T.V. Show: The Sarah Conner Chronicles

[ParaGoomba Slayer]

Originally Posted by Firemaster

Actually, if you remember in the second movie, when the Terminator was fighting the Liquid Terminator (the T-1000 was it?), he ended up leaving his arm in one of those machine's gears. So Skynet probably found it, and using what they already learned off of the first arm, continued the project.

Skynet is the military computer system, not the company. The company was Cyberdyne. However, after the complex was destroyed, I think the military picked up on it.

[Aldin]

The show was great to watch in a "munching on popcorn" way. It actually ends up creating a fascinating problem with the conceived universe. By eliminating the "key individual" they were supposed to stop skynet - instead we find that even if that particular individual dies, skynet wll happen some other way. Where this is problematic is that is casts the role of John Connor as the resistance's "key individual" in doubt. Couldn't there just be another scrappy survivor to take his place if he should fall?

I'm a fan of time travel conundrums and this is one of the biggies. Originally, the terminator franchise proposed that there can be "key individuals". Now the message is mixed. I can live with that, but I'm not expecting any hard core SF theories to come out of the show - just good shoot 'em up stuff.

~Aldin, who travels in time every day - forward at a more or less constant velocity

[yagyuninja]

They could still keep the "key individual" theory intact (albeit in a silly way) if they just maintain that skynet's inevitable existence is their fault. I mean, its their hastiness to escape the baddie every time that allows a small chunk of terminator to always be left for some opportunist to find. If they were careful and methodical in eliminating every single piece of terminator, maybe they would end that particular brand of judgement day once and for all.

That's an interesting issue in itself. If they stopped it, it would kind of be a letdown for John wouldn't it? No scrappy leader of mankind for him, just a fugitive on the run from the law for the rest of his life. In old age, he would probably come to doubt any of it was even true.

Anyway, Summer kicked butt that second hour. Fun stuff.

[jcb231]

Originally Posted by Firemaster

Actually, if you remember in the second movie, when the Terminator was fighting the Liquid Terminator (the T-1000 was it?), he ended up leaving his arm in one of those machine's gears. So Skynet probably found it, and using what they already learned off of the first arm, continued the project.

That's kinda what I figured, but it would have been nice to get an explanation of even a few seconds in T3 that dealt with that. T2 was smart enough to explain the timeline a bit, and T3 failed utterly in dealing with that issue.

It would also have been nice to get a tiny bit of info on why Skynet doesn't simply send a million Terminators back to the same point in time, march them on Sarah at a vulnerable moment in her youth, and blow the living crap out of her and the unborn boy. I know that's nit-picky, but if I recall there is a small line or two that addresses that point in T1...doesn't Reese say something about the Time Machine getting damaged, or about it being very tough to pinpoint exact locations? Or something to that regard? It's been a while since I saw the first movie, and I'm not sure what was in it and what was in the deleted scenes from T2. More focus on the actual time-traveling gimmick would be cool.

[jcb231]

Originally Posted by InfinityMax

It was interesting. Hopefully it will answer the question that bothered me since I saw T3 and said (like jcb) 'didn't we cut this off at the pass?'

I think it hurts the show a little that we already know that Sarah Connor will die, the nukes will fly, and the good guys will eventually win. It's like reading a really good book, but you already know how it ends, and just don't know the middle part.

I've always bee interested in knowing how the humans could possibly win. T1 indicates that they are on the verge, but it seems like they'd have no shot. Maybe the next movie will address that.

[dragonfire]

Im confused by it all also. Why dont the terminators just kill a baby sarah connors? Or why doesnt John send all humans to the past, where they can live without robots(Im talking about more than a few years)

[jcb231]

I liked the idea (brought up in Episode 2 of the series) that John is sending back lots of fighters....he must have obtained rather easy access to a time machine. New pardoxes and problems are created by that, of course, but it's an interesting notion.

I am really enjoying this series! I like how well it ties into the James Cameron Terminator-verse and kind of ignores T3. This series is what T3 should have been....it even looks like they are taking the time to investigate HOW Terminators still exist. Plus the action and pacing and humor just feels much more like T1 and T2. The Cameron character is a much cooler "girl terminator" than the one in T3.

[Eckels]

I'll admit I was pretty down on T3 when I first saw it... But after giving it a second chance more than a year later, I've realized it's a fairly solid movie, that does a great job of showing us what Judgement Day is going to look like. The acting wasn't phenomenal, but it was still better than the first movie (which, lets face it, was basically a b-rate horror movie), and that's something. I wasn't really down on the female Terminator though.

Now, this show... I watched the first two episodes and they were pretty good... but I'm fearful. It shows the potential of either becoming a really awesome series with good action and solid plotline, but can quickly skew into a "Dawson's Creek with robots" if they're not careful.

For now, I'm optimistic.

[ninthdoc]

I can finally watch Sarah Connor without wanting to throw up. I never liked Linda Hamilton. I could never watch Beauty and the Beast b/c I was so confused who was who.

My only gripe about the show thus far is that Lena Headey plays Sarah Connor so differently from how Linda Hamilton did. It's like they are taking a step back from how bad-assed she was in T2 (I never saw T3). There were several times watching these two episodes that I wanted to reach through the screen and slap Headley while yelling, "You're Sarah Connor, so act like her!"

[netherspirit]

Originally Posted by ninthdoc

It's like they are taking a step back from how bad-assed she was in T2 (I never saw T3).

She wasn't in T3, she died of cancer. Seems the TV show writers aren't completely ignoring T3.

I thought the same thing about the way the actress is portraying her. She was much more of a BA in the movies...

[ninthdoc]

Originally Posted by netherspirit

She wasn't in T3, she died of cancer. Seems the TV show writers aren't completely ignoring T3.

I thought the same thing about the way the actress is portraying her. She was much more of a BA in the movies...

I'm kind of wondering if it's the writers or directors that are holding her back. You realize she was the queen in 300? We know she's capable of being a BA and cold and hard.

[netherspirit]

Originally Posted by ninthdoc

I'm kind of wondering if it's the writers or directors that are holding her back. You realize she was the queen in 300? We know she's capable of being a BA and cold and hard.

I knew she looked and sounded familiar but I couldn't quite place her. Now that you've said that I can see it.

That makes it more disappointing that she/they are holding back the character a bit. I liked the crazy/psycho/paranoid/BA Sarah Connor a bit more than this one, especially now that you've pointed out that she should be quite capable of being that.