Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

[Caveat Emperor]

They showed the pilot for this one last night on FOX, with the second episode being shown tonight.

Episode 1 introduced us to high-school age John Connor with his mother Sarah, still on the run with seemingly no apparent reason (seeing as, from their point of view, they should still think they succeeded in stopping SkyNet from being created due to their actions in T2). It also introduced their new now-standard plot device of reprogramed Terminator-Protector, who happens to look like a high-school teenager. Hints are also dropped that this new TerminaTeen is even more ‘human’ than previous models.

Overall, I though the show was fairly entertaining. There seemed to be no evident drop in production values -- I'd have a hard time distinguishing between this show and watching one of the movies on TV. The producers must figure that everyone knows where they’re going, because the show makes absolutely no attempt to catch you up on any of John & Sarah’s backstory. They reference the movies fairly regularly, even visiting the Dyson family (of T2 fame) with no explanation at all of who they were.

The continuity makes my head hurt a bit, though. By all indications, this show seems to take place between T2 and T3. From the point of view of John and Sarah Connor, they should believe that their actions in T2 averted Judgement Day. Yet, they’re still running. Also, the show takes liberties with the already bad time-travel rules established in the series by saying that somebody was sent back in time to the 1960s to build a time-travel device so that it could be there to later send John, Sarah, and TerminaTeen into the future to stop Cyberdyne Systems yet again. All of this, apparently, will be forgotten by John Connor when he later appears confused to see more terminators in T3.

I’ll probably keep watching, but that’s mostly because I think the source material for this stuff that Cameron developed is fairly fantastic (albeit derivative of any number of other sci-fi authors) and it’s just fun to revisit this world/concept.

Anyone else watching?

[Chip R]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Anyone else watching?

I saw it last night. Good show. Especially liked TermaTeen.

[Matt700wlw]

I enjoyed it. I'm a HUGE fan of the movies, so I'm going to hang with this.


We'll see how it turns out.

[terminator]

I thought for a TV show the quality was very good. Much more entertaining than the usual fare on TV. I hope it's popular enough to stick around so we can see where they want to go with it.

As for the timeline and "why are they still running" issues, well, I think a lot of those issues were previously addressed by Marty McFly and the Professor.

[NJReds]

I would suppose that they're still running because of what happened at the hospital.

[OUReds]

I liked the first episode. I'll probably watch a bit longer, mostly because I think Summer Glau is smoking hot.

[Johnny Footstool]

Originally Posted by OUReds

I liked the first episode. I'll probably watch a bit longer, mostly because I think Summer Glau is smoking hot.

True dat. She puts naughties in my head.

[marcshoe]

It was very good, but this could make my current (hopefully very temporary) job as a substitute teacher just that much harder....

[Chip R]

Originally Posted by tixe

It was very good, but this could make my current (hopefully very temporary) job as a substitute teacher just that much harder....

Or easier. Just start acting like a robot and those kids will be sure to settle down.

[KronoRed]

T3 is best ignored in time line discussions, and really in all Terminator discussions.

[WMR]

Originally Posted by KronoRed

T3 is best ignored in time line discussions, and really in all Terminator discussions.

WRONG!

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by KronoRed

T3 is best ignored in time line discussions, and really in all Terminator discussions.

Looks like the events of T3 are being completely retconned out of existence by this show. Due to the "time jump" plotline, the John Connor character skipped over the events that would've taken place at that time. No Kate Brewster, no hiding in the mountain.

Not to be confused with anything simple, though, in tonight's episode, they did reference that, had the timeline remained intact, Sarah Connor would have died of cancer in 2005 -- which was what T3 had established.

[WMR]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Looks like the events of T3 are being completely retconned out of existence by this show. Due to the "time jump" plotline, the John Connor character skipped over the events that would've taken place at that time. No Kate Brewster, no hiding in the mountain.

Not to be confused with anything simple, though, in tonight's episode, they did reference that, had the timeline remained intact, Sarah Connor would have died of cancer in 2005 -- which was what T3 had established.

That makes me wonder... will Sarah Connor now die of cancer in 2012 or whatever it would be moving the timeframe forward? Will the cancer still gestate and manifest itself on the same timeframe, now shifted?

[Degenerate39]

It was decent but I can't wait to see Christian Bale as John Connor

[Cyclone792]

Summer Glau was the main reason why I bothered to even watch it last night.

The pilot was a bit interesting, but we'll see if this holds my interest. I'm guessing it won't, but stranger things have happened.