SMALLVILLE 0.0 FAQ
WHAT’S “SMALLVILLE?”
The WB’s dark new take on Superboy. Like “Roswell,” it’s the tale of a small town high school kid coming to grips with the fact that he’s not human. Like Buffy, Clark Kent dwells in a small town teeming with strange and powerful beings. Should the WGA and SAG strikes prove brief (or non-existant), “Smallville” should premiere this autumn.
WHY DOES THE TOWN TEEM WITH THE STRANGE? DOES SMALLVILLE HAVE A HELLMOUTH?
The next best thing: an enormous quantity of Kryptonite. When 3-year-old Kal-El’s spacecraft crashed into Smallville, so did a goodly portion of what used to be the planet Krypton. In “Smallville,” the green and alien radioactive metal – which has been in the Smallville air, water and soil for more than 12 years – comes to affect more than just the Boy of Steel! Look for Clark’s hometown to become a clearing house for mutant supervillains.
DO WE GET TO SEE SUPERBABY’S ARRIVAL?
We do. The scipt for the hour-long pilot features a longish teaser, set 12 years ago, detailing the arrival of Kal-El and the Green K. The prologue also includes a nasty hazing incident that leaves Lex Luthor forever bald and puts a young man named Jason Creek in a coma.
WHEN IS “SMALLVILLE” SET?
Post-prologue, it is set in 2001. But a spy on the set billing himself as “The Metropolis Kid” adds this: “Basically, ‘Smallville’ is modern day, but there's some weird ‘50s influence in the production values. A lot of the teenagers wear those 'bowling shirts' that are somewhat popular today and were seen in ‘Swingers.’ You get a sense that Smallville is a place where the town's people want to preserve that 1950s culture, and have succeeded for a long time, but it's quickly colliding with the modern world.”
HOW WILL “SMALLVILLE” COMPARE WITH, SAY, “LOIS AND CLARK?”
Favorably. To judge from the pilot script, the new show is darker, takes its source material seriously, and places a lot more emphasis on characterization. It’s exactly what you’d expect the WB to do with Superman.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT “SMALLVILLE?”
Without question, its portrayal of Lex Luthor. The son of wealthy industrialist Lionel Luthor, Lex (whose baldness since age 9 seems a result of the local Kryptonite combined with a nasty scare), exhibits enormous charm, self-deprecating wit, and poor driving skills.
SO HE’S NOT EVIL?
There are no signs in the show’s pilot that Lex is evil - a brainy ploy on the part of series creators (and pilot scripters) Miles Millar and Alfred Gough (“Shanghai Noon”). Though Lex enjoyed a perfectly miserable childhood as the only bald kid in his boarding school, he seems fairly well-adjusted. His only observable disdain is reserved for his dad, who not only sent him to that boarding school, but has since consigned him to the worst part of the Luthor Empire: overseeing a fertilizer plant in Smallville.
WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT POOR DRIVING SKILLS?
When Lex’s dad orders Lex to sack plant workers, Lex angrily climbs into his sports car and promptly smashes into Clark. It’s an accident, and Clark is good enough to save Lex after they plummet into the river. Lex is even cool about this: he rewards Clark with a new truck (though Pa Kent, disdainful of Lex’s dad, makes Clark give it back).
AH, SO LEX LEARNS OF CLARK’S POWERS?
No. At pilot’s end, the only people aware of Clark’s special qualities are the Kents.
DOES LEX DRIVE A LEXUS?
Nope. A silver Porche. (At least in the script.)
WHAT’S CLARK LIKE?
Articulate and amiable but enigmatic. His dialogue at times reminded of “Angel’s” title character.
DOES CLARK KNOW HE'S AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL?
Clark learns in the pilot. Pa Kent shows him the "cradle" he keeps in the storm cellar.
WILL “SMALLVILLE” HAVE A COOL TITLE SEQUENCE LIKE THE OTHER WB SHOWS?
Word is the title credits will feature the very cool alt-rock fave “Kryptonite,” by Three Doors Down. (Makes one wonder how close we came to having to listen to that damn dirty hippie Spin Doctors song every week!)
IS IT TRUE, AS REPORTED EARLY ON, THAT LOIS LANE IS ONE OF THE REGULAR CHARACTERS?
No. But while Lois is nowhere in sight, there is a contemporary of Clark’s named Chloe Sullivan, described as “a sharp-witted city girl with a penchant for vintage clothes and biting cynicism.” Chloe, tellingly, wants to be a reporter with the Daily Planet when she grows up.
GROWS UP? HOW OLD IS EVERYBODY?
Clark, Chloe, and Pete Ross are all 15-year-old high school freshmen. Lana is 16. Lex is 21. Jonathan and Martha Kent are in their forties.
WHO PLAYS WHO?
Ah. Newcomer Tom Welling is Clark. Fellow newcomer Sam Jones III plays Pete. 19-year-old Canadian Kristin Kruek is Lana Lang. Allison Mack (“Camp Nowhere”) plays Chloe Sullivan, whose dad works for Lex.
GOOD LORD! DID EVERY ACTOR IN THIS SERIES CRAWL OUT FROM BENEATH A ROCK?
No. Michael Rosenbaum, Jack of “Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane” fame, plays Lex. John Glover, who’s already essayed DC Comics’ Dr. Jason Woodrue (the Floronic Man!) on the big screen, essays Lex’s pop. And John “Bo Duke” Schneider plays Clark’s adoptive father.
WHAT’S LANA LANG LIKE?
She’s the most popular girl in school, but she’s haunted by the deaths of her parents, who were both crushed by Kryptonite 12 years earlier.
CRUSHED BY KRYPTONITE??
It gets worse. Lana wears jewelry crafted from the green boulders that made her an orphan! (It’s all to explain why Clark becomes such a spazz when he’s around her.)
HAVE THE “SMALLVILLE” CREATORS BEEN WATCHING TOO MUCH “BUFFY?”
Perhaps. Remarks Pete at one point, “We’d love to join you and Scooby in the mystery machine for another adventure, but we have to hand in our permission slips before homeroom.”
WHAT’S THE WORST THING ABOUT “SMALLVILLE?”
The contrived ways they keep finding to keep a superpowered being firmly planted in the nerd camp. Hopefully this series will establish and underscore that Clark hangs with geeks like Pete and Chloe by choice, and not because he lacks options.
DOES CLARK WEAR GLASSES?
No, according to our set spy.
CAN HE FLY?
He can’t even leap tall buildings yet.
WHAT CAN CLARK DO?
He’s strong, he’s fast, and he has telescopic vision. We don’t find out just how strong he is until the pilot’s closing minutes, when we learn he’s capable of stacking three pickup trucks.
IS THERE A BIG “S” ON CLARK’S CHEST?
At one point there is - but it’s not what you think.
WELL, WHAT KIND OF BIG “S” IS IT?
An ironic one! The “S” on the chest (it does NOT stand for “Superboy”) is part of that nasty hazing ritual mentioned earlier.
WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT STRANGE AND POWERFUL BEINGS?
The pilot features Jason Creek, a young man who gets the big “S” painted on his chest 12 years before Clark does. The “S” stands for “scarecrow.” The local jocks string Jason up in a cornfield. He goes into a coma. The sight of him turns a 9-year-old Lex bald. The Kryptonite transforms Jason into a Carrie-ish vengeful and deadly electrical wraith. (Told you it was dark.)
WHEN DOES CLARK PUT ON THE COSTUME?
He’s not expected to until the series finale. The showrunners are said to be following the movie and post-"Crisis" comic continuity in this regard: Clark doesn’t don the blue (or refer to himself as “Superman”) until he leaves Smallville for Metropolis.
DO YOU HAVE FOOTAGE OF THE NEW CLARK KENT?
We do! Click here!
I warn you not to defy me!!
