The Panic Machine Devil Friend Experiment

The final month of 1953 also sees four new episodes of The Adventures of Superman. Their show must have been given a slightly better budget because the flying effects are "improved". There are also different exterior shots of the Daily Planet Building, which now show better angles that make it a part of Metropolis. Their editors still love the shot of Clark running into a aupply closet, then jumping out the window as Superman. That was shown in the first episode, and it is still in use as of December, 1953.

Panic in the Sky- Despite the science in the being almost nonsensical it manages to be a highly recommended episode. About the only thing I can say they got right is there really are things called asteroids and sometimes they aim at Earth. Somehow scientists have been tracking a 5-mile diameter asteroid (once again really good for early '50s technology) past Venus, then Mars and finally curving its trajectory towards Earth. Superman has been helping the local observatory when it is learned it will slam into Metropolis. Professor Roberts warns him they don't know what it is made out of. It could have disasterous physical effects on Superman if he leaves the Earth. I guess they don't realize he's fine in space as long as he has a yellow star nearby. In a great scene Superman takes off for space and slams headlong into the asteroid. Superman falls to Earth dazed and confused, while the asteroid takes up a permanent orbit which causes it to eclipse the sun once a day. Now that there is a new gravitational body orbitting Earth it begins to wreak havoc on weather patterns and fault lines, causing tidal waves and earthquakes. Even Earth's rotation is slowly being affected. All this while Superman becomes Clark Kent again and loses his memory. We now see that he has three Supersuits (he must have learned how to make more Kryptonian fabric) but Clark no longer remembers who he really is. After many failed attempts by Perry White to yell at Clark, he goes back to his apartment and puts a Supersuit on. He suddenly remembers something about the observator and heads there. Roberts gives him a nuclear device which Superman flies to the asteroid, lands on it, detonates, then comes home with all his memories back. A couple things to point out. Professor Roberts warns Superman there might be Kryptonite on the asteroid, which means that information has now been leaked. This is the first time Superman flies into space, even though his cape still flaps about in vacuum. We never learn what the asteroid was made out of, but Superman was holding the bomb when it went off and the explosion cured him, so he is obviously immune to nuclear blasts. Clark at one point is lying in bed without his glasses on when Perry, Lois and Jimmy come barging into his bedroom. They don't notice he looks like Superman at all. Plus, an amnesiac Clark takes off his suit with the Supersuit underneath, next to Jimmy but he never notices. The special effects people do a pretty good job of showing the asteroid eclipsing the moon, even going so far as to put a yellow filter on the scene instead of it being just black & white. Good future-proofing, since most TV sets at the time were black & white, it would only be noticed in syndication.

The Machine That Could Plot Crimes- The fourth wall should be sparingly violated, and in the case of The Adventures of Superman only when Clark Kent winks at the audience. There have been a couple times this season where characters talk to the themselves straight at the audience for the sake of humor. It happened in this one, and it's painful to watch. But don't let that get you down, this is another great story. We have been seeing more Sci-Fi oriented episodes and this one is about a super-computer, named Mr. Kelso. Invented by Professor Quinn, not a mad scientist but a naive genius type, he shows off his computer to a has-been criminal, McCoy, who learns that Mr. Kelso can calculate complex patterns to establish the perfect crime. That being bank robbery, something that hasn't happened in Metropolis for at least a year, thanks to Superman. McCoy, and his partners Nosey and Pinky, go about robbing all the banks and getting the attention of Superman. But when Superman tries to intervene he finds laundry in bags, not money. All part of Mr. Kelso's plan. With Superman somewhat bamboozled, McCoy feeds all the information on him to Mr. Kelso, who comes up with the perfect crime to escape the country with wads of cash. Once again criminals blackmail Superman into "helping" by threatening to reveal his identity. But because they trusted Mr. Kelso it never occured them it would set them up, and eventually they get nabbed for driving the wrong way on a one way street. I've heard of people doing this with current navigation computers in cars. So the writer, Jackson Gillis, predicted a future man-machine interface error over 50 years ago. This is a great episode, even with the goofy Professor Quinn, because they actually explain many of the variables to a successful bank robbery (of the '50s). Mr. Kelso even prints out a sheet of time tables for all the traffic lights in Metropolis, as well as police patrol patterns. On the final part of he mission a thug puts dynamite on Mr. Kelso do destroy any evidence, but Superman stops it. While holding the dynamite, the thug shoots at pointbank range without thinking what Superman was holding. It appears that Mr. Kelso can make its own decisions about what to share and what to "lie" about, almost classifying it as AI. In the final moments Quinn asks the computer who Superman is and it outputs "Wouldn't you like to know." So even a computer has figured it out, while most criminals know he has an alter-ego. Superman is seriously getting sloppy. My favorite of the day.

Jungle Devil- I can't really give this episode high marks. Like Drums of Death did nothing good for Haiti, this one does nothing good for any South American jungle. I am only assuming it is set there because the map of Zinaya at The Daily Planet doesn't really show where in the world it is, but the natives are interpreted by a Hispanic guide. I guess it saves the writers from having to be realistic. They did say the area is about 10,000 square miles. Well, an expedition (to find a miracle medicine plant) is captured by natives, when the one woman on the team steals a diamond from the right eye of their god-statue and promptly loses it in quicksand. Lois and Clark (and Jimmy, too, who stowed away on their flight) are sent by Perry White to Zinaya to look for them. Really? Reporters doing search and rescue? Anyway, Clark manages to sneak off the flight and finds the missing expedition, just when the aircraft blows an engine. Superman flies back into the aircraft, changes into Clark again, and helps pilot Bill land in a clearing. While Bill repairs the engines, the three set off in the direction of the natives and are immediately captured. It is agreed that only one person needs to die and the rest can go, so Clark rigs a game to make sure he gets executed. The threat of death to all has been the feared Jungle Devil, which will be the method of execution. Clark finds a moment to become Superman and fights a large ape (escaped from a circus) of some sort, the Jungle Devil. Superman choke slams the monkey and it runs off. The natives don't care who Clark/Superman is, he's now considered a great warrior and all are spared. Clark even discovers a chunk of charcoal, and using his super-strength, crushes it into a perfectly cut diamond. It fits the statue and all is forgiven. The Lois, Clark and Jimmy scenes are fine, but the ignorant use of jungle natives ranks this really low. There is an odd moment when Clark first meets the locals. He holds out his hand like a "movie western" Native American, but instead says "amigo" instead of "how". Bad writing. I can't not recommend this episode enough.

My Friend Superman- A fairly harmless episode. Clark Kent and Lois Lane have been working on stories about extortion in Metropolis. Little do they realize a diner next to the Daily Planet Building is paying protection to a group of gangsters. Especially since Clark and Jimmy frequent it, mostly I think because Jimmy is taken by the waitress, Elaine. But the owner, Tony, is adamant he's a personal friend of Superman and even shows off a rifle with a bent barrel he keeps on a wall, as proof. The gangsters begin to worry and when they read Clark's report in the paper, they devise a plan to steal signed affidavits from store owners who are pissed. But first they need to get rid of Superman. With news that Lois is on assignment and out of touch for a few days they plant false news with Tony that she'll be kidnapped at a certain place and time. Tony reports this to Superman and the plan almost works until the gangster show back up at the diner and start talking about their plans. Tony has a recording device set up that catches them in the lie, and passes it on to Clark. In the middle of this deception Lois shows up at the diner, Superman right behind and they nab all three bad guys, but not before everyone in the joint throws pies, glasses and plates at them; eventually knocking them out. Not much happens but you feel for the Tony as he goes on about Superman, which amuses Clark to no end. No one eating at the diner actually believes Tony, until the end when Superman plays along. I like that all his food has to be either Super-hamburger or Super-soup. You also get a little dance number in the middle of the action to pass the time.