The Lois & Clark Concordance

Strange Visitor (from another planet)

*Episode 2 of Season 1

Airdate 09/26/93
Written by Bryce Zabel
Directed by Randall Zisk

Entry transcribed by Kate W.

episode trivia 

 


 

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The title "Strange Visitor," subtitled "From Another Planet," comes from the famous Superman preamble first used on the Superman radio show and then on the George Reeves Superman series from the 1950s.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! (A FOLC guide to Metropolis)

1- Daily Planet - newsroom, offices, rooftop, front entry on street, conference room, outside conference room, Lois's desk, library/morgue
2- Hotel office- where Lane and Kent meet with George Thompson and learn he is there to interview them
3- Metropolis Private Home, Den- where Lane and Kent meet with retired General Newcomb
4-  Bessolo Boulevard, location of furniture warehouse, back room, storage room, floor where Trask and Bureau 39 have their Metropolis headquarters and store numerous UFOs and corresponding files.
5- Military Cargo Plane- from which Lois is thrown and Clark jumps
6- Sky above Metropolis- where Superman rescues Lois and intercepts a missile meant to destroy him
7- Lois' Apartment- where she amuses Lucy with her plans to go into hiding, and where Jimmy Olsen asks Lucy for a date
8- Cat's Apartment, living room, closet- where Clark goes for dinner because he can't go home
9- Kent Home, Smallville, Kansas dining room- where Clark hears a detailed story of how he was found
10- Shuster's Field, near Smallville, Kansas. It was the crash site where Jonathan found the tiny ship in which infant Clark was found.
11- Simpson's Quarry- a place near Smallville and west of the Elbow River
12- The Elbow River- runs close to Smallville
13- Voronezh, USSR- site of UFO activity in 1989 which interests Bureau 39
14- Gulf Breeze, Florida- another site of past UFO activity of interest to Bureau 39
15- Metro Station
16- Metropolis Harbor

Jonathan's directions to Clark's hidden spaceship

Eight paces due South (of where is unknown, but unlikely in Shuster's field since that was not the Kents' property). Through the two trees, then 28 paces due East and six feet down. An old wagon wheel (which hadn't moved in 25 years), was used as a reference point. When Clark dug down, the ship was gone. Later it was found in the Bureau 39 warehouse, but vanished again by the end of the episode.

POWERS USED AS SUPERMAN

1- Flight- flies home to Kansas, rescues Lois (and supposedly Clark) after she is thrown out of Trask's plane
2- Hovering- when he arrives at the Daily Planet for a brief interview with Lois
3- Hearing- leaves the interview with Lois after hearing a call for help
4- Invulnerability- isn't hurt by an exploding missile

POWERS USED AS CLARK

1- Vision- reads papers hidden inside briefcases and file drawers
2- Speed- eats his food so fast his mother thinks he inhaled it; spins to make a hole in the ground where Jonathan buried a spacecraft
3- Hovering- rises out of the hole he made in the ground
4- Breath- keeps a paper ball hovering above a wastebasket
5- Invulnerability- a bullet fired from a few feet away hits him and falls to the floor
6- Hearing- uses it to listen to tumblers in a lock and tells Lois he used the date 8-2-47 to open it

HINT, HINT! (for the galactically stupid)

1- When Clark answers "Yes" to the question "Are you Superman?" the polygraph indicates he is telling the truth but Trask and his men think the machine is broken and dismiss the answer.
2- "Aren't you the one who said 'if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck-'"
Lois tells him to stop quoting herself to her, then pauses and asks him how he knows she said that since she was being questioned by Trask at the time, but Clark distracts her and doesn't have to explain.
3- Aboard the plane, Lois is roughly grabbed and subdued. Clark lunges toward Trask but one of his men shoots him. The bullet glances off Clark and he barely notices it in his anger. The shooter tells Trask and the others that Clark is injured. Another man finds the bullet on the floor. Trask looks it over and sees no blood on it. He tells the shooter he missed, but the man protests, as he fired at almost point blank range. Trask dismisses it.
The entire episode is a case of can't see the forest for the trees, as Trask's fears blind him to the obvious.

CLARK'S LAME EXCUSES

As they leave Thompson's hotel, Clark makes an excuse of not feeling good and wanting to go home so he can duck out to become Superman, and Lois graciously encourages him to put himself before the story.


DEVICES

1- Missile- fired at Superman by Trask
2- Magnetic Key Card- needed to enter the furniture warehouse which is Bureau 39's HQ
3- Combination Lock- the device has a left/right wheel programmed into its operation
4- Globe - a small device of unknown construction which lights at Clark's touch and communicates with him soundlessly and wordlessly
5- Spacecraft- the small ship which brought Clark to Earth
6- unknown "diaper thing" Martha mentions, making it sound like more than just a simple cloth diaper
7- ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile)- mentioned by Martha Kent as she and Jonathan tell Clark how they found him


HISTORY, HOBBIES, ALL CHARACTERS

Clark Kent/Superman

1- was working on a story about adopted children searching for their birth parents
2- calls Lois a quick study when she reels off some of the high points in his story, but she tells him she already did the story three years ago
3- both agree there are no old stories, just new angles
4- he and Lois struggle against the manhandling of the intruding agents, causing one to draw a gun
5- demands to know what the agents want after the leaders announcement
6- agrees with Perry and Lois they will not take lie detector tests- until Lois backtracks
7- uses both his chair and his breath to influence the polygraph machine when being questioned
8- is very nervous during questioning
9- during a visit to the newspaper morgue he discovers the leader of the raid was once a member of Project Blue Book and tries to keep it a secret but Lois sees the picture over his shoulder and recognizes Trask, too
10- accompanies Lois to interview two sources, George Thompson and Burton Newcomb, a man Lois has identified from the old Project Blue Book photo
11- at the furniture warehouse, he remembers the number clue Newcomb gave them and opens a second lock on the entry door
12- inside a cabinet he finds files labeled Smallville, Ks. 1966 and Gulf Breeze, Florida
13- starts looking under the tarps covering nearly everything in the room
14- finds a tiny ship under one and is stunned to see the Superman "S" symbol on it
15- finds a globe of the Earth inside a drawstring bag. As he looks at it, the globe suddenly lights from within and the topography changes from the Earth to an unknown planet but he whispers, "Krypton."
16- interrupted by Trask and his men, Clark slips the globe into his pocket
17- assures Lois her fate will not match that of the heroine of her novel
18- can't get a word of denial in edgewise when Lois demands to know what really happened between him and Cat Grant
19- jumps from Trask's aircraft after Lois has been thrown out
20- angles his fall into a cloud bank so he can change into Superman
21- as Superman he saves Lois and immediately flies off to stop a missile, and a few minutes later, returns to the Daily Planet newsroom as Clark
22- has an "I might have known" moment when Lois' joy at seeing him alive is really joy that Superman survived the missile explosion
23- return later for a brief interview with Lois after hours
24- learns the full story of how he came to be found by the Kents and taken in by them and wonders if they think he is some kind of "Russian experiment"
25- was disappointed the ship he arrived in has disappeared

Lois Lane

1- dismisses Clark's adoption article with "you to stick to the touchy/feely stuff and I'll take Superman."
2- still resists having a partner and reminds Clark he is the rookie, straight out and through insinuation
3- is writing a novel, later revealed to be a romance novel about a woman who dies without ever finding her true love
4- is questioned for the polygraph first with no incidents occurring until the last question when she denies a romantic attachment to Superman and the machine begins to beep loudly and persistently
5- stops the Thompson interview abruptly when she realizes he will tell them nothing
6- is surprised but delighted when Clark claims to be sick after leaving Thompson's hotel'
7- stops to look when people on the street excitedly spot Superman overhead and tells him to "be careful up there"
8- sees Thompson leaving the hotel and follows him to a furniture warehouse, but loses him there
9- objects to having "her" story given to Valdez, another reporter, after she and Clark become the story
10- rushes home and begins preparing to go into hiding, but receives Perry White's call to return to the newsroom
11- is stunned to learn Clark was staying out of sight at Cat's apartment and coolly greets him when he returns to the newsroom
12- learns from the police that Thompson is dead, his body found in the river
13- finds Clark in the newspaper morgue and identifies a picture of Jason Trask as the leader of the raid, though Clark tries to hide the picture
14- after interviewing Newcomb, she grabs and pockets the card key he puts on his desk for just that purpose
15- tells Clark he's a strange , but it works for him
16- inside the furniture warehouse she is skeptical the collection of objects are unidentified
17- she wonders how Clark knows what she said to Trask during her polygraph questioning but his arrival interrupts and she forgets about it as she and Clark are taken captive
18- expecting to die after being taken aboard an aircraft, she tells Clark about her romance novel and expects him to tell her what happened between him and Cat Grant
19- not that she cares, of course, it's just probably his biggest secret and if they survive he has GOT to raise his standards
20- asks Trask for a last request- to kiss Clark good-bye- which is granted, and after a long, last kiss, she voices a plan to try to get away, but the escape attempt is unsuccessful and she is hurled out of the airplane
21- she falls away from the plane, trying desperately to contact Superman by telepathy, shouting, screaming and any other way she can think of, and is surprised and relieved when he catches her; and she wonders if he really does read minds but he assures her he just has very good hearing
22- before arriving safely on the roof of the Daily Planet building, she tells Superman that Clark is still aboard the plane, then is horrified and speechless to see a missile coming straight for their location and points it out to Superman
23- dazed, disheveled and confused, she enters the newsroom and after Perry asks if she and Clark are alright, answers "Before or after we were thrown out of an airplane?"
24- asks about Superman but is told no one knows what happened to him, but is overjoyed to see Clark step off the elevator because it means Superman is alive
25- after finding the warehouse abandoned and empty, she still wants to write the story of what was there but relents when Perry explains it would mean the end of her career as a serious journalist
26- briefly interviews Superman and suggest his motto could be to "fight for truth and justice," and he agrees

Perry White

1- stops the leader of the intruders, Trask, and tells him he can't just come into his newsroom and order people around'
2- takes the warrant given to him and reads it as he is told to take it up with Washington
3- reads aloud, "Order to produce evidence, compel testimony…Lois Lane and Clark Kent!"
4- enters the office where Lois and Clark are being held and tells them the man wants the two of them to take a polygraph test, but he told them, No! Not his reporters! Take their computers and notes and just get on with it, and get the hell out of his office so he can start suing their butts off into the next century!
5- is not surprised that Lois relents and agree to be questioned, but is puzzled that Clark doesn't agree immediately too
6- tells Lane and Kent to give their notes to Valdez so she can write the story of the raid
7- when both object, he tells them they ARE the story and they have to leave in case the goons come back with subpoenas, but go anywhere but home. "Don't go where they can serve you! Wear your beepers, we'll be in touch."
8- calls back Lane and Kent and tells Lois the warrant is phony and no one knows who the men were. ("No one in Washington wants to claim them.") It's up to Lois and Clark to find out and identify them.
9- tells Lois all that is known for certain is that they think it is their job to hunt down Superman, and she tells Clark.
10- yells instructions to a reporter named Biederman to get legal on the case
11- when an obviously shaken Lois returns to the newsroom, he rushes to her to make sure she and Kent are alright
12- rejects a story about the warehouse being Bureau 39's storehouse because of no corroborating evidence- Trask has vanished and Burton Newcomb claims he's never heard of Lane and Kent


Jimmy Olsen

1- compliments Lois on her outfit, with an ulterior motive
2- admits he would like to ask Lois' sister, Lucy, for a date
3- believes Lois that he'll need to provide health and financial records in order to do so
4- believes the rumors of Clark and Cat that soon start going around the newsroom
5- asks "CK" for advice on women and admits he never would have done so before the rumors
6- demands "specificity" on the details of Clark's evening with Cat
7- goes to Lois' apartment pretending to be looking for her and works his way around to asking Lucy for a date
8- is a witness to Superman's encounter with Trask's missile
9- along to take pictures at the empty Bessolo Blvd. warehouse, he tells Lane and Kent he believes their story


Cat Grant

1- uses an agent's badge or other small, shiny object to fix her make-up, which he snatches back before leaving
2- complains about being searched twice by an agent
3- immediately invites Clark to have dinner at her place, and he agrees though we don't hear it on screen
4- at her place, changes into sweats in order to help him relax, though she does entertain herself with wildly inappropriate outfits that she could wear… if she wanted to
5- assures him that she does read when he tells her the apartment was not what he was expecting
6- is pleased to hear he thinks she is full of surprises
7- tells him she considers all news to be part of the gossip business when asked why she chose to write her column
8- tells him he would be surprised at the secrets people keep- does he have any?
9- is well aware that he is still nervous and tries to distract him and amuses herself by feeding him grapes and touching him until his beeper goes off
10- seems to know it will be Perry White summoning him and is disappointed her evening has come to an end as she points him toward her telephone
11- uses a remote control to start music playing
12- gets up and takes the phone from Clark and tells Lois, at the other end of the line, that he needs to freshen up before he leaves
13- teases both Clark and Lois the next morning, knowing how each will react and enjoying it


Lucy Lane

1- is feeding the fish when Lois blows into the apartment like a whirlwind and tells her, she- Lois- is not here, she isn't staying, if anyone calls tell them she was never there
2- takes all of this in with silent amusement, sitting on the counter top to enjoy the show, but asks, "It's a man thing, right?"
3- when the phone rings, she assures Lois she won't give away her presence, "You were never here, I don't know you, you don't exist, we've never met."
4- refers to Perry White as " a southern guy with a real attitude. Says turn on your beeper or you're fired." This indicates she has never met him before and doesn't know his voice or accent.
5- exercises strenuously with music tuned up very loudly because she feels the music should be heard "on a cellular level"
6- answers the door to find a young man looking for Lois, explaining she isn't answering her pager
7- admits Lois HAD been going on about making herself scarce the day before
8- tells him no, Lois has never mentioned him to her as she would remember hearing of a man called "Jimmy"
9- after he drums up the nerve to ask her for a date, she amuses herself by demanding if he was just using Lois as an excuse to come over and ask her out
10- says okay after he admits it


Martha Kent

1- thinks Clark doesn't like vegetarian food when he picks at it during a visit home
2-clearing his plate at super speed she is shocked and exclaims that he simply inhaled it
3- worries that they should not have told him he was adopted
4- is surprised that Jonathan never destroyed the evidence of Clark's arrival in their lives
5- tells him how cute he was in "the little diaper thing they had you in" and is surprised when Jonathan hushes her- giving him a look that says "What? That's part of the story!"


Jonathan Kent

1- jokes that Clark probably doesn't know whether to eat it or plant his serving of vegetarian food
2- jokes that Clark appears to have missed his mother's cooking after eating it at super speed
3- answers with no hesitation when Clark asks to hear how he was found
4- admits he went back to destroy the spacecraft that brought Clark to them, but he couldn't do it, so he buried it in another location
5- assures Martha they are at the correct spot where he buried the little spaceship saying, "That's the wagon wheel, Hasn't moved in over twenty-five years."
6- counts off his paces "Eight paces due south. Through the two trees. Twenty-eight paces due east." to the area where Clark should dig


Jason Trask

1- name unknown at the time, enters the Daily Planet newsroom and announces he has a warrant from federal court and tells everyone to step away from their desks, and the team with him spreads out around the room (in an online script they are referred to as the Men In Black)
2- presents a warrant to Perry White demanding the cooperation of Lois Lane and Clark Kent
3- after Clark demands to know what they want, he answers, "I want Superman, and I'm not leaving until you tell me where I can find him."
4- questions both separately after a long negotiation with Perry
5- is not amused by Lois's flippant attitude or by Clark's lack of understanding
6- pulls his men in a rapid retreat after hearing the phrase "the perimeter has been penetrated"
7- before leaving, pauses to assure Clark he knows they have been lying, explaining "It's in the eyes."
8- refuses to acknowledge the new orders brought to him from Washington by George Thompson, and refuses to be shut down by order of "the director himself"
9- believes his mission is to identify alien threats to the security of the nation
10- is sure Superman in the advance guard of a coming invasion
11- all records of his existence were wiped out in 1969, making him seem to vanish into thin air
12- discovers Lane and Kent in his supposedly secure warehouse and takes them prisoner aboard his military aircraft
13- interrupts their talk and asks if either is familiar with the scientific method
14- is pleased with Clark's answer ("Advance a theory and submit it to a test.") and tells them he is going to conduct a test.
15- reveals he will throw them out of the aircraft and see if either can contact Superman to save them before they hit the ground - he will then kill Superman
16- grants Lois's last request and subdues their attempt to escape
17- tosses Lois from the plane and is surprised when Clark jumps from the plane voluntarily
18- when told by one of his men that Clark was shot, he dismisses the claim after the bullet is found on the floor of the plane with no trace of blood on it
19- orders a missile to be fired when Superman is identified on radar and makes his escape from Metropolis


OTHER CHARACTERS

George Thompson

1-sends word he would like to meet with Lane and Kent at his hotel
2- has an angry telephone conversation with Trask regarding the Daily Planet raid
3- tells Clark he came to town by train as he doesn't like flying and asks Clark, "You?" (Clark shakes his head.)
4- tells them he is a kind of ombudsman for the government who goes to where there has been trouble and he investigates the incident, and he is here to look into the raid on the Daily Planet
5- begins questioning Lois and Clark, offering no information in return
6- after they leave, he goes to a warehouse location, unaware he is being followed
7- uses a key card to enter the building and does not come out
8- inside, he confronts Trask and declares he is there to shut down his operation and identifies it as "Bureau 39"
9- is struck by Trask and told he has no authority and is later found dead

Burton Newcomb

1- retired general living in Metropolis.
2- answers Lois and Clark's questions in a roundabout way.
3- asks them if they've ever had to keep a secret (Clark says yes, Lois asks, what? he replies as a reporter he's had to protect his sources.)
4- reveals that August 2, 1947 is the day he took an oath to keep a big secret
5- asked if he knows where Trask is, he replies that he thinks Trask and his way of dealing with the secret is so repugnant and so un-American-- that he is probably hiding in plain sight.
6- when Lois guesses the Bessolo Blvd. Warehouse he talks about the security system there that he designed and how they'd need an inside man to help them get in.
7- casually takes a magnetic swipe security card from a drawer of his desk and lays it on the corner and turns his back
8- while taking a gun from a cabinet he asks the reporters to leave and they do, quickly, but not before Lois grabs the card and pockets it
9- later denies he ever met or spoke to the reporters
10- used a nutcracker to destroy a mini tape cassette from Lois's tape recorder

Biederman

1- male reporter sent by Perry to get legal to look into the raid
2- has his desk in the same area Cat Grant does which might mean he works for the same section of the paper that she does

Valdez

1- female reporter to whom Perry gives the responsibility of writing the initial story of the raid on the newsroom
2- gets the assignment because Lois and Clark have become the story and must lay low somewhere for a while
3- indicates she works for the same section of the paper as they do (the "city beat" as it has been called in other Superman incarnations?)

Individual Agents with Trask (MIBs)

1- the man running the polygraph equipment thinks Clark may be "so mild mannered he hasn't got a pulse" when the machine seems to not be working properly
2- one of the men aboard the airplane shoots Clark but is not believed by Trask or the others


PERRY-ISMS

1- You ever hear of Anita Wood? . . . Memphis D.J., beautiful girl, won a beauty contest. Did you know that she and Elvis almost got married? . . . Oh, yeah. Right after he was drafted in 1958. He and Anita were talking marriage, but Colonel Parker knew it would hurt Elvis's career, so he put a stop to it. Now, if the Colonel hadn't gotten wind of it, Elvis might not be the King. Do you understand what I'm sayin' here? . . . (somewhat irritated by Clark's answer) Fools rush in, son. Fools rush in! . . . What I'm thinking, is when it comes to women, if you want to be the King, you better listen to the Colonel. - Perry to Clark, warning him away from Cat Grant (to which Clark replied, 'Thank you. I'll remember that… Colonel.')

2- Phony as a lock of Elvis's hair from a Memphis souvenir shop. - Perry to Lois and Clark, describing the search warrant used in the raid

LIFE GOES ON
(other headlines)

"UFO Sighting Really Swamp Gas"- headline on an old newspaper

NAME THAT TUNE
(theme song)

1- "Superman Flies Home" (Jay Gruska)- a few notes sound in a kind of flourish as Superman takes to the skies after Clark leaves Lois with the excuse he isn't feeling well.
2- Exercise music with a strong beat to which Lucy does her routine
3- Rhythmic drumming music Cat plays while Clark is on the telephone in her apartment

MISCELLANEOUS

1- Trask has a good line: Aboard his plane, Trask tells Lois and Clark he is going to conduct a test. He plans to throw them out of the airplane and see if either can contact Superman to save them before they reach the ground. Then he will kill Superman. Lois asks how and Trask replies, "Does the worm need to know if the fish is going to be pan fried or charbroiled?"

2- When Perry assigns the story of the raid to Valdez, he tells Lois and Clark to type up their notes and give them to Valdez. What notes? Trask and his men have just left and they haven't been back to their desks yet. Did he mean write about their questioning by Trask?

3- When Lois tells Trask she and Superman didn't talk as they flew because "we didn't have to", he and his men immediately conclude they used nonverbal communication and they believe Superman can communicate telepathically to the end.

4- HUJ*395 is George Thompson's license plate.

5- Met Net Cheerleading Squad

6- Project Bluebook, an investigation into UFOs conducted by the United States  Air force between 1952 and 1969.

7- Whoppers, a chocolate covered malted milk candy that Lois was tossing in the air and trying to catch in her mouth. 

4- The Kents' story of how they found Clark:

JONATHAN: It was May 17th, 1966. We were driving past Simpson's Quarry, just due west of the Elbow River.
MARTHA: We saw this thing in the sky. At first we thought it was one of those I.C.B.M.'s.
JONATHAN: But that ship came streaking across the sky in front of us. It was hard to ignore.
MARTHA: We found you and took you home. Your eyes were so big and so wide, and that little diaper-thing they had you in made you look so cute --!
JONATHAN: Martha! A few days later some men showed up around town asking questions.
CLARK: What kind of men?
MARTHA: They said they were from the space program, and that they thought some debris had come down from some kind of Russian satellite. Wanted to know if we'd seen anything.
CLARK: So, what'd you tell them?
JONATHAN: (firmly) Not a thing.
MARTHA: There was something about them. They were scary.
CLARK : So is that what you guys think I am? A Russian experiment?
MARTHA: Oh, honey, we don't care if you're a Russian or a Martian. You were ours, that's all we knew, and we weren't giving you away to anybody. That's why your father went back there, where we found you.
JONATHAN: We figured we'd better destroy that spaceship so nobody would ever have any evidence of how you got here. I planned to burn it good, haul it to the dump and get rid of it.
CLARK: Dad, it's okay. Destroying it was probably the right thing to do.
JONATHAN: Yeah, probably was. But I didn't.
MARTHA: Jonathan! Why didn't you tell me?
JONATHAN: I couldn't, Martha. (to Clark) It was part of you, son. I just couldn't do it.

5- Lois' interview with Superman

SUPERMAN: I hear you've been looking for me.
LOIS (in a whisper): All my life. (Aloud) Everybody's looking for you.
SUPERMAN: I know. And I know you almost died because of that.
LOIS: Well, it did make that bungee jump I did last year seem pretty tame.
SUPERMAN: I'm going to find that man and stop him. That's a promise, Lois.
LOIS: You know my name, but I don't know yours.
SUPERMAN: Superman seems to have caught on.
LOIS: Where are you from? I mean, you're not from Kansas, that's for sure.
SUPERMAN: I'm from another planet. A place called Krypton.
LOIS: Do you mind if I wrote some of this down?
SUPERMAN: No.
LOIS: Um, uh. You seem to have all the ... the parts ... of a man.
SUPERMAN: I am a man, Lois. Just like you're a woman..
LOIS: I'm really glad you're here, but, um, why are you here?
SUPERMAN: To help.
LOIS: To help? I need a little bit more of a quote than that. Something like 'I have not yet begun to fight.' Or 'Damn the torpedoes.' Something like that. I mean, if you said I am here to fight for truth or justice.
SUPERMAN: Well, truth and justice, that sound good. You can use that.
As Lois writes, Superman cocks his head, as if he's listening. Lois doesn't hear anything.
LOIS: What is it?
SUPERMAN: Someone's in trouble.
LOIS: This is a job for Superman, right?
SUPERMAN (nods) I'll be seeing you.
LOIS: I hope so.

* By production code order, "Strange Visitor" should have been the third episode aired during the show's first season. Unfortunately, a special effect sequence filmed for "Neverending Battle," the episode that should have actually aired as the second episode, was judged to be of poor quality in post production and had to be reshot. That, in turn, caused such a long delay that "Strange Visitor had to be shifted to the second position.

First Season Trivia

"Strange Visitor"

Bryce Zabel, the screenwriter of the episode, invented Lois's notorious romance novel, which was mentioned again in another Zabel episode, "Green Green Glow of Home" and established Lois's impulsive approach to life and Clark's compulsive approach.

Also, like many screenwriters, he found a way to insinuat himself into the script. May 17, the month and day Clark's spaceship was discovered by the Kents, is Zabel's birthday. The year, 1966, is Dean Cain's birth year.


Speaking of Dean Cain, he is probably the most athletic actor to portray Superman. Adept at many sports,including baseball, basketball and football (he held the NCAA record for the most interceptions in one season), is also very strong as mentioned in the Concordance entry for "I'm Looking Through You."

Far be it from Hollywood to waste something they could use for free. The director asked Dean if he could provide some inexpensive special effects and Dean was more than happy to accommodate him.

It was necessary for Clark to nervously levitate from his chair while taking a lie-detector test. In the picture on the right crewmembers look on as Dean pulls himself aloft with no sweat. All that was needed was a reinforced beam fitted with an iron bar... and a strong handsome guy.


George Reeves, the actor who played Clark Kent/Superman in the original Adventures of Superman from the 1950s, was born with the name George Brewer. He was told by his mother that his father committed suicide. His mother later married a man with the last name Bessolo and he adopted George and gave him his last name. That's where the "Bessolo" (boulevard and used furniture) references in the episode come from. What about the last name Reeves? Well, allegedly that's a stage name given to him by Jack Warner, one of the famous Warner brothers.

A bit more trivia about George. One day he was doing a play and a man approached him back stage. He introduced himself as Mr. Brewer, George's biological father. Yep, his mother had lied (for reasons not really known) about his father killing himself. George and his mother remained estranged over the issue for many years.

 

 

"Strange Visitor" covered a lot of ground, at least in terms of the Lois & Clark universe by creating a background for Clark's arrival and piquing Mr. Kent's curiosity about his origins. Lois's character was fleshed out more and was given a vulnerable side. It also introduced one of the better original villains in the person of Jason Trask of Bureau 39.  

Years ago when Bryce Zabel was a member of Compuserve (and so was I) and he was working on his series MANTIS, I asked him if the inspiration for Trask was the mad scientist who invented the kryptonite powered cyborg Metallo.

He said no, but  that he could see the similarities. In the John Byrne revamp version of the Superman saga, Metallo was created by an unnamed whacko genius who believed Superman was the vanguard of an invading army of aliens. Sound familiar?

It's too bad that Trask and the mysterious Bureau 39 did not last beyond two episodes, both written by Zabel. Trask and the bureau would've worked well in the background as a constant threat to Clark's secret and security. Zabel was my favorite first season writer because he knew the comics, he knew the myth and he really got Superman. Best of all he wrote great character-driven plots.

Another wink at the comics was Jimmy Olsen having the hots for Lucy Lane, Lois's kid sister. It was a pretty common pairing in the Silver Age of comics. Although, while it was fairly easy to see why Jimmy was attracted to Lucy, or even Supergirl in other comic book storylines, it was a bit harder to understand what the girls saw in Jimmy Olsen. No offense, cub reporter.

Even so, they were popular characters back in their day and Lucy did pick the number one desired career of young women in the 1960s. As an airline stewardess, Lucy could experience high flying adventure and, if Jimmy wasn't looking, romance in exotic locations around the world.

 

Show creator Deborah Joy LeVine, while a panel member comprised of cast and producers of Lois & Clark, recounted how surprised she was to see Dean and Teri kiss for the first time.

She mentioned that  the script merely said 'they kiss,' but when she saw the dailies, she was shocked by how passionate the kiss was. Teri Hatcher, also on the panel, opened her mouth in stunned, but amused silence hearing LeVine's assessment of the kiss.

Lastly, actress Tracy Scoggins, who played Cat Grant, was asked who chose Cat's wardrobe. Her best guess was inmates from the L.A. County Jail. I can see her point ;)