I Watch TV: Krypton

 

Krypton

Adam Strange, D-tier DC comics superhero, uses his Zeta-beam device to travel back in time 200 years to the planet Krypton. Superman is being erased from the timeline by another time traveller, before he was even born. Strange is going to try and stop it, he brings a sunstone with the symbol of the House Of El (the Superman S) and gives it to Seg.

Kandor City is ruled by the Voice Of Rao, the chief priest of the Kryptonian sun god. Fourteen years ago Val-El (Ian McElhinney) was executed by being thrown out of the city into the wasteland (there was a Cataclysm) for claiming there was life beyond Krypton. The house of El was thrown out of the Guilds and down into the depths of the city amongst the Rankless. Seg (not-El), destined to be Superman’s grandfather, grew up down there, running scams with his friends.

He's also in love with Lyta-Zod, a Sagitari* and daughter of the Primus of the Sagitari Jayna-Zod. Their romance, already complex, is made more so when the chief magistrate Daron-Vex offers to raise Seg from the Rankless by marrying his daughter Nyssa-Vex. (They go to the Genesis Chamber and initiate a child, whose future is shown to them by the machine there). Nyssa is revealed to be both more principled and more cunning than her father, betraying left, right and centre to protect those she chooses.

Anyway, there’s a terrorist group called Black Zero, who initially fail to appear, for a moment I thought they might be entirely made up as an excuse for the Sagitari to keep down the Rankless, and the Voice Of Rao to appear magnanimous. Not quite so interesting. Using the sunstone and Seg’s blood Adam and Seg find their way to Val-El’s fortress of solitude where he kept his research. There a hologram Val-El scans space and discovers that an all-consuming alien threat is coming; Brainiac**.

So much for the set up. The big twist in the first season is that the time traveller isn’t Brainiac coming back to defeat Superman before he ever gets started; this is on schedule to bottle Kandor City and begin the process of destabilising Krypton that will lead to it’s destruction and Superman being sent to Earth (SPOILERS for every Superman story). The Time Traveller is Dru-Zod (Colin Salmon), aka General Zod, born to a refugee Lyta-Zod after Brainiac takes Kandor City. He's here to prevent Brainiac, save Krypton!

At the climax of the first season he succeeds, thanks to Seg-El sacrificing himself to send Brainiac and himself into the Phantom Zone. Zod seizes control, first of the Kandor City, then all of Krypton. He plans to build starships to go out and conquer the galaxy, so that Kryptonians will not be vulnerable, and destroying potential threats before they emerge historically. The second season is about sorting out the consequences of the first!

There’s not exactly a light touch with elements from DC comics – General Zod is here and an ongoing element is his efforts to weaponise Doomsday***, Brainiac, and Adam Strange plus an appearance of Lobo and the Black Mercy. Still, the show is mostly interested in it’s own, slightly idiosyncratic version of Krypton and it’s science fiction politics and struggles. The mostly British cast all speak with British accents (Adam Strange of course American, and there’s a mildly entertaining bit where they think he’s from planet Detroit – harking back to Superman II perhaps?) which is an interesting mix with the dark, shadowy grim depths, or dark, shadowy clean-lined heights of Kandor City.

I remember this being announced but don’t think it came to the UK, so was mildly curious, especially when I saw there were two seasons. In fact it went from free on streaming service to paid about when I reached episode 16 of 20; I waited that out until it came free again. It’s fine as a science fiction thriller, a curious spin-off of DC comics, yet there’s nothing especially interesting to lift it above other such shows. I regret to note that there is, not quite a cliffhanger, but a character who has been kidnapped at the end when it was cancelled. No doubt what one plot line of a potential third season would have been.

Watch This: Solid comics-aspected science fiction thriller
Don’t Watch This: Quite grim, lots of silly reveals, when it manages to lift itself from navel-gazing over comics minutiae it gets too involved with it’s own setting

* The combined armed forces and police, always a good sign that. Apparently they should never ask for mercy, and later it’s revealed they have a challenge to the death promotion option. I’m no expert on these things but this seems likely to create a dysfunctional fighting force! In fact it has, though the major weakness is that they’ll follow anyone who offers a little bit of leadership, perhaps by being a named character/featured actor.

** A name for a 1950s comic aimed at kids, a combination of “Brain” and “Maniac”. They do their best, especially when Brainiac is gigantic skull-faced spaceship that steals cities, or when he takes people over. Still, it’s a silly name and when revealed the green cyborg-alien isn’t especially compelling.

*** A disappointing adversary who kills Superman in The Death Of Superman mini-series. Perhaps best known now from Superman Vs Batman:Dawn Of Justice.