Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls Rewritten LnC: Backstory!

Moving right along

It's become apparent that we need to hash out a backstory before we begin writing. Things that happened *before* the pilot. These may or may not be alluded to in different episodes, but anyway, they're good to keep in the back of writers' heads.

I think enough people are on board with the marriage+kid idea to justify going ahead with that, but we'll keep that poll going just in case. If the results are dramatically overturned, then we'll see what happens. It shouldn't be too big a problem.

Right now, the *basic* premise is that Lois and Clark have been married for 10 years and have a 10 year old child.

But just what happened between the wedding and the pilot?

Btw: Polls. are. hard.

Link to the main Back-Story thread

Someone voted 'Other' and didn't explain what they meant!! I demand that this person show themself!

I am not that other person, but I did vote other on two of them.

#5. I think Clark helps out as he can, but this causes him to have to move around alot. After they have been in Metropolis for a while,(See #6 answer) then Superman is born.

#6. I think Lois goes to work at the planet first, for about a year. Clark still free lances, but both would love him to work at the Planet. Then, with the advent of Superman, Clark gets the 'exclusive' on Superman, he get's on at the Planet.

James

That was me . Didn't have time then or now to respond [last post took 30 to do and James jumped in ahead of me;)].

Carol

Like Nan's story, I think the Ellen would have a whole herd of cows about this and Sam would be somewhat supportive.

Martha and Jonathan, obviously, would be supportive and Lucy would be going, "Cool!"

James

I voted "other" in two cases, so this is what I mean. I think Lois and Clark would have lived in Kansas at first, close to M&J, who probably helped them out quite a bit. But I think Lois got a bit restless after some years - say, after five or six years - and she got a break in journalism, which led to her landing a job at the Planet. Then she would have moved to Metropolis. It is interesting to consider the possibility that Clark may not have followed her there, not right along. Maybe Clark and the kid would have stayed with M&J in Kansas for a year or so? I guess things would come to a head when the kid was starting school. Would he go to school in Smallville or Metropolis? I think they might opt for Metropolis, at least if Lois had a good job there. I like the idea that Clark starts working at the Planet after Lois has already become established there.

(By the way, wouldn't it be funny if Clark took the kid with him to Borneo for a few months after Lois had moved to Metropolis? Then Clark could work for the Borneo Gazette for a little while, and also show his son the knob-tailed gecko!)



I also voted "other" for when Lois learns about Clark's powers. I like the idea that young Clark and Lois have a very heated encounter, both lose their heads, and Lois becomes pregnant. Then Clark wouldn't have told her before things got out of control, but I do think that he would have told her the next day, even before realizing that she was pregnant. The only other option I can see is that they don't have sex, and he doesn't tell her right away, but he tells her before they get married. And then I don't mean that he would tell her when they arrived at the church. He would tell her early enough to give her time to back out, in case she didn't want to marry an alien.

Ann

I voted "other" on #2. I agree with D8a about Ellen and Sam. And I like Ann's idea about Clark telling Lois after them sleeping together.

How about we have a poll on why LnC got married so soon and had a kid so soon, Mary? In the pilot, Clark was twenty-nine, if I remember it correctly. Lois was supposedly a year younger, which would have made her twenty-eight. If they have a ten-year-old kid when they themselves are twenty-nine and twenty-eight, then Lois must have gotten pregnant at seventeen, or right after her eighteenth birthday. Why would she have become pregnant so soon? The answer that seems most likely to me is that it was an accident. That doesn't have to mean that she got pregnant first and got married later. Lois and Clark could have chosen to marry when Lois was barely eighteen, and then Lois could have become accidentally pregnant right after their wedding, because they forgot about birth control. But that begs the question why they would have gotten married so young. To me it makes more sense if Lois's pregnancy was an accident, and she and Clark got married because of it.

And why do they have only one kid? Since they have been married for ten years they have certainly had time to have another one. I hate to think that the reason is that Lois didn't like the kid, or something like that. I sincerely hope not! But maybe she couldn't give up her dreams of becoming a reporter, and she just couldn't fit another kid into those plans. Or maybe she actually had medical problems during her pregnancy, and she was advised not to have more kids.

How about we have a poll about these questions, Mary?

Ann

She was twenty-six.

Since I'm up way too early....

from the script:

And Clark was a year older.

So that makes Lois 16 when she gave birth and maybe 15 when she got pregnant, although she could have just turned 16.

Given that age, it's not likely she and Clark would have married BP (before pregnancy) but rather after she found out. Just the way RL goes.

c.

yes, and Clark would be arrested for Statutory Rape. The only way around that would be for them to get married first, which even Martha and Jonathan would have problems with.

Age of Consent in Kansas: 17
Marriageable Age in Kansas: 18, 16 with parental consent.

Sam would go ballistic! There is no way either Sam or Ellen would agree to the marriage. And Sam and Ellen both would have Clark up on Statutory Rape charges faster than Clark could fly!

And this may be a DUH realization, but I think I have figured out why the kid needs to be 10. That is the age the Clark began to notice things and this would cause that additional tension that QotC wanted, I think.

The easiest way around this is to either move the start time of the series to two to three years later, or, make Lois and Clark born two to three years earlier.

Coming from a rural community, I can tell you LOTS of seniors get married within a month of graduation simply because they don't want to wait any longer and not because they found out they were pregnant.

James

Actually, Lois was 26 (which she very acerbically points out to Lucy when she says she has no life), which would make Clark 27.

In later episodes, we learn that Lois was born in 1967 and Clark in 1966.

I always found it funny that Clark was older than Lois, because in real life, Teri was nearly 18 months older than Dean. (Her birthday is Dec. 8, 1964, and his is July 31, 1966.)

Well, my parents were married for much longer than ten years; they love me to bits, and apparently actually *wanted* more children, but all they have is me. And, of course, I'm not the only only-child in existence. Sometimes things just work out that way. (Although, to jump ahead, I was hoping seasons 3 & 4 could deal with a second pregnancy *g*)

It's also possible that they couldn't afford another one.

I voted other on the who supported them issue. I think Martha and Jonathan would have supported them from the get go. They might have pointed out that they were young etc., but once Lois and Clark made the decision to get married M&J would have been there to support them no matter what. On the other hand, Ellen would have been there nagging and whining for a long time about them getting married. As for Sam it could go either way. If you show how this was really go for Lois then he probably would come around and support them. If they struggled then he wouldn't be so supportive until maybe his grandSON showed up. He always wanted a son.

I voted that everyone had a different opinion just because while M&J would obviously be supportive, depending on the circumstances they might be a little critical of Clark losing control or something like that.

This poll really is hard. Still, I try to answer as best as I can.

First: Where do they live? I think that question depends on when Superman is born. Before, they'd have to move so nobody ever gets too suspicious of Clark.

So, what about their parents? I think that the most likely scenario includes J&M supporting Lois and Clark while Sam and Ellen turn away from their daughter. After all, they're very conscious of their social station, and a simple hick from Nowheresville can hardly be good enough for their princess, right?

I'd also think that Lois knows from very early on about Clark's power. Sharing a bedstead with him will do that sort of thing to her (his floating in his sleep, for instance).

I wouldn't let the child know about Clark's powers just yet, unless (s)he already shows some of them him-/herself. Telling a child a secret of that scope is a dangerous thing because children are hardly the best secret-keepers.

The Superman question is one of the toughest, I think. It might be any way there is, but since Lois is the one with the idea for Superman, Clark might start a little early with his other job.

And the Planet? Well, everything is possible. They might be travelling the world together, or they might start working there early on. Both is equally likely, I think. It all depends on the story. But I can't believe that one of them would be new and the other not. They're married, for heaven's sake!

So I'm looking at the results and I see that the majority has voted that both Lois and the child know the secret...

Half the fun of the Superman story has always been the revelation. Aren't you taking some of the fun out of it by having them both know coming into this?

However, if you don't have Lois already in the know then you have to write jerky, insecure Clark and intergalactically stupid Lois. Who wants that?

Besides, this is ten years down the road. There's no way he could hide from her for that long.

And if Lois was after finding out 2 years, imagine what she would do after 10 !!!!!!

James

Or maybe she knows part of the truth but not all of it? Maybe since they are around 15-16 not all his powers have come through yet. Maybe he shows her and his family a few but as they get more and more strange he hides them and just doesn't use them in an attempt to be more normal... after all they can all say he is just a Russian experiment if it is just a few funny things... but after he starts flying the alien theory starts to be more feasible and you wouldn't want to freak out your girlfriend and tell her she may be having an alien baby now would you?

There are many many ways to string this so that you can still have a revelation of sorts with out Lois being played a fool.

And as with the kids... we have seen many stories where the kid didn't know till much later. I'm just wondering why everyone is picking both of them.

Speaking for myself....

I am betting that Clark would tell Lois earlier, before they get married and this is my reasons.

From canon, (I think) Clark wanted to wait for the special someone that he could share the rest of his life with. That's why he was a virgin in the series. He knew that he was 'special' and that he couldn't commit to another person until he knew that that person could accept all that he was.

When he created Superman, that really complicated things. Lois went ga-ga over the creation, so Clark knew that she could accept the 'special' aspects of his life, however, she was totally ignoring his 'normal' side, which had to hurt. So, in his mind, his 'normal' side had to win her over.

Lois meeting Clark before he created Superman wouldn't have that issue. Much like Nan's Second Choice, Clark couldn't help but eventually reveal himself to her. She would eventually do 'something' that Clark would have to rescue her from.


As for the kid. In my opinion, again, if they have a kid, it will probably be super in some aspect, if not all aspect(darn those dominant K genes ) and at some point they would have to reveal to the child his nature. At that point, he would have to also know that CK=S.

Now, I think it would be an interesting twist if this didn't happen until after the 'series' started. The child would be turning 10, just around the time that Clark had exhibited his powers. Maybe up until this point, LnC thought that they had a normal kid, and then something happens that is impossible for a 10 year old to do.

Trust me, having three under the age of 8, there is nooooo waaayyy that I would tell them I had special abilities until I absolutely had to.

Now, of course, early on, when they were like under the age of 1 and a half, there might be some flying going on and some other things, but that would disappear fast the first time they say "My daddy can fly!"

James