SMALLVILLE VS. ROSWELL: MAY THE BEST ALIEN WIN?
Editorial by Craig Byrne (PlanetKrypton@aol.com)

As many of you have probably heard, the WB has let go of "Roswell," which has moved (along with "Buffy") to the UPN network -- at a timeslot of 9PM Tuesdays.

You may also remember also that "Smallville" is also intended for 9PM Tuesdays. This could mean that both shows -- which are both intended for the whole "weird alien kid living in a strange town" genre -- will be going up against each other, and fans will have to choose which they prefer to watch.

Competition is nothing new. "Lois & Clark"'s premiere was against the heavily-hyped "SeaQuest," and for a while there "SeaQuest" was even winning the ratings war, until folks wised up and realized that there was more to life than Jonathan Brandis. But with Fox moving "Dark Angel" -- if "Roswell" had not been put on Tuesday nights, "Smallville" would have been up against mostly sitcoms such as Jason Alexander's new show and "Frasier."

Some "Roswell" fans don't understand why the WB let "Roswell" go in the first place. I believe that the WB was afraid that the licensing fees would get out of hand after giving the show years of attention, and then the show will go off to another network, much like "Buffy" did. Why risk that happening again when the WB's already been burned once? By letting "Roswell" go the WB is/was giving the show a chance to continue and the fans a chance to have and enjoy the show longer than the WB was willing to provide.

The whole timeslot issue seems a bit confusing, and it'll be interesting to find out what the WB's plan was with all of this. Why not keep "Angel" on Tuesday nights, so the "Buffy" fans have to switch channels at 9PM and will watch "Angel" instead of "Roswell?" Why not give "Smallville" the excellent lead-in of "7th Heaven" instead of the still-untested "Gilmore Girls?" And will those parents who let their kids watch "7th Heaven" really like seeing vampires at a demon karaoke bar?

I guess we'll all find out this Fall.

By the way, thanks to everyone who's sent in articles for this issue; hopefully it will continue. I think this may be the biggest issue since "Lois & Clark" was on the air!

Look for another "Smallville/Roswell" editorial in the next issue. And you're all still welcomed to submit things to PlanetKrypton@aol.com!

-- Craig Byrne
Editor of Planet Krypton

SMALLVILLE: *NOT* STAYING IN CANADA?
Reported by Craig Byrne (PlanetKrypton@aol.com)

The "Smallville" pilot was mostly filmed in and around the towns of Merritt and Cloverdale, BC, Canada. But, the final decision on where the regular series will be shot has yet to be determined. Things could end up right back down at the WB backlot in Burbank, CA... where the Smallville scenes of "Lois & Clark" were filmed.

Either way filming for the regular season will begin the last week of July, 2001, unless actors' strikes get in the way.

YET *ANOTHER* FAN PREVIEW REVIEW
By LanaBizarro

[Yes, "Smallville" STILL won't air until September or October. But that hasn't stopped yet another fan from sending in another "preview review" of "Smallville." Here's one from LanaBizarro:]

The pilot is approximately 50 minutes and 12 seconds long. To resolve all the criticisms--it's good. In fact, it's better than good. The photography is superb. David Nutter did some great direction. And though there is some rock music in it, it's not that much. And it doesn't take away from any of the storytelling of the show. There is more original music in it--from an original composer. Way better than Lois and Clark! It takes the characters seriously, and Welling's performance is much like John Haymes Newton's from the 1st season Superboy. He is vunerable and the nervous type, but not geeky. Too bad he didn't wear glasses though. Because I think with glasses on, he would definetly have a Clark Kent look.
*
Here's my complete review (WARNING!!! SPOILERS!!!):
The openning is powerful. First off, we don't see Krypton explode, or Krypton for that matter, but we do see huge meteorites in the mist of an explosion heading straight for earth. Baby Clark's craft is in the middle of it all. It takes a while for the craft to actually land in Samillville. Meanwhile, it is day time in Smallville. 1989. People are going about their daily business. Jonathan and Martha are inside some shop and Marth talks to some little girl. When they leave in their car, Martha expresses how she wants a child. Next Lex Luthor's character is developed. (There is good character development in the pilot, by the way.) Lex is like 6-7 years old. His father is rich; a real jerk too. He treats Lex bad. Lex runs off into a corn field, the one where Clark's craft eventually lands. There, Lex sees a vision who later is apparently the true villian of the show...Scarecrow. He has super-powers/electricity powers. This is some sort of vision of the future, because this guy gets his powers from the metorite disaster. Lex sees Scarecrow hanging on a cross (christ-like) and he has an 'S' painted on his chest. He's saying "help me". Lex hears him and follows the voice. Next --Clark's landing. It's crazy! When the craft lands, a trail of black smoke can be seen clear across Smallville. It's a catastrophe. Meteorites are crashing into buildings, destroying cars. A lot of destruction. A LOT of action. Lex is in the middle of it; that's how he loses his hair. Jonathan and Martha are tipped over in their pick-up truck. They got hurt from the metorite fall as well. I thought that Clark coming out of the craft was done well; you only see his feet first. And this is what Jon/Martha see first. However, how Jon/Martha decided to keep Clark happened a bit too soon I think. What I mean is, it really didn't build up to it, it just was like 'ok, here he is, now let's take him home'. But the last shot following makes up for it. It must have been a crane shot, because we suddenly get a twisting, arial view of the craft. A nice touch to end the 1989 sequence.

Next, onto the PRESENT: Smallville is now hailed as the meteorite capital of the world. There is a huge sign that says this. Here is where we hear popular music (I think it's John Meloncamp, not sure). But Smallville itself has a small-town, cozy look. I didn't get the impression of this being a hip town 'Dawson's Creekish'. It had a serious feel to it. And sometimes it's eerie or elusive. 15 year old Clark is introduced. He wants to play football. His father won't allow it, because he says Clark could seriously injure somebody. So Clark goes off to school, upset. This notion does seem to bring sympathy to the Clark character. Clark misses the bus and decides to run through the corn fields in super-speed. That is actually a cool effect. Pete Rose is introduced on the bus along with the blonde friend (can't remember her name). But they are amazed to see that Clark is already at school when they arrive. I liked Smallville High. The school wasn't 90210ish; it didn't focus on any particular social class--like nerds over here and popular people over there. The show focused more on eerie situations. Clark is dared to go up to Lana to ask her out. His friends laugh when they see him almost fall over because Lana is wearing the kryptonite necklace. Here Clark does act sort of geeky, giving us a glimpse of geeky Clark. *One bad thing I didn't get, and thought was jarring, was in this very particular scene. Lana mentions something about Superman. Wait a minute----HUH? Did I hear Superman? Ok--uh, nobody is supposed to know about Superman yet. Oh well. I think it was just a joke; something that Lana thought up at random. I was willing to go along with it.

In some other school scenes, we see Clark day-dreaming about playing football. He tends to day dream a lot in this show. One day dream is with him and Lana. He imagines that Lana is going up to him, likes him, and is about to kiss him. Oh--and Clark is a peeping Tom! He peeps on Lana through a telescope at night. After school one day, Lex hits Clark with his speeding porsche. It is a great stunt! Clark gets knocked clear off a bridge. He lands into the water as does Lex's car. Clark swims underneath and saves Lex. Nice underwater photography. When the paramedics arrive, Jonathan gets pissed at Lex for driving too fast. Lex wants to offer his thanks to Clark, but Jonathan says "Drive slower". Lex offers Clark a red pick-truck the next day, but Jonathan tells him to take it back. Clark even goes to Lex's mansion. There, Lex tells Clark about the vision he had while he was trapped under the water in his porsche. He dreamed he was flying. Hmmm.... Anyway, the dialogue between Lex and Clark is great to hear. Lex also says something like, "I wouldn't want anything to ever happen to our friendship." Hehehe...little does he know....

There is also a jealous boyfriend sub-plot. Lana has a boyfriend. He plays on the football team. Lana gives him the kryptonite necklace as a token of her love. Later, there is a confrontation between the boyfriend and Clark. But before that, back at the Kent home, Pa Kent is working. Clark wants some answers. He proclaims he wants to be normal. He puts his arm into a large blender machine, but it doesn't hurt him. Jonanthan shows him a card with kryptonian writing on it. "It's a form of writing unknown to mankind". He says. Apparently, Jonathan had been trying to decipher the writing on the card for years. Clark almost laughs. "So are you trying to say I'm from another planet!" Jonathan doesn't laugh, but he takes Clark to a storage area and shows him the spaceship. Clark gets upset because Jonathan never told him. He storms off, and next scene is the graveyard scene. Lana is visiting her parents. Clark is visiting the dead from the meteorite catastrophy (Clark's blonde friend had showed him tons of newspaper clipping of what happened during the day of the meteor show). Clark and Lana bump into each other. Somehow, the boyfriend sees them together and sets out to get Clark.

When the jealous boyfriend sets out to get Clark, he wants to fight him. Clark is powerless against him, because the boyfriend is wearing the kryptonite necklace. This makes Clark look like the classic geeky Clark/wimp. The boyfriend throws Clark into the back of his truck and so they storm off with him. They take him to a corn field. Strip down his clothes and paint an 'S' on Clark's chest. Then they hang him (reminescent of Scarecrow in 1989) from a cross, christ-like. This is probably what happened to Scarecrow before the metorite shower changed him into a mutant. Clark calls for help. Lex finds him and saves him. That evening, Clark bumps into Scarecrow, the main villian of the show. Clark apologizes for what his landing in space craft caused to him and to others. But Scarecrow wants to kill him. They fight one another. It's a pretty good fight. A lot of electricity, but Clark easily over-powers him. He throws him far. Scarecrow with his electricity powers starts a truck's engine and takes off in it. Later, Clark gets revenge on the jealous boyfriend and stacks the boyfriend's truck, and his friend's cars on top of one another. Clark has a menacing look on his face as he walks away, unnoticed.

Overall, the show is watchable. In fact, it is good. Worth sticking around and seeing what happens next. One thing I do like is that there no Lois and Clark camp. So rest assured, this show will definetly NOT be the turkey that L&C was. It takes itself seriously. The FX is very clean too. And be assured, this show is going to have a lot, I repeat, a lot of action in it. Not super-hero action, like 'Superboy', but realistic action. The pilot certainly did have a good deal of action in it from the beginning to the end.

[Special thanks to LanaBizarro for the permission to reprint this!]

SMALLVILLE TO ALSO BE ON TNT?
Several news outlets have reported that the TNT cable network may begin airing episodes of the WB Network's "Gilmore Girls" and "Charmed" a few days after they first air on the WB, possibly at an alternating 10pm slot. This is a similar setup to how "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" airs on NBC and then on cable a few days later. The report said that the same kind of episode-airing deal could happen with "Felicity" and "Smallville." We'll let you know if/when we hear more.

A FAN MEETS TOM WELLING & KRISTIN KREUK
By David Minerva (ClarKent08)

In Manhattan, I'm known to the other autograph collectors as 'Super Dave', snce I go around everywhere wearing my prized Superman hat. My name is David Minerva, a long time Superman fan, who has the fun hobby of meeting celebrities! A usual celeb I am a fan of, I go to try and get a picture with them and some autographs. It doesn't have to be Superman related, but that's what I'll talk about now. I've met Dean Cain and John Shea so many times, they both know me! I've also had great (and not-so-great) encounters with such other people as Teri Hatcher and Margot Kidder. Let's get to 'Smallville'!!

This past week in New York was the Upfronts, where every station announced their fall schedules, and they bring in the some stars of their returning shows and new shows for these announcements. This week alone I took over 120 photos with different celebrities. Many were stars of new shows (on ABC, NBC, CBS, WB & UPN) and some were returning people (like some cast members from 'Buffy'). There were even a few names thrown in, like John Travolta at his hotel, and Lex Luthor himself, Gene Hackman, who I happened to bump into on the street!!

Even with all these great people, there were two people I was looking forward to meeting the most, the 2 representatives the WB sent in for 'Smallville'...Kristin Kreuk & Tom Welling.

The night Kristin checked in to her hotel, a friend and I were awaiting her. She got out of the car and we stopped her before she made it to the door. She seemed a little surprised we knew who she was. I started off by saying something like "You're probably wondering how we know you, but as you can see by my attire (I was wearing a Superman hat and shirt), I know who you are!" I went on to talk about the KryptonSite and how it has been updating info. on the show before she probably even auditioned for it. She seemed impressed. I brought up 'Edgemont' and admitted to never have seen it. She responded "Good!!! Don't!!!" and laughed in some embarassment. [Note: Kristin Kreuk has since written in and clarified what she meant: Kristin thought "Edgemont" was a great show, she just didn't want Dave (or whoever) to base her acting talents on her first role. Of course, I think she was excellent in "Edgemont" -- Craig] Now I'm curious to see why she's some what ashamed of it. After taking a picture with me, we asked her to sign and she was confused what to write, never having really signed an autograph before. I told her she should get used to it! She signed a few things for me and thanked me over and over for eing there for her. The next day at the event for the network, I saw her again (where I got another photo with her) and she remarked "How are you again!!?" and smiled.

Unfortunately I missed Tom when he checked in, so I got him leaving for the WB event Tuesday morning. He too was really great about it, but seemed more used to it than Kristin was. Thanks to Craig's site, I also had time to buy the 'Cable & Broadcasting' magazine he was on the cover of. He was impressed I had it and also told me I had a cool hat! (The 'S' of course). Again when I got went to the event and saw Kristin, I saw him again where I got him to sign the pictures of 'Smallville' from the presskit I swiped and he said "Hey, you get around!" Two days later, when I was waiting at that hotel again (this time for people from 'Survivor'), he went for a walk with some chick and took another photo with me. When I said I couldn't wait for the show, he said I should be impressed cause it's really great. :)
~DAVE

[Look for some pictures of Dave with Tom and Kristin at the KryptonSite at www.kryptonsite.com!]

WEBSITE UPDATED WITH NEW PICTURES
Dave also got some pictures from the "Smallville" press kit, which also appear at KryptonSite, on the cast page. You can find that at http://www.kryptonsite.com/smallvillecast.htm

TOM WELLING APPEARS ON "SPECIAL UNIT 2"
"Debby" writes in to tell us that Tom Welling (Smallville's Clark Kent) appeared on the May 16 episode of the UPN series "Special Unit 1," which of course stars former "Jimmy Olsen" Michael Landes. Here's what Debby had to say....

"A long-haired (i.e., usual looking) Tom Welling turned up briefly in the opening moments (teaser) of Michael Landes's show, Special Unit 1, the series finale (it has been renewed) broadcast on May 16, 2001.

"Welling played a jock making love to a young woman on a deserted Lake Michigan beach. At a critical moment, she pushed him away, claiming that their location made her fearful of going further. After all, it was just after a girl did that kind of thing that the monster came to kill her; it's in all the movies. Loverboy laughed and told her to remember what they heard in their cinema class: male screen writers are afraid of women's inate power and strength, so the writers make sure women suffer. He also offered to take her to a friends house, but she was assured by his words and decided to get on with the action then and there.

"Sure enough, just as the show is beginning to think of edging into a
definite PG-13-for-sex rating, up from the lake comes a monster. The
monster paralizes the woman at a distance, approaches, kills the young man (later we learn his neck was broken), picks up the woman, and drains her of her power. In the end she and other young women are rescued, but Tom Welling, whose roles to date seem to include a lot of sleeping with women, has bitten the sand, not to be seen again.

"Also on the show in a continuing role is Sean Whalen. He guest starred in L&C's "Supermann" and at the time we determined he wasn't related to Justin Whalin."

THINGS I KNOW ABOUT SUPERMAN AFTER EXPOSURE TO "LOIS & CLARK"...
By Ye5man

[It's been quite a while since there's been a Top Ten List or anything similar in these pages, but this came along and it was just too great to resist. Special thanks to Ye5man for the permission to print this. Remember this is tongue in cheek and not intended to offend anyone...]

Things I know about Superman after exposure to "Lois & Clark..."

* Superman can't move his neck, arms or legs when in flight
* Although Ma Kent can produce holograms, Superman doesn't know what they are
* It's possible to get a job at the Planet, never turn for work again and no one notices you are gone.
* The average photographer can produce virtual reality goggles and software in minutes and bypass all security of a major company
* Superman is really 5 foot 2
* Lois Lane turns VERY ugly overnight and Superman is still in love with her.
* Although he has confessed to being a virgin, there is nothing wrong with his intended believing he has fathered a child with some slapper, just because her son posseses inordinate strength. Even though they have travelled through time, been to alternate universes etc, there is NO other explanation
* Superman is not really the Last Son of Krypton
* Pa Kent could be dead for 3 weeks before anyone would notice
* Even though they were certain they'd never see each other again, there is nothing wrong with a man and the fiancee not to enjoy a good 'romp in the hay' before he leaves.
* Jimmy Olsen can have a radical new look and no one would notice.
* Superman can only talk with his arms folded

TRIVIA

Did Dan Scardino work for the DEA, or the FDA?

Someone please send an answer to PlanetKrypton@aol.com, because even I don't remember for sure. The answer to last issue's trivia: "The Adventures of Superboy" was filmed in Florida.

STAFF
Krypton Club President/Planet Krypton Editor: Craig Byrne
Contributors: LanaBizarro, Ye5man, ClarKent08, Debby
SUBSCRIBE! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PlanetKrypton/join

PLANET KRYPTON, Issue 282, May 20, 2001. The newsletter of the online Krypton Club. Copyright (c) 2001 Planet Krypton Productions. All rights reserved. Any material within is property of the Krypton Club and/or respective individuals unless otherwise noted as coming from elsewhere. Any opinions within belong solely to the individuals who express them. Copying or any unauthorized publication of material from this newsletter without permission is illegal. You have no chance to survive make your time, duh! "Lois & Clark" and "Smallville" are copyright (c) 2001 Warner Bros., DC Comics, and whichever other respective owners.
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