Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Season 3, Episode 14 (21 Jan. 1996): “Tempus, Anyone?”
by John McNamara, Winrich Kolbe

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season 3, Episode 14

Title: “Tempus, Anyone?”

Medium: television series episode

Original airdate: 21 Jan. 1996

Publisher:
Written by: John McNamara
Directed by: Winrich Kolbe

6 characters in this story:

Character (Click links for info about character and his/her religious practice, affiliation, etc.)	Religious Affiliation	Team(s) [Notes]	Pub.	# app.
Superman (Clark Kent)	Methodist / Kryptonian religion	Kryptonians; Super Friends...  The Justice League		13,409
Lois Lane	Catholic	Raleigh College [Superman's girlfriend, then wife]		3,859
Jimmy Olsen	Lutheran	The Legion of Super-Heroes [Superman's pal]		1,896
Perry White	Baptist; Elvis worship (ordained)	[Superman's (Clark Kent's) boss; Daily Planet editor]		1,574
Lana Lang	Protestant	[Superman's childhood sweetheart]		1,026
Martha Kent	Methodist	[Superman's adoptive mother]		827

Timecode: 0 minutes, 10 seconds: Lois Lane walks with Clark Kent in downtown Metropolis during the middle of the day. They are talking about their impending wedding.

Lois Lane: I can't believe it's next week.

Clark Kent: I know.

Lois Lane: [looking at a paper] Is this the absolute, total final guest count?

Clark Kent: Funny you should mention that, because I ran into an old friend last night.

Lois Lane: Who?

Clark Kent: Lana Lang.

Lois Lane: Oh ho! An old girlfriend.

Clark Kent: Lois, you're getting that sound in your voice.

Lois Lane: What sound?

Clark Kent: That any second claws are gonna pop out of our fingers.

[Clark makes the sound of an angry cat while moving his hand like the clawed paw of threatening or threatened cat.]

Clark Kent: --and I'm gonna have to get you a saucer of milk.

Lois Lane: Meow.

Clark Kent: She's not worth it. We dated in high school. [Clark says this and makes a motion as if the whole thing with Lana is meaningless, ancient history.]

Lois Lane: Ah, Smallville girl, here in the big city. And . . .?

Clark Kent: And I told her I was getting married.

Lois Lane: Smart. And she was?

Clark Kent: She was really happy for me.

Lois Lane: So happy she'd like to come to the wedding?

Clark Kent: Heh heh. How did you know?

Lois Lane: How did she take it?

Clark Kent: What?

Lois Lane: When you said no?

Clark Kent: Oh . . . [looks uncomfortable]

Lois Lane: Clark!

Clark Kent: Well, you have to know Lana . . .

Lois Lane: No! No, I don't, interestingly enough.

Clark Kent: She's kinda insistent. Sort of just steamrolls through things. So I didn't actually say she could come. She just sort of said she could come.

Lois Lane: Lemme get this straight. You're Superman. And your high school girlfriend can push you around?

Clark Kent: Oh, God, I--

[Clark does not finish this sentence, for his super-hearing picks up cries for help. Lois recognizes the look on his face and urges him to go do his thing and help out. She says they'll finish this conversation back at the office.]

Clark Kent: Speaking of Superman . . .

Lois Lane: Go. We'll finish this at the office. [Clark starts to dart off. Lois grabs him and kisses him on the lips before he does.] Hey, be careful.

[Superman rushes away to help. While he is gone, Tempus approaches Lois Lane, pulls a gun on her, and kidnaps her with time machine. Tempus was introduced in a previous episode. He is a time traveller from the future who was so bored with the peaceful, crime-free, Utopian society built around the ideals taught by Superman and Lois Lane, that he wanted to travel to the past and kill Superman as a baby in order to prevent his Utopian era from ever coming to pass. Superman, flying back to where Lois is, sees Tempus disappear with Lois, but is too late to stop them as the machine vanishes.]

Timecode: 3 minutes, 6 seconds: Tempus uses his time machine to deposit Lois Lane in a cemetery. She looks around, trying to get her bearings. Then she looks down and is stunned by what she sees. She is standing in front of a headstone marking her own burial spot! The simple marble and stone headstone reads simply: "LOIS LANE: 1967 - 1993".

[1993 was about three years previous to her present time. 1993 was when Lois Lane first met Clark Kent.]

[Lois, staring at the headstone, looks very worried, naturally. She hears the sound of Tempus laughing.]

[End of scene. Roll opening credits.]

Timecode: 4 minutes, 39 seconds: An older gentleman wearing a dark suit appropriate for 1900 England walks up to Lois Lane from behind, startling her slightly. It is H.G. Wells, the man who (in an earlier episode) invented the original time machine and brought Tempus from his future era into current-day Metropolis.

H.G. Wells: Miss Lane? [Lois turns to face him.] My name is Wells. Herbert George Wells. Actually, we've met, but I doubt you'd remember.

Lois Lane: You're the second person to say that to me. What is going on?

[When Tempus kidnapped Lois at gunpoint he mentioned that they had met before, but she didn't remember him because she lost her memory of her previous time-travelling adventure at the end of that episode.]

Lois Lane: Is this some kind of--?

[Lois Lane stops short. Her mind has finally recognized the name of the man before her.]

Lois Lane: Did you say "Herbert George"?

[H.G. Wells nods his head yes.]

Lois Lane: H.G. Wells?

[H.G. Wells nods his head yes again.]

Lois Lane: The writer who died a long time ago. Oh my God. I'm dead.

[Looking around the cemetery, including her own gravestone, thinking about the fact that she is talking to a man she knows to be long dead, Lois jumps to the conclusion that she has died and is now a spirit. Fortunately, H.G. Wells quickly corrects her misunderstanding and puts her mind at ease.]

H.G. Wells: Oh, no, no.

Lois Lane: What do you mean, "no"? I'm looking at my grave with a dead writer.

H.G. Wells: Miss Lane, I assure you, you are very much alive, and so am I. Let's set. Please.

[They sit on a bench.]

H.G. Wells: Now I'm going to tell you something, and as I do, you will begin to remember, like a dream recalled. Now, close your eyes, and let the images unspool.

[Lois Lane closes her eyes. H.G. Wells describes their "extraordinary adventure" (chronicled in an earlier episode). As he describes those events, scenes from that episode are shown. Lois comes to recall all of these lost memories.]

H.G. Wells: We met on an extraordinary adventure. Before I was this elderly gentleman you see before you, I was a time traveller. I had journeyed into the future, thinking Utopia, but found instead, Tempus, a violent psychotic with a bitter hatred for Superman. He tried to kill Clark Kent as a baby, hoping to change future history, and you stopped him.

Lois Lane: [opens her eyes] I remember. You're H.G. Wells. I know you!

[H.G. Wells explains that after their escapade, Tempus escaped and build his own time machine. But he didn't use it to travel purely through time. He used to travel to Lois Lane's present, but an alternate present. Charlton Heston is the President of the United States. The United States is somewhat obsessed with guns. H.G. Wells walks with Lois from the cemetery to downtown Metropolis. Everybody seems to be carrying weapons.]

Lois Lane: Do I want to know why so many people are wearing guns, or is that just gonna upset me more?

H.G. Wells: Well, from what I can gather, people are frightened, cynical, have no faith that society can protect them. That, and a certain someone [Tempus] is making firearms affordable and attractive.

[Tempus is running for mayor on a platform based on preparing for a dangerous coming enemy. Tempus's plan is to cause this era's Clark Kent to adopt the guise of Superman (something he has not done yet), and then turn people against him by convincing them that Superman is an invading alien.]

Timecode: 9 minutes, 7 seconds: In the office of a TV station, Tempus talks to two men in business suits. They appear to be investors or corrupt businessmen or perhaps crimelords.

Tempus: ...Any more than I want people to know that I own this television station. You see, TV is power. The power to love, pacify, and then when all eyes are glazed and all minds are jelly, the power to take. The power to hold the world in your fist, which is exactly what I intend to do when I'm elected mayor.

Major Domo: Whoa.

[Lois Lane and H.G. Wells aren't certain why Tempus has brought them to this parallel world and stranded them there, but they believe their only hope of getting back home is to find Tempus's time machine. Lois decides to find Clark Kent and enlist his help in this. Lois and H.G. Wells find Clark Kent working as a reporter at the Daily Planet, but he is not Superman. Instead, he is engaged to be married to his high school sweetheart, Lana Lang, who constantly reminds him to NOT use his powers. She doesn't want him to be taken away by the government or treated like a freak. Much of this episode centers around Lois Lane convincing Clark Kent to become Superman and showing him how to do it.]

[In this parallel dimension, Perry White is also running for mayor of Metropolis. Jimmy Olsen is a multi-millionaire who made a fortune with his brilliance in computer software and now owns the Daily Planet. When Lois Lane arrives at the Daily Planet, Jimmy is talking campaign strategy with Perry White. Perry is shocked to see Lois standing at the elevator doors. After all, Lois was presumed dead three years ago.]

Timecode: 11 minutes, 55 seconds: Lois Lane is surprised to see the way that Perry White is answering to the much younger Jimmy Olsen, who in he reality is Perry's low-level subordinate.

Lois Lane: Oh my God.

[Perry and Jimmy both turn their heads at the sound of Lois Lane's voice. Perry is startled to see her.]

Perry White: Oh my God.

[Perry walks toward Lois.]

Perry White: Lois! Is that you, honey?

Lois Lane: It's me.

Perry White: I don't know how this could be. I don't care. I'm happier than a preacher in a month of Sundays!

[Perry White gives Lois Lane a big bear hug. Then he stands back and looks at her.]

Perry White: Where have you been? Honey, what happened to your hair?

Lois Lane: Oh, well, I--

Jimmy Olsen: Miss Lane. James Olsen. [Holds out his hand.]

Lois Lane: Hi. [shakes Jimmy's hand.]

Perry White: Oh, Mr. Olsen is our new owner.

Lois Lane: [chuckling slightly] Owner? Really?

Perry White: Yes! A whiz kid in the computer world. Decided to roll the dice on our rag.

Jimmy Olsen: White talks about you all the time, Miss Lane. He said you disappeared in the Congo.

Lois Lane: The Congo . . . [remembering] The gun running story. Three years ago. Right, I did, uh, for a while. But--

Perry White: Lois, I must have sent an army of people over there looking for you, Honey. What happened?

Lois Lane: What happened is . . . I'm fine. Heh. Obviously, uh . . . Thanks to my friend, here, Mr. Wells.

H.G. Wells: Hello.

Lois Lane: He . . . runs a mission.

Perry White: You, uh, were in a mission for three years?

Lois Lane: I was sick.

Jimmy Olsen: Too sick to make a phone call?

H.G. Wells: Coma! Absolutely incapacitated. Just came out of it yesterday. First thing she said to me was, "Herbie, get me to the Planet." Naturally I wondered, what planet?

[Lois Lane now sees Clark Kent of this dimension, walking into the room. She calls out to him and then goes to greet him.]

Timecode: 13 minutes, 42 seconds: Lois Lane meets parallel dimension Lana Lang for the first time. Lana Lang saw that Lois tried to kiss Clark. Lois had not realized it before now, but in this dimension, Clark Kent never met Lois Lane. Lana Lang introduces herself as Clark Kent's fiance.

Timecode: 15 minutes, 15 seconds: Lana Lang scolds parallel dimension Clark Kent for using his surreptitiously powers to save some people from a drive-by shooting earlier in the day.

Lana Lang: They would lock you up in some lab and study you. And even if you broke out, you'd never have a life. We'd never have a life. No one will ever love you more than I do.

parallel universe Clark Kent: I know.

Lana Lang: And no one understands you better. So promise this is the last time?

[Clark Kent lets Lana depart on the elevator, but doesn't quite say he promises.]

Timecode: 17 minutes, 50 seconds: After Lois Lane reveals to parallel dimension Clark Kent that she knows about his alien heritage and super powers, she learns that this Clark Kent's parents died in an automobile accident when he was just ten years old. After that, he kind of just bounced around from place to place. Perhaps not having the further parenting from Jonathan and Martha Kent was instrumental in Clark Kent not deciding to take on a secret identity and act as Superman.

Timecode: 19 minutes, 30 seconds: A device that H.G. Wells cobbled together has detected Tempus's time machine. H.G. Wells and Lois Lane leave the Daily Planet building to go find the time machine, only to be stopped by Tempus himself, accompanied by a gun-wielding thug. Tempus himself brandishes a handgun.

H.G. Wells: Do what you will with me, Tempus. But I implore you, spare the girl!

Tempus: God, Herb! Who writes your dialogue? You sound like the Prisoner of Zenda.

Lois Lane: You're not gonna get away with this.

Tempus: Get away with what? You mean becoming mayor of Metropolis by murdering Perry White? Because somebody might stop me? Big, brawny, looks good in blue? Gee. If only I lived in a dimension with no Superman. Oh, wait! Duh! I do.

[Tempus's thug, Major Domo, laughs. Tempus grabs Lois Lane's arm to push her into his vehicle.]

Tempus: And you're going to another dimension yourself, Lois. One slightly more spiritual. Hope you've been good.

[Tempus gets in the car after the captive Lois Lane. End of scene.]

Timecode: 20 minutes, 24 seconds: In his secret hideout, Tempus has H.G. Wells tied to a chair.

Tempus: I've missed you, Herb. Sure, you're a few years older, I'm a few pounds lighter. You're about to be a corpse. I'm about to be a god. But it's the same old us, together again, huh?

[Tempus puts Lois Lane's life in danger by tying her hands, blindfolding her, and standing her on a crumbling ledge on a building five hundred feet in the air. He watches on closed-circuit television as Lois plunges toward certain death, only to be rescued by Clark Kent, who heard her screams.]

Timecode: 23 minutes, 43 seconds: Tempus is pleased after seeing Clark Kent fly onto the scene and rescue Lois.

Tempus: Bravo, Mr. Kent. My plan is working perfectly.

H.G. Wells: You have a plan?!

Tempus: Yes, Herb. I'm the bad guy! We always have a plan.

[Tempus's plan is for Lois Lane and Clark Kent to get together, so that Lois will have a chance to convince Clark to act as a super-hero in the same way he does on her Earth.]

Timecode: 24 minutes, 10 seconds: Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive at Clark's apartment after doing some shopping for things Lois plans to use to make a Superman costume.

parallel universe Clark Kent: Look, I don't wanna be a hero.

Lois Lane: Really? Then why did you go after that gunman this morning? Why did you save me?

parallel universe Clark Kent: I help when I can, but I wanna live my life.

Lois Lane: Well, that's why you need to have a secret identity.

parallel universe Clark Kent: Secret identity? Is that why you bought that ski suit?

Lois Lane: Just go with me on this. It's not a ski suit. I mean, it is, but it's so much more than that. It's a symbol. You're making yourself into a beacon.

parallel universe Clark Kent: Are you always like this?

Lois Lane: [sigh] I'm sorry, I'm a little high-strung.

parallel universe Clark Kent: Lady, you're a Stradivarius.

Lois Lane: Well, maybe this will help.

[Lois shows Clark a photograph of Superman that she has in her handbag.]

Lois Lane: That's what I'm talking about.

parallel universe Clark Kent: [chuckles] That's what I'm afraid of.

[Lois Lane sews a Superman costume for parallel dimension Clark and he tries it on. Tempus has people spying on the scene with video cameras, enabling him to watch these events unfold from afar.]

Tempus: Ah, the heroine creates her hero. A mythically moving moment. [facetiously] Herb, am I still a man in your eyes if I weep?

H.G. Wells: This is what you want. You want her to create Superman!

Tempus: Very good, Herb! Mind like that, you missed a big career in game shows. [laughs]

Timecode: 34 minutes, 57 seconds: Tempus and Perry White, the two leading candidates for mayor of Metropolis, are taking part in a televised debate. Perry White points out that Tempus's entire campaign is built around warning people about "the enemy" who will soon come. Perry challenges Tempus to identify this heretofore unnamed "enemy."

Tempus: The enemy is an invading force of aliens from outer space!

Perry White: Ha ha! You're nuttier than squirrel Heaven.

Tempus: Scoff if you will, Mr. White. But the aliens are here.

[Superman files onto the stage, carrying Lois Lane in his arms. Lois and Superman arrive to protect Superman. Earlier Tempus disguised his voice and called Lois with a fake "anonymous tip" about Perry being in danger at the debates. Superman has never been seen by the general public before. His display of super powers and his strange costume confirms in viewers' minds that aliens really have arrived and are staging an invasion.]

Lois Lane: Perry, are you all right?

Perry White: I'm fine. My Lord! Who is--? [Perry watches as Superman tears down a large campaign posters.] What??

[Superman opens a secret door behind the campaign poster, looking for a bomb Tempus had set to detonate. Tempus makes a big show of using Kryptonite to fell Superman. He tells the viewing public about the great threat that Superman represents.]

Jimmy Olsen: All right, the circus is over. Alien or not, this man has rights. I'm calling the police.

Tempus: That's right. Hide behind the law. But you can't fool the people. They know. They have seen the enemy and they know that one man is ready to protect them. One man is ready to lay down his life to save the world. And that man is me.

[H.G. Wells interupts Tempus's posturing speech-giving and playing to the cameras to inform him that the bomb he had used to lure Superman there had accidentally been triggered. It is ticking and will soon go off. Tempus shows his true colors when he cowardly tries to run away, trying to get past everybody else in the fleeing audience by firing his handgun into the air and threatening to shoot them all if he has to. Lois Lane throws the Kryptonite rock far away, allowing Superman to regain his strength. Although still very weak from the Kryptonite, Superman gallantly the lives of everybody in the studio by putting the bomb into his mouth and letting it explode inside his invulnerable body. Everybody realizes that Superman (who they all know is Clark Kent, because Tempus told them so) is the true hero and that Tempus is a villain. Perry White wins the mayoral election with a 97% margin of victory - a clear landslide if ever there was one!]

Timecode: 39 minutes, 21 seconds: A victory rally for mayor elect Perry White is being held at the entrance to the Daily Planet building.

Jimmy Olsen: I'm proud to announce that the official returns are in, and the winner, by a 97% margin, is Perry White!

[The crowd cheers enthusiastically.]

Perry White: Thank you. Thank you. All right. As a great man once said, "It's not me you elected, but it's what I stand for." Of course, you all know who I'm referring to. My best friend, and our former President, and you all know him as The King!

[Perry White points behind him. Elvis Presley, older than he ever was in our reality, walks to the podium. Yes, in this alternate dimension, Elvis Presley was President of the United States. In this alternate dimension, Elvis did not die an untimely death and Perry White never became a worshipper of Elvis in a religious sense. Rather, Perry became a close friend of the real Elvis Presley.]

Elvis Presley: Uh, hi Perry good to see you. How ya' doin'? [to the crowd] Thank you! Thank you very much! Good to see y'all!

[End of scene.]

Timecode: 40 minutes, 6 seconds: Lois Lane is about to leave this parallel dimension to return to her own. She says her good-byes to this world's Clark Kent, who is still dressed as Superman after attending the victory rally in his new costume.

Lois Lane: Sorry the secret identity thing got blown.

parallel universe Superman: It's all right. Honestly, I don't know how you thought a pair of glasses would keep people from recognizing me. [chuckles] It is kind of ridiculous.

Lois Lane: Heh. Don't get me started.

Lois Lane: Is, uh, Lana okay with this?

parallel universe Superman: Lana said that it was either her or Superman.

Lois Lane: Oh, Clark, I'm sorry.

parallel universe Superman: I wish I felt half as bad losing her . . . as I do about losing you. What if I asked you to stay?

Lois Lane: [sighs] I can't.

parallel universe Superman: But I'm not sure how to be this. You made it happen.

Lois Lane: Well, all I did was help you make the choice. You'll keep doing that. You just have to believe in yourself as much as I do.

parallel universe Superman: Lois, I don't just need your help. I need you.

Lois Lane: So does he. [referring to the Clark Kent of her own world.]

parallel universe Superman: What I'm trying to say is, I know this sounds crazy, but I think I--

Lois Lane: So does he.

[This world's Superman was about to tell Lois Lane that he loves her. Lois Lane feels strongly toward this world's Clark. He looks just like her fiance. He is the same person, in many ways. But she knows she must get back to the man she actually knows for years as Clark Kent.]

[Superman looks disappointed to hear Lois Lane's rejection, but he is probably not surprised. He feels inexplicably drawn toward her. There is a cosmic connection between Superman and Lois Lane in every dimension in which they exist.]

parallel universe Superman: [sighs] Does he know what he has?

Lois Lane: We both do.

parallel universe Superman: We all do.

[H.G. Wells walks up to them, telling them that Tempus is taken care of and it is time for Lois to go. Lois walks away to go to the time machine in the alley across the street. H.G. Wells stays and talks to this new Superman for a few moments.]

H.G. Wells: I must say, my boy, I envy you.

parallel universe Superman: Me? Why?

H.G. Wells: Ah, with every eye upon you, every breath held in anticipation . . . you hold in our hands a world waiting to be shaped.

parallel universe Superman: I'm just not sure that I can--

H.G. Wells: You can take on such great responsibility?

[Superman nods his head in agreement, telling H.G. Wells that, yes, that is exactly what he meant.]

H.G. Wells: What do you think Shakespeare meant when he wrote: "In apprehension, how like a God!" It's not that gods are anxious about their responsibilities. But with such great weight comes great understanding. Trust that, Clark. And trust you found your true destiny. And in you a once hopeless world has found its future. Good luck to you.

[H.G. Wells shapes Superman's hand and they leave the inside of the Daily Planet building, walking a few yards until they are in the middle of the Perry White victory rally.]

Perry White: And so it is with great pleasure that I introduce another close friend: Clark Kent, a.k.a Superman!

[H.G. Wells walks to the waiting Lois Lane.]

H.G. Wells: He's quite a man, the Clark Kent of this world.

Lois Lane: I just wish he didn't have to be alone.

H.G. Wells: The hardest lesson is that love can be so fair to some, and so cruel to others. Even those who would be gods.

[H.G. Wells leave this dimension, leaving behind a Superman who is very sad to see Lois - the only Lois Lane he has every known - leave.]

[As soon as H.G. Wells drops Lois Lane off in her own dimension, he leaves again in his time machine. Superman rushes up to Lois.]

Superman: Lois! Are you all right?

Lois Lane: I'm fine, I'm fine.

Superman: What happened? You were gone for almost ten seconds!

Lois Lane: Ten seconds??

Superman: The weirdest ten seconds of my life. I didn't know where you were or what-- What to do. And then . . .

Lois Lane: What?

Superman: I just-- I got this feeling of what my life would be like if I lost you.

Lois Lane: But I'm back, and I'm not going anywhere ever again...

[Lois kisses Clark. They walk out of the alley after Superman changes back into Clark Kent civilian clothes.]

Lois Lane: Clark, about Lana Lang?

Clark Kent: Yeah?

Lois Lane: Let's go ahead and invite her to the wedding. I-- I think I have a pretty good idea about why it didn't work out between you two, and why it'll always work with us, no matter how crazy the world gets.

[The kiss each other again. From a distance, H.G. Wells looks on, seeing that once again, all is right with the world and the time-space continuum. End of scene. End of episode.]

The process of listing characters who appeared in this source is not yet complete. Webpage for Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season 3, Episode 14 (21 Jan. 1996) created 16 April 2008. Last modified 11 June 2014.

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