Maybe this is something everyone knows and I'm just missing it, but are the titles of the episodes "Fly Hard" and "Barbarians at the Planet" switched? To me the titles, as they are, make no sense, but switched they make a whole lot more sense.

I mean wouldn't you call an episode where criminals break into the Daily Planet building and hold a group of people hostage "Barbarians at the Planet" rather than "Fly Hard"?!?!

Sorry, kind of random, but it has been bugging me for a while.

"Fly Hard" is actually a play on the movie title Die Hard, I think. I've never actually seen the movie, but from the IMDB synopsis, it involves a cop trying to stop some terrorists who are holding hostages in a building in L.A.

"Barbarians at the Planet" probably has something to do with the fact that EVERYONE at the Planet during that episode acts at least a little barbaric--Lois & Clark sniping at each other, etc.

As far as I know, they didn't name the episodes in any particular order that can be read one after the other--they just named the episodes appropriately for the storylines in them.

I don't know whether they got them confused or not, but I always think that Barbarians at the Planet is the one about the guys breaking in, too. I have to be reminded that that's not so.

Yes, Fly Hard is a play on the Bruce Willis movie, Die Hard, and the plot of the episode is a 'homage' to the events of the movie.

Barbarians at the Planet is, I believe, a play on the phrase Barbarians at the Gates. I'm not entirely up on the origins of the phrase, but I think it's generally believed to go back to Roman times. Perhaps even to the historical sacking of Rome by...well, the barbarians. <g>

These days though, its generally used to denote circumstances where the victims of a catastrophic event are watching things unfold but can do nothing to stop it or help themselves.

As far as Clark, Lois and the rest of the Planet staff are concerned, I think Luthor - the true barbarian who has no appreciation of a free press which doesn't do his bidding and who seeks to destroy it - taking over the Planet probably qualifies on that score.

So I think the titles fit the episodes pretty well.

LabRat

I think Barbarians at the Planet was also a pun on a book/movie from the early '90's called "Barbarians at the Gate" .

The description on IMDB says: "The president of a major tobacco company decides to buy the company himself, but a bidding war ensues as other companies make their own offers."

Since that's the episode where Lex buys out the Planet, it kind of fits.

Putting it like that might make me remember from now on LabRat. Thanks.