Superman On Earth
Jor-El, a member of the ruling council of the distant planet Krypton, warns his fellow councillors that Krypton’s end is near: the planet could break apart at any time. His peers laugh him out of the room, but that doesn’t change the planet’s fate. When Krypton begins to break apart just as Jor-El predicted, he and his wife place their only son in a small spacecraft and send it away to the planet Earth.
The vehicle crashes on Earth, bursting into flames. Farmer Eben Kent and his wife Sarah witness the crash and hear the cries of the infant inside; Eben manages to save the baby before the spacecraft explodes. They raise the child as their own, though young Clark Kent eventually has questions about the fact that he has abilities that no one else seems to have. On Clark’s 25th birthday – or at least the 25th anniversary of his arrival on Earth – Eben suffers a fatal heart attack. Clark eventually leaves his childhood home for the city of Metropolis, where he seeks a job as a report for the Daily Planet. Editor Perry White is less than enthusiastic about his new hire…until Clark somehow scoops the rest of the Planet’s staff, including ace reporter Lois Lane, turning in the first article about an airship crew member who would have fallen to his death if not for a flying man in a cape…
written by Richard Fielding
directed by Tommy Carr
music by Leon Klatzkin
Cast: George Reeves (Clark Kent / Superman), Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane), Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen), John Hamilton (Perry White), Ross Elliott (Eben Kent), Robert Rockwell (Jor-El), Herbert Rawlinson (Ro-Zon), Stuart Randall (Gogan), Aline Towne (Lara), Frances Morris (Sarah Kent), Dani Nolan (Miss Bachrach)
Notes: Superman’s origin story unfolds here much as it does in other media, though the name “Kal-El” is never spoken here. Sarah Kent is responsible for making Superman’s costume, having sewn it from the blanket in which he was wrapped as an infant on Krypton. (How this fabric can withstand bullets and burns, and yet can still be cut up and sewn, isn’t explained.) Beginning an unfortunate decades-long tradition, Superman’s creators, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, are not credited anywhere in this adaptation.
LogBook entry by Earl Green
Cast: Lloyd Nolan (Kagan), Michael Ansara (Qarlo), Tim O’Connor (Tanner), Ralph Hart (Loren), Jill Hill (Toni), Allen Jaffe (Enemy), Marlowe Jensen (Sgt. Berry), Catherine McLeod (Abby Kagan), Ted Stanhope (Doctor)
Cast: Michael Aldridge (Professor Young), Patsy Rowlands (Mrs. Young), Phil Daniels (Raven), Shirley Cheriton (Naomi Grant), James Kerry (Bill Telford), Roger Milner (Ticket Collector)
which was eliminated – at least by name – by the British government in 1982, after existing for most of the 20th century. Ireland similarly abolished borstals (by name, if not necessarily by practice) in the 1960s; the only remaining borstals in operation in the 21st century are in India.
Jessica Marlowe arrives at space station Omega 76 to begin a tour of duty as the station’s second-in-command under uptight Captain Glenn, whose previous second-in-command left under mysterious (and much-gossiped-about) circumstances. She meets the station’s other personnel and spouses in rapid succession, including Ted and his wife Misty, the latter of whom has an oddly distant relationship with both her husband and their daughter, and Steve and Donna, both eager to move on to a better posting than Omega 76. Jessica, unable to have children of her own, quickly befriends Ted and his daughter, as Misty grows jealous of her presence. Glenn continually questions Jessica’s fitness for duty and her every suggestion, until she realizes that his relationship with her predecessor was more than just professional. She finds that her feelings for one of her new crewmates is entering that territory as well.
Victor Togunde (James), Jonny Jay (Trucker), Mike Stoyanov (Dr. Bot), Susan Currie (Steve’s Mom), Hart Keathley (Donna’s Baby), Anna Sophie Burglund (Star Angel), Sam Pancake (Saul), Katherine Ann McGregor (Janice), Julia E.L. Wood (Susan), Phillip Agresta (Crew Member), Kevin Beltz (Crew Member), Billy Brooks (Crew Member), Dan Burks (Crew Member), Melodi Hallenbeck (Crew Member), Marianne Heath (Crew Member), Matthew Horn (Crew Member), Shannon Jones (Crew Member), Alexander Koehne (Crew Member), Ilana Marks (Crew Member), Ken Koyasu Park (Crew Member), Jack Plotnick (Crew Member), Rachel Ward (Crew Member), Garrett Watts (Crew Member)