This is one of my favorite season four episodes. One big reason for that is that Tempus and H.G. Wells are in it, which is always fun, but I also enjoyed seeing the different lives of Lois and Clark. I also like that Lois and Clark are said to be soul mates.

I don’t actually believe in the concept of soul mates or reincarnation, but I think that the use of these concepts within a fantasy setting worked very well. The idea of Lois and Clark being soul mates is really romantic to me, and the idea of Clark’s soul being reborn over and over again as a hero with a secret identity appeals to me.

I enjoyed both versions of Lois and Clark’s past lives that were presented in this episode. The idea of Clark as a Robin Hood-type character is especially nice, though, since the earliest adventures of Superman in the comics have often been compared to Robin Hood.

Honestly, I've never really liked the idea of soul mates. Aside from any religious or philosophical objections I have to the concept, it also strikes me as very sad for those (like H.G. Wells) without soul mates who would forever be destined to live alone or to settle for second best in terms of relationships.

Joy,
Lynn

I've never liked the idea of soul mates, either. The whole concept grates on me. Then, on top of that, we have to accept reincarnation.

Even accepting those two concepts for the sake of the show, Lois, Clark, Tempus, et. al are stuck going through the same thing over and over again. There is no growth or learning based on previous lives - they're just replaying the same roles. By the time they've reached their most recent incarnation, even Sisypuhs would be looking at them with pity.

Then there's the curse. I suppose I should be able to accept the curse idea, but I question H.G. Wells timing. Waiting until after their third attempt at getting married finally succeeded? Why didn't he show up as soon as they were engaged? Or at any other time prior to their marriage?

Now, when it comes to fanfic, usually I try to stay away from "soul mate" stories because the idea grates on me so much. That said, I've read several that I actually like. Some of them I've liked despite the soul mate aspect, and the story would have worked just as well or better without it. Others I've read actually hinge on the soul mate idea, but they're well enough executed that it doesn't bother me.

As a fun romp, I always enjoyed this one. But at the same time many fans hated the whole soul mates theory because it seemed to completely negate everything our heroes had been through to get together. Suddenly, Clark refusing to give up on Mad Dog Lane seemed pointless, if they were always destined to be together anyway. He could have done nothing and tthey'd still have got there.

I recall feeling strongly the same way at the time, but I've mellowed over the years and now it doesn't bother me quite so much. I remember someone posting that soul mates didn't negate the journey. That even if the end result was always set the details weren't. I recall that made me feel somewhat better about it.

The other reason this was not a popular ep at the time was that by this point, having gone through the whole clone arggghh etc, we were really in the mood for that honeymoon in Hawaii.

I can't say that it wouldn't have been nice to have had them off on some adventure while lazing on a Hawaiian beach. But this wasn't a bad ep for me and time has made it better.

LabRat :-)

Lois and Clark being soul mates and searching for one another through-out time does not mean that they necessarily will end up together. When they meet, one or both of them could already be in a committed relationship. There might also be other mitigating factors which could keep them apart (as shown in the show). One of them could have been born a rural-hating, manbashing stubborn feminist and the other a lunkhead farmboy with a heart of gold, for example.

Like in FlyHard and DToSC, I liked seeing the characters in other roles, yet still playing essentially themselves. I also loved how Clark had trouble with his secret identity in other times as well.

I always thought of "The Fox" as a Robin Hood/Zorro cross, and I think he reminded me more of Zorro, although Lois does actually say "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" at one point. I guess time and place wise it is more Robin Hood, and they do mention stealing to return the taxes to the poor. Frian Harry is also somewhat like Friar Tuck.

So why Zorro. First off Zorro is Fox in Spanish. Secondly, the idea of a fairly high class guy disguishing himself to help the downtrodden is pure Zorro. Lastly the mask is totally Zorro.

I actually do not like the whole reincarnation/soul mates etc. story line. Time travel was science fiction, but this went too far into fantasy. I also don't like the lack of control that soul mates implies.

That said, I think the way they pulled it off ways fairly good. Some of the dialogue did seem a bit hokey though. I also thought it was really weird we have the girl who Jimmy is connected with in multiple lives, and we even see her for one brief second at the planet, Clark tells Jimmy to ask her out, and yet we will never, ever see her again at all.

I did like Friar Harry saying "Great Shades of Ceasar". It seemed a call back to how elsewhere (like the 1950s TV show) Perry's catch phrase was "Great Ceasar's Ghost".

I have read that originally they wanted to have Luthor be the originator of the curse, not Tempus. Even though Tempus wanting Lois' love does seem odd, I think it actually did work better with Tempus. Luthor runs multiple level, multi-part schemes. Also if it was Luthor Lois was to marry in the present that would have begged for more explantion. The King Tempus line was odd, but it was understanbable.

I also never really understood why tehy did not go to Hawaii. My "lack of budget" explantion does not even seem to add up. It would have been not that hard to make it look like they were in Hawaii, at least enough for us, the highly ageeable watchers, to accept.

I also thought they really did not devlop the Lone Rider sotryline nearly as much as they could have. In a lot of ways I liked the state they were at in this episode.

Yes, they face problems, but it was not Lois on Clark tension. I half wish they would have given us a little more on the Lone Rider and on Sir Charles/Lady Loisette, and done so by making this two episodes.

I do have to agree that Wells' timing is a total "what were you thinking" issue. Considering how close Lois and Clark seemed to be to consumating their relationship in "Super Mann", consdering their lines at the end of Season 3, or Lois' assigned role in "Lord of the Flies", it actually is half surprising that Wells was too late. Consdering they got engaged before Christmas, it does not make sense.

Well, it does make sense in that at some level Lois and Clark is an episodic situational comedy that generally resolves the main issues of the show within the show, written by multiple writers and so there is not overall cohesion, however it was really bad planning.

I mean, Wells has a time machine, he goes and gets the newspaper to prove that Lois will die, and then he goes back to maybe after they set the curse in motion. I mean, that makes no sense. I mean, at least he could go back so he is at Clark's apartment when they land from returning from their wedding. As it was, it never made any sense that Clark answered the door when he was about ready to make love with Lois. Who does that? Well, I guess Clark has an annoying tendency to do that.

On the other hand this episode does have the bonus of essentially not having Superman. We see Clark dressed as Superman twice, and he does use his x-ray vision to start the candles (this Clark is really big on mundane uses of Superpowers), but we never see a Superman rescue or have Superman save anyone.

That is another plot whole. Clark has not really ever dealt with what people will think if Superman stops showing up.

It was also weird that they leave from Clark's apartment but return to time at the Daily Planet. It is also odd that no one notices them just zoming in. It would have made more sense for them to return to Clark's apartment. Alternatively they could have left from the DP to start with. That was a not explained disconnect.

One more thought. I think this episode shows Wells at his least prepared. Not only does he show up barely in the nick of time, and arguably too late, but he neglects to tell Clark that he won't have Superpowers after the jump, until after Clark gets hit by an arrow.

Honestly I abhorred in and to this day I have a hard time watching it. I think it really had to do with the Tempus as villain this time. I know he's a time-related villain but they had already established Luthor as the villain of their triangle (pyramid?) in a previous ep (more specifically the Arrgh!). I think if it HAD been Luthor I think I would find this much more logical.

I always think the timing had more to do with his stereotypical image of marriage and time period specific prudishness (i.e. waiting to marriage). I suspect he probably would have shown up earlier if they had honestly consumated their relationship earlier I suspect Wells HIMSELF would have been the "birth control" for one of those individual eps.

I've always wondered how their (Lois and Clark's) relationship might have changed had Wells come and actually done the SoulMate ep in the first season (say after the Pilot or so.) I know somewhere on my comp I have the beginnings of a plot for a story like that but I can't quite get it to gel (not to mention all the other works still asking to get to a postable status.)

Considering that the real H. G. Wells had multiple affairs and illegitimate children, casting him as a prude seemed to be a case of "they did not do the research".

On the other hand, since Wells essentially determines that Lois died, gets the paper, and then tries to fix the problem, I guess he maybe is going for minumum worry creation. Still, he seems to be cutting it insanely close. Also, how can he be so sure about the time kicking in of the curse?

On the other hand, I can see that we would have been "aarghh, no, not yet" if he had come earlier. I guess I can even excuse him for essentially waiting until right at the time of the wedding. I just think that he should have showed up either before the wedding, or really quick enough after the wedding. I mean, with a time machine he should have been able to time it so he was at Clark's apartment when they returned from the wedding.

It actually was originally suppose to be Lex but due to scheduling conflict, John Shea couldn't make it and they had to rewrite the script.

Here's an interview with one of the season 4 writers talking about it.
Minear Interview
I agree though, it would have made the episode much better having Lex in there instead of Tempus.

I agree that the Fox was definitely a cross between Robin Hood and Zorro. However, with the setting being the same as the setting of the Robin Hood legend, as well as the fact that the Fox, Lady Loisette, Friar Harry, and Baron Tempos all bear some resemblance to Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and Prince John, I’ve always considered the Fox to be closer to Robin Hood. In fact, the similarities are so significant that I think it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that within the “Lois and Clark” universe, the Robin Hood legend was based off of the real life adventures of Sir Charles and Lady Loisette.

Everyone has made good points about the "soul mates" theory and I won't bother to put in my $0.02, except that I enjoyed reading everyone's comments.

Fanfic-ly speaking (if that's a word), there are several fics based on this episode/concept which I enjoyed. Of course the first must be Nan Smith's "Home" series. Here, Lori Lyons *is* Lois Lane's reincarnated soul in the 21st century. Clark, of course, hasn't aged physically. Here's the setup:

The series starts with Home and goes on from there. Don't miss this fine series.

There are two fics about Lady Loisette and Sir Charles listed in the Database: Lady Loisette & Sir Charles: The Adventures of Soulmates by Dawn, and Somewhere In Time by Rachel Young. I haven't read them so you're on your own here.

I always enjoy LaraMoon's fics, and her Mated Mishap is part of the "Clark Kent is Batman...Not!" series. "What if HG Wells' Soul Tracker had seriously malfunctioned and our favorite couple had found themselves transported inside an entirely different couple altogether? Let's say... a certain couple from Gotham City, for instance?"


Regarding the curse: Tank Wilson and Wendy Richards have an interesting take on it in Mori A Amor . Fun to read, as are all their collaborations. Tank sets up one of his patented Tank Endings (although, thankfully, in this case it's a "middle" and not an "ending"):
Speaking of their wedding night, Kathy Brown wrote Definitely The Black about a certain item of lingerie:

It just crossed my mind that we never learn the name of Clark's true identity when he is the Lone Rider.

I don't think I've ever noticed that.

I only did because I saw in a listing of characters he was listed as Telegraph Operator/Lone Rider for that role, because there is no name for the Telegraph Operator.

Has anyone ever written a fic based on dealing with the problems at hand when they return from ye olden time (The Fox/Baron Tempos/Lady Loisette time) when Lois is engaged to married to King Tempus? In other words, has anyone ever written a story based on this time-line? How did Tempus become "King" and Lois engaged to him? Was she being forced to as in Princess Bride, but secretly having (or trying to before HG Wells interrupt) to an affair? (I'm sure a substitution of Lex for Tempus would be understandable).

Also, this shows that Tempus was around in the current time-line, true as a ruler, but he had a incarnation in the present day. I brushed on this possibility in my "Green-Eyed Monster" story, but am wondering if anyone else has done so.

I forgot to recommend one fanfic which is tangentially related to "Soul Mates". It's ML Thompson's fine Oops: The Destruction of Utopia . As the description says, "Lois and Clark leap into their past -- a perfect chance to make things right. There's only one little problem: if they change anything, Utopia could be destroyed. Will they figure things out in time or is this the end of Lois and Clark? "

You'll have to read the story to learn how it relates to "Soul Mates" - it would be a spoiler if I told you.

I always wondered if Tempus was king of some obscure country. There are kings in some parts of the world, maybe the change is not him being king, but him having any power as such.

A thought I'm having as I watch this...

Wells says something quite curious when he responds to Lois's knowledge and that he is "older" when he tells her about their history. He says: "Well, it's good to know I have a future after this." I half wonder if he was afraid Clark wouldn't be that forgiving of him interrupting their honeymoon.

HERB: But I *HAD* to interrupt your honeymoon, Clark! Please! Please! Don't kill me!

LOL That's hilarious!

Agreed.

One fanfic (name can be found on request) had an interesting take. The author had Lois and Clark sharing the info on the curse with Alt-Clark and Alt-Lois, who immediately shacked up. No marriage, no curse. (Not sure what happens when they become married under common-law, though.)