Smallville: Apocalypse
(S07E17) Most sci-fi or fantasy television series have used a “parallel universe” or “what if” storyline in which we see what life would be like if a different set of circumstances existed in the characters’ universe. As of tonight’s episode, Smallville is no exception to this rule. In fact, it’s kind of surprising the creators haven’t done it before now since they seem to rely on television clichés.
Somebody saaaaaavvvveeee meeeee….
Clark is shown through a simulation by his dead father what life would have been like on Earth if his rocket was never sent there. Lana is happily married with kids. Chloe is engaged. Luthor is President of the United States and about to launch a global thermonuclear war with Brainiac and Kara by his side. Naturally, Clark is in the middle of this parallel world determined to stop the worst from happening.
The first question on my mind was: if Kryptonians have time-travel technology, why did Krypton explode in the first place? That was answered near the end of the episode by Clark himself. But if they had this capability, why use a ship for Clark to escape in? Why not just teleport him out? Yes, I know. It’s Smallville. That’s the answer.
Not much information was given about the “alternate” Clark Kent. He was presumably adopted and younger than our familiar Clark since he was still wearing a high school jacket. I guess they didn’t have enough time in the episode to go through his back story.
I had heard there would be an old, familiar face in the episode and was hoping it was going to be John Schneider, back from the dead and being Pa Kent. It ended up being Sheriff Adams, who was really unnecessary as a cameo. It made me wonder if they tried to get back Bo Duke and couldn’t. It was still nice to see Jonathan and Martha again, even if it was just a photo.
This was really an episode for references to other versions of Superman. From the 1950’s series, Jimmy was wearing a bow-tie. There was a mention of the Reeves Dam, which is likely a tribute to George Reeves, the actor who played Superman in that series. From the comics, there was the Ace of Clubs and Supergirl’s comic book alter ego of Linda Danvers. From the Superman: the Animated Series, there was Lois’ address of Clark as “Smallville” (more on that later).
It’s somewhat ironic that Lois develops Clark’s famous nerdy reporter look. I admit I got a slight thrill when I saw him in the suit and glasses. Now he just needs the tights and cape to hide underneath and they can end the series on a high note.
Lex is kind of young to be President, isn’t he? It’s a requirement of the position to be 35 years old and Lex is at most 28 at this stage. I guess Brainiac had to use his special powers to make that happen. Or Lex just lied about his age.
This episode could easily have been a two-parter, with the first part dealing with the alternate timeline and the second part being Clark’s attempt to stop Brainiac from changing history on Krypton. What story logic could they have used for Jor-El and Lara not being at the launch of Kal-El’s ship? Did Brainiac kill them already?
It’s nice to see the origin on the other side. A few episodes ago, we saw the events that led the Lex to Smallville. Now we’ve seen the events that took Clark there. There’s symmetry in that.
Clark had a hell of a choice at the end of the episode. Either save Lana or reveal his secrets to Luthor. Given what he’d seen in the alternate timeline as well as his knowledge of Lex, he chose the lesser of two evils. And what was happening to Kara at the end? Was Brainiac’s programming to kill Clark (mentioned in the parallel world) kicking in?
Finally, there is the foreshadowing of affection being shown between Clark and Lois. If Lana is saved, given the fact that she’s only a part-timer for next season, it’s likely the Clark/Lana relationship will be done and the Clark/Lois relationship will start. They’ve even given themselves an “out” by having Lois refer to Clark as “Smallville”. In doing so, the series becomes about Clark rather than the town he grew up in. If the creators wanted, they could move him to Metropolis next season and still keep the name.
While it was predictable, this was a good episode. It showed a lot of progression and the pacing felt correct for the most part. That is one of the benefits of parallel world stories. They can make the characters move forward without anything actually happening.
Big Budget Troll Remake?
BD is reporting that someone in Hollywood has decided to make a big budget remake of John Carl Buechler’s 1986 horror film TROLL. The only thing we know so far is the provided plot synopsis:
The film is about a young boy enters a parallel world of wizards and magic where he befriends a good witch. Soon the boy learns that he must save the world from an evil Troll/Wizard that has the ability to hide his essence within the bodies of others.
I’ll fess up. As a kid, the two movies that terrified me were The Gate and TROLL. It’s one of those really bad b-horror films with a little person running around in an evil troll suit. I haven’t seen the movie in many years, and I’m guessing if I did I’d more likely laugh than quiver in my seat. I see that the users on the internet movie database have given the film a 3.1 rating, which is horrible, but not bad enough to make the Bottom 100 of all time list. However, Troll is featured in the 2004 DVD documentary, The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made. Troll spawned two sequels (one of which can’t even be found on imdb). Troll 2 ranks #21 on IMDB’s list of the worst movies of all time.
Interestingly enough, the main character (and his father) in the movie were both named Harry Potter (Sr. and Jr.). He was surrounded by a fantasy world of witches, wizards and magic - more than a decade before J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels swept the publishing world. The film was also Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ film debut.
Check out Sonny Bono’s death from the original film after the jump.