Kara

DVD, Smallville S7 (Kara)

This is one that stretches from the plausible to the Smallvillian implausible, but just stays on the side of watchability. Oddly enough, it is the Kryptonian side that drew me in and made sense, while the other plots showed themselves to be pretty daft. I was gratified to learn my hazy knowledge of Superman's backstory was borne out and Kara was indeed his cousin, though I'd never heard of her Father (as Clark hadn't), Zor-el. It was totally believable that she'd been sent to follow Kal-el to Earth (for who knows what mission), had her ship crash underwater and stayed in suspended animation for the eighteen years since the meteor shower, only waking up thanks to the dam's destruction. Her bewilderment at the knowledge of Krypton's destruction that Clark fills in for her was true to the situation, and the two of them look to have a good deal of teaching to do about each other's cultures (he's already started explaining the power of super-hearing), which could make the character worthwhile. At least Clark won't be living on his own on the big old farm now.

To the implausible: a new Editor arrives at the Daily Planet (so no more Carrie Fisher after her one-off appearance), and purely for the sake of getting a character on the track she's supposed to take in the mythology, gives her a job. It niggled me that I didn't know the who the actor was as I recognised him, but it niggled even more that he just shows up and gets her to write a story! He, like Kara, looked so young, yet acts much older, so it was difficult to guess the ages. Lois looks a right idiot once again when she buys Clark's story of slipping on a rock and bumping her head - she must have felt the force thump into her when Kara knocks her flying for getting too close to the ship. On Kara's side, she's also a bit slow on the uptake, not realising Clark isn't human until later in the episode, despite thumping into him too!

It was too convenient that her ship was utterly 'eviscerated' (as the mysterious besuited man, who may or may not be working for the absent Lionel, said), as it meant the Kryptonian relations were on their own. Kara again shows her stupidity when, after sucking up the nuclear blast activated by the self-destruct, she returns to Clark's side and notes that her ship's gone. Well, duh! Then again, that's not the only time in the episode when the writing shows itself up - the majority of the teaser in which Clark and Lois are walking along looking at the dam's wreckage, is them explaining what they're doing there to each other. As if they'd only just met, and hadn't planned to go there, or driven there and been in complete silence throughout the journey! I know it's one of the vagaries of TV that sometimes you need to set a scene, but there are ways of doing it better than that! It just so happens that although the ship gets destroyed, an indestructible crystal containing vital Kryptonian information survived. Yet it wasn't on the floor when Kara absorbed the nuclear explosion, and the humans that took the ship hadn't managed to open it (unauthorised attempt at access activated the self-destruct), so how did the crystal exit the ship? Did it fall out during Kara's initial crash?

There are some odd moments that almost slip by, adding to the implausibility tally: Chloe talks as if her Wall of Weird stuff had been bad for her career and her new Editor is saying how she's lost her drive since leaving High School. If she failed to excite readers with articles about boring events is it any wonder, and she spent most of her time running around after Clark (or Jimmy), to be doing a proper job, so in some ways it's little wonder her career hasn't progressed! That's another point: Jimmy's supposedly (according to the credits), now a main character, but he (and Lionel in this episode) still hasn't appeared, even briefly. Is this part of a plot or was the actor not available for 'full time' work at the beginning of the season? You'd think he'd at least have been given a short, funny scene (as he used to get when a recurring character), to remind us who he is.

One of the craziest moments comes when Lex tracks Lana down and we learn how she faked her own death. Somehow she had time (without anyone seeing her), to manhandle a clone of herself (yes, that's a right, a clone!), into her car, and escape before the explosion went off. So Lex just happened to have a spare clone hanging around, which Lana somehow found, which was conveniently dead so she's not a murderer, and she got it out and took it to her car, and… ugh, it makes sense in the way that things generally make sense on this series, and that is, they don't, they just throw something together and hope we don't think too hard. Then, because she's apparently 'brilliant,' having learnt from the Luthor family, she laid a trail of breadcrumbs so Lex would come looking and she could shoot him. But Lex wants her to kill him, and she can't. Part of that was a nice scene, showing some real remorse from Lex, but then you can never trust him, so was it a put-on job, he knowing she could never pull the trigger? Either way we've now got two dead characters in the series. But Chloe's back at her job at the Daily Planet as if nothing had happened, so unless they're paying her cash in hand she must be classified alive after all. There goes one potential story arc. 'At least' we have the crystal to chase down - great, another 'we must find this thing' arc.

I guess the 'no tights, no flights' rule only ever applied to Clark, but it's reinforced like a slap in the face here where Clark has to watch his cousin fly around while he can't, for no known reason. He just can't. It looks like Kara's going to be causing Clark more trouble than she's worth. I'm not even talking about Jor-el's warning - she clearly shows she's not going to follow Clark's rules, and doesn't mind anyone knowing what she can do or who she is. That should give Lex have no trouble finding her, which I'm sure will greatly relieve his latest hired help, since it was going to be a tough job to find a woman from Lex' illustration, as dramatic as it was. As long as he investigates Clark (I imagine he always investigates Clark as a matter of course), he'll be hooking up with his 'angel' in no time.

I liked the meeting of two other sci-fi series' with this one: James L. Conway directed many episodes of the various 'Star Trek' series' (and did a good job with this one), and the actor better known as slimy ex-NID agent Mayborn from 'Stargate SG-1' shows up as Lex Luthor's slimy lawyer. Does he only play slimy characters? I'm not going to slate this episode, because I'm still getting into the season, and I found enough to interest me with the Kryptonian backstory that it wasn't bad. Clunky, yes, but even ridiculous moments like Lex meeting up with Lana had their own charm, but I'm not expecting much from this 'Kara and her crystal' arc as I can already imagine what she's going to be like. Hope I'm proved wrong, but I've heard negative impressions of this season, so don't expect to be impressed.

***