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"Smallville is Norman Rockwell on the surface but Twin Peaks underneath," says Gough. "We're probably more influenced by Blue Velvet than The X-Files." That jibes with the series' darker view of Clark's do-gooder impulses. As in the comics, Clark fell from the heavens in a spacecraft (which was subsequently buried on the Kents' farm), but Smallville's stroke of genius was having the ship descend in a shower of radioactive Kryptonian debris (which has made Smallville a very strange place, populated by very strange teenagers). Consequently, Clark is guilt-racked over the damage his exploded planet has wrought--especially to Lana, whose parents were squashed by one of those falling rocks. "This is a guy who's a very reluctant hero, but he feels responsible for everything evil in Smallville," says Robbins. "He has no choice but to play that role of hero."

Similarly, Smallville paints a more tortured portrait of Lex Luthor's evil evolution; played by Michael Rosenbaum, he's an angry, bald bundle of father issues who's genuinely friendly toward Clark but determined to learn his secrets. And as far as Clark and Lana go--don't expect everlasting love to blossom. "In the mythology of Superman, he never does get together with Lana; he ultimately goes off to Metropolis and ends up with Lois Lane. We're remaining true to that," says Gough.

"Heart. Hero. Mystery. Family. And really in that order" is how Gough distills the essence of Smallville. "It's a delicate chemistry experiment." The producers admit their first six episodes struggled to find the proper balance. Episode 2 (in which a web-hurling bug boy is hell-bent on mating with Lana) got the formula right, but episode 3, featuring a fire-starting football coach, got it wrong. "It's all about the reality of the villain; they can't be over-the-top," says Millar. "Where Buffy the Vampire Slayer embraces camp, we can't and won't do that." Upcoming plots will include earthly threats like natural disasters and corrupt cops. Though the producers have no plans for serialized story lines (a la Buffy's season-long villains), master plans have been charted for Clark, Lana, and Lex, as well as big-bang season finales for the first three years. "By the end of this season," reveals Millar, "you're going to see Clark become very interested in that spaceship buried in his backyard."

Smallville's architects also have other surprises: A dream sequence in the Nov. 20 episode will offer peeks at Clark's and Lex's futures (hint: Rosenbaum was recently spotted filming on the West Wing set); later on, Lex gets a girlfriend and develops a kryptonite-centric business; plus, a certain future Dark Knight may pay a visit. One thing's for sure, though: There will be no Krypto. "Nor Beppo the Super-Monkey, or Streaky the Super-Cat!" laughs Gough. "Man, there must have been a lot of three-martini lunches at DC Comics back in the day."