Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: “Pilot”

Heh. The robot’s first name is Cameron. As in James Cameron, the director and co-writer of the original Terminator movie that introduced us all to Sarah Connor in the first place. At least that is the first name given by the robotic bodyguard Summer Glau plays in this series. If that is not ironic enough, there is a FBI agent named Ellison as in Harlan Ellison, the guy who once wrote a short story which may or may not have inspired the original Terminator.

Apart from that, there are relatively few shout-outs to the creators of the original movie as far as names are concerned. For that matter, the third and fourth movies have been ignored altogether for obvious reasons. After all, you cannot very well have a TV show with The Sarah Connor Chronicles in its title if you’re going to base it on a movie in which Sarah Connor is already dead. Of course, we get an inevitable repeat of the classic line: “Come with me if you want to live,” delivered this time out by Cameron.

But there are no references to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s characters and no flashbacks to Michael Biehn’s character’s -- though he is mentioned in passing in a scene in which John refers to his real father having been a soldier who died on a mission. Although Sarah and John Connor seem familiar with the concept of killer robots, the rest of the world still sees their past experiences from the first two movies as just one long zany story told by a pair of crazy people. And indeed, Ms. Connor is still being treated as a dangerous fugitive by the above-mentioned Ellison.

So once more Sarah and John Connor are on the run from the law. And they once again has a robotic protector -- the above-mentioned Cameron. The terminator this time out does not even get to be played by a famous actor but that is besides the point.

This first episode emphasized the sacrifices Sarah makes for John -- for example, running away from a boyfriend who has known Sarah long enough to feel comfortable buying her an engagement ring -- and Sarah’s inevitable fear that said sacrifices are not enough to keep John safe. Plus towards the end, Sarah acknowledges her fear that John may eventually pull away from her. That the more she tries to protect him from an admittedly clear and ever-present danger, the more she will end up alienating him.

A key plot point in the episode involves Cameron using a time travel device to relocate the Connors away from the path of a killer robot. Of course, the Connors and Cameron end up clothes-free as a result of said relocation and we get yet another shout-out to a scene from the original film as Cameron proceeds to procure a wardrobe for the self-conscious fugitives.

The final scenes shows the trio making plans to locate the mysterious Skynet which will supposedly set off World War III in April 2011. Given how close that date is, I guess I should either wish them Godspeed and good luck or pray that they truly are fictional characters. Because if they existed in the real world, that would be most inconvenient.