Smallville "Zod" Season Premiere Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Smallville's season premiere is tonight at 8 p.m. ET on The new CW! The season five finale was Vessel (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=166307).

Clark in the Phantom Zone! Here is the official preview from CWTV.com (http://www.cwtv.com).


http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/wfboards/smalls6.jpgSmallville #6-1 "Zod"
Thrown into the Phantom Zone, a Kryptonian jail created by Jor-El, Clark (Tom Welling) finds himself without powers and surrounded by revenge-seeking criminals sent away by his father.

Meanwhile, having taken over Lex's (Michael Rosenbaum) body, Zod keeps Lana (Kristin Kreuk) captive with a demand to sire him an heir and begins his plans to turn Earth into a Krypton-like planet using the alien ship's hard drive.

After Lois (Erica Durance) and Martha's (Annette O'Toole) plane crashes near the Fortress of Solitude, Jor-El tells Martha how to kill Zod. Back at the Daily Planet, Chloe (Allison Mack) reunites with an old flame, Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore).

John Glover also stars. Steven S. DeKnight wrote the episode directed by James Marshall.

[Shredder565]

Aww crap, I thought the DVR was set to record it, but I only set it for last weeks episode..

Are they going to re-air it? I missed the first 30 minutes

[Shredder565]

SPOILER































Now THAT was cool! It was Terrance Stamp, the MOVIE ZOD trying to escape from Lex!

[Wounded_Dragon]

I'll comment more later, but was I the only one that cheered when Lana got stabbed?

[True Noir]

Eh, I love Smallville but I really don't think the first episode of the season was all that great. I do, however, see some things to be looking forward to. For example, Lois and Clark. :)

[Iron Man Stewie]

Lana Lang is Meg to Smallville's Family Guy

[Anyone00]

[Zod offering Clark an opportunity to join him...]
Me: Gonna' say it, he's gonna' say it.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Me: Yup, he said it.

Well this entire episode was predictable.

[stwasm]

Lana Lang is Meg to Smallville's Family Guy

That's messed up! :D

But, yeah, I thought it was funny the way Lois pulled her hand away when Clark was holding it in the hospital. Also, did you catch the brief moment between Clark and Chloe when they were discussing "the kiss" from last season's cliffhanger? I think Clark was actually jealous when he saw that Jimmy and Chloe had hooked up. I didn't like Jimmy, though. He struck me as being cocky and obnoxious.

Overally, not a bad episode. It will be interesting to see what they do with some of the escaped souls from the Phantom Zone. Maybe Zora?

[Peter Paltridge]

I'll comment more later, but was I the only one that cheered when Lana got stabbed?
No. I said a little "YES!" to myself.

Same old, same old: same old conveniences, same old ultra-predictable and unoriginal story flow, same old flashy special effects trying to disguise a strange plot. The slug-out between Clark and Zod looked great, but I knew how it would end.

I like the Timm interpretation of the Phantom Zone best. A desert wasteland is kind of lame, but an eternal nothing would have been more boring in live-action. FYI: the worst Phantom Zone was in "Supergirl."

You know those shots of Welling from the CW launch party that they show in promos? Where he looks a lot nicer? I wish they'd let him look that way for the show, instead of making him look like a total tool.

[Iron Man Stewie]

The best version of the Phantom Zone was in "Supergirl", swirling vortex of death and a tar pit completly owns generic floating void of space. Gods the Timm version, much like the Phantom Zone characters in those two worthless episodes, was abysmal, no effort put into it at all. I may be in the minority on this but "Blasts From The Past" is'nt even on the level of the first season of Iron Man

[Wonderwall]

Although the idea of the Phantom Zone is cool, and it sounds cool to say...its probably one of the lamest aspects of the Superman mythos. I laughed when Lana got her hand stabbed, i didnt feel sorry for a second.

[Hyper Shadow X]

Wish Zod was around for a bit longer was it was nice that lana got stabbed made me happy.

[ShadowGUN]

I'll comment more later, but was I the only one that cheered when Lana got stabbed?

I too cheer for that scene. For a moment I thought Zod was gonna use his heat vision to kill her but I was dissapointed he didn't. Zod was badass as I thought he be but Michael Rosenbaum's "Kneel before Zod" wasnt as good as Terence Stamp. The episode was pretty good it too bad the rest of the season(except for the Green Arrow and season finale episodes) it gonna suck like season 4 and 5 did.

[90'sCartoonMan]

I'll comment more later, but was I the only one that cheered when Lana got stabbed?

I laughed.


I didn't like Jimmy, though. He struck me as being cocky and obnoxious.

I don't like him either, at first glance. I mean, I thought Sam Huntingon (Superman Returns) did a really good job and pretty much claimed the character of Jimmy Olsen as his own. This new guy (what was his name? Aaron something with an 'A'?) is a bit too WB (errr...CW). He looks like they cloned Shawn Ashmore. Why call him "James"? I did like his "CK", though, and I'll give him the chance (he's gotta be better than Jenson Ackles' character).


FYI: the worst Phantom Zone was in "Supergirl."

I disagree. The worst Phantom Zone was in Brainiac Attacks. What kind of "empty prison" gives you an illusion of what you most desire and holds cures for sicknesses?

I thought the episode was a pretty decent follow-up to the finale. Lots of action, and there was even more blood than I expected. I thought they'd do something cheap to get Clark out of the Phantom Zone right at the beginning, but he spent half the episode there, and they even brought back the Kryptonians he trapped last season (say goodbye to Leonard Roberts on Smallville, he's going to be on Heroes, though). Jor-El saving Martha and Lois was kind of cheap, though.

I was worried that Zod was going to fall in love with Lana, glad they didn't go that route. "Kneel before Zod" was fun. Wish the Clark/Zod fight was less one-sided, but I guess that's just Superman Returns influencing me (it's been too long since I've seen live action Clark throw a punch!). I wonder how that Phantom Zone creature will come into play later.

Oh, and although I'm going to miss Johnathan, I liked Martha's little speech to Clark at the end.

[Phlibbit]

This new guy (what was his name? Aaron something with an 'A'?) is a bit too WB (errr...CW). He looks like they cloned Shawn Ashmore.

His name is Aaron. Aaron Ashmore. They're twin brothers :P

[bigddan11]

While I haven't been a big fan of Lana, I can't say I cheered or smiled when she was stabbed. I was shocked. Zod was about as I expected him to be: bad to the bone. I figured as soon as they had Clark escape the phantom zone, that Zod would only be around for one episode.

While Lionel has lost his connection with Jor El, it looks like he still has quiet a bit of knowledge about Clark's fortress. I honestly see this season evolving around 3 plots: 1) Green Arrow, 2) the escaped Kryptonians (which may be the reason for the rumored JL team-up this season), and 3) the resurrection of the fortress.

It's good that Clark is back, and he looks to be better than ever, but I seriously wonder how they are going to deal with this "Lex knows Clarks secrets" plot that they've startted this season with.

[Wonderwall]

His name is Aaron. Aaron Ashmore. They're twin brothers :P

Its one of the stupidest casting decisions imo. Why not just use Shawn if youre just gonna use his identical twin brother..who would know( and its hypothetical, i know Shawn is busy...which leads me to believe that the creators are so inept they would actually ask him if he wasnt ), I mean any longtime Smallville viewer would be able to see him and go "Huh? Didnt he steal Clark's powers twice? WHy is he buds with Chloe now?", complete idiocy on the creators or their crew's part. Usually Smallville delivers on its season premieres and finales. Last season's finale didnt do it for me...neither did this. It had some nice bits, Martha had some good scenes, Rosenbaum yet again is given chicken crap by the writers and he makes it into chicken salad, if it werent for him this show wouldve died years ago. Lana getting stabbed, continuity that made sense, Clark actually staying in the phantom zone for awhile. Now I was watching Earl and the Office as well so I may have missed some things but really I know Smallville so well that I know I didnt miss anything that would change my mind that this show is going downhill and that I wont be coming back most likely next season, hell Im not sure ill make it all the way through this one. I gave it 3 stars, very average, and its the first episode of the season, doesnt look good for the next batch.

[Wonderwall]

I sort of hope they just continue diverging the series from Superman and DC mythology altogether, maybe having it turn out to have been the Crime Syndicate Earth all along, where Clark can realize his evil potential as Ultraman. Tell me that wouldn't be the most badass ending possible to this series, where Lex goes down fighting as a hero against the evil Superking of the world.

That'd be far to creative for Smallville's writers to handle:p . That and Im not sure CW or WB or even DC would allow that.

[bat313]

This episode was awsome. With Clark in the phantom zone and the entire earth powerless i thougth the writers would cop out with something corny but this entire episode rocked. Smallville has been getting too much hate the last two seasons but with this new network i think it's gonna pick back up. He's way closer to becoming superman and it's awsome.:D A+ from me!

[CheshireKitten]

I hated season 4, but I liked season 5 enough to tune in regularly again this season. But there's no doubt about it, if Lex Luthor wasn't in the show, I wouldn't be watching. It's his character that brings me back.

I thought it was a good opener. Not amazing, but solid. My only issue with SV's finales and openers is that the opener is always a "quick fix". The season finales are insane and then by the first episode of the following season, it's all over and done with. But they've been doing that since the beginning, so I'm used to it.

[bat313]

I hated season 4, but I liked season 5 enough to tune in regularly again this season. But there's no doubt about it, if Lex Luthor wasn't in the show, I wouldn't be watching. It's his character that brings me back.

I thought it was a good opener. Not amazing, but solid. My only issue with SV's finales and openers is that the opener is always a "quick fix". The season finales are insane and then by the first episode of the following season, it's all over and done with. But they've been doing that since the beginning, so I'm used to it.

Thats true about the "quick fix" but they did leave a few things open like the phantom that got out of the phantom zone and Lana still hates Clark and now there is all sorts of cool stuff that can happen this season. Much better than how Jason was just killed off at the begining of Season 5/ end of 4 with no body or real mention of him again, i mean they were a huge part of season 4. I guess they kinda did the same thing this year with professor Fine/Brainiac, anyword of him comming back? I hope at least Clark or Lois starts to work at the Planet by the end of this season.

[Icer]

Decent episode, although I was really disappointed with them writing out Braniac. Wasn't he piloting the plane in a scene after he released Zod? I havent seen it since it aired so I'm not sure.

The Phantom Zone Wraiths should be interesting. And I felt Jimmy looks different enough from his twin brother to be acceptable.

[cartoonboy]

Does anyone remember the episode of Greatest American Hero, where he is pushing the person in the wheelchair through the dark room and being attacked by some wild animal? I flashedback to that when Clark was in the Phantom Zone.

Good episode. Sure some of it was predictable. What I didn't even come close to was the plane crashing by the fortress.

Looking forward to an interesting season of Smallivlle.

[90'sCartoonMan]

His name is Aaron. Aaron Ashmore. They're twin brothers :P

Wow, even I'm amazed at my own stupidity. Didn't know Shawn Ashmore had a brother.


I guess they kinda did the same thing this year with professor Fine/Brainiac, anyword of him comming back?

I don't think James Marsters is coming back this season.

[Simpler Simon]

Even with Smallville's usual knack for wrapping up the previous season's lose ends in the opener without caring if they make sense or not...I enjoyed this one. It packed in a lot of action and lots of visual design to feast on. And like PeterFries mentioned...Clark is likeable here. He wasn't last season. Hopefully it'll stay this way.

The Jimmy Olsen intro should've been moved to the next episode. It really feels out of place here. And dialogue-wise, the worst offender of the night was the bit between Lana and Lex in the hospital.

Otherwise, hey - I enjoyed Smallville. Lets see how long this lasts.

[bigddan11]

I don't think James Marsters is coming back this season.

They've said they're interested in bringing him back, but how they bring him back coud be tricky. If he does return this season, I expect it to be a finale type episode.

To answer an earlier question, one person asked if Brainiac had been flying the Luthor plane. The answer is yes, he was, but when Clark used the dagger to destroy the original, it also destroyed all the copies, so the plabe no longer had a pilot, and that's one of the reasons it crashed.

[Webryder]

It was weird to see Clark suddenly becoming somewhat heroic, even if his heroism was still limited to his immediate loved ones. Maybe Welling's earned that moment in all the episodes I missed, but in everything I'd seen in previous seasons, he's played Clark as a 'poor me' alienated selfish kid, taken to disturbing ends when he slipped again and again into full-on supervillainy thanks to Red K exposure. He actually seems to have a far darker side than Lex, just barely beneath the surface.
Yeah I noticed that too. It seems like over the years this series has been portraying Clark as the one with more incentive to turn evil than Lex. With Jonathon dying, (indirectly his fault) Martha looking more and more like she's gonna be Lionel's next booty call, (the man who it could be said caused Jonathan's heart attacked or if anything exacerbated it and has tried to kick them off their farm a number of times) Clark's baby brother being stillborn (indirectly his fault) and the 2 meteor showers on Smallville (indirectly his fault as well). Lex, ironically, is the one that's been consistantly good throughout by trying to be a good friend to Clark despite being constantly accused of wrongdoing, helping to rebuild the town when FEMA didn't show up, going in as partners with Lana at the Talon, helping the Kents keep their farm when it's been in trouble...etc. I don't know about you guys but the character that's supposed to turn into the bad guy is getting more and more unclear and it's waaay late in the game for this to be unsettled.


I sort of hope they just continue diverging the series from Superman and DC mythology altogether, maybe having it turn out to have been the Crime Syndicate Earth all along, where Clark can realize his evil potential as Ultraman. Tell me that wouldn't be the most badass ending possible to this series, where Lex goes down fighting as a hero against the evil Superking of the world.
You may be more right than you realize. :sad:



The best version of the Phantom Zone was in "Supergirl", swirling vortex of death and a tar pit completly owns generic floating void of space.
Speaking of which I thought for a second that the woman (Raya?) who saved Clark from the Phantoms would turn out to be the REAL Kara, Clarks cousin from Argos. Just think how much more meaningful and horrifying her death would have been as opposed to some underdeveloped character the writers just made up.

Now to my review ***1/2

This ep started out so epic with the phantom zone, Martha finally face to face? with Jor-el and Zod about the remake the world in the image of Krypton but after the big fight scene it shot extremely downhill into just a regular Smallville ep. Everyone was already cleaning up and rebuilding, and Clark was akwardly trying to put Chloe back into the "just friends" zone after just 35-40 minutes of show.....WHAT???? :eek:

I was hoping they'd use the remaining time to show Clark superspeeding around the country and saving people from being injured or killed in the aftermath. Not just people he knew like Lana and his Mom but strangers who were being mugged or women being attacked or kids who were lost and couldnt find their parents....something like that. Didn't even have to be the WHOLE country, (save that until he's able to fly) just Metropolis and/or Gotham maybe? :D Finally a chance to show Clark as a character growing from just a part-time vigilante and doing some real good old fashioned epic superheroing. They missed a big chance to establish him as being at least capable of living up to fighting the "never-ending" battle and him finding out what that could really mean in terms of you have to be there for EVERYONE that needs you or at least try to be. Basically taking control of his own life apart from what Jor-el or Zod wanted him to be. Elaborating on the vision he got of Jonathan telling him who he'd become in Season 5's ep "Void". This ep. could've been a turning point in actually showing Clark making a conscious and deliberate choice to accept the mantle before the suit, super-breath, or even flying was a twinkle in his mind. Instead they wasted those last minutes with crap better put in next weeks show. They showed a sliver of that in season 4's finale when he supersped and saved that little boy from the meteor and him saying "You're not my daddy".....great scene. They had a chance to take that idea to a global scale here and completely missed the boat. Portraying Clark as well on his way to becoming "you know who" before the whole Justice League ark happens. I wished they had done that.

As it stands right now his character is still up in the air even though last season was supposed to be the year of "Superman-in-training". I didnt see any of that....he's still unsure and reluctant.....nowhere near becoming the confident, always know what you're doing and the cause you're fighting for is right, never tell a lie symbol of hope that inspires people to want to be better than they are. We still don't know what chain of events lead Lex to becoming evil or more importantly what would make a small town farmboy who pulled a couple of cats outta some trees respectively, decide it was more important to dedicate his entire life to using his extraordinary gifts to try to help humanity succeed where his alien homeworld of Krypton failed then spending the rest of his life milking cows on the farm with Lana. The answers to those questions are where the drama of this is and where the writers need to get it back to hopefully before the season is over.

As you all know a hero is only as big as his enemy or his struggle and what bigger enemy than Zod AND Lex together as one being and what bigger struggle than global riots for a true hero to emerge. This premire cou'd've been the best one yet but as it stands, for me at least, it was one of the worst in terms of disappointments and missed opportunites. But look at it this way, the writers at least foreshadowed where he got the "S" from... :shrug: :sad:

[Hero Supreme]

They've said they're interested in bringing him back, but how they bring him back coud be tricky. If he does return this season, I expect it to be a finale type episode.

To answer an earlier question, one person asked if Brainiac had been flying the Luthor plane. The answer is yes, he was, but when Clark used the dagger to destroy the original, it also destroyed all the copies, so the plabe no longer had a pilot, and that's one of the reasons it crashed.

which still doesnt explain why brainiac was flying to the fortress of solitude. :sad:

[bigddan11]

which still doesnt explain why brainiac was flying to the fortress of solitude. :sad:

Well, Zod was released when the dagger was used against its purposes, but what if Clark hadn't used that dagger on Brainiac? The original plan was probably to crash the plane straight into the fortress to free Zod.

[DisneyBoy]

Interesting to see where things are at, talkback-wise with the continual viewers of this show. Y'all like it when Lana gets stabbed, hate that Clark "looks like a tool", find the special-effects are used to cover-up a "strange" story...


That's satisfying to me. Glad I bailed on this series a while back. Used to have to fight with people just to get to the television and watch it. Really wasn't worth the effort.

[Dogbert]

Interesting to see where things are at, talkback-wise with the continual viewers of this show. Y'all like it when Lana gets stabbed, hate that Clark "looks like a tool", find the special-effects are used to cover-up a "strange" story...

That's satisfying to me. Glad I bailed on this series a while back. Used to have to fight with people just to get to the television and watch it. Really wasn't worth the effort.The big problem with Smallville is that the bad parts stick out like a sore thumb. Everyone (nearly everyone) hates Lana, several other characters are lackluster, plot holes are in abundance, and physics within the continuity of the show don't exist (i.e. what true in one episode isn't in the next, especially when the strength of Kryptonite is in play). It's easy for us to complain about the bad when it's so obvious. However, I think the reason so many of us still watch is that there are lots of slightly good things about Smallville. For me, it's Chloe, Lex, Lionel, and the occasional great story. Lexmas, for example, was an episode I really liked, but there's no way in the world I'd going to comment on it without mentioning that the parts involving Santa were crap that we could have done without. With Smallville, you have to take the good with the bad, but we all wish the bad wasn't there. It's that wishing and hoping that the show would be better that's reflected in our comments.

As for this episode, I didn't like it at all. After all that build-up, we got a single episode to resolve everything. Given Brainiac's importance in other Superman continuities, I was hoping he'd do more than just disappear. At least Jor-El called him a Brain Interactive Construct... Hopefully he'll return.

Oh, and death to Jimmy. Not only was introducing a new character out of place in this episode, Aaron Ashmore was a bad choice. As a relative of Shawn's character, he'd be fine. But as a classic Superman character that just happens to look like one of the baddies this time around, no. Plus, this Jimmy will always be "that jerk who slept with Chloe and then dumped her" to me.

[Sparticus]

... he's played Clark as a 'poor me' alienated selfish kid...

That right there is the worst part of the whole show. Clark's absalute cluelessness about what he could REALLY do with his powers and the emo suffering because of it. I mean, dosent he read comic books? GAH!! Smallville could be a really smart, even witty show (and occationaly it is) but they just keep going the emo teenager route for some reason.

Heh heh, I kind of had to stop watching after I watched all of Trigun. Kept getting mad at Clark, shaking my fist at the screen and yelling "Suck it up wanker! You know nothing of PAIN!" Lol! XD

Hmmm... so this was a half way decent episode eh? Guess I shoulda poked my head in. What was I doing on Thursday anyway? O.o I dun remember...

[Damien]

Most Superman-esque episode so far, which I liked.

Not much else to say. It was one of the better episodes.

No, wait. Horrible casting for Jimmy Olsen. The actor looks way too much like his brother. Maybe Jimmy's related to Lightning Geek?

[DisneyBoy]

Anyone excited for the faux-Justice League episode coming up?

[The Penguin]

I'm a week late, but last year I never really made it around to commenting. I'm almost always taping the show because I watch Survivor when it's on, but this year I'm going to try and watch it over my lunch break on Fridays.

I'm gonna try to keep it short...

I had planned to watch Vessel again, but I didn't get around to it, I was quite glad I didn't feel lost.

Zod in Lex's body sure made things interesting. I was shocked when he stabbed Lana through the hand. I was not expecting that (I guess I'm the guy who didn't laugh or cheer at the time). I was surprised she was able to pull it out and keep going.

The use of Superman II Zod as the spirit being drawn out of Lex after Clark's handshake was an awesome moment. :cool:

Maybe at some point I'll figure out what Lionel Luthor is about, he used to be a lot more predictable.

When Shawn Ashmore's twin brother was announced as Jimmy Olson, I wasn't real happy at the time. Seeing him in the Planet office, I got over it to some extent. I don't expect we'll be seeing Eric Summers again anyway and something about Aaron's hair, attitude or something, I didn't feel put off by their obviously similar look. It was a perhaps a bit much to introduce Jimmy in this episode with everything else going on, but the extreme circumstances brought Chloe and Jimmy back together as well as not giving Clark a real chance to process the kiss. I think both will become plotpoints now that things will be calming down a little.

[Geodude]

I've had this opinion for a while, but I think this episode (and that bit in the previous one) might be the best evidence since their brief time dating that the producers should have had Clark stick with Chloe long-term. They had already made lots of changes to this version of the Superman story, what's one more? I guess there's always fan fiction.

Speaking of Clark's relationships, I'm surprised nobody mentioned the horrified look Lois gave Clark when he took her hand at the hospital. I loved that. XD

I'm not sure I like the concept of the criminals' physical bodies being "destroyed" and their "spirits" being put in the Phantom Zone. Isn't this the only Superman incarnation where that happens?

[DisneyBoy]

I've never tried to wrap my mind around the logic behind the Phantom Zone (which has an escape hatch...for Clark's soul..?) but yeah, I think the spirits (or Phantoms) are supposed to be the only things trapped there.

Or something. *waves a crystal at you and you turn into a baboon*