Terminator: The S. Connor Chronicles

[snockit]

Below are possible spoilers if you haven't watched the show fully yet

Just some rambling as I watched all 4 episodes last night...

School Situation: The girl was upset because someone saw her making out with a teacher, and they where slowly reviling that via the pictures to the school body. (at least that was my understanding )

Chrom Dude: Got the impression his body rebuilding occurred in stages, first, body to head. Next, skin, eyes, than plastic surgery to complete the appearance. But it did bug me how fast he seemed to it, not to mention the body being able to operate completely separate from the head ... and scary.

Summer's character: Theory is that she was modeled after someone that was close with Future John, maybe even including some emotions, memories into the system from that person. Just a fun theory I am thinking on right now (reason: She has lots of knowledge on 'who John is' and knows lots of personal details of Sarah when she was alive, would think future John would not share that with just anyone)

I do like how they have basically created a open ended story system, where they have unknown amount of Terminators doing tasks other than 'hunt John down' and resistance fighters as well that are trying to stop them. Can bring in some really interesting weekly stories. Though you will likely have to leave your brain at the door on a couple of them or go crazy thinking about the time paradoxes to much ...

S.

 

[Alluveal]

I really enjoyed last night's ep. My husband and I kept talking about how they could bring back Reese (Michael B.) Kind of fun to consider, though I doubt it would ever happen.

Spoiler for :

The guidance counselor was totally sleeping with that girl and likely with the one John is interested in.

 

[colonyearth]

I am really enjoying this series (though my roommate and I both do dislike the name Cromartie). I feel they're keeping more in line with the feel of the first 2 films (which is great since the 3rd one was basically shit). This series has a lot of potential if Fox will allow it to grow and find its following (not to mention if they'll look at the time-shifted ratings since sci-fi fans are the worst time-shifters). Most shows are a little rough around the edges their first season or so and this one is less rough than many others have been.

Its future is uncertain and Fox keeps talking like it's expensive to produce. There aren't really a lot of FX, but there are a lot of chases and explosions. Still don't see how it's that expensive given it has a relatively unknown cast and it's still bringing in the key demographics (it's among the highest in the key demos in fact). Hell, BSG is more expensive and gets lower ratings and is on a cable channel and will end with 4 seasons under it's belt and a real ending.

Come on Fox! Get over it and let a sci-fi show run long enough to gain its following already. Thank GOD X-Files didn't come out today...it would've been cancelled after only 3 eps!

I really HATE Fox!

CE

 

[Alluveal]

Yeah, I am getting into it despite the fact that Fox is run by a bunch of monkey-fracks.

Look at what it costs to run a show like "24" (though "24" gets much bigger ratings.)

It's like they're always looking for the next break out huge hit. They need to get back to their roots: The X-Files for instance, that didn't get GREAT ratings, but ended up being quite a phenomenon.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

Come on Fox! Get over it and let a sci-fi show run long enough to gain its following already. Thank GOD X-Files didn't come out today...it would've been cancelled after only 3 eps!

Or failing that Fox could make a living as a nursery channel. It could make a half season then sell the shows to other channels.

 

[Galahad]

What puzzles me about TV executives is that for "succesful businessmen" they seem to have forgotten a fundamental rule of business:

"You have to speculate to accumulate".

Sometimes you need to invest heavily before you see any real dividend. Would a fruit farmer just give up after his first year of setting up just because his new orange trees didn't reach a mature enough level to bear fruit?

No, a good farmer accepts that a lot of work is often required before you see any favourable results. It's the same with any industry... it takes effort and investment to get the ball rolling.

Why should the entertainment industry be any different at all? In fact it isn't,it's just that a feew fat execs realise that turkey twizzler television brings in the readies and th instant big results. What they fail to grasp is that as with food... instant television doeesn't bring lasting results because ultimately it doesn't gratify or satisfy long term.

 

[Recoil]

SPOILERS below for the 2 hour finale if you haven't seen it.

OK, dumbest season cliffhanger ever?

Most of the two hour episode was good. I was even slightly fooled by who was the "real" guy they were after. But that final scene, when Cameron gets in the jeep and she sees the guy walking away, turns the key and BOOM!

THAT is the big finale/cliffhanger? Where is the shock value? She is a robot for crying out loud. You know she survives the blast. She probably just gets pissed and chases the guy down with half her fake skin coming off (btw I think I'll pass on that scene or it might ruin Summer Glau for me).

Anyway, if they were going for a "wow" moment, that really didn't do it for me. They could have done many other things with the plot or story, but that seemed a bit of a "whatever." If anything, she just did her job --- took one for the team, but one you know she can take and survive.

Not sure if this show is gonna get renewed. Ratings have been so-so. Its also on Fox so.....

 

[Ranger1]

SPOILERS below for the 2 hour finale if you haven't seen it.

OK, dumbest season cliffhanger ever?

Most of the two hour episode was good. I was even slightly fooled by who was the "real" guy they were after. But that final scene, when Cameron gets in the jeep and she sees the guy walking away, turns the key and BOOM!

THAT is the big finale/cliffhanger? Where is the shock value? She is a robot for crying out loud. You know she survives the blast. She probably just gets pissed and chases the guy down with half her fake skin coming off (btw I think I'll pass on that scene or it might ruin Summer Glau for me).

Anyway, if they were going for a "wow" moment, that really didn't do it for me. They could have done many other things with the plot or story, but that seemed a bit of a "whatever." If anything, she just did her job --- took one for the team, but one you know she can take and survive.

Not sure if this show is gonna get renewed. Ratings have been so-so. Its also on Fox so.....

it was silly but the shootout between the fbi and cromartie was pretty cool

 

[colonyearth]

SPOILERS below for the 2 hour finale if you haven't seen it.

OK, dumbest season cliffhanger ever?

Most of the two hour episode was good. I was even slightly fooled by who was the "real" guy they were after. But that final scene, when Cameron gets in the jeep and she sees the guy walking away, turns the key and BOOM!

THAT is the big finale/cliffhanger? Where is the shock value? She is a robot for crying out loud. You know she survives the blast. She probably just gets pissed and chases the guy down with half her fake skin coming off (btw I think I'll pass on that scene or it might ruin Summer Glau for me).

Anyway, if they were going for a "wow" moment, that really didn't do it for me. They could have done many other things with the plot or story, but that seemed a bit of a "whatever." If anything, she just did her job --- took one for the team, but one you know she can take and survive.

Not sure if this show is gonna get renewed. Ratings have been so-so. Its also on Fox so.....

I have now read that Terminator: TSCC is most likely to be renewed. It has performed well in key demos consistently. And it's about time FOX gave a show a chance to find its legs before axing it (ahem, cough, Firefly, cough).

While I can agree with you that the "wow" factor wasn't as big as it could've or should've been, you also have to remember that this was never intended to be the "season" finale. This was merely where they had reached in production prior to the strike. This may also have been all that was initially commissioned, though I believe FOX commissioned 13 not 10 eps. That said, this was turned into the season finale due to the strike and FOX deciding to let it have a short 1st season. Given their "druthers" I don't think the show runners would've preferred it end where it did. I don't think they had much of a choice.

CE

 

[colonyearth]

Just wanted to drop it in here real quick, according to THR:

"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Fans need not worry: Sources say that "Terminator" will be back. Fox executives like the creative product and thought the finale's performance last week was solid. The network also spent a considerable amount marketing the show, giving Season 2 some cost benefit. Also: The fourth "Terminator" movie comes out in 2009, and as "The Simpsons Movie" proved, there are promotional advantages to film-TV synergy.

So there ya go!

The full article, which has a lot of info on what's going on with TV shows coming up can be found here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr...sion/news/e3i0e7d8449d58e7ec155e38327b9792059

CE

 

[darth_librarian]

Wow, possible film 4 and TV tie in ?

Either way, i need to try and catch this series. Keep missing it in the UK...

 

[Recoil]

A FOURTH Terminator movie? They should have stopped after 2.

 

[A_M_Swallow]

A FOURTH Terminator movie? They should have stopped after 2.

You cannot stop a terminator.

 

[Recoil]

You apparently can't stop studios from trying to cash in on an overdone story either.

So here is where this just annoys me. You have a TV series based on the Terminator series that basically makes the entire third movie moot. It sticks to movies 1 and 2 just fine, but with their skipping ahead in time, they basically wiped out the timeline that would have been in place allowing for the third movie.

So now...what? They are making a 4th movie that makes the TV series irrelevant? Or at least, shows us all that what happens in the TV series doesn't matter because Skynet will still get built and nuke the world and the 4th movie will show us John Connor leading the humans against the machines so they can send someone back in time to try and stop it? Which is all basically stuff that was fully explained in the FIRST movie?

What the hell are they doing?!?!

 

[colonyearth]

You apparently can't stop studios from trying to cash in on an overdone story either.

So here is where this just annoys me. You have a TV series based on the Terminator series that basically makes the entire third movie moot. It sticks to movies 1 and 2 just fine, but with their skipping ahead in time, they basically wiped out the timeline that would have been in place allowing for the third movie.

So now...what? They are making a 4th movie that makes the TV series irrelevant? Or at least, shows us all that what happens in the TV series doesn't matter because Skynet will still get built and nuke the world and the 4th movie will show us John Connor leading the humans against the machines so they can send someone back in time to try and stop it? Which is all basically stuff that was fully explained in the FIRST movie?

What the hell are they doing?!?!

The show runner/ creator for SCC, Josh Freidman (best known for writing The Black Dalhia and the first draft of Spielberg's War of the Worlds) has stated that the series is its own universe and is only based on the first 3 films. Yes, they jump ahead and wipe out the 3rd film (not a problem since is was a big pile of dren), but they did acknowledge the events and stated that that was why they were moving forward in time was to avoid them. After that, Freidman has stated it is almost an alternate universe to anything that comes in the new films, but will honor events in the first 2, which it has done pretty well.

This is much like the fact that SG-1 is not exactly the same universe as the original Stargate film (especially if MGM and Dean Devlin agree to make the rest of Devlin and Emmerich's original vision for the Stargate trilogy, which has been discussed).

McG has stated that the new film is not necessarily going to remain completly true the any of the previous films or the series (which to me is worse than anything the series is doing -- I mean come on, at least acknowledge T1 and T2 for crying out loud). McG has said that he will make efforts to fit into previous canon, but it will not rule his new trilogy. That said, it is clear from the casting of Sam Worthington in T4, based on a personal recommendation by the Terminator creator himself, Cameron, who cast Worthington in Avatar, that McG and Cameron are communicating to some degree. McG also knows he cannot "f" this up and I'm sure he realizes that ignoring canon and previous events could piss off fans of the franchise (not that T3 didn't already do that). This is the chance to save the franchise and start a new arced trilogy.

With all of that going on, it's no surprise that FOX wants to keep the buzz going and thus the series, which IMO has a lot of potential and room to grow...even if it is its own Terminator universe and seperate from the films. After all, it worked for Stargate.

CE

 

[Recoil]

I agree 100% with what you said about the Terminator stuff, and I think the concept of this 4th movie ignoring even the series at this point is just plain dumb.

However I disagree with likening it to Stargate. I watched all of SG1 from borrowing my buddies DVDs. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but hey, have to watch something when on the elliptical. Anyway, it seemed to me that the pilot for the Series took place about a year or so after the Stargate movie, and that they did a good job of keeping true to the movie. Sure they added onto it. A LOT. But for all intents and purposes they kept the characters, story, and direction more or less the same. So to me, SG1 was very much in the same universe as the movie, just taking place a couple years later, and after that it took its own direction.

T:SCC seems to do something similar...but using T2 as its jumping off point.

This T4 movie will fly in the face mainly of the TV series. And while I get that it isn't the movie folks job to pay attention to a TV series, I still think its just a terrible idea for the franchise in this case. Even though they have Christian Bale as John Connor, and I think he is bad-ass, the concept of even trying this movie as they are making it sound really doesn't make me want to get up and see it --- especially because by then I'll have 2 seasons of T:SCC behind me and won't really want to watch a movie totally ignore all that.

 

[colonyearth]

I agree 100% with what you said about the Terminator stuff, and I think the concept of this 4th movie ignoring even the series at this point is just plain dumb.

However I disagree with likening it to Stargate. I watched all of SG1 from borrowing my buddies DVDs. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but hey, have to watch something when on the elliptical. Anyway, it seemed to me that the pilot for the Series took place about a year or so after the Stargate movie, and that they did a good job of keeping true to the movie. Sure they added onto it. A LOT. But for all intents and purposes they kept the characters, story, and direction more or less the same. So to me, SG1 was very much in the same universe as the movie, just taking place a couple years later, and after that it took its own direction.

T:SCC seems to do something similar...but using T2 as its jumping off point.

This T4 movie will fly in the face mainly of the TV series. And while I get that it isn't the movie folks job to pay attention to a TV series, I still think its just a terrible idea for the franchise in this case. Even though they have Christian Bale as John Connor, and I think he is bad-ass, the concept of even trying this movie as they are making it sound really doesn't make me want to get up and see it --- especially because by then I'll have 2 seasons of T:SCC behind me and won't really want to watch a movie totally ignore all that.

I can see your point, especially considering that McG is doing this film and he don't impress me much. He's not a bad producer since I do like Supernatural and Chuck (though I think Supernatural is so good because it has the creative team from X-Files behind it).

My point with Stargate doesn't work completely, no. It would if there weren't a 4th film in the works that will most likely ignore the series. I guess my real point to that one is if the Devlin/Emmerich original trilogy is completed by MGM as they are discussing, the 2nd and 3rd films will not follow the series. Devlin has stated that it wouldn't necessarily negate the series but would definitely be a different direction in the story...the direction they originally wanted to take before MGM went behind them and turned it into the series. Funny enough, Devlin states that the actors from the film would be the right age now since the original plan was to jump about 15 years into the future in the 2nd trilogy installment and if they had done it then, they would've had to age Russell and Spader, both of which have stated they would love to return for another film.

So I guess my illustration really only works if the original trilogy idea for SG is completed. But with Terminator coming first, it would be the one setting the precident.

But I do have to say that McG hasn't said it will completely ignore anything that has come before, he's simply said he will work to remain true to the canon of the films and perhaps the series, but that's not his main focus, that being to make an exciting trilogy set in the aftermath world after judgement day when the machines rule. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I just hope it's better than T3, but that won't take much. And hey, Arnie won't be in it, so they're not trying to milk his tired, old (and I mean old) presence (actually, they have talked about a possible and very brief cameo for him).

CE

 

[Recoil]

Interesting. I hadn't heard any rumors about there being a second or third Stargate movie, based on the original movie with the original actors. What are the rumors there? Is it "in the works" or just talk at this point? And what general idea did they want to go with?

 

[darth_librarian]

Well, the Superman movies and Smallville are pretty off kilter in terms of continuity.

There are a few Stargate TV movies in the works, with some rumors of screen one later.

The great thing about Terminator is that it is taking a realistic approach to messing about with time travel, you will fuck up continuity. At least with all these separate strands it is being acknowledged, and is probably one of the few franchises that can pull it off. Expect to see / be involved with similar arguments around the next Trek movie.

A 4th movie is pretty dumb, but then it is Hollywood. I also read somewhere that another Robocop was being optioned...

 

[colonyearth]

Interesting. I hadn't heard any rumors about there being a second or third Stargate movie, based on the original movie with the original actors. What are the rumors there? Is it "in the works" or just talk at this point? And what general idea did they want to go with?

It came in up in article (I can't remember where, but I think it was EW back when SG-1 was saying goodbye) where they were talking with Devlin about a new project he's doing with MGM (not Stargate related). In the article he mentioned that MGM had talked to him about the idea of finishing the trilogy the way he and Emmerich has originally envisioned. Devlin stated that the talk was still early in the stages, but that there was a lot of interest in it; enough for him to have apparently spoken with Russell and Spader about reprising their roles. Emmerich also stated he would love to return to direct if he were asked to do so.

As for the story, all Devlin would say was that it took place 15 years after the first film (which as I stated had always been planned) and that it wouldn't necessarily contradict what has transpired in the series, but wouldn't work to acknowledge it either...it would be it's own thing.

The talk began because MGM has apparently signed a multi-picture deal with Devlin and they want this to possibly be one or more of the films. Stargate is a major cash cow for MGM and still extremely popular with a massive worldwide following. Regardless of what Sci-Fi did in cancelling SG-1, they (MGM) wanted more in the SG universe.

One of the "more" they're doing are the 2 direct to DVD films with the SG-1 cast, the first of which just came out last Tuesday here in the US and is called The Ark of Truth. The film ends the 2 season long Ori story arc. I bought it and thought they did a great job in closing out the Ori story (one I loved personally and hated to see end).

The second one is called Continuum and will be out this summer. Continuum sees the return of Richard Dean Anderson as O'Neil and is a time travel story that, according to the producers, will cause some subtle but apparently permenant changes in the Stargate timeline. Not really sure how this will affect the still running Atlantis, but since it's in a different galaxy, it may not cause much of an affect at all. (Oddly enough, the idea of time travel causing some small but permenant changes to a universe may be occurring elsewhere with an older and even larger fanbased universe, Star Trek; given what's been suggested by JJ Abrams and the writer Orci and Kurtzman.)

Anyway, there's what I know...at least, I think it's what I know. I'll have to ask myself later when I see me and make sure. If I tell myself anything different or something I've missed, I'll be sure to let you know.

CE