Time travel. Gravity. The speed of light. And other science things are used and abused on this show.

Does anyone want to list out all our SCIENTISTS from the show that has actually explained canon? Would Dr. Hamilton be first? Also, I've always wondered how Clark is able to fall faster than Chloe in Dichotomy (sp?) to catch her, which defies the law of physics.

I think that was obviously one of his first efforts at flight. He was clearly able to will himself to fall faster. No other explanation comes to my mind, since it obviously violates natural laws.

Cool thread, Tennison; thank you for creating it. Scientific concepts are abused with dismaying regularity on this show.

Sort like learning to fall before you can learn to walk? It works for me.

I've always hated the science of Jor-El and Krypton. These people have portals to other galaxies, time travel, magical crystals that form giant fortresses, pocket universes, almost omniscient forms of AI that can do everything from freezing to branding to brainwashing...and yet once the portals were closed, Jor-El couldn't find a spaceship big enough to carry his whole family? What. The. Fuck. Ever.

Another science thing that burns me is the Lana clone that "was never even alive." Ugh! That makes no sense!

Can someone explain the SCIENCE! behind The Gay Lasso of Fire from "Bound" please? Thanks!

I don't know how truly scientific this is, but I wanked it as being similar to a tornado -- when a tornado passes over things it picks them up, because the whirling force creates a strong updraft. This disregards the fact that it was fire being lifted, and that the fire really should have just gone out or formed a column, but... it kind of works.

What I don't understand is why it worked given the layout of the scene. Clark (the "tornado") was off to the side of the flames, and it should only have worked if he started whirling his jacket and then sped over all the flames (i.e., ran around them in a circle). He would have had to be directly over the fire (the "trailer," to abuse the metaphor a little) to lift it up that way. So, uh... anybody want to fill in that portion?

Hee! Yeah, that's as plausible an explanation as any, although I don't think there's any wank in the world that will make that move anything but HILARIOUS. Especially when not three episodes prior Martha tells Clarkionel (tm Omar) to put out the fire caused by his pseudo-incestuous eye-jaculate with his big-ass hands. No GLoF required. Oh well.

I don't remember this episode. How far did they have to fall? If it was far enough, then this might make sense without Clark having to fly.

Falling objects accelerate at the same rate regardless of mass only in a vacuum. In atmosphere, falling objects are opposed by drag. Under simple first order assumptions, a falling object will (eventually) reach a terminal velocity, proportional to mass and inversely proportional to cross section. Since Clark weighs probably twice as much as Chloe, but is probably not twice as big in cross section (though it might be close, small as she is), he would fall faster if they fell for long enough to reach a terminal velocity; and faster still if he was aiming head first at Chloe and she was falling kind of splayed.

This is the same reason parachute performers can do all those cool stunts before they pull the rip cord. They are all falling; some are falling faster than others. For that matter, it's also the reason parachutists don't make a nasty mess when they hit the ground.

I occasionally get annoyed with the SCIENCE! on this show, but NOTHING ever ticked me off like this. I can't believe they forced the indignity of uttering this line on MR just to absolve Lana of any misdeeds. HATE, my friends. Hate.

I don't think there's any wank to make this work, and it's not even excusable. The average person probably doesn't know the properties of fire or the basic laws of physics so I can certainly forgive writers who are fuzzy on them, but nearly everyone knows that a human being or its potentiality cannot be anything but alive or dead and that dead cells do not replicate. Ugh, it's just so stupid.

The SCIENCE! I have a problem with is this.

Kryptonian ships can hover/levitate/whatever and they have no wheels or landing supports. They're obviously made to float above the ground (I think Kara's ship was just hovering above the ground on Krypton when she left in Lara).

So why the hell do these super advanced ships keep crashing on Earth?! It doesn't make any sense.

Nor does the idea that a little bit of lightning makes Clark's baby ship shut down and fall out of the sky.

Bugs Bunny Physics Rule3a --- Because the ship looked down? Or Because the plot needed the ship to fall down?

Maybe they're landing to look like they've crashed. I'd assume that the DoZ were trying to do their best meteor impression, and meteors don't float gracefully to the ground. As for Clark, maybe he was supposed to incite sympathy and thus it gave the appearance of a child in need. A child alone in the cornfield would be enough for a human to show compassion, but from the perspective of a Kryptonian, they'd probably assume it wouldn't be enough, because it wouldn't be enough for any of them.

Wankery over.

EllyF:



I could buy that. Especially since he did float a bit in an episode from the first season (possibly the second episopde). He was dreaming about Lana, woke up and came crashing down on his bed.

And, in Action he does something similar with Lana.


Fat Elvis 007:



PolarB mentioned this on the Apocalypse thread:



Based on this, it's probable that Jor-El could have made a big enough spaceship for his family. However, a bigger one wasn't needed at the time because only one of them was going anyway.

Bumped for Kandor Klones and Lana's Power Suit from Season 8.

S9E7: Kandor 11-06-09 Writers: Al Septien & Turi Meyer, Director: Jeannot Szwarc. Ok I now realize that the blue crystal Jor-El exposed to the Orb was Blue Kryptonite. Jor-El deliberately depowered the clones while they were in stasis within the Orb. His clone had a "memory" of the event because Jor-El had already formed that plan within his mind before his DNA blood sample was drawn and placed within the Orb.

My question is how was Jor-El able to depower the clones with the Blue K without depowering himself and everyone else in the lab? Is Blue K harmless to Kryptonians on Krypton? What properties does it have on its own home planet?

I remember Uncle Zor-El making a comment to Clark about his scientific team discovering properties regarding Blue K while they were taking samples from Earth. Does Blue K only depower Kryptonians while in the presence of Earth's yellow sun?

Jor-El told the Council that the clones would have powers caused by Earth's sun. The Council's precaution for potential Kryptonian abuse against Humans was to order Jor-El and Zod to place their DNA within the Orb as well; the idea being their clones would make the other clones behave. So Kryptonians don't have Superpowers at home, right?

Sooo under the yellow sun, does Blue K "trick" the Kryptonian bodies into "thinking" they're back on their own home planet where they are basically powerless like Humans? Are the yellow rays transformed into red rays like the red sun of Krypton? Could Clark find a way to prevent or transform the yellow rays passing through the Blue K out of red rays back into yellow rays again? That would basically mean he could protect himself from ever being depowered by Blue K (if he had his special glasses on or whatever).

Am I thinking about this show too much?

No. The writers have thought too little.

So . . . along those lines, help me understand the sunshine effect.

a. Under the red sun of Krypton, no one has powers;

b. Jor-El visits earth with its yellow sun, falls under the spell of Lana-wuv, and gravity is suspended;

c. In Pandora, the earth's sun is red, so Clark has lost his powers -- yet Kryptonian clones can fly (although they couldn't under the yellow sun because of the blue K dildo magic).

My mind refuses to deal with the contradictory effects of time travel, and now it can't cope with color. . . or moving parts.

I assume what Jor-El has actually down is tinker with the replicants genetics. So now it's the yellow sun that keeps them powerless, and a red sun that will give them super powers.

He basically reversed the effects.

It's very clever.

Yes, but I do actually suspect we'll get an explanation: Either the clones have their powers through artificial means, or based on whatever Jor-El did to the Orb, they're affected by a red sun, not a yellow one.


I have to wonder, then, did future!Alia actually have blue K with her because it gave her powers?

She specifically says that blue Kryptonite takes away her abilities too.

I have no idea what to make of Alia having super powers at this point, if in the future all the replicants are powered up because of a red sun.

Under that scenario Alia under a yellow sun should = powerless.

She was also there to kill Clark. Perhaps she was lying to make him think she didn't have an advantage when she really did. However, we're supposedly getting more of her this week, so perhaps this will be explained too.

I know, I know. I ask for too much.

But she didn't use any of her abilities while fighting Clark. If she wanted him dead, and blue Kryptonite didn't affect her, that would have been no problem.

So the only logical explanation is that she was telling the truth, and blue Kryptonite still depowers the replicants.