Smallville: It's Hard to Overcome a Name Like Doomsday

Boy, Samuel Witwer sure does give good genre. First he was pilot Crashdown on Battlestar Galactica, and now he'll be taking on Superman himself in season eight of Smallville. According to Witwer, his newly introduced regular character, Davis "Doomsday" Bloome, starts out as a good guy (who has designs on Ms. Chloe herself), but before too long his romantic quest is interrupted by waking nightmares that bode not well for Chloe, Davis, Clark or Metropolis at large. Read on to hear what Samuel had to say about working with Allison Mack, creating Bloome's dark side and why Doomsday is unique in the pantheon of Superman villains.

Explain Doomsday to all those out there who might not know who he is.
Doomsday is a significant character in D.C. Comics mythology because he is the only character to kill Superman. They came up with him because they were like, OK, Lex Luthor is really smart, he's great, and they have all these other villains, like Brainiac, but no one can actually get into a knock-down, drag-out [fight] with Superman. So they came up with this invulnerable character, who was also from Krypton, called Doomsday.

Why is he evil if Superman is so nice?
Well, in our version, in our interpretation of the character, there are very specific reasons. I can't really go into them, but what I can tell you is the character's name is Davis Bloome. He's a paramedic in Metropolis, he's very good at his job, and he was raised in the foster system. He went from home to home—he's this survivor character, and he's kind of an outsider. But he's a really nice guy, really cool guy.

How is he introduced?
He's brought into the story when he strikes up a friendship with Chloe (Allison Mack) on the show. Chloe is dating Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore), so he doesn't want to step in—he's too nice of a guy to steal her. Because who wants to steal from Jimmy Olsen? Sweet little red-haired kid. Anyway, David starts losing large amounts of time. He's blacking out. He doesn't understand why.

Uh-oh.
Yeah, eventually this character will embark on a quest to find out why these blackouts are happening, and what he discovers is horrifying for the character, and hopefully horrifying for the audience. The producers, I don't know if they saw me in The Mist or in Dexter, but they approached me for the role, and they pitched a very interesting idea, and they wanted to get dark with it. Like darker than anything than anything that's been on the show. They want to get really psychologically messed-up.

It must be really hard for Davis when he finds out he's a psychotic supervillain.
Yeah. There are some really cool ideas around that. What do you when you find out you are the opposite of what you ever wanted to be? If you found out you were a murderer, and you didn't know this, what would you do? By the end of the season, in Davis Bloome's case, he's going to be trying to be the same guy, but he's...distressed.

Have you worked with any of the regulars yet?
I worked with Allison Mack yesterday, and she's a sweetheart. She's sort of my contact person into the world of the characters and the story. As for how he relates to all the other characters, that remains to be seen.

How long is this arc?
I'm going to be there the whole season. We just started shooting this week, and over the course of the season, the fans will start to recognize Doomsday as he was in the comics, but at first that's not the case.

¿Muy interesante, no? Do you think this story will bring new life to the Smallville saga, or do you just want Lana and Lex back? Post your feelings in the comments!

—Reporting by Jennifer Godwin