SV revisited
Sep. 1st, 2004 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serafina20Someone over on TWOP asked if we were writing for the show, what would have we done differently. The rules were we had to have the same cast and no slash (just subtext). I'm going to assume that the no casting changes things mean I can't recast, rather than I can't add.
Obviously, I'd do the usual: keep the Lana and Clark lives separate as much as possible until around third season, give Lana a group of friends outside both Clark and Whitney. I'd probably get her involved in a few more clubs to flesh out her personality (she likes to read, she likes to draw, she likes to volunteer. That's English Club, Art Club, and Key Club right there. Plus, she'd probably be in whatever honor society there is, and possibly swimming). She and Clark would become friendly over the course of the first two seasons, but she'd remain the Object of Desire the TPB think she is and not the Girl Next Door she's been in S2. Plus, I'd have her date more after Whitney, nice, easy, non-mutant people and have her friends be nice people.
There'd be a small supporting cast of regular high school kids that flit in and out of everyone's lives. They wouldn't be mutants. They would be Lana, Chloe, Pete, and sometimes Clark's friends. One would be Chad and anyone else Chloe has ever mentioned.
I'd have more shows with them just being teenagers and working with teenage problems. I understand they didn't want to show Tom in school since he's so old looking (although, seriously, I can buy that Superman looks like he's in his twenties when he's a teenager; he's Superman). In S2, I'd do more of the Chloe/Pete/Clark mystery solving gang stories.
There'd be more scenes of Lex and Clark just hanging out. They could shoot pool, play video games, and bitch about their respective love lives and parents.
Some episodes would take more than an hour to wrap up, like Shattered bled into Asylum. Obsession definitely would have been 2 episodes, as well as a few others. Characters would still be reacting to things that happened the episode before.
And then, the epiphany hit when I got to the Talon: Instead of Lana wanting to keep it open, it would have been Martha's project. She still would have hired Lana, and then they could have become close, but then Lana wouldn't' have to become unrealistically grown up and in charge of a business (I still don't know what I would have done with Chloe on that note).
Think about it: Martha hears that the Talon is going to be closed down and turned into a parking garage. Part of the thing she loves about Smallville is the small-town feel, which a garage would ruin. So, she comes up with the same plan as Lana to preserve it has a historical landmark, only use it as an outlet for her own baked goods. Lex would do it because Lex adores Martha, and there'd be some nice tension between Jonathan/Martha/Lex about going into business with the Luthors. And then that also would have given Clark and Lana a very nice reason to grow closer over the course of S2 so they could almost get together in S3 until Shattered tears them apart.
The only problem is it'd get rid of the Martha working for Lionel side-plot. But, I suppose that with the tornado, they needed a lot of extra money, so Martha tried to multi-task by doing three jobs at once and the coming undone at the seams.
Anyway, yeah. I had a lot of thinking time driving today.
Obviously, I'd do the usual: keep the Lana and Clark lives separate as much as possible until around third season, give Lana a group of friends outside both Clark and Whitney. I'd probably get her involved in a few more clubs to flesh out her personality (she likes to read, she likes to draw, she likes to volunteer. That's English Club, Art Club, and Key Club right there. Plus, she'd probably be in whatever honor society there is, and possibly swimming). She and Clark would become friendly over the course of the first two seasons, but she'd remain the Object of Desire the TPB think she is and not the Girl Next Door she's been in S2. Plus, I'd have her date more after Whitney, nice, easy, non-mutant people and have her friends be nice people.
There'd be a small supporting cast of regular high school kids that flit in and out of everyone's lives. They wouldn't be mutants. They would be Lana, Chloe, Pete, and sometimes Clark's friends. One would be Chad and anyone else Chloe has ever mentioned.
I'd have more shows with them just being teenagers and working with teenage problems. I understand they didn't want to show Tom in school since he's so old looking (although, seriously, I can buy that Superman looks like he's in his twenties when he's a teenager; he's Superman). In S2, I'd do more of the Chloe/Pete/Clark mystery solving gang stories.
There'd be more scenes of Lex and Clark just hanging out. They could shoot pool, play video games, and bitch about their respective love lives and parents.
Some episodes would take more than an hour to wrap up, like Shattered bled into Asylum. Obsession definitely would have been 2 episodes, as well as a few others. Characters would still be reacting to things that happened the episode before.
And then, the epiphany hit when I got to the Talon: Instead of Lana wanting to keep it open, it would have been Martha's project. She still would have hired Lana, and then they could have become close, but then Lana wouldn't' have to become unrealistically grown up and in charge of a business (I still don't know what I would have done with Chloe on that note).
Think about it: Martha hears that the Talon is going to be closed down and turned into a parking garage. Part of the thing she loves about Smallville is the small-town feel, which a garage would ruin. So, she comes up with the same plan as Lana to preserve it has a historical landmark, only use it as an outlet for her own baked goods. Lex would do it because Lex adores Martha, and there'd be some nice tension between Jonathan/Martha/Lex about going into business with the Luthors. And then that also would have given Clark and Lana a very nice reason to grow closer over the course of S2 so they could almost get together in S3 until Shattered tears them apart.
The only problem is it'd get rid of the Martha working for Lionel side-plot. But, I suppose that with the tornado, they needed a lot of extra money, so Martha tried to multi-task by doing three jobs at once and the coming undone at the seams.
Anyway, yeah. I had a lot of thinking time driving today.
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-01 05:29 pm (UTC)Of course, I would also have let the question of whether Lex ever goes completely to the Lionel side totally up in the air at the end of Smallville. Whatever rift develops or not would be a more natural outgrowth, I would think of of Clark's young adult years in college and at the Planet.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-01 05:34 pm (UTC)Yeah, that too. Anything that brought them closer together as friends. I also would have Clark learn to be a better liar, especially since, by this point on the show, he would be. He'd have to be.
Of course, I would also have let the question of whether Lex ever goes completely to the Lionel side totally up in the air at the end of Smallville.
I think that would depend on when they left the show. If it was after Clark graduated, then defintly. The last shot of Smallville could be of Lex at the graduation, waiting for CLark to get up. He could be caught up in some major plot that would defintely put him well on the road to darkness at the time, and actually be on the phone there. Then, as the other person asks for his decision, Clark gets up and Lex sits there watching Clark, bittersweet and sad music playing as the curtain closes.
But, if they do take it into Metrpolis, I think that they need to show Lex going darker while Clark remains oblivious and thinking Lex is still cool guy of the year. But the show would end with him finding out or being told, but not actually breaking with Lex right then. It'd be the straw that breaks the camels back, but it's up to the viewer to decide how the rift actually happens.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-01 05:40 pm (UTC)- Jonathan Kent and Aunt Nell have and are still having an affair. Mr. Moral High Ground, sleeping with Lana's aunt. Martha doesn't know about this, but of course this kind of behavior would teach Clark about morality and that sort of thing in a way Jonathan could never imagine. So, obviously Nell Potter and all of the adults would have more to do.
- Lionel and Martha have a past, and there is still a spark there, but Martha won't do anything about it, despite Lionel's advances. (Hey, this could still happen on the show for all we know) But, if/once Martha learns about Lionel, there could be hell to pay...
- Lana and Clark barely interact. Yes, Clark has a crush on her but Lana is totally unattainable. She's the Most Popular Girl in School, and wouldn't lower herself to hanging with the "newspaper dweebs." I like unattainable much more than wishy washy as Lana really is. But one thing changes for Lana, also in the original plan for the character - she is thrilled by this bald new outsider who has come to town. She remembers what she had seen several years back in the pool, and she pursues this big city millionaire with lots of interest.
- I'd probably involve the Ross family a bit more too. Basically, I see Smallville as like a Twin Peaks, with the small town where everyone knows everyone and there's a rich tapestry. Perhaps the Rosses have a legal battle with the Luthors still ongoing after what happened to the cream corn factory. This would give Pete more to do.
- Lana, in this version, would still be dating Whitney. But, she won't put out, but Whitney still follows her around. (oddly, she'd do it easily for Lex). Whitney might have a repressed something or other too, as he finds it arousing to tie Clark up in the field. (Okay, I know you said no slashing, but I think this could be an interesting dynamic)
- Freak of the Week characters would be people we know and have seen. Tina Greer, Sean Kelvin, any of them are recurring characters from day one. That way, when the meteors change them or whatever, it would actually mean something - especially when it happens to one of your friends. Think Jesse from the Buffy pilot.
- Back to the small town feel, everyone knows everybody, and since Lex is a newcomer, there's a lot of gossip and talk about him. No one quite knows what to make of the young Luthor.
- I'd keep Smallville in Kansas and have Metropolis be VERY far away, like New York. Smallville is supposed to be the total opposite of what Metropolis is or represents.
- You know, I actually might combine the Pete and Whitney characters. Sure it would give Clark one less friend to hang out with, but the Pete Ross of the comics looked like Eric Johnson, played football I believe, and of course ends up with Lana. So combine the repressed stuff with being Lana's boyfriend and the creamed corn stuff. And, wouldn't it be such a neat twist if the bully was the first to learn Clark's secret?
- I'd make secrets a part of the show, and teenage gossip. I'd love it if there was just a whole episode about Clark having a secret, and everyone wonders what actually his secret is. All teens do it. Maybe it's his secrecy that gets him hung up like a scarecrow.
I LOVE your Martha ideas. Probably something I'd do with Martha is something Annette O'Toole wanted for her character - I'd elevate her to a higher post in Smallville... like mayor... and see the effect that has on the family.
I probably wouldn't involve the Talon at all. Lana is far too self centered to even care about a business, even if it is connected to her dead parents. And if I ever did the Henry Small thing, I'd keep him to stay, not come and go.
As for Chloe... she'd probably stay as is. I love Chloe. And Lex, again, pretty good, it would be how he interacts with the others that would make it all interesting.
Heh, sorry for the long reply :)
no subject
Date: 2004-09-01 05:43 pm (UTC)I actually would probably go for someone not so typically "hot" as Tom Welling... I'd rather have someone where even Chloe can be right next to him, and not realize how great he is until later. And build that relationship sweetly.