PASADENA, Calif. — Superman fans have had sort of a love-hate relationship with "Smallville" — they like the show, they get excited about certain episodes . . . and then they end up disappointed because the show doesn't follow through with what it's started.

There's a certain contingent of fans who want more Superman, less Clark. They've been waiting for Clark to grow up a bit. And some of them have chafed under the "no flights, not tights" edict that the show operated under when it premiered.

So it was not without some degree of excitement that series star Tom Welling announced that the series 100th episode — the Jan. 26 installment in which Clark's father, Jonathan Kent (John Schneider), unexpectedly died — was "a turning point."

"I think from this episode on, this show is going to be very different from what it's been in the past. And I also think we're finally going to get to what I believe the audience wanted the show to be," Welling said.

The 28-year-old star has lived with the Superman legacy for nearly five seasons now, and he's well aware of how the fans feel. Welling said that the driver of the car bringing him to appear before TV critics identified himself as "a big fan of the show" and asked, "When are you going to fly?"

"A lot of people, that's usually their first question," he said. And the answer remains — at least for the time being — not anytime soon.

"To me, from the beginning, this show has always been about Clark before Superman," Welling said. "For me, flying then brings you into the realm of Superman.

"I find it much more interesting to concentrate on the development of this character and show you what happened in his life to make him become this Superman that we all know him to be. I don't think necessarily that means that with this hundredth episode that Clark is going to put on the cape or put on the tights and start flying around. I actually think that makes things too easy for Clark. What I mean is, that it's opened up a lot of doors for these characters."

In other words . . . "Smallville" still isn't about Superman.

And Clark and his friends have all grown up a good bit since the show premiered. They're all out of high school; they're looking to the future.

"Now we're getting to a point in the series after five seasons, 100 episodes, where these characters are now saying, 'Alright. Look, we've been doing this for a couple of years now. Let's start moving forward. Let's figure out why we're not getting along. Let's see if our relationship works. Or in other cases, like Lex and Clark, 'You're

not who I thought you were.'