Tempus (Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman)

Tempus is a recurring villain in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

He was as dangerous sociopath from the future who wanted to destoy Superman and take control the world.

He was portrayed by Lane Davies.

Season 2
H.G. Wells comes to Metropolis in his time machine, but he's brought Tempus back from the future to prove that his time machine really works. But, Tempus is bored with living in the 22nd century utopia that Superman and Lois are responsible for. Tempus wants to change history by going back and killing Superman on May 17, 1966, the date that Superman came to Earth. Tempus hijacks the time machine, with Wells beside him and goes back to 1966. Lois and Clark follow, in their own time machine, built using the instructions Wells left for them. While traveling through time, Tempus reveals Clark's secret to Lois, who is stunned to say the least. Lois manages to stop Tempus from hurting baby Clark, Wells takes Tempus to an asylum in 1866 and then returns Lois and Clark to 1995...a few minutes before Wells showed up the first time. They have forgotten everything that happened in the past few hours, so Clark's secret is still safe.

During his imprisonment, he wrote a diary of what had happened including Superman's true identity and many years later it ended up in the hands of a scheming business man named Jason Mayzik. He used it as blackmail against Superman to get what he wanted, but he was thwarted and Tempus' diary was destroyed.

Season 3
Tempus is back with a new time machine. He kidnaps Lois and drops her in an alternate reality where she died in 1993 where there is no Superman and Clark's parents died when he was young. Clark is engaged to Lana Lang,  his old girlfriend from Smallville. Lois convinces this dimension's Clark to take on the identity of Superman to stop Tempus from becoming mayor of Metropolis.

Season 4
Just before Lois and Clark are able to consummate their marriage, H.G. Wells returns to tell them that they are soul mates, linked through time, and that they have been cursed so that if they do consummate their marriage, Lois will die. They travel through time and meet up with Tempus, who was the one that cast the curse. They break the curse and restore the present timeline.

Tempus returned and he planned to plunge the world into a thousand years of darkness. Using the name John Doe, and a "subliminator", a device from the future that plants subliminal messages in the minds of the masses by using the telephone system, he runs for President and convinces people to vote for him by telling that "John Doe was a darn nice guy". After winning the election in a landslide, Tempus tricks Superman into stepping into a time window, and when Tempus touches the window, it spins off into eternity, leaving Lois behind crying for Superman.

With Superman gone, Tempus continued his quest for world domination. H.G. Wells, alerted by the disappearance of utopia in the future, returns to make sure that Superman is alright. When Lois tells him what happened, Wells goes to an alternate dimension to bring "alternate" Clark back to help. This Superman finds and destroys the subliminator, and, when Tempus threatens nuclear war, alternate Superman stops him. Wells and Lois use Wells' time machine to find and rescue the real Clark. Afterwars Tempus was imprisoned once again.

Personality
Tempus is selfish, vain, power hungry and sadistic with an extremely evil perspective on crime. Also with his vast knowledge of the future, it made him one of the most dangerous villains in any century. He just wants to be the ruler of everything and lets nothing and no one stand in his way, especially Superman whom he despises out of jealousy and for making his own future so boring. In Mr. Wells' own words he was: "A fiend beyond comprehension."