Smallville Season 3: The Official Companion Review!
Written by Craig Byrne - KryptonSite Webmaster

Titan Books has released their third companion book about Smallville, again written by Paul Simpson. The Season 3 Official Companion goes in-depth about the season that gave us a Clark in exile, a visit from Perry White, Adam Knight, the return of Dr. Swann, and more.

The book, like the two volumes before it, features interviews with many cast and crew members, and takes us into their minds and opinions about what it was like to create the season. There you will learn things like why Miles Millar thinks "Velocity" was a perfectly good episode, and why Tom Welling feels that Michael McKean was immediately "family" and the perfect Perry White. Bits of trivia are sprinkled in to every entry; I was impressed to find things that I didn't even know! (For example: Christopher Reeve and John Glover once performed on stage together in "The Cherry Orchard." That play also has a connection to other Superman television, getting a mention in the Lois & Clark pilot, so reading that connection was quite cool... and having it in print that Adam Knight was never intended to be Bruce Wayne was also interesting to learn.)

Inside you learn about what things were fun for the crew, like creating the faux-1960s look for "Relic" and finding the appropriate music. Every episode is well examined, and some episodes, like the popular "Memoria," were treated with extended sections. The book has character profiles of the changes undergone by each character during the season. Opinions by the actors about their characters provide really interesting insights, and make you feel almost as though they are talking directly to the reader. In some cases, you get an idea of their senses of humor and what kinds of scenes they do and don't like doing. (As an example, Kristin Kreuk and Allison Mack talk about their locker room fight scene in "Delete").

The book is filled with photos, some of which are takes never seen online or in any other publication. There is also a section of color photos. One might note, however, that several of the photos used in the publication are actually from the Season Four photo shoot. This is understandable, though, since individual cast photos were not taken for Season Three beyond Tom, Kristin, and Michael.

Adding some flavor are some reprinted articles from the Smallville Ledger and Torch, including Chloe's end of the year "things I learned" incorporating the 22 episode titles from the year. The book takes a look at the phenomenon that is Smallville, and aside from a reference to Will & Grace "making a highly complimentary reference to the show's writing" mistaking sarcasm from that show's characters as a serious compliment, it's very accurate, even making mention of some fan reactions and speculations online that took place during the season. In addition to the cast and crew spotlights, there are looks at the visual effects and even the Chloe Chronicles web series. All good stuff.

The book's cover looks great; it's just too bad we've already seen this same layout and image, for a recent issue of Smallville Magazine. Being a fan of Chloe and Allison Mack I was especially happy that she was included on the cover along with Tom, Kristin, and Michael.

I definitely recommend picking up a copy though you might want to get the Season 1 and Season 2 companions to go with it for the full effect. Paul Simpson and the folks at Titan have put together a really great product.

US readers - Order a copy and support this site!

UK readers - Here is your ordering link!

Seasons 1 and 2 also have companion books that are already available and ready to ship. Click one of the following links to order: Season 1 - Season 2

If you're in the United Kingdom, here are your links: Season 1 - Season 2

Note: The views of Craig Byrne don't necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite.

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