Reeve, singular.

Whoops.

Fixed.

Ignore that - I put it up at 330am.

No problem. Most people confuse him with George Reeves, the guy who played Superman on tv back in the 50s.

...whose really name means "cool breeze through the mountains" in Hawaiian.

Did you transpose a couple of words in your post, Luigi, or did I suddenly lose my understanding of English?

Yep.

Well that certainly clarifies things.

Yes, does it certainly.

You can read all about Reeve's participation in the episode here, and view the pic showing Tom Wellng and Reeve together here.

They actually do look somewhat similar.

TUE

Some nice homages:

When Swann sends Clark the IM of the glyphs, Clark says that it reads, "I am your friend," the same way that Superman referred to himself when Lois first asked him "Who ARE you?" in the first Superman movie.

Chloe says that Scientific American dubbed Swann "The Man of Tomorrow," one of Superman's nicknames.

Oh my god, the music from the movie!!! It's in the scene where Clark first meets Swann!! AWESOME!!!!

My initial reaction to the episode: Wow. 'Nuff said.

And yes, I loved the homages, myself. This episode was outright incredible.

Wholeheartedly agree! Loved the music. Loved the episode. Fantastic.

I really liked the twist at the end where Clark reads the message from Jor El and thinks that he was sent to Earth to conquer it. Great stuff.

I may have missed something, and I don't remember every episode, but where did that rectangular key come from (the "heart" of the spaceship)? I don't ever recall seeing it before.

The cave drawings are definitely very mysterious. Were they made by Native Americans who had contact with Krytonians or were they made by a Kryptonian who came to Earth around the same time as Clark? My bet is on the former.

I love this show.

TUE

I think they said when they introduced the cave paintings that they were written by someone who came from the sky thousands of years ago, bearing 'green rocks'. There's all sorts of prophecies in them that refers to Clark and Lex.

Holy cow.

What a spectacular episode. You can practically see Clark shutting Lex out, Lex descending in his not quite yet twistedness...

Dr Swann was a wonderful character...giving Clark that ultimatum. I can just see Clark somehow getting Swann and the ship together, so that he can read the message from Jor-El and see if it was read correctly or not.

I am so obsessed with this show...it's great.

Another possible homage I noticed... the key to the spaceship calls Clark with a high-pitched shriek that only he can hear.

In the original Superman movie, Lex Luthor first gets Superman's attention the same way.

Definitely a great episode. The only thing that I didn't like was the fact that Swann lived in New York. Maybe it's just me, but I always thought Metropolis was New York.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that too, Fox. And no, BJ, Metropolis is an entirely different city.

But it's basically supposed to be the DC universe's stand-in for the Big Apple, right? Or do they make mention of them as two different cities?

(And if so, where is Metropolis, anyhow? I admit to being under the same impression as BJ up to now.)

I guess I was always swayed by the fact that in Superman II, Metropolis had both the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

I figured Metropolis had to be pretty close to Smallville. They always talk on this show as if it is the nearest city. So I'd guess it's in Kansas or Oklahoma or something.

Though I did find it odd that they used New York and not Metropolis or Gotham City or Edge City or whatever.

TUE

Yeah. There was one episode in the first season (Nicodemus) where Clark and Lana could see the lights of Metropolis from atop a Smallville windmill.

Here's hoping Dr. Swann does become a recurring character. As an aside, I though the PSA that the two did was well done. It was mature where it had to be, but also had elements of humor. Nicely done.

Now, on to the nits.

That octagonal hole in the cave wall. Maybe it's just the reception on my television, but I do NOT remember ever seeing carved characters around it. I seem to remember it was just a hole.

By the same token, I don't remember the Key having writing on it either.

Do I need to find a way to improve the reception on the TV?

Metropolis is a coastal city in the comic book, which means it can't be near Kansas. In the TV show, obviously it is. As for the movies (and not just the second one, BJ; Even in the first one you can see that they're using the Daily News building as the Daily Planet), it was simply easier than using original model shots, matte paintings, and sets.

The disk did have the symbols on it as far back as "Obscura" (first season). When Dr. Hamilton placed it on Lex's glass table, a shot from underneath showed several symbols etched on the disk, one of which looked like the Superman logo.

Now here's a question that goes back to "Insurgence." How the heck did Lionel find the disk in the first place? I really wish they would address this. I don't like that it was just there.

Wow. I've never seen this show before, but I've followed Superman for a long time (decades, actually). I picked up a lot on what must have gone before in this show (continuity? foreshadowing? a story arc? Great!) I haven't added many new shows to my "must see" list for years, but I think I will have to start watching this one.

Nit: I may have missed something, but Dr. Swann says he searched for the planet Krypton but there was nothing there.

Since it takes light a very long time to travel from other solar systems, wouldn't Krypton still appear to be there? When we view stars in our telescopes, we're actually seeing what was there thousands of years ago.

Or was Clark placed in suspended animation for the trip to Earth. Perhaps Krypton has been gone for millenia.

TUE

When we view stars in our telescopes, we're actually seeing what was there thousands of years ago. TUE

That "thousands of years" is a gross exaggeration. The light from Proxima Centauri is only a little more than four years old. Most of the stars in the Orion Arm (our local neighborhood in the Milky Way) are only light-decades away.

Maybe I was thinking of galaxies.

Still I think the nit is valid.

TUE

No, Galaxies are millions of light years away (with the exception of the Magellanic Clouds).

Msot of what we see with the naked eye can be described as light-decades away. Through 'scopes, "thousands of light-years" can be appropriate.

Outstanding episode. I'll admit, seeing Christopher Reeve made me a bit misty.

Amazing use of the movie theme in this ep. The minor key twist of the theme when Clark reads Jor-El's message, and the return to major key when Jonathan insists that he is Clark's father, thus Clark is a force for good (although with low tones to suggest Clark's doubt). Refreshing to see this, considering that Jonathan and Martha desparately want Clark's reassurance that, despite his curiosity about his origins, they are the guiding force in his life.

We've discussed the location of Metropolis on another Smallville board. Suffice it to say, if it work for this show that it be in Kansas, so be it.

Looks like the Lex/Clark honeymoon is just about over. Lex is clearly on his way to the Dark Side.

TUE, the "heart" that Clark held was shown early in the series. Jonathan found it at the crash site. It has Kryptonian writing on it, and they had no idea what it did- until now.

I like that the mesasages were in Kryptonian writing, instead of a hologram. I don't understand how Swann was able to decrypt the language in 2 short sentences, though. Glyph-based languages typically require examples of the entire alphabet to decipher. Assuming that Kryptonians write in sentences that are constructed like human languages. Frankly, it's highly unlikely that Swann could have deciphered the language at all.

Sad that Clark jumps to the assumption (although correctly) that he is the last of his kind. If Kryptonians have space travel capabilities, why assume that you're alone? It's reasonable to believe that there were other Kryptonians offworld when Krypton met it's fate. Perhaps after Clark conquers Earth, he can force his human slaves to construct giant satellite dishes and telescopes so he can look for others of his kind. ;)

Clark wonders what destroyed krypton.

Swann says it could have been war, desease or famine or somehting...

Shouldn't it be clear that it exploded because of the meteor shower?

So the question is: WHAT made it explode?
And then, he could only follow the light back to krypton's sun.

Swann said he followed the signal back..
well, I don't understand much of this but...