I'm just going to return the LnC DVDs that Mellie, Lara Joelle Kent, lent me, but first I decided I would watch Big Girls Don't Fly. Oh, what a super-stupid episode!

* If Jor-el and Lara thought it was important that their son was married to Zara and should become a ruler with her, why didn't they say so in any of the messages they had recorded for their son in the globe?

* How could Zara know that she was married to Kal-El, when Clark had absolutely no idea whatsoever that he was married to Zara?

* How could Zara and Ching find Clark?

* Given the fact that Zara and Ching lived on a barren rock of a world, how could they find all the resources it would take to build a spaceship that could travel across many light-years at near light-speed or even faster than light?

* Why would two sets of parents who have just married their infant children off to one another send one baby away to one world and one baby away to another world altogether? How did the parents expect their children to even find one another if they lived light-years apart?

* Why would anyone believe that Clark could do more good on New Krypton, where he is physically the same as everyone else, than he could do on the Earth, where he has amazing physical powers and can perform physical feats that are unthinkable for anyone else?

* Why would the Kryptonians give up their own amazing superpowers and the great natural resources of the Earth to go back to the barren rock of New Krypton and the red sun that robs them of their superpowers, just because they "belong" there?

* Why would the Kryptonians become fully superpowered the moment they came to Earth, even though it took Clark years to fully develop his powers?

* If a world is doomed to sink into total anarchy, chaos, mass murder etcetera unless a woman on their world marries a man that she was "birth married" to, never mind that the man has no connection to or real knowledge of their world whatsoever, is the kind of civilization that is built on that sort of foundation even worth saving in the first place?

* If Clark had been married to Lois instead of just engaged to her when Zara and Ching came for him, would that have made it all right for him to turn down Zara and stay on the Earth, so that New Krypton was doomed to sink into horrible chaos and civil war? If it was only his marriage to Zara that could save New Krypton, would he have divorced Lois so that he could marry Zara? Was it really only the fact that he was not yet married to Lois that made him obliged to save a world?

Did the people responsible for LnC:TNAOS make this super-stupid episode just because they hoped that it would pull in a few more people and make them come back for season four?

Ann

Do not think about the "logic" in the New Krypton episodes. It will just make your head hurt.

That said, I do enjoy the NK arc because it contains some great acting and some really heartfelt, emotional scenes. I certainly prefer it to the Argh.

Actually there are a few fanfics out there suggesting Ching and Zara faked the Jor El projection to coerce Clark into helping them. I remember one in which Lois finds this out and tells Clark. Although I think this was Alt Clark and Alt Lois (I just don't remember which ones).

I've also read it and that fanfic was way better than the whole arc.

I feel like scratching my eyeballs out everytime I catch myself watching the nk arc or the whole aargh. It's sad to see so much potetial go to waste on bad scripts... (for instance Lord Nor being interviewed on a talk show was just... stupid and there were no repercussions for Smallville after the New Kryptonians left- come on! Smallville would instantly gain notoriety and become the new Roswell instead of continuing its existance as an anonymous town in Kansas)

I hated the whole NK arc. I didn'tlike either Zara or Ching.

I could not understand how anyone missed how Superman looked at Lois before he zoomed out the window and then her reaction.

Plus, not to mention, everyone in Smallville would know that Clark was Superman after the whole shebang. I mean, why would they just randomly hold The Kents and I'm pretty sure there were other MAJOR clues to his identity (haven't seen it in awhile). I know small towns keep secrets, but really! Like every single one of the Smallvillers would keep that one! I think not!

I always really enjoy BGDF. But, yes, this is the one where the logic of it falls down for me. They must have been blind as a bat not to notice. And what annoys me especially about that scene is that they could have so easily done the big farewell somewhere private - at Lois's apartment, or in Smallville, say - and avoided the problem in the first place. Setting it at the Planet was just dumb.

LabRat

That's the great thing about imagination. If this was the real world, it would all be ridiculous, but it's TV, so I loved it.

JD

Even I hate this arc, I'd still choose this than that stupid Clone arc. I mean, after a long time of waiting for Lois and Clark to be married at last, after you get all giddy and jittery like it was your own wedding, they cut off your excitement and tell you that 'Hey, Lois got kidnapped by Lex and she's replaced by a frog-eating clone then after Clark has rescued her she gets hit by a rock and gets amnesia then hypnotized by a stupid doctor so we're postponing the wedding so that you'll stay hooked until they get the chance to come back to the altar and get married for real!' What a waste of time.

When the station rerunning L&C repeated this part of the show[after Season 4, they began showing again L&C starting from S2], I deliberately ignored to watch this part. But I can bear to watch the NK arc than the clone one.

Considering the premise of the SHOW is about a man who flies, reality kind of flew out the window as Superman flew into The Planet's newsroom with Lois in his arms back in the pilot. So I tend to view the entire show with that attitude.

That being said, I really love the scene at her apartment. It's so emotionally raw and beautiful. You really feel the pain and the love and the sorrow as they say goodbye to each other. And I have always maintained -- had the show not told us otherwise -- that they did make love for the first time that night when they were silouetted by the curtains and then fell to the floor ... mmm. Kathy B has a great explanation to that in her nfic, "Winners."

I think the only reason why Lois ended up at being at The Planet was because she wanted to see him through with leaving; after the hard decision they had to make, she wanted to make sure he would go through with it because she did understand that he was doing this for the greater good. I think that if Clark knew Lois was at home, sobbing in her bed, he may not have been able to go, but seeing her there, dressed, facing the day, and without a word, encouraging him to go, he was able to find the strength to leave her -- and Earth.

I honestly think at this point that the producers knew the show wasn't going to last much longer, and that this was a desperate attempt to try to reel in viewers... given I haven't watched the NK Arc in a while, and just recently got the 3rd season on DVD... I agree though that both the NK Arc & Wedding Arc were annoying.

I really wonder too what would have happened had L&C actually been married instead of engaged. And the only answer I have to why Lara & Jor-El didn't mention anything about the marriage in the globe messages is because they probably didn't know that Zara and others were going to survive for sure... it's the best explanation I have.

Maybe they didn't want him to cling to the hope that there might be others like him out there and instead build a good life for himself on Earth.

I think the fact that our Clark didn't find out about his origins until he was almost thirty helped him be as "normal" as possible. If you look at the movie-verse he finds out when he's much younger and he is never forced to be an adult and become a self-confident man. Unlike our Clark, he's very insecure in regard to who he is, I think, vacillating between his Kal-El, Superman and Clark persona. It didn't help that he spent ten years holed up in the FoS getting brainwashed by Jor-El of course :p .

Anyway, that may have been just what Jor-El wanted. If Clark had known about NK from the start, he would have never been able to be happy on Earth.

[/fanwank]

Had some time to kill

Maybe because they thought it didn’t matter? The NK colony seemed to have been rather small and experimental, maybe they simply assumed it would perish without support from the home system. And they hardly could predict what would be required for it’s administration in the future.

Well that is fairly obvious Zara is in full command of her Kryptonian heritage, Why shouldn’t she know who she is married to? Clark seem only have some superficial glimpses.

They are a highly advanced ancient culture with SF technology?

Well they obviously had some craft that have taken them there, and if they are the remnants of colonization expedition they should have been equipped with some serious technology and supplies that enabled them to carry out their mission.

Well I would assume Zara’s parents were not meant to stay on NK for decades.

Any Kryptonian can apparently do what Clark can, so I suppose he could have been replaced if that was problem.

A very good question

Maybe because adults processes the solar energy differently? Always thought this weak in the superman mythos, whenever a Kryptonian leaves the phantom zone they are instantly in command of all abilities granted by yellow sunlight with no need to train them.

Well Clark would hardly stand by and see the last of species and culture be destroyed would he? Given that the Kryptonians possessed knowledge our world can only dream about it would be worth saving from a utilarian perspective, even if you dismissed the individuals suffering. Their strict caste society seemed to have worked for them.

Well I don’t really know how intergalactic marriage licences works, given that he already was married to Zara, he hardly would have needed to divorce Lois. And I doubt that how he had amused himself with the lesser creatures on earth would be of any concern to the Kryptonians.

I have no idea, but I disagree, I thought it was very interesting and intelligent story arch that could have been something if they had followed through.

The problem with both the NK arc and the Clone arc is that Deborah Joy Levine had left the show and the powers that be could care less of the cannon set forth for the show by Deborah. They just decided they needed what they thought was a cool idea for some episoded and someone pulled stuff out of their butts to use as ideas for some of these episodes.

It you remember in the messages in the globe Jor-El talked about adapting the hyperlight drive to a ship. I believe (but not sure) that Jor-El alluded to the fact that only probes had been sent out by Krypton up to this point. Making the ship for Kal-El the first manned ship. Since in the globe messages we see the planet blow up when could any other manned ships been sent out. Now remember this is SEASON 1.

Even if a colony ship had been sent out Zara would have had to be born on Krypton about the same time as Kal-El for a marriage to be arranged. So the colony ship had to leave about the same time as his ship so why wan't he put on the colony ship.

Then there is the time problem for the colony. How did a ship holding enough people to populate a colony, find a suitable planet and build up said colony in 30 years. Also they talk about how difficult it is on New Krypton so how did they come by the specular palance ship.

So in my opinion though there are parts of the NK arc I liked this whole arc was pulled from someone's butt.

Quite correct, this is a continuity break, or assume that Jor-El is unaware of the expedition, which seems rather unlikely, especially since he has married his son to one of the participants. However the show is plastered with such inconsistence’s, they only really bother me when I don´t care for the plot.

Jor-El himself says they Krypton´s knowledge of the galaxy is extensive, and all is dependent on what kind of technology is available to them. For example in Star trek there is a replicator technology which allows humans to convert energy into any templated matter, whether a cup of coffee or a energy relay. Which simply makes them independent of any natural resources except the energy that powers the convertor.

What I find bad in this arch is all the cop outs.
All the lengthy discource about love, honor, duty and sacrifice, and whoops Clark is back in the next episode.

And I think they cheapened Zara´s character by not playing her straight. She didnt even try to make the arranged marriage work and when it comes to dynastic marriage alliances progeny is kind of the point.

Yeah, that was a serious disappointment for me, too. There have been several fanfics, of course, which deal with the issues and problems of Clark's absence for a much more satisfying period of time, and I've always enjoyed reading those.

And, IIRC, it was all down to budget constraints. It had been planned to have a huge, movie-length, SFX-crammed conclusion to the arc in the S4 premiere, but this was considerably pared down by the Suits on the grounds that it would cost too much. So, instead, we got Clark doing a U-turn in space almost as soon as he was gone.

LabRat

As far as watching LnC is concerned, I don't use my head at all, just my eyes, ears and yes, my heart!

Good point. With this show you have throw reality out the window and just enjoy the characters.

Broadly speaking, yes. But, for all of us, there is a point where suspension of disbelief just doesn't cut it, especially if it's blatantly illogical and most especially if it didn't have to be and could have worked if it had simply been written better.

LabRat

I know. That's why I don't think about it! Because if I start thinking then I know nothing would be more absurd than some of the episodes of Lois and Clark... for example TOGOM - resurrection of dead people (if Clark has read that code -stuff why couldn't he have brought Mayson back to life? She was his friend), or even HIM climax - that tsunami is stopped by underwater tunneling etc. etc. which we know isn't practically possible... similarly BGDF, when we know nothing of Krypton was left when it blew up!

So, what do I do? I just watch, even though I know most of the stuff is just that - "stuff"! I watch their wonderful relationship... and how the various impossible illogical impractical situations bring them together. For me, more than the episode plot, Lois and Clark mattered more...