Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles Episode #1

[Vocenoctum]

Ahh, the fun of time travel.

T1: Skynet sends back a Terminator to kill Sarah Connor. At this point the future John Connor is aware that Reese is his father and a Terminator sent back kills Reese. As you said, future John sends Reese back to complete history. What we do not know at that point is what Skynet knows. If John is aware of history, then by implication Skynet should also be aware that it sent back a T-100 that failed in its mission, but its destruction provided material that allowed Dyson to create Skynet, therefore it did not send back the T-100 to kill Sarah Connor, but instead to fail and provide the technology needed to be created and preserve history.

Well, SkyNet was built with the tech, but may not have known it had to do it, it's hard to say. I don't have the original and haven't watched in a long time, but from what I recall it was a last ditch effort to decapitate the resistance.

Now it seems to be a revolving door portal.

 

[Rykion]

Bank robberies are actually incredibly common. And only about half of them are every solved.

I think people get the wrong idea from all the crime shows on TV.

And generally weird stuff simply just does get ignored. Like UFOs. Rather than investigate, the media/government just make jokes.

I doubt bank robberies involving murderers wanted by the FBI, people disappearing into explosions, and advanced robotics left at the scene are considered common. The majority of the terminator was physically still there. I can't imagine it being ignored like a UFO sighting.

The head does seem to be a mistake, though, unless there was an explosion (and the bank blew up) and the head just rolled off someplace, then sat lying there for 7 years.

The bank camera footage still existed in 2007, so at least part of the bank survived. The head itself was shown coming out of a time bubble at the same place as the main characters.

I'm pretty sure that what we didn't see was a military team and Cigarette Smoking Man show up to remove all evidence from the scene (it ended up in a dump after the secure government facility where they kept it was closed due to budget cuts).

The thing is that T2 showed that a single terminator hand could lead to Skynet. T2 Arnie chose to die to prevent technology being captured. Even in the TV series they go back to Dyson's home to make sure the littlest bit isn't still around. Not long later they leave a mostly intact terminator at a crime scene and don't seem at all concerned.

 

[mmu1]

The story also broke the rules of terminator universe time travel by having a terminator head travel through time without its organic component.:\ I'm definitely not expecting much from this show.

That rule got shattered in T2 and T3 already. T-1000 and T-X were completely inorganic, but somehow managed to travel through time anyway.

Besides, it was a stupid concept to begin with - the idea of being able to fool the laws of physics governing time travel by covering a machine in living tissue makes about as much sense as being able to fool gravity by dressing like a bird and flapping your arms.

 

[mmu1]

The thing is that T2 showed that a single terminator hand could lead to Skynet. T2 Arnie chose to die to prevent technology being captured. Even in the TV series they go back to Dyson's home to make sure the littlest bit isn't still around. Not long later they leave a mostly intact terminator at a crime scene and don't seem at all concerned.

For the sake of being picky, it wasn't just a hand, it was a hand and a damaged CPU that led to Skynet...

I'm not saying that the TV series won't crash and burn - the Terminator stories don't have a great record in that respect, with every new piece of fiction put out adding to the list of paradoxes and things that don't make sense (which really is a great argument for the value of Knowing When to Leave Well Enough Alone), but this particular issue you bring up is one thing I don't really have a problem with.

They know by now that there are actually multiple terminators running around in the past, which means they'll never be able to find and destroy them all, so it makes sense for them to think of the big picture, and just concentrate on finding out who's trying to build Skynet and stopping them. It might not work, but trying to hunt terminators is virtually guaranteed to fail because it'll just get them all killed.

 

[Fast Learner]

I found John's actions kinda silly, particularly him going out by himself and instead of going to a library goes to a computer store and uses the internet. Internet use for newspapers and research was not as public back in 1997 and seemed a bit forward thinking.

I'm pretty sure they come forward from 1999, though, when such searches on the net were significantly more popular.

 

[coyote6]

I think that people are missing something important. In the TV show, the events of T2 happened in 1997. The movie was 1994. They had already played with the dates.

Yeah, I guess they made John Connor a 13 year old when the events of T2 occured. He seemed more like 13 than 10 in the movie, really (probably because Edward Furlong was 13-14 at the time).

 

[Cergorach]

Didn't anyone notice that when John asked 'tinman' what model she is, she didn't answer? that creates some interesting possibilities for the future, she might not actually be a Terminator (Human cyborg with Terminator parts for example)...

Timetravel:
Often time is represented by a string, time travel is a loop in that string. In my opinion the Terminator franchise is a couple of miles of string wound around a finger, which is a good thing imho. I see the Saraha Conner Chronicles happening after T3, or even after T4. Just enough has changed for another loop to happen.

Terminator:
He's like Arnies illegimate child, I expect him to say "I'll be back!" at any moment ;-)
Movement is very T1 like, even some of the earlier fight scenes (shooting up a bunch of police and their cars), very nostalgic. The fights between the Terminator and 'tinman' are, to much the same imho, how long can throwing each other through walls and floors stay interesting (once).

Sarah:
Is still going to die, just because you time travelled doesn't mean cancer isn't going to happen. The actress playing Sarah is good enough imho for the role. The series depicts her as a bit more human and less certain, but at the same time a bit more insane ("I don't even know what i'll do!")

John:
A teenager with the luck of the devil, I like how he's depicted, I think the actor is good for the role. I like the way how he's innocently accepting the 'tinman' as a friend, just like in T2. Although I like the looks he sometimes has "What was I thinking sending her back...".

'Tinman':
Excellent choice for a female 'Terminator', loved her in Firefly/Serenity, I'm going to love her in this role as well (she does the inhuman part so well, would love to see her as an archvillain). Liked how she imitated the female ganger, found her ruthlessness refreshing (I just hated that they had to show she was right, would have been so much better if this wasn't revealed).

Overall:
I very much like the series, I hope they don't cancel this! It motivates me to watch the movies again.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

The thing is that T2 showed that a single terminator hand could lead to Skynet. T2 Arnie chose to die to prevent technology being captured. Even in the TV series they go back to Dyson's home to make sure the littlest bit isn't still around. Not long later they leave a mostly intact terminator at a crime scene and don't seem at all concerned.

Apparently I failed my Sarcasm skill check in my post. I thought for sure the pregnant Scully reference would give it away.

Overall I'm finding the show to be fun. As long as I don't delve into thinking about things too much I suspect I will continue to enjoy it - at least until they run out of scripts.

It has been a frustrating year for a writer's strike. Normally I find only one or two new shows that interest me. This year I am up to seven, but most have already run out of new stories and who knows if they will survive to see the return of the writers.

 

[DonTadow]

I'm pretty sure they come forward from 1999, though, when such searches on the net were significantly more popular.

Ah, that would make a bit more sense, ...dangit someone jot down a timeline because I'm real confused now.

 

[DonTadow]

That rule got shattered in T2 and T3 already. T-1000 and T-X were completely inorganic, but somehow managed to travel through time anyway.

Besides, it was a stupid concept to begin with - the idea of being able to fool the laws of physics governing time travel by covering a machine in living tissue makes about as much sense as being able to fool gravity by dressing like a bird and flapping your arms.

I thought they explained ... at leaast i remember they did in 2, that the t-1000 had enough organic matererial to time travel and that his mechanics for shapeshanging had organic components.

Still you're right, time travel's laws say only life can travel back... hope you don't have fillings.