Sarah Connor Chronicles trailer is up

TithonusSyndrome · Post by **TithonusSyndrome** » 2007-05-21 08:07pm

Enforcer Talen wrote:Is this set after T2? Im hoping to see lots of guerilla training and paranoia in deep bunkers. . . although the highschool aspects look like a downer.

Were cellphones like the one that the T-800 plucked off Sarah Connor when John was calling widely available in the early to mid 90's?

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2007-05-21 09:55pm

Hmm, Summer Glau as a Terminator? Wish I'd thought of that.

Since I'm absolutely sure that this franchise cannot sink farther, I can't really get upset. In fact, this series looks like it will totally invalidate T3, which can only be a good thing. Recasting was inevitable...I can deal. This looks to me like a straight-up modern-day sequel to T2 the way it should have been done...the theme of "you can change the future" is back, there's no random "Katherine Brewster" character who's the key to everything, Sarah Connor isn't dead of leukemia...the only thing that could really go wrong with the show is if they try to work towards T3 (since it's clearly already set in the modern day, rather than the late '90s). I can accept this as a full-blown alternate universe.

Plus, using T-800s instead of wanktastic liquid metal Terminators is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-05-21 10:38pm

You know, I'm kinda looking forward to this. There's a lot of potential in the Terminator universe that couldn't really be explored in the formula that the movies locked themselves into, so this could be interesting, and it's not like any of the movies really ended on a cliffhanger anyway. Both T1 and T2 ended with their stories wrapped up fairly satisfyingly, so if any of the future entries in the franchise suck I can just ignore them.

I do like the fact that they went out of their way to make the main Terminator character as different from Arnold as they could, rather than just casting a lookalike to serve up a new T2 rehash every week.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-05-21 11:03pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:There's a lot of potential in the Terminator universe that couldn't really be explored in the formula that the movies locked themselves into

Sure, but it would play like New Battlestar Galactica. The miniseries would be the original story of Skynet being created in a bunker in Cheyenne mountain, scared techs trying to turn it off, Skynet deciding to fight back etc. It would follow the original founders of the tech-com movement surviving the nuclear holocaust, flash forward through the first couple of years of the rounding up and the internment camps, then focus on the resistance struggling to survive and defeat the machines. It wouldn't even be that special effects intensive. Most of the episodes would be small scale skirmishes, intelligence ops, supply raids, character dev, infiltration thrillers (who is the Terminator?) and major battles presented from the perspective of the commanders in the C&C bunker with just a few effects shots of the mayhem outside.

This series is not that series. The only promising thing about this series is the hot gynoid. After all,

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-05-21 11:11pm

Nothing should "play like New Battlestar Galactica." One nBSG is bad enough, we sure as hell don't need more.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2007-05-21 11:15pm

TithonusSyndrome wrote:
Enforcer Talen wrote:Is this set after T2? Im hoping to see lots of guerilla training and paranoia in deep bunkers. . . although the highschool aspects look like a downer.
Were cellphones like the one that the T-800 plucked off Sarah Connor when John was calling widely available in the early to mid 90's?

The trailers look like Sarah, John, and the new terminator go through the time machine. They could have ended up in the present day.

Though where the hell did the time machine come from?

ColonialAdmiral · Post by **ColonialAdmiral** » 2007-05-21 11:30pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:Nothing should "play like New Battlestar Galactica." One nBSG is bad enough, we sure as hell don't need more.

Well there is kind-of.
It's called "Caprica".

I'll watch it. But i'm not sure how far it will get on fox. I just hope there isn't to much time travel...Changing the past and future is one thing that I really don't understand...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2007-05-21 11:44pm

If Drooling Iguana can have some optimism, then there has to be some potential hope for this show.

FedRebel · Post by **FedRebel** » 2007-05-21 11:52pm

Potential Spoilers

http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/04/17/the-s ... ot-script/

The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- A look at the pilot script

Posted Apr 17th 2007 12:21PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Science Fiction Shows, Early Looks

When I heard of this new series coming to FOX, I had mixed reactions. I'm a big fan of the Terminator franchise, so first there was a feeling of excitement. That feeling quickly changed to fear when the premise was revealed, which changed once more to my just not giving a crap anymore.

I recently got the opportunity to read the pilot script for this show, so I went from not caring to mild curiosity. Could this show pull off a worthwhile addition to the Terminator series of movies? I was about to find out. I should warn you, though -- big spoilers ahead, so tread carefully.

In case you're not up to speed with the premise for The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I'll give it to you briefly. The series picks up sometime between the second and third movies, with Sarah and her future humanity-saving son, John, on the run and in hiding from, well, any Terminators that might happen to be coming back after him.

Having the series pick up that void between the last two movies makes sense, though where the series has to be careful is how it works its way into what would eventually become the third movie. One would hope that won't be a problem, as the series is developed by the same people who produced the Terminator movies.

A pilot script for a science fiction series is tough to fully review, as you're left to your own imagination with the effects, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. I will say the script does a great job of selling the show to the reader, giving you a sense of excitement and awesomeness of what you're "seeing" unfold.

One question I had going into this read was whether the show would feature on something other than Terminators entering the scene again. I can tell you that they're definitely in this series in a big way. And much like the movies, we've got both a terminating Terminator and a protecting one, and the protector isn't Arnold -- far from it. In fact -- and here's the spoiler -- it's a hot, female classmate of John's! (Update: Old TVSer Ryan tells me this must be the role meant for Summer Glau.)

The pilot episode of course features John, Sarah and Terminator trying to flee the big, bad Terminator out to destroy them (all of which, as far as I can tell from the script, are nothing more than T-800/850 models). As I read the script, I started to wonder if this was it -- just another cat-and-mouse chase, only this time lasting 20-some-odd number of episodes.

It's not until the final moments of the pilot that you realize there's going to be more to this series. In a way that I'll leave for you to find out for yourself, Sarah, John and girl Terminator make a time jump from 1998 to 2006 -- naked. It's there where the trio hopes to track down the true source of Skynet's activation and hopefully change the fate of humanity, but don't we already know what happens having seen T3?

Even with the cool twists here and there, I'm not sure about this one. There's a possibility we've got more surprises planned for later episodes, but so far I'm not sold -- and I shouldn't be, as this is just a pilot script, one that will very likely be retooled. The show's success is going to depend a lot on what time slot it appears in and whether casual viewers are going to be OK with the Governator not being in it. There's also clearly going to be a time commitment for people -- this isn't a show you'll easily be able to jump in and out of without feeling somewhat lost.

No doubt we'll eventually see a pilot screener and we'll have a better idea of how this will play out on screen, but at least so far I'm definitely willing to give that screener a chance.

So somehow the main characters jump from 1998 to 2006 in order stop the "true" source of Skynet

It's pretty damn clear that this series shits on T3, whether it's for the better remains to be seen.

And the time jumping bit just raises questions and concerns

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-05-21 11:54pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:If Drooling Iguana can have some optimism, then there has to be some potential hope for this show. ;)

Well, the main thing is that it can't really do any harm. T1, T2 and, to a certain extent, T3 all pretty much stood on their own and resolved the storylines they set out to tell without the need for a sequel of any type, so any new movies/shows/etc. that come down the pipe that don't measure up can just be ignored. It's not like, say, X-Men 3 or Spider-Man 3 that took the plotlines their predecessors set up and resolved them in a completely unsatisfying way that makes it more difficult to enjoy the earlier, better entries in the series.

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2007-05-22 12:51am

Drooling Iguana wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:If Drooling Iguana can have some optimism, then there has to be some potential hope for this show.
Well, the main thing is that it can't really do any harm. T1, T2 and, to a certain extent, T3 all pretty much stood on their own and resolved the storylines they set out to tell without the need for a sequel of any type, so any new movies/shows/etc. that come down the pipe that don't measure up can just be ignored. It's not like, say, X-Men 3 or Spider-Man 3 that took the plotlines their predecessors set up and resolved them in a completely unsatisfying way that makes it more difficult to enjoy the earlier, better entries in the series.

Not really in the case of T3. It both relied on it's predecessors (albeit while shitting on them) and was clearly a vehicle for future sequels.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2007-05-22 02:22am

TithonusSyndrome wrote:
Enforcer Talen wrote:Is this set after T2? Im hoping to see lots of guerilla training and paranoia in deep bunkers. . . although the highschool aspects look like a downer.
Were cellphones like the one that the T-800 plucked off Sarah Connor when John was calling widely available in the early to mid 90's?

Doesn't particularly matter. Artificial intelligence that could achieve sentience and destroy all humanity wasn't available in 1992, but in the Terminator world, came about as a result of researching salvaged future technology.

Cao Cao · Post by **Cao Cao** » 2007-05-22 02:31am

Durandal wrote:Doesn't particularly matter. Artificial intelligence that could achieve sentience and destroy all humanity wasn't available in 1992, but in the Terminator world, came about as a result of researching salvaged future technology.

Then that means.. Skynet is in every cellphone! It's evil plan to unite all cellphones into a giant cellphone and take over the world!
Hey. It's no worse than T3's "Skynet is the internet" BS.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-05-22 03:32am

Cao Cao wrote:Skynet is in every cellphone! It's evil plan to unite all cellphones into a giant cellphone and take over the world!

Flashbacking... to the ending of... Lawnmower Man... aaaaargh!

Gustav32Vasa · Post by **Gustav32Vasa** » 2007-05-22 10:15am

Starglider wrote:
Cao Cao wrote:Skynet is in every cellphone! It's evil plan to unite all cellphones into a giant cellphone and take over the world!
Flashbacking... to the ending of... Lawnmower Man... aaaaargh!

No, its one of Arthur C Clarkes stories.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-05-22 01:46pm

Starglider wrote:
Flashbacking... to the ending of... Lawnmower Man 2... aaaaargh!

There ya go, corrected for you.

Tanasinn · Post by **Tanasinn** » 2007-05-22 03:26pm

The terminator we see in T2 is barely socially functional, to the point where it's picking up pointers from a little kid. Who exactly would have taught this girl-terminator to function unnoticed as "one of John's classmates?"

Post by **weemadando** » 2007-05-22 04:26pm

Tanasinn wrote:The terminator we see in T2 is barely socially functional, to the point where it's picking up pointers from a little kid. Who exactly would have taught this girl-terminator to function unnoticed as "one of John's classmates?"

A teenage girl in California acting weird? Call the fucking police! She'll fit right in, especially in TV-teenage-land.

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2007-05-22 04:34pm

Tanasinn wrote:The terminator we see in T2 is barely socially functional, to the point where it's picking up pointers from a little kid. Who exactly would have taught this girl-terminator to function unnoticed as "one of John's classmates?"

Maybe future John has a Veronica Mars/Buffy/Smallville... box set he showed her so she'd know how to act all angsty.