Smallville season 7

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Smallville (season 7)
Season 7
DVD cover
No. of episodes20
Release
Original networkThe CW
Original releaseSeptember 27, 2007 (2007-09-27) –
May 15, 2008 (2008-05-15)
Season chronology
← Previous
Season 6
Next →
Season 8
List of episodes

Season seven of Smallville, an American television series, began airing on September 27, 2007. The series recounts the early adventures of Kryptonian Clark Kent as he adjusts to life in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, during the years before he becomes Superman. The seventh season comprises 20 episodes and concluded its initial airing on May 15, 2008,[1] marking the second season to air on The CW television network. Regular cast members during season seven include Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, John Glover, Erica Durance, Aaron Ashmore, and Laura Vandervoort. In addition to bringing in new regular cast members this season, the Smallville team brought in familiar faces from the Superman media history, old villains from the show's past, as well as new DC Comics characters.

This season focuses on Clark Kent meeting his biological cousin Kara (Vandervoort), and teaching her how to control her abilities in public; Lana Lang's behavior toward her friends, Lex Luthor, and after it is discovered that she faked her own death; Chloe coming to terms with her newly discovered kryptonite-induced ability; and the secret of the Daily Planet's new editor Grant Gabriel. Towards the end of the season, Clark faces the dual threat from returning villain Brainiac (James Marsters), and Lex's discovery of his father's secret society who possess the means to control Clark. The season culminates with a showdown between Lex and Clark at the Fortress of Solitude, wherein the fortress is brought down, setting the series up for the following season.

Smallville's season seven, along with many other American television shows, was caught in the middle of a contract dispute between the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The dispute led to a strike by the writers, which has caused this season to end prematurely with only twenty episodes being produced, instead of the standard twenty-two episodes. The strike also forced The CW to push back airdates on several episodes, and cost Allison Mack her directorial debut.[2] Smallville's Season seven slipped in the ratings, averaging 3.7 million viewers weekly, and the series ranked as the 175th most-watched television series, out of 220, for the 2007–08 television year.

Episodes

See also: List of Smallville episodes
  • In Canada, all season seven episodes originally aired one day earlier than their normal United States airings.[3]
No. in
series 		No. in
season 		Title Directed by Written by Original air date Prod.
code 		U.S. viewers
(million)
1331"Bizarro"Michael RohlBrian Peterson & Kelly SoudersSeptember 27, 2007 (2007-09-27)3T63015.18[4]
1342"Kara"James ConwayTodd Slavkin & Darren SwimmerOctober 4, 2007 (2007-10-04)3T63024.59[5]
1353"Fierce"Whitney RansickHolly HaroldOctober 11, 2007 (2007-10-11)3T63034.82[6]
1364"Cure"Rick RosenthalAl Septien & Turi MeyerOctober 18, 2007 (2007-10-18)3T63045.18[7]
1375"Action"Mairzee AlmasCaroline DriesOctober 25, 2007 (2007-10-25)3T63064.65[8]
1386"Lara"James ConwayDon Whitehead & Holly HendersonNovember 1, 2007 (2007-11-01)3T63054.31[9]
1397"Wrath"Charles BeesonKelly Souders & Brian PetersonNovember 8, 2007 (2007-11-08)3T63074.64[10]
1408"Blue"Glen WinterTodd Slavkin & Darren SwimmerNovember 15, 2007 (2007-11-15)3T63084.51[11]
1419"Gemini"Whitney RansickCaroline DriesDecember 13, 2007 (2007-12-13)3T63093.71[12]
14210"Persona"Todd SlavkinDon Whitehead & Holly HendersonJanuary 31, 2008 (2008-01-31)3T63103.81[13]
14311"Siren"Kevin G. FairKelly Souders & Brian PetersonFebruary 7, 2008 (2008-02-07)3T63114.01[14]
14412"Fracture"James MarshallTeleplay by: Caroline Dries
Story by: Al Septien & Turi Meyer		February 14, 2008 (2008-02-14)3T63123.67[15]
14513"Hero"Michael RohlAaron & Todd HelbingMarch 13, 2008 (2008-03-13)3T63133.80[16]
14614"Traveler"Glen WinterTeleplay by: Don Whitehead & Holly Henderson
Story by: Al Septien & Turi Meyer		March 20, 2008 (2008-03-20)3T63143.44[17]
14715"Veritas"James MarshallKelly Souders & Brian PetersonMarch 27, 2008 (2008-03-27)3T63153.86[18]
14816"Descent"Ken HortonDon Whitehead & Holly HendersonApril 17, 2008 (2008-04-17)3T63163.61[19]
14917"Sleeper"Whitney RansickCaroline DriesApril 24, 2008 (2008-04-24)3T63173.62[20]
15018"Apocalypse"Tom WellingAl Septien & Turi MeyerMay 1, 2008 (2008-05-01)3T63183.81[21]
15119"Quest"Kenneth BillerHolly HaroldMay 8, 2008 (2008-05-08)3T63193.99[22]
15220"Arctic"Todd SlavkinDon Whitehead & Holly HendersonMay 15, 2008 (2008-05-15)3T63203.85[23]

Production

Writer's strike

The Writers Guild form picket lines as the protest their contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

On November 5, 2007, a strike began between the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). A prolonged strike would have forced television shows to end their seasons early, because no scripts could be written until a settlement had been reached.[24] The strike pushed back Smallville's scheduling, as the episode "Siren", which was originally intended to be aired on January 10, 2008,[25] was moved to a February 7 airdate.[26] According to Gough and Millar, "We were able to complete scripts for 15 episodes [...] To the best of [our] knowledge, the studio plans to produce all of them." They also explained that the fifteenth episode would have had a cliffhanger ending.[27] The shortened schedule also meant Allison Mack would not see her directorial debut for the season's 20th episode as was originally planned.[2] On February 12, 2008, after a 48-hour vote by the guild members, the strike came to an end.[28] This allowed the shooting of five new episodes that began airing on April 17, 2008. This was in addition to the episodes that had already been filmed, leaving the season total at twenty episodes.[29][30]

Characters

For season seven, the Smallville team would bring in two new regular cast members, Jimmy Olsen, who first appeared as a recurring guest in season six, and Kara Zor-El, Clark's biological cousin.[31] On July 11, 2007, Canadian actress Laura Vandervoort was officially announced to be portraying Kara.[32] According to Gough and Millar, her backstory is that she was sent to look after Kal-El (Clark), but was stuck in suspended animation for eighteen years. When the dam broke in the season six finale "Phantom" she was set free. She will have all of Clark's abilities, as well as the ability to fly.[31] Gough iterated that Kara will not wear any version of the Supergirl costume.[33] On July 6, 2007, it was announced that Michael Cassidy was cast as the new editor of the Daily Planet, Grant Gabriel. Cassidy's Grant Gabriel is designed to be Lois' new love interest; he appeared in seven episodes this season.[34]

Smallville also brought in more actors with previous connections to the Superman lore this season. Helen Slater, who portrayed Supergirl in the 1984 film of the same name, was cast as Lara, Clark's biological mother.[35] She made appearances in episodes six and eight, titled "Lara" and "Blue" respectively. During the 2007 Comic Con, it was revealed that Dean Cain, who played Clark Kent/Superman in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, would have a guest role as a "the evil Dr. Curtis Knox" in the fourth episode "Cure".[36] Marc McClure, who portrayed Jimmy Olsen in all of the Superman films as well as in Supergirl, was brought in to play a Kryptonian scientist named Dax-Ur for the episode "Persona".[37][38] James Marsters was brought back to reprise his role as Milton Fine/Brainiac in a four-episode arc slated for January 2008;[39] Marsters had not appeared on the show since the season five finale "Vessel". Another character from the DC Comics universe arriving on Smallville is the Black Canary. The character was intended to be featured in the January 10, 2008 episode "Siren", but the Writers' Strike pushed scheduling back to February 7. Black Canary was portrayed by Canadian actress Alaina Huffman, and the episode featured the return of Justin Hartley as the Green Arrow.[25] This season also saw the return of Sam Jones III as Pete Ross, after a four-year absence from the show.[40]

Tie-ins

In 2008 The CW entered into a partnership with the makers of Stride brand chewing-gum to give viewers the opportunity to create their own Smallville digital comic, titled Smallville: Visions. The writers and producers developed the comic's beginning and end, but allowed viewers to provide the middle. The CW began this tie-in campaign with the March 13, 2008 episode "Hero", where Pete develops superhuman elasticity after chewing some kryptonite-infused Stride gum. Going to The CW's website, viewers vote on one of two options—each adding four pages to the comic—every Tuesday and Thursday until the campaign ended on April 7, 2008.[41] For season seven, Smallville again worked with Sprint, bringing its customers "mobisodes" featuring Clark's cousin Kara, titled Smallville Legends: Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton.[42]

Reception

The season premiere, "Bizarro", was watched by 5.18 million viewers, marking an increase from the previous season finale, "Phantom", which was viewed by 4.14 million.[4][43] "Bizarro" and "Cure" were also the highest-rated episodes of the season, both being seen by 5.18 million viewers and scoring a 1.8 in the Nielsen rating in the 2 year old and up demographic.[4][7] Nielsen ratings are audience measurement systems that determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States. This means that the episodes were seen by 1.8 percent of all viewers in the United States watching television at the time of the episode's airing that were older than 2 years old. The season hit a low with the fourteenth episode, "Traveler", which was watched by only 3.44 million viewers.[17] The season finale, "Arctic", was viewed by 3.85, marking a decrease from both the season premiere, and the sixth season finale.[4][23][43] Smallville's season seven slipped in the ratings, averaging 3.7 million viewers weekly.[44][45] Smallville ranked as the 175th most-watched television series, out of 220, for the 2007–08 television year.[46]

Awards

"Bizarro" was nominated for a VES award in Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program or Commercial, specifically for the flood scene;[47] it was also nominated for, and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series.[48] In 2009, the season received five Teen Choice Awards nominations. The nominations include Choice TV Show: Action Adventure, Choice TV Actor: Action Adventure for Tom Welling, Choice TV Actress: Action Adventure for Kristen Kreuk, Choice TV: Villain for Michael Rosenbaum, and Choice TV: Sidekick for Allison Mack.[49]

Home media release

The complete seventh season of Smallville was released on September 9, 2008 in North America in both DVD and Blu-ray format.[50][51] The DVD and Blu-ray box set were also released in region 2 and region 4 on October 13, 2008 and March 3, 2009, respectively.[52][53][54][55] The box set included various special features, including episode commentary, a documentary on the Supergirl character, a featurette on the different actors to portray Jimmy Olsen, as well as mobisodes for Smallville Legends.[56]

References

  1. ^ "Smallville Episodes". TV Guide. Retrieved July 9, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Allison Mack (July 23, 2007). "Branching Out". AllisonMack.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2007. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
  3. ^ Bill Harris. "Vandervoort takes off on 'Smallville'". Sun Media. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. October 2, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  5. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. October 9, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  6. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. October 16, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  7. ^ a b "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. October 23, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  8. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. October 30, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  9. ^ Calabria, Rosario T. (November 2, 2007). "Broadcast TV Ratings for November 1, 2007". Entertainment Now. Retrieved April 19, 2008.
  10. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. November 13, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  11. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. November 20, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  12. ^ Gorman, Bill (December 19, 2007). "Top CW Primetime Shows, December 10–16". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  13. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. February 5, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  14. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. February 12, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  15. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. February 20, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  16. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. March 18, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  17. ^ a b "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. March 25, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  18. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. April 1, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  19. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. April 22, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  20. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. April 29, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  21. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. May 1, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  22. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. May 13, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  23. ^ a b "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. May 20, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  24. ^ Michael Cieply; Brooks Barnes (November 2, 2007). "Writers Say Strike to Start Monday". New York Times. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
  25. ^ a b "Exclusive: Black Canary Swoops into Smallville". TV Guide. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
  26. ^ "Siren episode info". MSN. Retrieved January 19, 2007.
  27. ^ "Smallville Ready to Fly with 15 Episodes". TV Guide. Retrieved November 6, 2007.
  28. ^ Lynn Elber (February 12, 2008). "Writers Vote to End 3-Month Strike". The Associated Press. Archived from the original on February 18, 2008. Retrieved February 12, 2008. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ Brian Stelter (February 15, 2008). "As Hollywood writers strike end nears, a status report on TV shows". The New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
  30. ^ Michael Ausiello. "After the WGA Strike: When Will Your Favorite TV Shows Return?". TV Guide. Retrieved March 17, 2008.
  31. ^ a b Rich Sands (June 11, 2007). "Exclusive: Supergirl Soars Into Smallville". TV Guide. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
  32. ^ Cynthia Wang (July 11, 2007). "Supergirl lands in Smallville". People. Retrieved July 11, 2007.
  33. ^ Anthony C. Ferrante (June 12, 2007). "Alfred Gough Speaks About Supergirl on Smallville". iF Magazine. Archived from the original on June 16, 2007. Retrieved June 13, 2007.
  34. ^ Michael Ausiello (July 6, 2007). "Smallville Snags Hidden Hunk". TV Guide. Retrieved July 7, 2007.
  35. ^ Matt Webb Mitovich (August 6, 2007). "On Smallville, Supergirl Is Superman's Mom. Got it?". TV Guide. Retrieved September 11, 2007.
  36. ^ Gary Strauss (September 4, 2007). "It's trouble for Smallville when Supergirl flies in". USA Today. Retrieved September 12, 2007.
  37. ^ Don Whitehead, Holly Henderson (writers) & Todd Slavkin (director) (January 31, 2008). "Persona". Smallville. Season 7. Episode 10. The CW.
  38. ^ "James Marsters Is a Bad Man in Dragon Ball and Smallville". SuperHeroFlix.com. February 2, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  39. ^ "Exclusive! James Marsters Returning to Smallville". E! Online. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
  40. ^ Rob Salem (March 12, 2008). "Hot Box: Television to talk about". Toronto: The Star. Retrieved May 12, 2008.
  41. ^ "The CW, Warner Bros. Television Group, and Stride Gum offer fans the opportunity to create their own Smallville digital comic book". The Futon Critic. March 14, 2008. Retrieved March 23, 2008.
  42. ^ T.L. Stanley (April 7, 2008). "Sprint, CW Mobilize Supergirl for Mobisodes". Media Week. Archived from the original on April 17, 2008. Retrieved April 19, 2008.
  43. ^ a b "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. May 22, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  44. ^ Geoff Boucher (October 29, 2008). "'Twilight,' Robert Pattinson, 'Smallville' and Christian Bale in Everyday Hero headlines". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 27, 2009.
  45. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. May 28, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  46. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. May 20, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  47. ^ "VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY (VES) ANNOUNCES NOMINEES FOR 6TH ANNUAL VES AWARDS" (PDF). VES.com. January 7, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 7, 2009. Retrieved January 7, 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  48. ^ "2008 Emmy Winners" (PDF). Emmys.tv. September 13, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2008. Retrieved September 24, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  49. ^ Kelly West (June 15, 2009). "Nominations Posted For 2009 Teen Choice Awards". CinemaBlend. Retrieved June 16, 2009.
  50. ^ David Lambert (May 21, 2008). "Smallville ;— Release Date, Package Art & Extras for 7th Season DVDs and Blu-ray Discs!". TVShowsOnDVD. Retrieved May 21, 2008.
  51. ^ "Smallville — The Complete Seventh Season — Blu-ray". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
  52. ^ "Season 7 (Region 2)". Amazon. Retrieved September 9, 2008.
  53. ^ "Season 7 (Region 4)". Ezydvd. Retrieved December 30, 2008.
  54. ^ "Smallville — The Complete Seventh Season (Blu-ray)". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
  55. ^ "Smallville — The Complete 7th Season (3 Disc Set) (Blu-ray)". ezydvd. Retrieved November 11, 2009.
  56. ^ Details from the back of the DVD box set.

External links

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