Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Challenge L&C Robinson

The recent post that Teri Hatcher played a Lt. Robinson makes me wonder how can it be setup to put Lois and Clark in a Robinsonade . With Clark's powers keeping them there long enough seems to be hard. Stuck for a week and Clark keeps his powers hidden because he knows it is just a week works like with the Spencer episode but how can you make it the years needed for a real Robinsonade?

TVTropes link follow at own risk.

There was a silver age comic that did something like this (although it only lasted a short time, not years), by having a volcano with a chunk of kryptonite in it, or something. Basically, Clark had just enough of his powers to do Superman things around the island, but when he tried to fly away, the kryptonite-laced smoke from the volcano kept him grounded. Or something like that.

I love the idea of an L&C Robinsonade! If my muse and my schedule are kind, then maybe... Well, anyway, I hope someone takes it up.

I know this idea is a bit off the wall, but what if Lois is in a plane... you know, bad guys and all that... Superman rescues Lois in the nick of time and sets her down on a nearby deserted island in order to go back for the crew. The plane explodes just as Superman reaches it. Unbeknownst to either of them, the bad guys had kryptonite on board. When the plane explodes, so does the lead box carrying the Kryptonite, infusing the air with particles. Superman crashes HARD down to the water (or the island). Lois sees it happen and rescues him. Only when he awakes, his amnesia from Nightfall is back. (I'm thinking late S1 or between S1-S2... perhaps a story to get her out of Metropolis after her failed wedding to Lex Luthor... something to do with that Colombian* drug cartel story that Lois thought she was nominated for the Kerth for in WoS, to prove that she still has what it takes to be a top notch investigative reporter.) Anyway, the island sand in now infused with sand sized granules of kryptonite, not enough to kill him, but enough to keep his super powers at bay.

I figure Superman's amnesia is only temporary, but long enough for Lois to discover his other identity. Like in Cast Away they can use debris from the wrecked plane (maybe a suitcase of clothes?). Or maybe a sealed hope chest from an old shipwreck has clothes, just so Superman isn't stuck in his suit for the whole adventure.

Okay, I've got Lois and Clark to the island, pre Ordinary People, with no hope of them being rescued any time soon. Now, Go. Shoo. Write.

* The script says Bolivian, but I remember it as Colombian.


***

Also, didn't Nan Smith do something like this in How I Spent My Christmas Vacation ?

Oh goodness, don't go giving me ideas for a Robinsonade, Virginia! It's one of those tropes that keeps coming back to me (to the point of being an outright fantasy that we ended up getting so close to on my honeymoon.)

I attempted to write one of these once for the Superman Returns universe and never could get it to work right. Getting the logic to make it work was the problem (although the logic worked a little better with the Routh!Superman and Bosworth!Lois than I think I could get it to work with the LnC pair}. I suspect if you went by the Season One Logic of the kryptonite (that it takes time to recover from it) you might be able to get Lois and Clark to stay on the island a little longer.

Incidentally it was THAT episode that got the Robinsonade so completely ingrained in my mind as a ROMANTIC fantasy. I'd watch Swiss Family Robinson (and read the book as I had it at home) many a time growing up but "Ordinary People" made it a romantic option. Too much so. When I was a teen a wrote a romantic fantasy of being stranded on an island with my crush. It didn't go over so well with him when he found out.

I could easily see Alt-Clark getting trapped in the boondocks of Congo with Lois. Not enough powers to fly off and gunrunners keeping them from getting to a major city.

That's why I had the exploding plane sprinkling kryptonite dust over the island. Low enough level to keep his powers at bay (and them grounded), but not enough to kill him or make him sick.

I caught a bit of Swiss Family Robinson on television several years back and I agree, it's more romantic than Robinson Caruso.

Personally I get the feeling you might be able to argue that "Ordinary People" is kind of a Robinsonade. With that said, I'd love to read a version of "Ordinary People" that didn't have the Spencer Spencer gang involved. Would Lois catch on that Clark was (sort of) using his powers and thus cheating? Would they be there longer than a week (I mean was the trip supposed to be a week only)? What if there was kryptonite close at hand on the island (forcing Lois to do part of the scrounging)? Etc.

I want to say that that island in "Ordinary People" bugged me when I rewatched the episode as an adult. It always looked too temperate for what I expected it to look like. Especially with the way they got there implying that land wasn't too far away (a boat like that I wouldn't expect to be able to handle surf.)

Any way to get Lois and Clark stuck on an island, together, alone, for an extended period of time, sounds great to me ...

Ordinary People--minus the Spencer Spencer plot-line --always had such a neat vibe, IMO. Some of those scenes were incredible. Lois and Clark on the beach initially with Lois all worked up, their 'hut', talking about their family life by the little pond, roasting bananas on a stick, the a-mazing campfire scene in each other's arms

Laura

Ooh! Another way to absolutely make sure that they're good and stranded: put them on another planet!

Maybe they're stuck on a habitable but lonely world thanks to the New Kryptonians, Tempus, Mxyzptlk, or somebody else. Maybe it's completely earth-like, or maybe it's so alien that they have to figure out what is food. Since Clark can't go into deep space very long without assistance, you can have them stuck without needing to mess with his powers in any way (although you still could, if you wanted to).

Found a Swiss Family Olsen in the archive.

I agree with the other planet thing. Another thought...how about another dimension? Say Tempus traps Lois and Clark on an Earth where humanity never evolved/appeared or all died off?

Depending on what you want from the story, you could have a "Life after earth" scenario, where humanity vanished over one day and all that's left is a spooky, uninhabited world of ruined buildings, or an earth that was never inhabited, for them to roam.

Of course, it might be embarrassing for them to run around nude in the nfic version when HG Wells finally shows up to save them...

I like the "other dimension" idea. It's a good way to circumvent the "powers" problem as dimensionality and timeywimeyness isn't Clark's strong suit (in any version as far as I'm aware.)

The "other planet" idea would probably be helped to end by New Kryptonians finding Clark/Lord Kal-El projecting his telepathy in a kind of SOS. A Clark hoping to be found and Lois making the best of a problematic situation until she gets tired of it and convinces Clark to focus on her more. He stops projecting 100% of the time only to have a group of NKers find him (maybe Lord Nor followed closely behind by Lady Zara/Ching.)

Time travel hasn't always been a problem for Superman. In silver age comics, he could fly fast enough to "break the time barrier" and time travel at will. I don't remember him ever taking anyone along with him, but he did throw a giant monkey fast enough to send it back to live with the dinosaurs. (I don't think that Lois would want to travel that way, though. ) He also had a time-viewer, which looked like an old-style TV and let him see through time.

There's an old comic where he time-travels to Earth's distant future and gets stuck. He can get there fine on his own, but once he's there he loses his powers because the sun has turned into a red giant.

How did the comics writers resolve this issue?

Somehow he acquired a time machine. I'll have to go back and read it to remember the details.

He had to make sure to shave and cut his hair and fingernails before he went home because he had no way to do so with his invulnerability. His hair and nails didn't grow when he had his powers. I guess before that he had been stuck with whatever haircut Lara had given him on Krypton before she sent him to Earth.

In silver age was Clark immediately invulnerable, or did it build up over time. If the later he was stuck with whatever haircut Martha gave him at 9 or whenever.

If I remember correctly, he had his powers immediately as soon as he arrived (a la "Superman: the movie"). I also recall somewhere hearing that his hair never grew. I think this is one way the Byrne-boot was a better explanation. No powers on arrival.

Virginia,

Nan did it there but the one in the wilderness without his powers was Wedding Consequences . The How I Spent My Christmas Vacation was being stranded in time on a deserted island by you know who...

Mike