Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Sci Fi for Beginners)
73Series Canceled
Fox announced May 18th that the show is canceled. So heck. But I'll write about it anyway, as it did have some merit (as well as a lot of inexplicably obtuse baggage).
THE Terminator
Don't Say It!
The first person who has the nerve to say it gets struck off my Christmas card list, OK? If you don't know the Arnold Schwarzenegger line I'm referring to (from the original movie, The Terminator, 1984 -- and yeah, the definite article surprised me, too: I would have bet $5 it was simply called Terminator), if you've never heard any reference to one of the most well-known and repeated lines of all time -- in poor imitations of an Austrian accent, to boot -- then read on.
Or, heck -- even if you have. JUST DON'T SAY IT, OK?
Because he's not in the TV series. Apparently he got a day-job somewhere in California.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The TV series followed the adventures of a now-teenaged John Connor and his mother, and made reference to events covered in John's childhood, when the "Terminators" were sent back from the future to kill him--to stop him from becoming "the" John Connor who fights the machines after Judgement Day (the day the machines take over, in 2029) and leads the resistance to victory.
The time paradox is critical in the story arc from the first movie, through the subsequent Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) and Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines (2003), to the TV series (2008).
Both Sarah Connor and her son John have been told by visitors from the future that they will become strong and resourceful -- key figures in the salvation of humankind (and the kid's initials are J.C., how. . . prophetic?). So the characters live their lives in the present as a preparation for the future -- both to prevent Skynet from developing the Cyberdyne Systems and to become these "legendary" characters (their future selves).
That could well have been the crux of the series, and would have held more weight than the off-shoots into Sarah's dreamscapes and John's uncle's adventures on a submarine in the future (I never did quite figure that one out, nor did I ever really care who his girlfriend was or why she was also sent back from the future AND brought another girl back -- Riley -- to be John's girlfriend. Was this some kind of time-travel dating service?).
Becoming their "future" selves would have then been a self-fulfilling prophecy for John and his mother, prompting them to actions more extreme or brave or foolhardy (which did indeed occur at times, but without a unified thread of continuity). Although, of course, continuity is therefore highlighted as being just exactly what the fragmented lives of these characters did not have.
Performances by Lena Heady and Thomas Dekker as Sarah and John Connor were solid and demonstrated a steady growth -- as much as any teenager can relate to his (at times) psychotically disturbed mother.
Summer Glau was initially interesting as the Terminator-with-a-good-chip, but the story-line strayed into incestuous territory with her posing as John's sister "Cameron" (nod to James Cameron, no doubt) and being creepily asexual and sexual at the same time (she looks hot, but is a mechanical doll). The actor knows how to kick ass with balletic grace, however.
One of the stronger episodes featured "flashbacks" to the future -- yes, I meant that: they are flashbacks to what happened earlier in Cameron's existence that just happened to take place in the future (for a review of the logic of experiencing future events in your past, see the classic and hilarious conversation between Hurley and Miles in Lost, Season 5, Episode 11 "Whatever Happened, Happened.")
This episode, Episode 4 of Season 2, "Allison from Palmdale," allowed us to see the little girl whose body was used as a template for Cameron; the interface between her biomechanical endoskeleton and the memories still in the brain of Allison-who-was-but-who-is-now-Cameron was touching.
Parallel Development
However, what started to become an interesting parallel in the series was evident between the development and education of John Connor, and the development and education of Weaver's protegé at Zeira (adapted from the Turk computer, and channeled through the biomechanical "John Henry" -- a prototype of the later Cyberdyne Systems model with "a hyper-alloy combat chassis" -- as Kyle Reese describes the Terminator in the first movie).
John Henry's mentor is probably the strongest actor of the cast: Richard T. Jones as the ex-F.B.I. Agent Ellison (with a nod to the ever-litigious Harlan Ellison). The implications are fascinating: how do you teach a machine to place ethical value on human life in a logical manner? The illustrations of this complexity are chilling; the death of John Henry's first mentor was caused by the computer, and a harrowing game of "hide and seek" that John Henry and Weaver's daughter play leads us to expect the same fate for the child.
We could have expected Season Three to provide further episodes examining John Henry's exponential growth in learning how humans interact. Too bad that won't happen.
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Yeah -- I was actually really fascinated by River Tam's "programming" -- the fact that they messed with her brain so callously was a real plot point of great strength (even if the trigger was that silly "fruity oaty bars" commercial).
I'm a schmutz at remembering who played who in what movie when.. You do good film review Teresa!! Kudos!
fingers crossed Terminator Salvation is good!!
Ahhh, gave up cable. My tv sits waiting for DVD's. Nice review though.
So why are they cancelling it? I wanna watch. I wonder if they'll have the series on DVD, what they did make of it.
I've not seen this - nor any of the Terminator films - you are slowly drawing me inti sci-fi with your series of SF hubs - but I do have a block about the genre and I don't know why. What I enjoyed about this review was the 'screenwritery' stuff like the story arc and plotting devices - that sort of stuff always turns my pages !
All the episodes are available to watch on Fox.com, several of them are on Hulu.com, and I think IMDb has them, too-- so ya don't need a TV or the DVD's, if you're in the US. (I don't knoe if IMDb plays internationally?)
Iphi: I can only watch shows that have a progression of plot points and character development (unless I just want to veg out with a show that "sets to zero" at the end of each episode).
You know, I love the movies. Even almost T3. But I don't watch much television, and I kinda feel bad that the whole show was green lit and they're off to making new movies (tho with Christian Bale, it just might be good.). The only thing is, James Cameron wanted it left well enough alone.
lxxy
Primed for Terminator Salvation. Gotta see. Thanks for the recap to help me put it in context.
I loved the movies, but they could have done so much more with the last one. Seemed hurried, or feel good got in the way. I did like it though, it just could have been great.
I CAN'T believe it! This is the only show I actually watch on TV. I'm devastated.
Thanks for this hub. I enjoyed this show also. Summer Glau is also good in Firefly (Serenity) in Sci Fi. Maybe they could do a movie of this one. to wrap it up...
A movie would be good, as you say--it worked with Serenity.
The series has just started over here, and it seems OK. Too early to say for sure, though!
Hey Sufi -- I wouldn't have pegged you for a sci fi fan. The whole series was a mixture of good episodes and weak ones, so hope you enjoy at least some of it!
Oohh! - I love my sci-fi - I was a huge fan of reading Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke as a kid, and the love affair developed. I also love a good sci-fi film - 'The Empire Strikes Back' was the first film I went to see at the cinema!
Chewbacca is my role model ;)
Really? Cool. Yeah, Chewbacca has . . . hair, I see. We mitched off school in 1977 to go see the first one. I have to admit that the first movie I ever saw at the cinema was The Sound of Music. . . not exactly sci fi. . . Asimov, Clarke, Orson Scott Card -- I do like a good serious read, and now that I think about it, philosophy and sci fi have many overlapping concerns.
My sister loved that movie - I hated it, although that may have been down to her extremely bad singing along to the soundtrack.
I still read the odd sci-fi book, but I discovered Icelandic Sagas and Conan when younger, and that became my first love. Must be my Viking ancestry.
With you on the philosophy - a good sci-fi book or movie asks a lot of questions. Can Artifical Intelligence become truly self-aware?
Then you'll enjoy the "John Henry" character in season two of the Sarah Connor chronicles. Its/his interactions with Ellison are interesting, as he/it is a prototype AI model.
I look forward to it - I suspect that they will see what the viewing figures are for the first series before committing to a second.
Hey - don't talk trash on our Governator! I am hoping he will do some time travelling any day now and save California from economic collapse :)
LOL, Shiba -- thanks for reading. I guess time travel is one of the only options left open for anyone to save the situation, now. Hope he makes it!
why Arnold not an actor for this new movie. I think he still have macho . Or he getting old know. But maybe need a new face as an actor,
It was a pretty good series. It just stinks that it was left at a cliffhanger.
I LOVED this series, especially the developement with John Henry. The part with Riley was not well developed, but ok. The last episode was dissapointing, mostly because the one before it was so phenomenal. Also, it ended on a cliffy, which is fine. IF THERE'S ANOTHER SEASON.
Quote:
"That could well have been the crux of the series, and would have held more weight than the off-shoots into Sarah's dreamscapes and John's uncle's adventures on a submarine in the future (I never did quite figure that one out, nor did I ever really care who his girlfriend was or why she was also sent back from the future AND brought another girl back -- Riley -- to be John's girlfriend. Was this some kind of time-travel dating service?)."
Explanation:
Derek was not on the submarine USS Jimmy Carter. Jesse Floes was. Watch those two episodes again. She knew a bubble tech and scammed her way back to get at Young John because she was of a faction in the Resistance that felt that Future John surrounded himself with "metal". I suppose some women of the future were insanely jealous and thought Future John was making out with female machines at a time when humans are in war with machines. Let's call these people the Anti-Machine Extremists (similar to the Luddites of the past). Let's face it. The reprogrammed terminators are more loyal both in the movies and on the TV series. Jesse's scheme is to assume that Cameron is such a bloodthirsty killer that she will kill Riley and John will then turn on Cameron and thus swear off having sex with machines. Remember, the extremists assume that's what is going on since Future John filters all his communications through Cameron -- a machine. Like with Oswald, Ray, Sirhan and all such conspiratorial fall guys; Riley is just a patsy. From Jesse's cynical view, Riley is a street urchin who is glad to be anywhere but the sewer from which Jesse fished her and she is pretty and the age of Young John, so the teen-aged pubescent John should (theoretically) fall in love with her since his hormones are on overdrive and he is (you said it yourself) worried about an incestuous relationship with his cyborg sister. When a hot pants-wearing Cameron takes off her jacket and lays on the bed next to John to talk, he is so creeped out by her implicit offer of meeting his needs that he does a typically stupid teenage stunt. In this case, he immediately sneaks out and runs off to Mexico with Riley and stays in the bridal suite.of some Baja hotel. Riley goes along with all this because she gets to get out of the sewer, go back in time to before the world became a radioactive ash heap, and gets to romance the world leader John Connor himself. Jesse has drummed into Riley's head (if the omnipresence of terminators in the future did not do it) that Cameron is a cold-blooded killer and you can never trust machines. Problem is, Cameron is the only one who notices that Riley has bruises on her (from being beaten by Jesse) and Cameron has begun to like Riley as a good sexual outlet for John since Cameron would rather not perform that function herself. John refuses to listen to Cameron's warnings that someone is beating the heck out of Riley. And Riley won't accept Cameron's sympathy or help even though they take her to the hospital after Riley's suicide attempt.
Ms. McGurk, I realize that you are an adult like me and not a teen ager but teens often face issues of being abused by parents, boyfriends, girlfriends and other people. I know. I write for teens. In the case of Riley, it is a total stranger (Jesse) who has used her as bait to be killed by Cameron so that John will swear off metal in general and female machines in particular. You would think that someone with Jesse's good looks would feel more secure. Needless to say, Cameron has little interest in killing Riley. She is almost the only one who wants Riley alive. Sarah and Derek want Riley to go away. And John's inaction until it is too late has the same net effect.
Comment:
Sarah's dreamscapes. I agree with you. Except . . .
What if Skynet really was plugging into the collective unconscious of humans while they slept? Cool and interesting television but sheer terror if it were real life. A combination of Nightmare on Elm Street and The Matrix when you stop and think about it. Skynet would get a deep understanding of humans. So deep that Skynet could predict our actions before we ourselves knew what decision we would make. That was the point of the Sleep Lab episode. Sarah may have stumbled upon a Skynet conspiracy since Skynet owns more companies than Cyberdyne and Kaliba. It turns out that while Sarah thought she was in a dream lab, Ed Winston had her drugged but did not realize who she was. Winston was a Kaliba employee and if he had known whom he had caught in the warehouse, then Skynet would have given him a very large raise for capturing John Connor's mother.
The dream about the turtles was a transparent reference to Sarah's conscious unwillingness to deal with the fact that Cameron is the daughter she never had. Cameron is far more likely to give her a grandchild than John because after John gets out of the Century City work camp, he is sterile and Sarah is long dead. The movies reacted by giving us a John Connor with children and a pregnant wife in Terminator Salvation. The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series must scare the heck out of the Terminator movie writers because the TV writers have more ideas in their pinkies than the movie writers have in the whole body of movies since the original.
The three dots dream annoyed everyone including me.
The dream where Sarah guns down the atomic scientists of the Manhattan Project shows Sarah's shortsightedness. Their dead bodies are replaced by being encircled by endoskeletal terminators. Sarah might better spend her time either shooting or talking sense into the heads of AI scientists because rock-bottom it is the artificial intelligence Skynet that orders robots to wipe out humans. A lot of people stopped watching Jeopardy after an AI named Watson beat the best human Jeopardy contestant.
Quote:
"the death of John Henry's first mentor was caused by the computer,"
Last Comments:
John-Henry's first mentor was Doctor Boyd Sherman. At the time, it seemed obvious that the culprit was John-Henry. In hindsight, it becomes crystal clear that the culprit could not have been John-Henry. Mister Murch tells Agent Ellison that the supercomputer mainframe and servers that John-Herny runs on require near zero temperatures. Your own computer Ms. McGurk does not deal well with high temperatures. Doctor Sherman was killed by jacking up the thermostat. In a couple of asides, one character mentions that when John-Henry was hacked via the internet and grabbed Savannah's wrist that it was not the first time that John-Henry was hacked. The culprit was either Skynet or the evil AI that Cyberdyne is developing for the US Air Force -- in other words, Skynet. Skynet is older than John-Henry and has felt John-Henry exploring the internet. Hey, we warn our children to be careful on the internet and Ms. Weaver should have been a more protective mother and told John-Henry to be careful on the internet (of course she does kill a whole factory of Kaliba employees because John-Henry mentions them).
I detect no malice in the John-Henry AI either as a baby or later as a child. It is his quick thinking that saves Savannah's life when he tells Savannah to hide when an assassin breaks into the Weaver home to kill Savannah.
Your other commenters mostly talked about Firefly and the movies. What about the TV show?
This long and thoughtful response has cleared up some questions I had about the series and reminded me of other points that I had not addressed. Thank you for taking the time to comment--I am most intrigued by the explanation of John-Henry's actions and quite delighted that he is not the culprit (it's a trite image, that of the evil machine, and I'm glad that the writers avoided that cliche).
Thank you,Toni, very much!
TMcG.
Pete Maida Level 1 Commenter 3 years ago
I guess you're ready for Terminator Salvation. Summer Glau was excellent in the Firefly TV series and in the movie Serenity. She played a young girl who was modified into a weapon. The character was very similar to her Terminator role.