Adam Knight - Main Characters - Martha Kent

Martha Kent

Martha Kent, Clark's adopted mother, is portrayed by Annette O'Toole. Martha, along with her husband Jonathan, gives Clark sage advice about how to cope with his growing abilities. In season two, Martha becomes pregnant with her first child—in the season two episode "Fever", Clark's spaceship heals her body and allows her to have children, something she physically could not do when she adopted Clark—but in season two's finale she suffers a miscarriage after an automobile accident. In order to help the family financially, Martha takes a job as Lionel Luthor's assistant in season two, but quits her job the same season in the episode "Suspect" for undisclosed reasons. She eventually takes over management duties at the local coffee shop, the Talon, in season four. She continues to manage the Talon into season five until Jonathan dies from a heart attack, which ultimately leads to her taking his state senate seat at the request of the Kansas Governor in season five's "Tomb". This eventually paves the way to a job in Washington, D.C. in season six's "Prototype", and the character's exit from the show. Martha would return in the season nine episode "Hostage", where it is revealed that she has been going under the code name "Red Queen" while she attempts to keep Clark off of the government agency Checkmate's radar. She ultimately leaves Clark with a means to send the season's threat, cloned Kryptonians, to another plane of existence. In the season nine finale, it is revealed that before Martha travelled back to Washington, D.C. that she left Clark a new costume to wear while he defends Earth.

The role of Martha Kent was originally given to Cynthia Ettinger, but during filming everyone, including Ettinger, realized that she was not right for the role. O'Toole was committed to the television series The Huntress when Ettinger was filming her scenes for the pilot. Around the time the creators were looking to recast the role of Martha Kent The Huntress was canceled, which allowed O'Toole the chance to join the cast of Smallville. Coincidentally, the actress had previously portrayed Lana Lang in Superman III. O'Toole thinks that the producers wanted someone older for the role of Martha, and when she came in to talk to the producers everyone appeared to be on the same page with what the character and the show should be about. O'Toole characterizes Martha as really intelligent, but believes the character has to hide her intelligence at times "to keep the peace".

Feeling like her character was wasting her college degree O'Toole suggested to the producers that Martha go to work for Lex during the second season. The producers agreed, but altered the concept so that Martha went to work for Lionel, and that she would use this new position to spy on Lionel and find out what he knows about Clark. Disappointed when the storyline ended quickly into the second season, O'Toole hoped that the secret her character was holding in "Ryan" was that Martha was going to run for Mayor. In O'Toole's opinion, Martha needs some form of outlet for intelligence. To the chagrin of O'Toole, Martha's next storyline—the expectation of a new child—tied the character to the farm in a way the actress did not agree with. O'Toole wanted to perform as if the pregnancy was fake—something mentally created by Clark's ship—but the producers insisted that she wear the pregnancy pads to indicate that she was indeed pregnant. Ultimately, that storyline ended with Martha losing the baby to a miscarriage. Before season four began, O'Toole suggested again to the producers that Martha go to work for Lex. O'Toole had enjoyed the moments in the show when she was working for Lionel, because it gave her character something more to do, and she wanted to do that again for season four. The producers took her suggestion and had Martha take a job at the Talon, which was owned by Lex, and which O'Toole felt allowed Martha to interact more with the other characters in Clark's life.

O'Toole relished the opportunity that came with Jonathan's passing, even though she was saddened to see a friend leave the show. Martha taking the senate seat was a chance to explore more adult stories with her character beginning midway through season five, which was important for the actress since Clark was becoming an adult on the show. It also allowed for O'Toole the chance to depict "strong emotions" over Jonathan's death. Al Gough feels that Jonathan's passing allowed for them to explore more of Martha's smart and strong side, as well as her relationship with Lionel. The idea was to show that there was some form of attraction between Martha and Lionel, but that Martha would never have any romantic relationship with the billionaire, especially after all that he had done to her family. O'Toole likens Martha's interest in Lionel with that of watching a dangerous animal: "It's that attraction you have for a very beautiful, dangerous animal. You know you can't stop watching it, but at the same time you feel, 'Oh my God, he's going to kill me.'" The actress believes that Martha's ultimate motivation was to get close enough to Lionel to know what he is planning to do to Clark. When it came time for Martha to leave the show, writer Todd Slavkin contends that they wanted to give the character "more of a send-off" than they achieved on film. Slavkin explains that they could not do anything equivalent to what they gave John Schneider, as there were already so many storylines going on by the season six finale that they could not fit anything else in. The writers also realized that they could not kill off the character, and so chose to send her to the US Senate, creating a parallel to Clark where Martha fights injustice on the political stage.