Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Lana Lang in "Tempus, Anyone?"

Despite having rewritten the ep twice in longish fics that were happily well-received lo these many years ago, I have never actually watched Tempus, Anyone? until last night.

I would never have been able to write Lana from a sympathetic perspective if I had seen and heard her in action, rather than just reading the transcripts. Whew!

Props to the actress for making Lana so solidly unlikeable, especially with her gestures and posture. I completely understand why so many fans find her so repugnant, although I do still think she's overly reviled. She's certainly not the best one for Clark, but that does not automatically make her a bad person. Canon clearly shows that she accepted Clark and offered him comfort, even if we don't care for her approach.

Also, Herb is one of my own least-liked characters, but I was impressed by how he gave poor alt!Clark some hope at the end. That doesn't come across as clearly as the transcript as it does onscreen, either.

Hi Hazel,

Personally, I find Herb to be a much underused character in the series. Per your comment from the end of "Lois and Clarks" that is the jumping off point I used as the basis for my story "Clark and Lois - The Lost Years - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 3" As you can see by my avitar, I like Herb.

Would any of us pro-Lois fans have liked anyone engaged to marry Alt-Clark? Not having read the script, I don't see how Lana's dialogue could be seen as anything but snarky. I guess they could have played "Tempus, Anyone?" from Lana's POV, showing Lana as sweet and loveable, worried what would happen to Clark if he were exposed as an alien, and Lois as the woman out to steal Lana's fiance (even if technically she wasn't). Lois's actions in that episode were quite self-serving. I guess it all depends on the story's POV. Mrs. Mxy has also voiced complaint at how Lana was portrayed on the series.

I doubt you'll see a more positive portrayal of Herb than in Ken's stories. /just teasing you, Ken./ I love Tempus and wherever he goes, Herb must follow (or be involved, somehow). I tend to have Herb want to do the right thing and yet not always succeed (i.e. as he did when he TRIED to bring that man from the future into the past or when he stopped the curse by screwing up the future.) His heart his in the right place, but not always his judge of character or the right thing to do. I guess that trait could rub some people to the point of annoyance. I tend to find him great comic relief.

LATER: I forgot to mention that Tempus, Anyone? is one of my all-time favorite episodes. I'm a huge fan of alt-Clark. /everyone on the boards say, "Duh!"/

KenJ wrote:
Obviously I don't agree with you there but I do agree that Herb had huge potential in the series. I also wish you much joy in your take on the character. One of the nicest things of LnC fandom is that everyone can focus on their favorite aspects of a show without having to deal with hate or mockery.

To be fair, part of the problem (I think) is that Tempus was such a huge fan favorite that the writers tended to skew events in his direction, to give him a chance to chew up more of the scenery. That may explain why Herb makes so many foolish mistakes in his dealings with Tempus. The peacekeepers from Utopia are equally bumbling, which may lead us to wonder if Utopia is such a great place after all. Perhaps that's why they irritate me so much: I am a huge fan of competence, and we get precious little of that sometimes.

I do think that the parts of Herb I dislike actually fit quite well to the real Wells, though. He had strong socialist/pacifist tendencies that tended to be disappointed and/or shattered when real-life events proved them unworkable. That does sound like our Herb, doesn't it? There's also his behavior towards Lois, which was perfect: the real H.G. Wells ardently believed in a future of equality for women.

VirginiaR wrote:
Wait, there are people on the forum that aren't pro-Lois?

I have this bizarre history of falling into a fandom via transcripts before I have a chance to watch actual episodes. It gives me what I think is a relatively unique perspective, as what you read in a textual medium is often conveyed completely differently when it's translated to actual performance. It gets interesting sometimes.
Well, yeah. Although I assure you that's she's not exactly sweet and lovable. Lana is, of course, the hero of her own story - aren't we all? - but I'm pretty proud of how her personality doesn't change. Hm, I'm not complaining, per se. Every iteration of a mythos is going to change a bit, and if LnC is less sympathetic to Lana than, say, Smallville, you certainly can't claim that there's no source for it in all the decades of comics!
I absolutely adore Tempus, too, but keeping Herb out of it was actually my first rewrite of the ep.

I love all the Tempus eps, like you, although I'm not sure I can point to a specific favorite. Alt-Clark is a delight, because there's no much room to maneuver and still come up with a happy ending. CANON ALTERNATE REALITIES make any fandom better. Go us!

Not to defend the bumbling Peacekeepers (because they really do suck at their job), but I always got the sense that they were more for show than anything else. That Utopia was so peaceful and prefect and boring that no one ever really committed any crimes or got in trouble, so the Peacekeepers really didn't know what they were doing at all. Again, not to excuse them for sucking at their job, but it certainly does explain things a little.

Wow, Hazel. I just finished reading your story "A Certain Point of View." Well done. You certainly portrayed Lana in a sympathetic light. Lois did trample on her and Clark's lives with little regard for them. You brought up some very interesting what if's. Lois_Lane_Fan explored one of them in his story, gosh, what was it called... /runs off to do some research/... Hmmm. It's not on the Archive. Getting behind, LLF... He explores what the happy marriage of Lana and Clark could look like in Lois Interruptus and the sequel Lois Interruptus: The Blind Date

Ha, yes. I totally agree, Deadly Chakram, that the implication is that Utopia is so helpless to deal with the situation because they don't know how to deal with someone who isn't all sweetness and light.

That doesn't alter the reality (ooh, can we use the word "reality" with this kind of speculation?) that "peacekeeping" demands both outer and inner strength, or it collapses. Which... gets us back to Wells and his "Time Machine," I suppose.

I admit that I much doubt that the writers planned for such a profound statement on the subject of peace and vigilance - they were probably more invested in giving Tempus an excuse to wreak gleeful havoc - but it worked out pretty well.

And now I'm reminded of a really good and long fic from a few years back - by chaste, maybe? - that explores this in detail, including the problem of leaving the general public in blissful ignorance with only a few vigilant people acting as safeguards. Ah, fandom, you do such good work.

Thank you! That fic really was a journey of discovery for me, to be honest. "Wait, he's meeting his fiance for the evening and promising, in front of her, to meet another woman later?" "Wait a minute, he disappears on Lana and her parents, then spends the entire night with Lois without saying a word? And Lana finds clear signs of that when she arrives in the morning?" I mean, our sympathies are clearly and obviously with Lois and her intentions, but Lana can hardly be expected to understand that.

Thanks for pointing me at LLF's stories - I'll take a look.

Oh yes, there are several stores I still need to get submitted to the Archive. I'll have to take a look at my fanfics sometime soon and see which ones I still need to send along. I've procrastinated long enough on that.