Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Strange Visitor Discussion Thread

There are quite a few reasons that I liked Strange Visitor. We had a good villain, Lois and Clark’s first kiss, and a good storyline.

One of the things I like about “Lois and Clark” is that the show told Clark’s origin story in several episodes throughout season one instead of telling us the background of Krypton and how Martha and Jonathan found him in the Pilot. Most people already have a good idea of who Superman is, so I feel like taking too much time to retell the story in the Pilot would have wasted valuable time. However, Krypton is still important, and the backstory needed to be told at some point. I like that the way they chose to delve into the story of Krypton was unique from other versions where the first 15 minutes usually focus on Krypton.

The scenes with Cat and Clark were a lot of fun for me. What made it even better were the reactions of the rest of the Daily Planet staff when they thought something had happened between the two of them at Cat’s apartment. Lois’ jealous reaction was especially fun to watch. I also like that Cat’s collection of books gave us a hint that she might be more intelligent than most people may have expected.

In my opinion, Trask was one of the stronger villains that the show had. I was always disappointed that he died so early on in the series. He was really different from most of the shows' villains in that his goals weren’t entirely evil. If he had been right about Superman being dangerous, he could have easily been seen as more of a protagonist. I think that that’s what made him an interesting villain to me.

I agree. But once he found out that CK=SM, he had to die. (From a plotting point of view.) Of course, we know that Clark wouldn't kill him - Clark had the chance and declined. "It's not the way I work!" But it would have been too dangerous for Clark to have someone out there that hated him and knew his secret. Fortunately, Trask solved the problem by getting shot.

By the way, can anyone recommend some fics where Trask is a major character? Or a sympathetic character? One of my favorites is "Delenda Est Carthago" by Ikuko.

Now that we've started the "Strange Visitor" section of my story, I can ask my questions. I had a person who read my Perry's reactions to Trask and the B39 guys barging into his newsroom and ask "what's up with him?" (basically). My responce: YEAH, what was up with Perry?! AND Lois and Clark?!

We learn in this episode that Lois and Clark don't know Trask's name until they find his old 'project bluebook' photo. So, obviously Trask NEVER gave his name to Perry or anyone else in the newsroom. Trask and his guys NEVER show any IDs or Badges (which is doubtful that they have since they are a secret government agency). So, Perry, WHAT HAPPENED?!

A few more excellent fanfics based on this episode:

Wendy Richards and Tank Wilson: Strange Visitor: The EVIL Vignette

and

Strange Visitor Revisited by Wendy Richards and Irene Dutch.

Well, the easiest explanation for not learning who Trask is, is because they wanted the whole hilarity of Lois claiming Clark missed a detail in going through old files.

Still, the scene could be done if they knew who Trask was already, so the no IDs just does not make sense.

The other odd thing is that this episode really should come after Never Ending Battle. Viewed where it is, it makes no sense that Bureau 39 includes Clark and not just Lois in their sweep. Clark was not even in the news room when Superman was there.

It's always possible that Trask, et al. introduced themselves to Perry and the gang with aliases, but the whole discovery of Trask's name they didn't mention "Hey, he wasn't named Jones after all", so that seems doubtful.

Good point.