Plot
An asteroid 5 miles wide is headed toward Earth, and humanity is powerless to stop it. At an observatory near Metropolis, Professor Roberts explains the situation to Superman, but warns him the asteroid may contain Kryptonite or some unknown element which could harm him. Grimly saying goodbye to the Professor, Superman flies into space and collides with the big rock, deflecting it into an orbit around the Earth. While the relieved world celebrates, Superman manages to fly back to Earth and instinctively change into his Clark Kent business suit. The collision has given him a severe concussion and amnesia. To make matters worse, the now-orbiting asteroid has upset Earth's climate and gravitational balance, wreaking worldwide havoc. It must be completely destroyed somehow but Superman is nowhere to be found.
The rest of the episode has Clark/Superman trying to figure out who he is, several times coming perilously close to inadvertently revealing his secret identity to his friends and colleagues (who are baffled by Clark's strange memory loss). At a critical point in the show, and for the only time in the series, the superhero is seen wearing his Superman costume as well as Clark's horn-rimmed glasses, appearing very vulnerable. In a moment of frustration, he bangs his fist on an end table and shatters it. As he removes his glasses, he realizes that he must, in fact, be this "Superman" everyone has been talking about. "Professor Roberts!" he exclaims. "The observatory!" Again acting on instinct, he leaps out of the window and flies to the observatory. The Professor has a small but powerful atomic bomb which might utterly destroy the asteroid, but no guided missile can reach that far into space. Knowing the risks, Superman flies to the asteroid again and sets the device. "Well, no matter who I am," he says to himself, "here goes." The dangerous planetoid explodes into countless small pieces, and Superman, with his memory intact, returns to his adopted planet in triumph.
Read more about this topic: Panic In The Sky (Adventures Of Superman Episode)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)