"Abandon Earth"/"Escape To Earth"
This two-part episode "Abandon Earth"/"Escape to Earth" has been criticized as being the best to the worst of the Superboy series. The fans appear to be divided on them; they either love it, or they hate it. I, on the other hand, loved it! Indeed, this tale had many strong points. For one, we get to see Jor-El and Lara. For two, we get to see Superboy's hideway underneath the Kent farm. He had molded a secret cavern to store memorable artifacts attained through previous episodes, like the large crucifix used to defeat Byron in "Run Dracula Run". In the pre-crisis Superboy comic books, Superboy had such a hideaway underneath the farm house. It was the perfect situation to utilize the historical setting of the pre-crisis Superboy history. For three, the story was very original and had an unexpected out-come. And last but not least, the fourth strong point is an obvious one-- Lana Lang and Superboy embrace in a passionate kiss before they fade away from time. This was undeniably one of the most poignant and heart-felt moments of the series.

The weak points are George Lazenby (who played Jor-El, and was the one-time James Bond in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service') and Britt Ekland (who played Lara and coincidently was a former Bond Girl, Mary Goodnight). Their performances were sterile and cold, not to mention over-the-top. But they do have a good excuse; they weren't exactly the real Jor-El and Lara. They were imposters posing as Superboy's parents. They ran a space zoo, and they wanted to collect Superboy as their specimen. Their real names were Vorok and Mir. They had taken the identities of Jor-El and Lara from Superboy's infant memories. Lana explained it in a nut-shell, "You two are really sick!" Jor-El and Lara arrived on Earth in a Doctor-Who-ish vehicle then began to destory landmarks and property to get Superboy's attention. Once they got his undivided attention, they told Superboy that he is from a planet called Krypton, the planet of his birth. They wanted Superboy to go back home with them, where he truely belonged.

Later of course, Superboy learns about Vorok and Mir's lie ...and that his real parents were really dead. Krypton had been destroyed, along with his parents. Earlier on in "Abandon Earth", Vorok had killed Andy McAllister (Clark's roomate) and Lana found out Clark's true identity. The plot had thickened, but Superboy made the choice to turn back time and erase all the damage Vorok and Mir had done. Sadly, this meant that he couldn't keep the new knowledge he had acquired about Krypton (nor could Lana keep her revelation about Clark being Superboy). But in the long run, it was the right thing to do. Time was changed--Andy never died and Vorok and Mir never started their space zoo. Lana and Superboy declared a deep love for one another just before they disappeared in time.

"Abandon Earth"/"Escape to Earth" are one of the best episodes of the series, and clearly demonstrates how having a lack of heritage brought sympathy to the Superboy character.

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