The seventh episode of the first season of Superboy from 1988, entitled The Beast and Beauty, starring John Haymes Newton as Clark Kent / Superboy, Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang, and Jim Calvert as T.J.White, also features David Marciano (of Due South fame) as the guy who would be Superboy.

The episode opens with Superboy breaking into a secure building, beating up a security guard, and allowing others to steal jewels while he calmly watches a TV news report on the first Southeastern Beauty Pageant. He has an interest in Miss Florida.

At the police station, the injured security guard accuses and identifies Superboy as the perpetrator. The police have no choice but to put out an APB.

Clark and T.J.White are at the Beauty Pageant, doing a feature article for the Shuster Herald because Miss Florida once went to their college. While Clark gets flustered, T.J. take extra photos for his private collection.

On the way back to college, Clark and T.J. listen in on the police radio. They quickly get involved in a massive car chase with police chasing a van that’s running from another jewel robbery. The police are out-manoeuvred and T.J. isn’t catching the van, so Clark resorts to his own tactics.

First, he creates a puncture to force T.J. to stop. Then he acts like a clutz with the spare wheel.

While T.J. fishes for the wheel, Clark takes off with his skateboard. Superboy arrives just too late as the van plays chicken with the last policecar.

Having to let the criminals go, Superboy saves the policemen…

…only to have the handcuffs slapped on him. At the Police Station, Superboy protests his innocence, saying that he wouldn’t have allowed himself to be brought in if he was guilty – which he proves by breaking the handcuffs.

The police want to believe him but the D.A. is coming down hard on the perceived soft nature of the police, so they have to follow regulations. They are able to reduce his bail down to $500 and, for that, Superboy has to call in help from his friends.

Once released on bail, Superboy helps the police by beginning a search for the van.

T.J. and Lana wonder what’s happened to Clark in all this time. T.J. is angry with him for leaving him in the lake, but then believes he probably skipped back to the Beauty Pageant for “private” interviews. Lana asks to be dropped off at the library – Beauty Pageants aren’t her thing (no, because she’d put all the contestants to shame!).

At the pageant, the fake Superboy accosts Miss Florida. They apparently once had something going, and the deluded Superboy imposter believed that by dressing as Superboy and stealing one million dollars, he would be answering all of the girl’s dreams. She tries to point out the difference between reality and fantasy, but nothing gets through to this guy. He kidnaps her, promising marriage.

Outside, T.J. arrives and recognises the van. He calls the police but then witnesses the kidnap. He tries to intervene, but is knocked out for his trouble.

Overhead, Superboy uses his super-vision and sees the recovering T.J. T.J. tells him that the van was heading across the river. Superboy takes flight.

At their hideout, the fake Superboy tells his cohort to keep an eye on the girl while he fetches a minister. He heads across the river, but Superboy reaches the bridge before the van.

Operating the bridge controls, Superboy strands the van before facing his doppelganger. Superboy asks where the girl is hidden, but his nemesis won’t tell him.

Instead he challenges Superboy to a fight, without Superboy using any of his special powers. Superboy agrees.

The fight is very one-sided, with the fake Superboy almost crippling himself with each punch and kick. In frustration, he runs at Superboy, misses, and hurls over the edge. Superboy can’t help because he promised not to use his powers.

The fake Superboy pleads with him, and Superboy relents. He rescues him and then takes him to the police station.

Back at the Beauty Pageant, Miss Florida almost defaults on her winning position by not being there, but Superboy gets her there in time – just as Clark turns up to ask T.J. what he’s missed.

This is one of the few remaining “low-key” episodes.  It’s fun for what it is, in that we get to see two Superboys (kind of), but it’s the kind of episode that offers many ideas that just can’t be explored in just 20 minutes.  For example, there’s the situation surrounding Superboy being arrested.  This is something that is later covered in a little more detail in the darker “Road” episodes in one of the following seasons, but the whole concept of him allowing himself to be arrested (and having to account for the missing Clark) is something that isn’t adequately explored here beyond Superboy not having any money to either bail himself or even use the phone.

There’s also the much darker theme of the “fake Superboy” being obsessed beyond all reality with the girl.  That kind of condition could be the centre of a whole film, but here it’s reduced to being little more than a cliche – a waste of David Marciano’s undoubted acting talents.  Still, any fan of David Marciano will appreciate seeing him in the Superboy costume I’m sure.  How many actors would wish to put “Superman” on their CV?

Lana gets to do almost nothing in this episode beyond handing out the money before she sneaks off.  I’d like to think that this is because the director knows that having Stacy Haiduk at any beauty pageant would put all of the other hopefuls well and truly in her shadow, but I suspect that’s just me and my own brand of unrealistic fantasy…

Jim Calvert has fun being the put-upon T.J. White once again, and he even gets involved in some of the action.  It’s established early on that, though he might not look it, the fake Superboy is pretty strong – which is why T.J. fails in his heroic attempt.  (Sadly, the stuntmen don’t match the actors here – almost as though they used John Haymes Newton’s stuntman to be David Marciano.)

Anyway, it’s an episode that features two Superboys.  That’s all that can be said about it really.