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[jlvsclrk]

jeannev, in her post-Christmas boredom asked some great questions that I, in my post-Christmas boredom, answer below.
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1. What are your top 3 (or 5, if you are feeling ambitious and verbose) episodes of SV, and why?

• Memoria - For me, it explained so much when they reveal that Lillian killed Julian, then worse, let Lex take the blame for it. I'll always believe that it was remembering this that made Lex resign himself to a life of evil: if not even his mother could withstand Lionel's influence, then how could he? But what truly made it great was the Clark story and Lex pulling him out of the tank of kryptonite. Yes, what Clark said to Lex later was harsh, but it was a truth that Lex desparately needed to listen to.
• Transference - Tom playing Lionel trying to be Clark. Ooh, la, la: I love that scene where Lionel checks out his new body. That "don't you wish" scene where he toyed with Chloe. His encounter with Martha leading to discovery of heat vision and invulnerability. His contempt for the self-absorbed Lana. Lex being the only one to pick up on the change. Lionel stalking towards Clark in the prison. For me, its just magic.
• Labyrinth - All the wonderful Tom time. I see this episode as a long battle between Clark and the phantom, who wields Lana as the prize if he'll just go along with things. So Clark goes to his fall back resources, Martha and Chloe, only to have the phantom take them away. And Lex, Clark's first save, is instead converted into a symbol of the cost of Clark's "delusion". Great stuff. And the depth of the phantom's manipulations is revealed by the resurgence of Clark's love for Lana.
• Pilot is number 4 but there are about 6 episodes duking it out for the last spot. (hidden, mortal, apocalypse, shattered, asylum, blank, identity)

2. What are your bottom 3 (or 5) episodes of SV, and why?

• Static - does anyone like this episode? If so, why? I found the Lexana nauseating and so out of the range of the rest of the arc of their relationship. And only having Clark onscreen for (checks jeannev's screen times) 7 and a half minutes is simply unacceptable. Even more so having the Martian Manhunter show up to pull a WTF save after having left Clark alone for far more deadly foes: shakes head. Don't get me wrong, I like MM, but his introduction merited an episode by itself.
• Ageless - the whole idea of an exploding baby is just made of fail, made worse by having Evan be responsible for the death of both his parents. Although I can readily see Clark being a great dad, I haven't seen anything before or since to make me believe Lana would fall for baby Evan at first sight. Somewhat redeemed by the Lex scene at the end but still...
• Whisper - I find it just plain boring, since we know Clark is going to get his sight back. What throws me out of this everytime is Martha's scene about this possibly being permanent. And the scene where the Kents teach Clark to control the hearing just feels hackneyed.
• Hero - Pete was never my favorite character and bringing him back just made it worse.
• Sleeper, Thirst and Aqua battle it out for the last spot.

3. What 3 episodes do you consider really awesome, except for.....? Meaning eps that have that one scene, or line, or plot twist that really threw you out of it.

hmm, much tougher question. I'll go off the top of my head.

• Abyss - Clark apologizing to the Fortress makes my blood BOIL. Its Clark's life. HE GETS TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH IT! If you want him to save humanity, why all the mind f***s of the past? Explain what you want, clearly and rationally. Don't send Clark off to be raised by compassionate humans and then expect him to not be compassionate.
• Phoenix - rewatched it a few nights ago with my sister and we yelled at the screen "DON'T USE THE GREEN K ON YOURSELF IN FRONT OF MORGAN EDGE!" Certainly puts the dumb in BDA.
• Promise for the flip flop / OOC of Chloe and Martha. Chloe in particular: if you think Lex is a monster, then tell Lana yourself.

4. What 3 lousy/boring or mediocre episodes have this really great scene/scenes? Whats the scene?

• Fierce with the watermelon comes to mind.
• Noir for B&W Tom scenes. 4 very distinct looks: Classic Daily Planet CK with him patting down Chloe's chest after spilling coffee, then switch to the ultra HOT and debonair Clark at the club, then the wife beater look for his adulterous liason, then finally detective Clark calmly shooting the femme fatale.
• Spell for the really kinky loft scene with shirtless Clark. The stuff of great fanfic. Oh, and the commentary track with Kristin, Alison and Erica laughing about Clark's dancing.

5. What are your 3 more overrated episodes?

• Justice, far and away. I just don't see anything to get excited about here, other than Clark getting Bart out of that trap. I don't think it really accomplishes all that much to blow up LuthorCorp facilities and let Lex brand you as terrorists. Clark will become effective as a superhero by standing as a symbol of justice, which means working with the police and letting the courts decide, while accepting that there will be flaws in the system.
• Aqua - horrible acting by the guest star
• Rosetta - even though I do like it a lot, there's a lot not to like too. Especially the message by the ship, which I liked as shown but has since been retconned away much to the detriment of Clark's character arc. I like the idea that the entity most conveniently referred to as AI!Jor-El thinks Clark should RULE WITH STRENGTH, to keep our flawed race from blowing ourselves up. From this, it follows that Clark isn't resisting his destiny as the Superman-to-be: he's  resisting the AI's wish for him to be an alien overlord (which we all know would never work.) Because that means Clark is a hero for resisting the ship, and blowing it up was the right thing to do (Jonathan's bad driving causing the miscarriage aside.) He's right to resist the idea of going for training, especially seeing how he came out of the caves after 3 months in Crusade.

6. Your 3 most underrated episodes?

•  I'd have to say a lot of Season 7 and even Season 6. I know these seasons have bad reps because of the resurgence of Clana and Clark staying on the farm, but I've always enjoyed most of the episodes. I think Clark deserves the time to grow up and smell the flowers. He's essentially immortal and wants to seize the chance to be with his loved ones. I'd definitely play up the mortality angle more to make his choices more explicable for the fanboys who just want him to get on with it.
• Action comes to mind particularly. I loved just about everything in it but it got one of the worst reactions on K-site that I've ever seen because Clark left a prop cape on the fence. For him to have done anything else would have been totally OOC at that stage in his journey.
• Promise and Reckoning have very split reactions because of the Lana elements but I thought they were both very well executed stories.

OK, now lets get more creative:

7. For each season (and you can include S8 up to this point), make one episode a 2-parter, and eliminate one episode altogether. How would you expand the episode into a 2-parter, and why did you get rid of the one you discarded?

The temptation is to make your favorite episodes longer, but this would usually just mess with what made them so good. So I'm looking at episodes I liked but didn't love. You also need a strong villain to create enough peril to stretch for two episodes.

• S1 is hard because few of the episodes feel rushed. Rogue would be the best candidate to extend I think. Have Phelan seem like a good guy and then gradually make his demands more questionable. Have him reveal more about Lex's past. Make it very clear why Clark HAS to maintain his secret in the future. Get rid of Reaper - boring FOTW
• S2 - no idea which to extend, but I'd definitely axe Redux. Oh, and the entire Henry Small subplot.
• S3 - Obsession. I like Alicia and would have liked one episode to have her as Clark's somewhat quirky girlfriend, maybe working together to figure out just why the elevator crashed. 'Cause I've always thought that should have been a Lionel plot to find out more about the extraordinary Mr. Kent. Then have her go crazy (though I'd prefer if she went after the Kents for them nay-saying her instead of Lana, who really was irrelevant). Axe Magnetic.
• S4 - Jinx I guess. More set up for Mikhail including seeing him interact with Lionel. More football Clark: I have a weakness for pictures of him with those totally unnecessary shoulder pads. More research with Chloe to find a way to block his power. More at the end with 33.1 (enough to establish Lex is doing something unethical but not outright wrong at this stage.) Deep six Ageless.
• S5 - lots of options here. I'll go with Reckoning, since the death of Jonathan Kent deserves more attention. Personally, I'd set it up so it wasn't a Lana or Jonathan "choice" that Clark made. I do hate how the writers put Clark in these no win situations. Get rid of Thirst.
• S6 - Zod. More of the Phantom Zone. More of Zod, including the attack on the Pentagon. More of the final fight between Clark and Zod. More, more, more! Its freaking Zod man! Get rid of Static.
• S7 - this one was easy: Apocalypse. The AU was utterly fascinating so there's plenty more to explore there, plus Clark's only visit to Krypton deserves more attention. I'd also like to extend Arctic for more Clex, but I'd proably just eliminate the Chimmy to do so. Goodbye Hero.
• S8 - Prey. I want more than a teaser of Clark going into superhero mode: I think that warrants an episode by itself. I want it to be gradual at first, then Lois leaves town, Chloe gets busy at Isis so the superhero-ing starts to take over. Make it clear that Clark NEEDS to take time for himself. Adios Toxic.
• And since I couldn't come up with something for S2, I'd also like to extend Odyssey. You can't use a title like that and wrap things up in 40 minutes. You need to make it EPIC.

8. For the remaining SV episodes left (whether that just be the remainder of this season, or an entire S9), you can bring back 3 characters from the past. Whether they be alive or dead. Who are you bringing back, and how will you explain their reappearance? For how long are you bringing them back?

• I'll skip the obvious Lex, in favour of one of his ex-wives, either Desiree or Helen, looking for their piece of the action.
• Dr. Garner. Survived the lab blowing up in Memoria but in a coma. Lex later took him into "care" at 33.1, where he eventually becomes a combination subject/scientist. Comes after Clark for having messed up his career. Reveals a lot about what really happened at 33.1. (1 episode)
• Morgan Edge. The gunshots only caused a loss of consciousness and crashing into Clark doesn't kill people. Lionel swooped him up when they found Lex and had been holding him in a secret facility but he got free after. Has since been building up Intergang, which Clark takes on both as a reporter and superhero. (3 episodes, or big arc in S9)

9. If there's a S9, its going to need a new Big Bad. Who is it?

• Toyman. Just kidding, of course it would be Prankster. No? Well getting more serious, Metallo, Parasite, Cyborg-the-villain, a souped up Mxypltyk, the return of Zod, Warworld / Mongol, Darkseid. An original character along the lines of Gog or Ruin. No end of possibilities. For budget reasons, probably Parasite. 

10. If another future JLA member was introduced, who would you choose, and how would you introduce them? And since this is just for fun here, you have NO restrictions.

• I know Batman and Wonder Woman are the obvious choices, but I think I'll go with Zatanna. Have her do a memory wipe on someone à la Identity Crisis and have them really explore this issue.