Up to this point I have discussed and covered lots of topics related to the Superman film series, including my recent analyses of the Mario Puzo scripts, with a mixture of older material and fresh content for fans to enjoy. But for this particular blog I have to digress, because we have reached another significant milestone in the Superman franchise, and it would be remiss for me to pass this one by.

To borrow from the Beatles, it was 20 years ago today – February 25, 2003 – that the Smallville episode “Rosetta” first aired on the WB Network.

Up until this point the focus of Smallville was on a teenaged Clark Kent, portrayed by Tom Welling, as he grew up on a farm in the title town. Most of the episodes during the first season dealt with the requisite “freak of the week”, people who had been affected by the meteorites that fell to Earth along with Clark’s rocket ship from Krypton. One week it caused the football coach to shoot flames of fire; another week it messed with Lex Luthor’s mind and briefly turned him, and other citizens, into petty criminals; and another week it caused an overweight teenage girl to drink Kryptonite-laced shakes and feast on anything and everything as she lost weight. (That was an early acting role for Amy Adams, who would go on to portray Lois Lane in Man of Steel, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and both versions of Justice League during the 2010s.) And so on. And poor Principal Kwan—did anyone ever like that guy? Eventually the series steered away from the “freak of the week” concept and towards Clark’s exploration of his Kryptonian heritage, as his adopted parents Jonathan and Martha Kent (played by John Schneider and Superman III co-star Annette O’Toole) fought at every turn to keep Clark’s origins a secret from people, especially Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) and his equally duplicitous father Lionel Luthor (John Glover). And like many teenagers, Clark spent way too much time pining for his dream girl Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) much to the dismay of his friend Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), who was clearly a much better fit for Clark. I always wanted to see Clark get together with Chloe as a couple for the long haul, but after that first season finale it never happened.

My memories of Smallville began in 2001 in a hospital room at the old Hinds General Hospital, renamed Central Mississippi Medical Center, in my hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, where my aging dad had been admitted for dehydration. By that time hospital visits became the norm for him, as he was in the final months of his struggle with strokes and Parkinson’s disease, and we watched the pilot episode on a small TV screen in his hospital room, with the sound barely coming through the speaker attached to his bed. I didn’t follow the series much during that first season, preferring the Star Trek prequel Enterprise instead, and my work schedule at the time didn’t allow it, but once it went into reruns in the summer of 2002, I was hooked.

But in the middle of February 2003, this trailer aired on the WB. From the first moment I had seen the trailer, I knew that this was going to be a very special episode. And for one important reason…

It had been sixteen years since we had last seen Christopher Reeve on screen as the Man of Steel in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. From that moment on, the four films he had made over a ten-year period from 1977 to 1987 had gone on to become fan favorites from the theater screens to VHS, laserdisc, and DVD.

And he had endured much in his life in those years. Getting married, becoming a dad again, seeing his career evolve from leading actor to featured player in films such as The Remains of the Day, and preparing to direct his first feature film, a romantic comedy called Tell Me True. (Whatever happened to that script?)

And then everything changed on May 27, 1995.

From that point on Reeve fought to live and regain his mobility from spinal cord paralysis. He appeared at the 1996 Academy Awards and the Democratic National Convention. He directed his first film, the acclaimed HBO drama In the Gloaming. He wrote his incredible autobiography Still Me (of which I have three copies in my collection). He lobbied Congress for funding for spinal cord research and founded the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. When he appeared in interviews on television—Larry King, 20/20 with Barbara Walters, and David Letterman, among others—everyone gave him the sensitivity and respect to allow patience in his speaking because of the breathing tube attached to his throat and the oxygen tank on his automated wheelchair. Letterman was at his most respectful, holding back his usual barbs, directing the cameraman with his eyes to focus on Reeve, and allowing Reeve to laugh at himself and speak from the heart about everything, one of Letterman’s best moments on television.

Reeve also starred in an acclaimed TV remake of the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window. He would write a second book, Nothing is Impossible. And he was interviewed for the documentaries on the Superman DVD in 2001. Granted, I’m breezing by other things, but you get the point.

And then Smallville came along.

The moment when Reeve, as the mysterious research scientist Dr. Virgil Swann, reaches out to Clark, he sends a message asking to meet with him. Clark takes a chance and travels to New York City to meet with Dr. Swann (who was named in honor of longtime Superman artist Curt Swan), and the moment they lock eyes on each other and Swann silently nods at him, it becomes a symbolic passing of the torch from one generation to another. Even the musical adaptation is fittingly appropriate, using John Williams’ classic score from “The Fortress of Solitude”, the “Main Title March”, and “The Planet Krypton” from Superman: The Movie, along with sad but beautiful original bridging music, to underscore the entire sequence and the final moments of the episode.

And then Swann reveals the reason why he wanted to meet with Clark: he has a message for him.

Tom Welling, director Greg Beeman, and the series’ production crew travelled from Vancouver to New York City to work with Reeve, who put in a full day of filming, even with his medical team standing by. An accomplished director and student of directing in his own right, Reeve got the directing bug while working on the first two Superman films, studying camera operations, actor placement, and directorial positioning, eventually leading him to direct the lunar fight in Superman IV, and he would suggest camera placement with Beeman to avoid his wheelchair as much as possible. They worked with Welling to move naturally along the set while Reeve would use his eyes and his voice to deliver a compelling performance. And what was set up as one scene became two in the final cut of the episode.

That final moment between Clark and his adopted father Jonathan Kent is a special moment between father and son, as he tells Clark that he is his son, no matter what Clark’s biological father Jor-El says, and that he will stand with him no matter what. As Jonathan embraces Clark, and we hear John Williams’ classic Superman score end the episode, we see in Clark’s eyes the uncertainty of what the future will bring him, while Jonathan realizes that one day Clark will have to take that journey into adulthood without him there. One of the best endings of an episode of the series, period.

But that’s not all. When the second season arrived later that year on DVD, one of the special features on the set was a short behind the scenes look at the making of “Rosetta”, fittingly titled Christopher Reeve: The Man of Steel, which included press interview footage with Reeve and interviews with the cast and crew about working alongside Reeve in bringing the episode to life.

And the cherry on top was a special on-air announcement at the end of the episode with Reeve and Welling to promote the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. Both actors would thank each other, and Reeve’s lighthearted request, “Please call,” brought joy and laughter from Welling and the entire crew off camera, allowing again for that classic Reeve smile on his face and twinkle in his eyes that helped make his portrayal of Superman one for the generations.

Reeve’s appearance would open the door for other Superman cast members to appear on Smallville, including Margot Kidder, Terence Stamp, Marc McClure, and Supergirl star Helen Slater, further cementing the series in its place in the entire Superman franchise. Reeve would again return to Smallville in 2004 for the episode “Legacy”, and we would get to see some darker shades of Dr. Swann in his interactions with both Clark and Lionel Luthor, and we are left to further wonder what Swann’s motives are.

There were talks for Reeve to make a third appearance in the series, but everything changed again on October 10, 2004, with his untimely passing at the age of 52. His death was acknowledged with a heartbreaking and bittersweet acknowledgment at the start and end of the fourth season episode “Devoted”, and his passing would be written into the series in the episode “Sacred” (which, oddly, used a closeup of Reeve from the above publicity photo from “Legacy” in the onscreen news story about Swann’s passing).

Those final words Christopher Reeve spoke in “Rosetta” are so true, they can apply to any of us, even twenty years later. “You won’t find the answers by looking to the stars. It’s a journey you’ll have to take by looking inside yourself. You must write your own destiny.” Words to live by.