This is for ML. She wants to know even though she probably won't use it.

I don't think EPRAD has been spelled out on the show, so it's a challenge for those of you with a creative bent.

Paul?

gerry

Well, NORAD, according to their website stands for "The North American Aerospace Defense Command." I'm assuming that they went with the first syllables of the words "North Radar" because NAADC didn't make a very good acronym.

EPRAD, it seems, doesn't actually exist. The only real hits I get for it point to websites on these odd domains. lcfanfic.com and nfanfic.net, for the most part. Who knows what that's about.

(There's also a company which manufactures electronics for movie studios, which may indicate that it was an in-joke or just a convinient cool-sounding thing that they decided to use. In any case, EPRAD\'s commercial homepage doesn't give any indication of where they got their name...)

I'd suggest that EPRAD was the European counterpart of NORAD, but as I recall, it was located in the US. So... Eastern Pacific Radio Astronomy Department? Earth Planetary Radar Defense? ExtraPlanetary RadioAstronomy Defence? Mix and match. Take your pick. Or maybe, like NORAD, it's just a convenient word that doesn't really mean anything. <shrug>

Paul

"Dr. Toni Baines, Director of the Extra-Planetary Research and Development agency, reminds us that timing is crucial. A series of delays and launch failures has put EPRAD's back to the wall."


Direct quote from the Pilot script I used it in Waking a Miracle, which is why I remember it.

Thanks Aria.
I must have watched the pilot hundreds of times and never noticed.

Wow! I'm impressed.

gerry

Yes, AFAIR, they couldn't get permission to use NASA on the show at that point and so made this up as an equivalent. Later, they seem to have been able to resolve that block as NASA, of course, is mentioned in S4 episodes.

Same reason (again AFAIR) they used Sheriff Rachel instead of Lana Lang as Clark's Smallville old flame, because they weren't able to get permission from the comics people there.

LabRat

Hey, I was going to ask this question!

EPRAD is an international space agency. Whereas NASA is just the US. the decision whether to continue the current project or support Space Station Luther was made by the Congress of Nations.

Interesting. So research into Krypton and its inhabitants would fall under EPRAD's charter, right? Wouldn't that make Superman a subject for study? And would that not include the marriage customs and mating habits of Kryptonians?

Huh. That sounds like a plot bunny just waiting to jump out and attack someone.

So a turf war between EPRAD and Star Labs over Dr. Klein's work on Superman is a possibility. Clark would want to keep it with Dr. Klein who he already knows and trusts.