragments. The rarer Red Kryptonite does not affect him physically, but seems to cloud his judgment, making him wilder and less inhibited. Clark's powers were once transferred to someone else when the two were struck by lightning while near Green Kryptonite, but eventually, another electrical jolt transferred the powers back to Clark.
Inconsistencies with the comic books
It should be noted that while the show is not entirely consistent with the DC Comics titles about Superman and Superboy, this is not only expected but inevitable. There is, in fact, no single Superman comic continuity, but instead a wide variety. The first given origin story of Superman, in Action Comics #1 (1938) stated that Clark was turned over to an orphanage rather than being raised by the Kents, who had various names before being identified as Jonathan and Martha. By 1939's Superman (volume 1) #1, however, Jonathan and Martha Kent were first introduced, with an explanation that they were the ones who adopted Clark from the Smallville Orphanage. The source and nature of Clark's powers have also varied over the years, as well. The show is not meant to be a recreation any particular comic book continuity, but a summary of the Superman mythos.
Smallville is located somewhere in Kansas, a completely landlocked state, yet in one episode, Clark and Lana can see Metropolis from the top of a Smallville windmill. Both the television series and comic books have established Metropolis as a coastal city, almost always on the east coast of the United States. The writers for the Smallville series have indicated that Metropolis (in this series) is approximately 150 miles (240 km) from Smallville. It is interesting to note that the original Superboy comics held that Smallville was in close proximity to Metropolis.
In the Smallville continuity, Clark Kent reveals his alien nature to Pete Ross. In the continuity of the Superboy comics, Pete had witnessed Clark changing into Superboy – a fact which he never revealed even to Clark. Periodically, he would assist Clark in keeping his secret identity in subtle ways. An example of this assistance was in the 1973 Superman story "I Can't Go Home Again" (published in Superman (volume 1) #270), in which Pete Ross once again attempts to help Clark by arranging for his boyhood home in Smallville to be destroyed, which he believes will assist Clark in keeping his secret identity. He realizes, however, that Clark does not keep the house to keep his secret, but rather because he is sentimental about his childhood home (in the Superboy comics' continuity, Jonathan and Martha Kent had died after Clark graduated from high school, but in recent comics' continuity, the Kents are still alive in Clark's adulthood). Pete is able to undo this mistake when Clark reminds him of writing by Native Americans in a nearby cave, which hints at a treasure buried underneath the Kent home. In the modern comic book continuity, Pete was not initially aware of Clark's secret.However, the secret was known by the villainous Manchester Black, who informed then-President Lex Luthor of the secret, only later to wipe his memory of it. However, prior to losing the knowledge of Clark's secret, Lex informed his Vice President, Pete Ross, that his close friend Clark Kent was in fact Superman. As with the former continuity, Pete has yet to reveal to Clark that he knows the secret. A minor difference between the television and comic book versions of the character is that in the comics, Ross is Caucasian, while in the series, he is African-American.
Kryptonite is handled differently in the television series. The most common variety, Green Kryptonite (usually referred to simply as "kryptonite") has the additional effect of producing super powers in humans in the television series, which is, in fact one of the major plot devices of the series. This is not the case in the comics continuity, where kryptonite generally affects only natives of the planet Krypton. Traditionally, kryptonite was harmless to humans, but in current comic continuity, long-term exposure to Kryptonite has caused cancer in humans, namely Lex Luthor. In the show, Red Kryptonite produces a psychological effect, while in the comics it causes random physical transformations that last from 24 to 78 hours. Black Kryptonite, whose exact effects are not quite stated in the series, never appeared in the comics.
Smallville also differs from the comics in how Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane first meet. In the television series, they meet while Clark is still living in Smallville. In the Superboy comic continuity, Clark first met Lois while the two attended a week-long student summer internship at the Daily Planet while they were in junior high or high school (several other contradicting first meetings of the two appeared in the Superboy series, but this was the first such depiction), though afterwards, the two didn't meet again until Clark began working at the newspaper after college. In the current comics continuity, Lois Lane first meets Clark when he used his powers (before becoming Superman) to save an experimental spacecraft. Surrounded afterwards by reporters and curious eyewitnesses, Clark fled. Sometime afterward, Clark adopted the identity of Superman, and Lois tried to get his story. She eventually succeeded, only to discover that a new reporter, Clark Kent, has beaten her to the story. The Smallville television series also establishes that Lois is older than Clark (the original comics have usually depicted the two as about the same age).
The character of Lana Lang is typically depicted with curly red hair in the comic books (and in the movie adaptations). Kristin Kreuk, who plays Lang in Smallville, keeps her hair straight and nearly jet-black, making her appearance much closer to that of the comic books' Lois Lane. In the recent comic books, Lana also had a long-term on-and-off relationship with Pete Ross, of which there has been no indication so far in the television series.
The character of Bart Allen (a super-powered teenager known as "Impulse" and "Kid Flash" in the comics) has a completely different origin for his powers in the series. In the comics, he is born with them as the grandson of the second superhero to use the identity of the Flash. Bart Allen is portrayed as being around the age of Clark Kent, when he is considerably younger than the adult Clark in the comics. (It should be noted that the Bart Allen of the television series uses several aliases, including Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West---the names of the three DC Comics characters who have taken on the identity of the Flash.)
Episode list
Season 1 (2001-2002)
| No. | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 1-01 | Pilot | October 16 |
| 1-02 | Metamorphosis | October 23 |
| 1-03 | Hothead | October 30 |
| 1-04 | X-Ray | November 6 |
| 1-05 | Cool | November 13 |
| 1-06 | Hourglass | November 20 |
| 1-07 | Craving | November 27 |
| 1-08 | Jitters | December 11 |
| 1-09 | Rogue | January 15 |
| 1-10 | Shimmer | January 29 |
| 1-11 | Hug | February 5 |
| 1-12 | Leech | February 12 |
| 1-13 | Kinetic | February 26 |
| 1-14 | Zero | March 12 |
| 1-15 | Nicodemus | March 19 |
| 1-16 | Stray | April 16 |
| 1-17 | Reaper | April 23 |
| 1-18 | Drone | April 30 |
| 1-19 | Crush | May 7 |
| 1-20 | Obscura | May 14 |
| 1-21 | Tempest | May 21 |
Season 2 (2002-2003)
| No. | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 2-01 | Vortex | Sep 24 |
| 2-02 | Heat | October 1 |
| 2-03 | Duplicity | October 8 |
| 2-04 | Red | October 15 |
| 2-05 | Nocturne | October 22 |
| 2-06 | Redux | October 29 |
| 2-07 | Lineage | November 5 |
| 2-08 | Ryan | November 12 |
| 2-09 | Dichotic | November 19 |
| 2-10 | Skinwalker | November 26 |
| 2-11 | Visage | January 14 |
| 2-12 | Insurgence | January 21 |
| 2-13 | Suspect | January 28 |
| 2-14 | Rush | February 4 |
| 2-15 | Prodigal | February 11 |
| 2-16 | Fever | February 18 |
| 2-17 | Rosetta | February 25 |
| 2-18 | Visitor | April 15 |
| 2-19 | Precipice | April 22 |
| 2-20 | Witness | April 29 |
| 2-21 | Accelerate | May 6 |
| 2-22 | Calling | May 13 |
| 2-23 | Exodus | May 20 |
Season 3 (2003-2004)
| No. | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 3-01 | Exile | October 1 |
| 3-02 | Phoenix | October 8 |
| 3-03 | Extinction | October 15 |
| 3-04 | Slumber | October 22 |
| 3-05 | Perry | October 29 |
| 3-06 | Relic | November 5 |
| 3-07 | Magnetic | November 12 |
| 3-08 | Shattered | November 19 |
| 3-09 | Asylum | January 14 |
| 3-10 | Whisper | January 21 |
| 3-11 | Delete | January 28 |
| 3-12 | Hereafter | February 4 |
| 3-13 | Velocity | February 11 |
| 3-14 | Obsession | February 18 |
| 3-15 | Resurrection | February 25 |
| 3-16 | Crisis | March 3 |
| 3-17 | Legacy | April 14 |
| 3-18 | Truth | April 21 |
| 3-19 | Memoria | April 28 |
| 3-20 | Talisman | May 5 |
| 3-21 | Forsaken | May 12 |
| 3-22 | Covenant | May 19 |
Season 4 (2004-2005)
| No. | Title | Airdate |
|---|---|---|
| 4-01 | Crusade | Sep 22 |
| 4-02 | Gone | Sep 29 |
| 4-03 | Façade | October 6 |
| 4-04 | Devoted | October 13 |
| 4-05 | Run | October 20 |
| 4-06 | Transference | October 27 |
| 4-07 | Jinx | November 3 |
| 4-08 | Spell | November 10 |
| 4-09 | Bound | November 17 |
| 4-10 | Scare | December 1 |
| 4-11 | Unsafe | January 26 |
| 4-12 | Pariah | February 2 |
| 4-13 | Recruit | February 9 |
| 4-14 | Krypto | February 16 |
| 4-15 | Sacred | February 23 |
| 4-16 | Lucy | March 2 |
| 4-17 | Onyx | April 13 |
| 4-18 | Spirit | April 20 |
| 4-19 | Blank | April 27 |
| 4-20 | Ageless | May 4 |
| 4-21 | Forever | May 11 |
| 4-22 | Commencement | May 18 |
External links
- Smallville site on thewb.com (http://www.thewb.com/smallville)
- KryptonSite (http://www.kryptonsite.com/), a fansite
- SmallvillePH (http://www.smallvilleph.com/), a fansite based in the Philippines
- Template:Imdb title
- Template:Tvtome show
- Smallville on Cyclops.IT (http://www.cyclops.it/Smallville/), an Italian fansitede:Smallville