Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles [Stay out to avoid spoilers]

[TomCat]

I like the direction the series took at the very end of season 1 and into the season 2. I was thinking for sure the show would get canceled last season. But I'm glad to see it did not and it's getting better.

[47]

this show is just starting here. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

[NooDle]

re-reading this thread got me thinking. The first couple of episodes were allrightish, but I just saw the 4th or 5th one (where they steal some other Terminator's stash of expensive metal) and I don't really get it anymore.

It's like the story is just there to have random fight scenes in it. It's like they were running out of ideas and went with "well John wants freedom so he just runs into the building with the Terminator and the others have to go get him"

hoping for an improvement.

I do think the plotline with the "reskinned" terminator and the cop looking for him is getting better as the story progresses.

[janstett]

^ I was about ready to give up on it, the lack of plot, the perpetual inability to stop SkyNet that's going to be a requirement of the entire series run even if it lasts 10 years, etc. I didn't like the "rules" of the Terminator universe being violated (the head remote controlling the body, having time machines in pre-apocalyptic Earth, all are just weak plot devices that later get discarded).

I agree with others, by the end of season 1 and early season 2 it gets better, I'm still hanging in with it.

[the Interceptor]

I really like the show. The only thing that annoys me a bit is that there are so many plot holes and mistakes to make the overall story go the way they want. There's no need for that, the whole thing could be way more accurate in terms of realism in things happening and still go where they want.

[Wizegui]

Is it just me or is it becoming more and more of a Doge commercial since the first season. Perhaps it could be just me... I mean, when was the last time an FBI agent used a Sebring or Commanders? If they gave me one as a company car, I'd WISH that Chromartie had killed me.

[jetsetter]

Get over it. If you choose to use a DVR you will be seeing this more and more.

[NooDle]

I think most people just overanalyse these things.

Yeah, so there's a dissassembled time machine in the present time (1999). And yeah, only living things can travel through time (so no items like guns, etc)

But if you really really analyse the Terminator series :

Terminators themselves cannot travel through time! the only "living" thing on them is their fake skin, so all they can transport through time would be just the skin. Which would be lame

Best option is just to "forget" these little irregularities

[Punisher Bass]

Originally Posted by NooDle

I think most people just overanalyse these things.

Yeah, so there's a dissassembled time machine in the present time (1999). And yeah, only living things can travel through time (so no items like guns, etc)

But if you really really analyse the Terminator series :

Best option is just to "forget" these little irregularities

/me puts on his geek hat for a moment

It's real living human tissue that covers the endoskeleton, that generates a field around them that allows them to travel through time. This was addressed in the very first movie.

It's speculated that the T-1000 was able to do it because he was placed in some kind of flesh sack.

And just to reiterate, this show is fucking horrible in every single way and should have never gotten off the ground. I want it to die and be remembered as nothing more than the answer to a trivia question about shitty ass tv shows.

[Janus]

And also in one of the comic books future weapons were send back inside a dead body, kind of the same idea of the "flesh sack" for the T-1000.

[the Interceptor]

Maybe I shouldn't enter this conversation, but I can't help it:

Originally Posted by Punisher Bass

And just to reiterate, this show is fucking horrible in every single way and should have never gotten off the ground. I want it to die and be remembered as nothing more than the answer to a trivia question about shitty ass tv shows.

So of all TV shows on the television - telenovelas, reality tv, soaps, knight rider and whatnot - this is the worst, yes?

[Wizegui]

Worse than America's Next Top Model or the Moment of "Truth"? I think not...

[NooDle]

Originally Posted by Janus

And also in one of the comic books future weapons were send back inside a dead body, kind of the same idea of the "flesh sack" for the T-1000.

well if that's the case, why didn't they send a "flesh sack" full of futuristic weapons, guns, etc?

If you're gonna explain the "robots can travel through time" thing, this leaves open a whole bunch of other ideas that were much more logical...

They wanna change the course of time, so why not send back a flesh sack with a nuke in it, and send it to roughly wherever Sarah Connor is at that time?

[Punisher Bass]

Originally Posted by NooDle

well if that's the case, why didn't they send a "flesh sack" full of futuristic weapons, guns, etc?

If you're gonna explain the "robots can travel through time" thing, this leaves open a whole bunch of other ideas that were much more logical...

They wanna change the course of time, so why not send back a flesh sack with a nuke in it, and send it to roughly wherever Sarah Connor is at that time?

Probably because it would change future events too much?

Like they say on Star Trek, just don't even bother trying to understand temporal mechanics.

[janstett]

Originally Posted by Punisher Bass

Probably because it would change future events too much?

Like they say on Star Trek, just don't even bother trying to understand temporal mechanics.

I agree if all that needs be done is kill John Connor, why not nuke (even with a small yield tactical nuke) John as a baby, Sarah as a teenager, etc. Or one of his ancestors hundreds of years in the past.

However, at least as far as TSCC is concerned, Skynet is meddling in the past to ensure its own creation (Shirley Manson, et al). So not only is it necessary to kill John Connor (in fact, in the original timeline, it ISN'T NECESSARY because Skynet got built in the first place), it is more necessary that events happen to allow Skynet to exist.

We've already seen the events in T2 (Miles Dyson's death, destruction of the arm and the cpu) and the destruction of the Terk in TSCC not be enough to stop Skynet.

None of this makes sense if changing an event in the past alters the future -- because then the people/things from the future that are displaced in the past would either (a) disappear, because the timeline that created them disappears, or (b) they are stranded and their future no longer exists.

Further, the "original" timeline that happens, without time travel, where Skynet gets built and John brings it down, has been destroyed and crapped on so many times in T1, T2, T3, retconned back before T3, and TSCC, is it even relevant? It's either sloppy writing and show-running, or someone out there is brilliantly aware of it, and in the end this circular drain of ruining time will be a major plot point.

If meddling in time can't change the unfolding of the future (the "lesson" of T3, and seems to be in TSCC) then the corollary to the fact that Skynet cannot be prevented is John cannot die and Skynet must be defeated.

[Silverstar]

Originally Posted by janstett

Further, the "original" timeline that happens, without time travel, where Skynet gets built and John brings it down, has been destroyed and crapped on so many times in T1, T2, T3, retconned back before T3, and TSCC, is it even relevant? It's either sloppy writing and show-running, or someone out there is brilliantly aware of it, and in the end this circular drain of ruining time will be a major plot point.

If meddling in time can't change the unfolding of the future (the "lesson" of T3, and seems to be in TSCC) then the corollary to the fact that Skynet cannot be prevented is John cannot die and Skynet must be defeated.

That's totally what I'm thinking. Whoever is in charge of the continuity of the storyline...which one are they considering the real one now? T3 or T:SCC?

And what about Terminator Salvation? If T:SCC is still on come next year (if it gets released on time) which one is the true timeline? Is T:SCC going to lead up to 2018 where T: Salvation starts? Or is Salvation going off of the T3 ending.

Such a ball of confusion

[jetsetter]

They are basically ignoring T3 and have said as much. If you want to explain it one could say that time travel rendered that time line out of existence.

[Vltros]

Originally Posted by Silverstar

That's totally what I'm thinking. Whoever is in charge of the continuity of the storyline...which one are they considering the real one now? T3 or T:SCC?

And what about Terminator Salvation? If T:SCC is still on come next year (if it gets released on time) which one is the true timeline? Is T:SCC going to lead up to 2018 where T: Salvation starts? Or is Salvation going off of the T3 ending.

Such a ball of confusion

I honestly think that salvation won't be realted to the timeline of the third movie but the Future from the first one. One thing that hasn't changed in all three movies and series is the future world. So Salvation doesn't necessarily need to be linked to any of the movies. The only tie with them would be Kyle Reese and the good T-800 sent back to the past.

So here's an opportunity to mend all the errors made in T3. But the problem is McG is directing so... nothing good can come from him

[SuperStalin]

I'm currently watching the first Terminator movie on TV, I completely forgot how awesome it is.
Even now, the direction and editing alone work miracles around the limited budget. The actors are all fantastic, and they have great lines to work with. With just a few lines here and there, the writer added a lot of depth to all the characters.

[janstett]

Originally Posted by SuperStalin

I'm currently watching the first Terminator movie on TV, I completely forgot how awesome it is.
Even now, the direction and editing alone work miracles around the limited budget. The actors are all fantastic, and they have great lines to work with. With just a few lines here and there, the writer added a lot of depth to all the characters.

Agree 100%. Despite the horribly dated FX, it's still a top notch B movie. The biggest thing wrong with the terminator franchise since T2 is the lack of involvement by James Cameron. In addition to being a great director, Cameron back in those days wrote the script and created the whole story. Since he hit it big with Titanic he doesn't seem motivated to work anymore, and even sadder that he doesn't contribute to what he created so long ago back in the early 80s.

TRIVIA: They originally wanted OJ Simpson to play the terminator, not Arnold Schwarzenegger. But he turned it down because of his positive image. How prophetic would it have been to have had OJ tracking down and killing people?