TEMPUS FUGITIVE
The night Resurrection first aired, there was a promo for Tempus Fugitive afterwards -- Clark Kent's secret revealed! "Hello! Duh! Clark Kent IS Superman!" I remember that night because we had friends over for the evening -- daughters of my parents' friends, actually. They were 9, 7, and 4. I don't remember if the youngest one cared much about L&C, but I know the older two did. We watched many episodes together in those days (I had taped so many!) Anyway, when the TF promo aired, we all went absolutely nuts with excitement. A revelation? This was BIG.I was so excited about the episode that I even snuck a peek at the description in that week's TV Guide, while waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store. One of my parents, I can't remember which, was like "It'll probably all turn out to be a dream or something." No, I thought... no way.
Dang, my parents were right.
Okay, so it wasn't "all a dream," but pretty damn close.
The episode aired, and I LOVED it. Time travel is right up my alley, and I was big on babies in those days, so Clark as a baby was just totally adorable and awesome.
It was with some trepidation that I set out to rewatch TF last week. It's not like I hadn't seen it in years, heck, I think I just watched it last year. But I always worry that I will find certain episodes cornier than I used to. When you're a kid, you can believe things a whole lot easier than you can when you're an adult. So sometimes things I used to love? Now I'm just "OMG that's so stupid." I never want that to happen with L&C episodes, but it happens with a lot of things, so I always wonder and worry.
I am happy to report that not only did I not find TF corny, but I found that I love it as much as I ever did. The only part that makes me cringe nowdays is when Lois goes "I think we're talking to your" and Clark goes "Great... great-grandparents." Because what a thing to say out loud, in FRONT OF the woman you're talking about. Tact, anyone? Aw well, I still love them.
I went through a phase where I was very pissed off at H.G. Wells. I felt he shouldn't have operated the time machine to allow Tempus to go back in time (from 1995 to 1966/1866), even with the gun pointing at him he should not have done that because of all the trouble it caused. While watching it this time, I was like der, Tempus is pointing the gun at Lois, too. Lois dying would have been as bad as Superman dying, so H.G. was doing the right thing. I STILL think it was dumb of him to leave Tempus in that asylum, though, cuz we all know how THAT turned out.
I was 17 before I got that "his was just plain bigger" joke. Random.
This is one of the episodes I used to quote often. I adored Tempus. There was a time when I could pretty much recite the whole episode verbatim, but not anymore.
So, in conclusion, it's still a great episode. So what if it's fantastical? This is a show about a guy who flies. You can't buy into one thing and not the other.
Okay, I still don't buy into Kathy Kinney in Ghosts but that's a whole nother LJ post.
TARGET: JIMMY OLSEN
I will never be able to put an exclamation point after "Olsen" like they do on the DVD box. It looks so silly. 11 years in the fandom online and I never saw that exclamation point. Is it on the script or something? I still hate it.
Random piece of trivia -- originally the "Jimmy-centric" episode in season 2 was going to revolve around Jimmy and his father. I have an interview with Justin Whalin from 1995 where he is talking about this. Well, what happened? Yes, that episode was made in season 3, but why did they decide to scrap it for season 2 and do TJO instead? The world may never know.
So this isn't my favorite episode in terms of A-plot, but there is a lot to like about it. Clark is running off all the time, Lois is exasperated, and Dan Scardino is rocky road, Clark's chocolate, and chocolate is delicious. Meanwhile, Jimmy has YET ANOTHER "one-episode romantic interest," this time in the form of Sarah. Sarah used to annoy me, but now I really like her. She was cute and smart. I wish they'd used her again, but I know the actress was filming a series pilot about this time (1995's short-lived "The Pursuit of Happiness.") Ever since Cat left, I thought the show could use another recurring girl character. Lois and Martha, that was it. There was Ellen, but if you actually count the number of episodes she was in, you get 5, I think. Not many. Hell, Bobby Bigmouth had THAT many.
I remember hearing about an interview Justin Whalin did circa 1995, where he mentioned that he thinks fans finally started to accept him after TJO, because of how he got to knock Dan Scardino off the stairs. Was this on the S2 DVDs? For the life of me I can't remember what interview that was from or where I heard it, but it makes me laugh. I accepted Justin by the third episode of season 2, but I guess some fans really were not fond of Justin when he took Michael Landes's place.
I still find myself irked at Clark for ditching Lois on their stakeout to go save an old lady. Well, maybe not so much the old lady, but come on -- standing there while graffiti artists cleaned a wall? This makes me believe that Clark really did have some kind of fear of intimacy, though he never would admit it. It's like in WHALTTA when he uses "Superman" to avoid Lois. It's kind of cute, but I still want to thwap him. Get back in the jeep, boy!
Perry's fatherly talk to Clark in the DP just makes me squee. Clark is so cute there, trying to explain that he doesn't want to act like a dipshit to get Lois's attention, and acknowledging that there IS a little something that's keeping him from pursuing Lois more fiercely... the whole secret identity thing. I'm sure he was probably scared as hell thinking of having to eventually tell Lois his secret (mostly scared of her reaction!) so, in relation to the previous paragraph, this too could be why Clark DID run out on her so many times when it wasn't really necessary. Sure you could argue that Clark is just unable to NOT respond to a cry for help (see: ditching Lois at the restaurant in WWW to deal with a car accident) because of his innate goodness or overwhelming sense of civic responsibility, but he CAN ignore it. He can if he really tries. This was dealt with in several third season episodes -- Clark's determination to help everyone in trouble, realizing its impossible. Clark, you created Superman so you could HAVE a life, not so you could lose it.
Lots to think about.
Next up, Bruce Campbell!:)
