The Sarah Connor Chronicles: ZE PILOT
The first Terminator movie I ever watched was T2. My uncle had the video (which came with the "Making Of" documentary) and I watched the movie over and over, wibbling at the ending every single time, until my mom had to come over and pat me on the head saying, "There there, I'm sure they'll make a T3." To which I'd replied bitterly, "No, they won't!"
That was circa 1995, I think, and I was about twelve.
Since then, there has been a T3, which was a big-budget piece of fanfic that wedged itself into the world of Terminator and didn't quite fit, what with the utter lack of swearing, violence, apocalyptic doom and stony-faced Arnold (he shouldn't have learned to act). I'm going to take a leaf out of drquinzel's book and say that if it ain't by James Cameron, then it ain't canon.
That said, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (hereby abbreviated as T:Chronicles) is also fanfic, and though it's obviously written by people who are fans of the James Cameron movies, they've decided to bring the story into a level of WTF-ckery that's on the same page as T3. I may not buy it as canon, but I'm determined to enjoy the ride.
My Biggest Problem, Which They Will Never Solve, or fangirl entitlement meta
I don't like open-loop time travelling. I never have, not even in the Back to the Future movies, which happen to be my most favourite movie trilogy of all time. I think of it as a form of cop-out, the "easy" way to explain the consequences of time travel and get around the "You Can't Kill Your Own Grandfather" paradox. So you change the past? That's all right, the future's changed too, no matter that it was the "original" future that enabled you to change the past in the first place.
Closed-loop time travelling means that everything that is supposed to happen will happen, no matter what knowledge is passed from future to the past or vice versa. Self-fulfilling prophecies and the inevitable inertia of destiny are far more satisfying for me. (Yay, Babylon 5 and Bill & Ted!) The ending of T2 left the possibility of a changed future open, but not confirmed, which was still okay.
The original Judgment Day was July 29, 1997.
T3 changes Judgment Day to July 24, 2004.
T:Chronicles changes Judgment Day to April 21, 2011.
T:Chronicles, for those who don't know, sticks its fingers in its ears and goes, "What T3? Lalalalala don't hear you!" The series takes place after T2, and considers T3 to be an alternate timeline. That's not confusing for regular viewers, no sirree. Personally, I think it's awesome that they had the balls to say that they don't want T3 and decided to do their own thing. According to the interviews I've read, they decided to do this because they watched T3 and missed Sarah Connor. I know the feeling, dudes.
Anyway, I understand why they'd open up the whole can of destiny worms from a storytelling point-of-view, giving hope to the characters and audience where previously there had been none, but that doesn't mean I won't nitpick.
By pushing Judgment Day forward so drastically, open-loop time travelling has dictated that the events in T2 has caused the war to change from what it was in the original timeline. The human survivors and the machines they'll fight will have changed drastically, the machines in particular have more technology and are better prepared in T:Chronicles than they were in the first two films. This also means that further events and choices made in T:Chronicles will continue to change the future as the series goes on.
Which to me at least, means that they're taking the license to do whatever the hell they want with continuity. I may not be entirely happy with it, but hey, it's fanfic. People do whatever they want with fanfic.
There are two versions of the T:Chronicles pilot, which makes it complicated enough as it is. The following caps are from the pre-air version, but I put little notes to say where it's different from the final version.
Take a drink every time there's a heavy-handed reference to the James Cameron films!
Picspam and synopsis time! SPOILERS from this point on!
It's 1999. Two years after the original Judgment Day date. John and Sarah think they're safe.
Say hello to our protagonists, Sarah Connor and John Connor.
The series opens with a shot of a road at night (DRINK!) during which Sarah gives a monologue (DRINK!) about the pressure of being the mother of a messiah, angst angst. It's followed by a dream sequence (DRINK!) where Sarah and John are confronted by cops, and then by a bulky Terminator who shoots John and he dies. It's, like, Sarah's worst nightmare, yanno.
And then everything blows up, Judgment Day style (DRINK!) but small scale cos this is tv.
But since it's a dream, Sarah jerks awake...
...revealing that she's sleeping with some dude. That in itself isn't shocking. What's shocking is that they're apparently newly engaged (WOT). The final version of the pilot has re-cast this character, whose name I really can't remember (I think it might be Burke?), and thank goodness the replacement actor is tougher-looking and less home-grown apple pie than this dude, whom looks like Sarah would chew up and spit out for breakfast.
Sarah apparently freaks out over the mundane domesticity of their arrangement and decides that it's not safe. She orders John to pack up and they leave.
Later, the jilted fiancee (and us, the audience) meet this dude, who will become the Marshall Gerard to Sarah's Richard Kimble. He's hunting down Sarah and John, because remember, they blew up the Cyberdyne building (DRINK!) and...
...reportedly killed Miles Dyson. (DRINK!) Boo to you, morons! Miles Dyson was a hero, biznatches. >:O
The jilted fiancee only gapes while FBI dude reveals that Sarah is a nutcase, and escaped from a psych ward. (DRINK!) They want to catch her chop-chop, cos she's dangerous. Will jilted fiancee help?
Elsewhere, Sarah and John have settled down at a new place. John, by the way, is wonderfully bitchy, and complains about it being a "hick" town. ♥
At school, a pretty classmate named Cameron (HALF-DRINK for reference to James!) talks to John. He's reluctant, but eventually connects, sorta.
Whoa, flashbacks to Eddie Furlong right now.
Serious flashbacks.
A new substitute teacher arrives! He introduces himself as Cromartie.
Cameron doesn't seem to like the sub.
But just look at him! Isn't he cuddly?
Cromartie reads out the roster. Check out John's new last name! (DRINK!) As soon as John acknowledges the roster call...
Mr Cuddly Man is a Terminator! "Pewpew!" goes Mr Cuddly Terminator!
Terminator vision! (DRINK!) John reacts awesomely to the Terminator, only sparing half a second to be shocked and then getting the hell out of there.
Cromartie Terminator goes after John, revealing to a whole classroom of witnesses his robot leg (from which he'd pulled out the hidden gun).
"Class dismissed."
I WANT TO HOLD HIM AND KEEP HIM AND CALL HIM SQUISHY AND HE WILL BE MY SQUISHY.
How can anyone hate this face?
That's too close for comfort, John.
He's saved at the last minute by Cameron, who says, "Come with me if you want to live." (DRINK!) Excellent use of the line, by the way, because John has never heard it (the previous two times were for Sarah).
I read that they re-shot the classroom shooting sequence because of the recent school shooting incidents, but I can't seem to see any obvious difference between the pre-air version and the final version.
John looks at Cameron, and sees the bullet wounds in her chest. Yep, Terminator Cameron to the rescue.
John's all, OH CRAP NOT AGAIN.
There's stuff where the FBI agent goes to the school, bla bla, not important yet.
Sarah hears about the shooting and rushes to the school, where she watches the chaos from afar. Then she's jumped by Cromartie Terminator.
Look ma, metal make-up!
A moment to highlight Sarah's insane level of dedication to her son here, as she laughs at Cromartie Terminator when she realises that it doesn't know where John is, and attempts to shoot herself in the head.
Cromartie Terminator stops her (thank goodness, or the series title would have been moot) and when John calls Sarah's mobile, it answers in her voice. (DRINK!)
Cromartie Terminator holds Sarah hostage at the Connor home..
...and spots a target.
Of course, it turns out to be Cameron Terminator. "Neat trick. You like?"
That's Cromartie Terminator's WTF expression.
This is followed by a short but awesomely sweet sequence where the two Terminators face-off, starting with them grabbing the collarbone area of each other's shirts, and Cameron pushing. (DRINK!) What makes it awesome is that it uses real stunts, none of the dodgy CGI that made T3 unbearable.
Cameron Terminator is ridiculously small against Cromartie Terminator. (DRINK!)
Sarah packs some lead into Cromartie Terminator.
They manage to escape when Cameron Terminator shorts out Cromartie Terminator, and the gang head off in a truck, intending to go for the border. (DRINK!)
The make a pit-stop at night, during which Cameron Terminator removes the slugs from her chassis. (DRINK!)
Cameron Terminator reveals that she's from 2027, and has been sent to protect John. Judgment Day has not been postponed, only delayed to April 21, 2011. This pisses Sarah off, because they destroyed all of Dyson's work at Cyberdyne. Cameron Terminator says that someone else continued his work, but doesn't know who.
Unanswered: Who sent the Cameron Terminator?
Unanswered: Who's responsible for Skynet?
Is it the same person who covered up the Terminator incident in the first movie?
John, ever the reluctant messiah, all but begs Sarah to stop Skynet for good.
Sarah goes, Okay.
The final version of the pilot has a brief scene at a petrol station (DRINK!) where John angsts to Cameron Terminator that he should have known that she was a machine, because no girl would talk to him out of the blue.
Cameron Terminator (who looks delightfully creepy by not blinking at all) tells John that he has many friends in the future. This doesn't comfort John, who asks what model Terminator Cameron is, because she looks new. Cameron replies that she is, and eats a potato chip. (WOT)
They visit the Dyson widow! (DRINK!) She doesn't take too well to them turning up out of the blue, since she's read the reports that Sarah killed Dyson. Of course, that wasn't the case, and Sarah tries to convince her. Cameron also reveals she's a Terminator (DRINK!) but only by flashing her eyes blue, not cutting her arms, because they've used up all their sci-fi budget for the week.
Sarah demands the Dyson widow tell them who might have continued Dyson's work, but she doesn't know.
Bla bla, Cromartie Terminator tracks them down to the Dyson house, there's more shooting and a car blowing up in Cromartie Terminator's face.
The final version of the pilot has a sequence where Cameron Terminator helps stitch up a wounded Sarah. (DRINK!)
Cameron Terminator, saying that she knows what to do to help them take down Skynet, takes Sarah and John to a bank.
Now, I find this whole thing suspect, not in a plothole sort of way, but in a What Exactly Is Cameron Programmed To Do kind of way. Cameron Terminator brought them there without telling them exactly what her/its plan was, thereby taking the choice away from them the moment that they stepped through the bank doors. Their fate was sealed without them realising it.
Cameron Terminator vision!
Cameron Terminator explains that "they" sent their best engineers into the past to build machines they could use, among them being a futuristic weapon that Cameron constructs for Sarah. The pieces are all stored in safety deposit boxes in the bank.
Unanswered question: Who's "they"? Skynet or the Human Resistance?
Cromartie Terminator arrives at the bank. I love me that make-up (check out that ear!), none of that fake CGI stuff. ♥
Hilariously, Cromartie Terminator takes a look at the competition and deems them not a threat.
Inside the bank, Cameron reveals a time dilation device. (WOT?!?!?!) According to Cameron Terminator, "they" built the device so that there would always be a way home.
Okay, this is the biggest deviation from original movie canon to date. The whole point was that the Terminators and protectors sent to the past were stuck in the past, as was part and parcel of the whole "doomed" thing. By introducing this, which you could argue is because Sarah messed up with the timeline in T2, they've opened up a whole new set of possibilities.
Sarah's all WTF! Cameron Terminator tells her that if she wants to stop Skynet, they have to travel to 2007, just before Skynet is born. Yeah, way to go, Cameron Terminator, tell them about that now, when Cromartie Terminator's smashing through the door.
Time travelling time!
The end up on a highway in a ball of electricity. (DRINK!)
The humans are sprawled on the ground, while Cameron Terminator is crouched perfectly. (DRINK!)
Omg, it's the future! It looks... exactly the same.
Scary Cameron Terminator!
Cameron Terminator procures some clothes for them. (DRINK!)
Sarah is amused. John is all, GYAH naked robot woman kicking ass!
Bla bla, there are brief cuts of the FBI man and the jilted fiancee both learning that Sarah Connor is in LA.
The pre-air and final version of the pilot end with the same Sarah monologue talking about changing the future, protecting John bla bla bla. The difference is that the pre-air version does this over shots of the gang in a house cleaning weapons and ending with the kick-ass shot below, while the final version does it over a more relaxed scene of gang outside a house, and then entering it. The pre-air version also ends with the line "goddammn dog fight" while the final version uses "hell of a dog fight".
There's also the first few beats of the awesome Terminator theme, modified slightly. (I can't remember if it was written for the first film or the second.)
So it's 2007. Sarah Connor's alive, John Connor's a teenager, and they have a female Terminator in their midst.
That, and Kyle Reese has already been born. Will John get to meet his dad? MWAHAHAHA.
That was circa 1995, I think, and I was about twelve.
Since then, there has been a T3, which was a big-budget piece of fanfic that wedged itself into the world of Terminator and didn't quite fit, what with the utter lack of swearing, violence, apocalyptic doom and stony-faced Arnold (he shouldn't have learned to act). I'm going to take a leaf out of drquinzel's book and say that if it ain't by James Cameron, then it ain't canon.
That said, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (hereby abbreviated as T:Chronicles) is also fanfic, and though it's obviously written by people who are fans of the James Cameron movies, they've decided to bring the story into a level of WTF-ckery that's on the same page as T3. I may not buy it as canon, but I'm determined to enjoy the ride.
My Biggest Problem, Which They Will Never Solve, or fangirl entitlement meta
I don't like open-loop time travelling. I never have, not even in the Back to the Future movies, which happen to be my most favourite movie trilogy of all time. I think of it as a form of cop-out, the "easy" way to explain the consequences of time travel and get around the "You Can't Kill Your Own Grandfather" paradox. So you change the past? That's all right, the future's changed too, no matter that it was the "original" future that enabled you to change the past in the first place.
Closed-loop time travelling means that everything that is supposed to happen will happen, no matter what knowledge is passed from future to the past or vice versa. Self-fulfilling prophecies and the inevitable inertia of destiny are far more satisfying for me. (Yay, Babylon 5 and Bill & Ted!) The ending of T2 left the possibility of a changed future open, but not confirmed, which was still okay.
The original Judgment Day was July 29, 1997.
T3 changes Judgment Day to July 24, 2004.
T:Chronicles changes Judgment Day to April 21, 2011.
T:Chronicles, for those who don't know, sticks its fingers in its ears and goes, "What T3? Lalalalala don't hear you!" The series takes place after T2, and considers T3 to be an alternate timeline. That's not confusing for regular viewers, no sirree. Personally, I think it's awesome that they had the balls to say that they don't want T3 and decided to do their own thing. According to the interviews I've read, they decided to do this because they watched T3 and missed Sarah Connor. I know the feeling, dudes.
Anyway, I understand why they'd open up the whole can of destiny worms from a storytelling point-of-view, giving hope to the characters and audience where previously there had been none, but that doesn't mean I won't nitpick.
By pushing Judgment Day forward so drastically, open-loop time travelling has dictated that the events in T2 has caused the war to change from what it was in the original timeline. The human survivors and the machines they'll fight will have changed drastically, the machines in particular have more technology and are better prepared in T:Chronicles than they were in the first two films. This also means that further events and choices made in T:Chronicles will continue to change the future as the series goes on.
Which to me at least, means that they're taking the license to do whatever the hell they want with continuity. I may not be entirely happy with it, but hey, it's fanfic. People do whatever they want with fanfic.
There are two versions of the T:Chronicles pilot, which makes it complicated enough as it is. The following caps are from the pre-air version, but I put little notes to say where it's different from the final version.
Take a drink every time there's a heavy-handed reference to the James Cameron films!
Picspam and synopsis time! SPOILERS from this point on!
It's 1999. Two years after the original Judgment Day date. John and Sarah think they're safe.
Say hello to our protagonists, Sarah Connor and John Connor.
The series opens with a shot of a road at night (DRINK!) during which Sarah gives a monologue (DRINK!) about the pressure of being the mother of a messiah, angst angst. It's followed by a dream sequence (DRINK!) where Sarah and John are confronted by cops, and then by a bulky Terminator who shoots John and he dies. It's, like, Sarah's worst nightmare, yanno.
And then everything blows up, Judgment Day style (DRINK!) but small scale cos this is tv.
But since it's a dream, Sarah jerks awake...
...revealing that she's sleeping with some dude. That in itself isn't shocking. What's shocking is that they're apparently newly engaged (WOT). The final version of the pilot has re-cast this character, whose name I really can't remember (I think it might be Burke?), and thank goodness the replacement actor is tougher-looking and less home-grown apple pie than this dude, whom looks like Sarah would chew up and spit out for breakfast.
Sarah apparently freaks out over the mundane domesticity of their arrangement and decides that it's not safe. She orders John to pack up and they leave.
Later, the jilted fiancee (and us, the audience) meet this dude, who will become the Marshall Gerard to Sarah's Richard Kimble. He's hunting down Sarah and John, because remember, they blew up the Cyberdyne building (DRINK!) and...
...reportedly killed Miles Dyson. (DRINK!) Boo to you, morons! Miles Dyson was a hero, biznatches. >:O
The jilted fiancee only gapes while FBI dude reveals that Sarah is a nutcase, and escaped from a psych ward. (DRINK!) They want to catch her chop-chop, cos she's dangerous. Will jilted fiancee help?
Elsewhere, Sarah and John have settled down at a new place. John, by the way, is wonderfully bitchy, and complains about it being a "hick" town. ♥
At school, a pretty classmate named Cameron (HALF-DRINK for reference to James!) talks to John. He's reluctant, but eventually connects, sorta.
Whoa, flashbacks to Eddie Furlong right now.
Serious flashbacks.
A new substitute teacher arrives! He introduces himself as Cromartie.
Cameron doesn't seem to like the sub.
But just look at him! Isn't he cuddly?
Cromartie reads out the roster. Check out John's new last name! (DRINK!) As soon as John acknowledges the roster call...
Mr Cuddly Man is a Terminator! "Pewpew!" goes Mr Cuddly Terminator!
Terminator vision! (DRINK!) John reacts awesomely to the Terminator, only sparing half a second to be shocked and then getting the hell out of there.
Cromartie Terminator goes after John, revealing to a whole classroom of witnesses his robot leg (from which he'd pulled out the hidden gun).
"Class dismissed."
I WANT TO HOLD HIM AND KEEP HIM AND CALL HIM SQUISHY AND HE WILL BE MY SQUISHY.
How can anyone hate this face?
That's too close for comfort, John.
He's saved at the last minute by Cameron, who says, "Come with me if you want to live." (DRINK!) Excellent use of the line, by the way, because John has never heard it (the previous two times were for Sarah).
I read that they re-shot the classroom shooting sequence because of the recent school shooting incidents, but I can't seem to see any obvious difference between the pre-air version and the final version.
John looks at Cameron, and sees the bullet wounds in her chest. Yep, Terminator Cameron to the rescue.
John's all, OH CRAP NOT AGAIN.
There's stuff where the FBI agent goes to the school, bla bla, not important yet.
Sarah hears about the shooting and rushes to the school, where she watches the chaos from afar. Then she's jumped by Cromartie Terminator.
Look ma, metal make-up!
A moment to highlight Sarah's insane level of dedication to her son here, as she laughs at Cromartie Terminator when she realises that it doesn't know where John is, and attempts to shoot herself in the head.
Cromartie Terminator stops her (thank goodness, or the series title would have been moot) and when John calls Sarah's mobile, it answers in her voice. (DRINK!)
Cromartie Terminator holds Sarah hostage at the Connor home..
...and spots a target.
Of course, it turns out to be Cameron Terminator. "Neat trick. You like?"
That's Cromartie Terminator's WTF expression.
This is followed by a short but awesomely sweet sequence where the two Terminators face-off, starting with them grabbing the collarbone area of each other's shirts, and Cameron pushing. (DRINK!) What makes it awesome is that it uses real stunts, none of the dodgy CGI that made T3 unbearable.
Cameron Terminator is ridiculously small against Cromartie Terminator. (DRINK!)
Sarah packs some lead into Cromartie Terminator.
They manage to escape when Cameron Terminator shorts out Cromartie Terminator, and the gang head off in a truck, intending to go for the border. (DRINK!)
The make a pit-stop at night, during which Cameron Terminator removes the slugs from her chassis. (DRINK!)
Cameron Terminator reveals that she's from 2027, and has been sent to protect John. Judgment Day has not been postponed, only delayed to April 21, 2011. This pisses Sarah off, because they destroyed all of Dyson's work at Cyberdyne. Cameron Terminator says that someone else continued his work, but doesn't know who.
Unanswered: Who sent the Cameron Terminator?
Unanswered: Who's responsible for Skynet?
Is it the same person who covered up the Terminator incident in the first movie?
John, ever the reluctant messiah, all but begs Sarah to stop Skynet for good.
Sarah goes, Okay.
The final version of the pilot has a brief scene at a petrol station (DRINK!) where John angsts to Cameron Terminator that he should have known that she was a machine, because no girl would talk to him out of the blue.
Cameron Terminator (who looks delightfully creepy by not blinking at all) tells John that he has many friends in the future. This doesn't comfort John, who asks what model Terminator Cameron is, because she looks new. Cameron replies that she is, and eats a potato chip. (WOT)
They visit the Dyson widow! (DRINK!) She doesn't take too well to them turning up out of the blue, since she's read the reports that Sarah killed Dyson. Of course, that wasn't the case, and Sarah tries to convince her. Cameron also reveals she's a Terminator (DRINK!) but only by flashing her eyes blue, not cutting her arms, because they've used up all their sci-fi budget for the week.
Sarah demands the Dyson widow tell them who might have continued Dyson's work, but she doesn't know.
Bla bla, Cromartie Terminator tracks them down to the Dyson house, there's more shooting and a car blowing up in Cromartie Terminator's face.
The final version of the pilot has a sequence where Cameron Terminator helps stitch up a wounded Sarah. (DRINK!)
Cameron Terminator, saying that she knows what to do to help them take down Skynet, takes Sarah and John to a bank.
Now, I find this whole thing suspect, not in a plothole sort of way, but in a What Exactly Is Cameron Programmed To Do kind of way. Cameron Terminator brought them there without telling them exactly what her/its plan was, thereby taking the choice away from them the moment that they stepped through the bank doors. Their fate was sealed without them realising it.
Cameron Terminator vision!
Cameron Terminator explains that "they" sent their best engineers into the past to build machines they could use, among them being a futuristic weapon that Cameron constructs for Sarah. The pieces are all stored in safety deposit boxes in the bank.
Unanswered question: Who's "they"? Skynet or the Human Resistance?
Cromartie Terminator arrives at the bank. I love me that make-up (check out that ear!), none of that fake CGI stuff. ♥
Hilariously, Cromartie Terminator takes a look at the competition and deems them not a threat.
Inside the bank, Cameron reveals a time dilation device. (WOT?!?!?!) According to Cameron Terminator, "they" built the device so that there would always be a way home.
Okay, this is the biggest deviation from original movie canon to date. The whole point was that the Terminators and protectors sent to the past were stuck in the past, as was part and parcel of the whole "doomed" thing. By introducing this, which you could argue is because Sarah messed up with the timeline in T2, they've opened up a whole new set of possibilities.
Sarah's all WTF! Cameron Terminator tells her that if she wants to stop Skynet, they have to travel to 2007, just before Skynet is born. Yeah, way to go, Cameron Terminator, tell them about that now, when Cromartie Terminator's smashing through the door.
Time travelling time!
The end up on a highway in a ball of electricity. (DRINK!)
The humans are sprawled on the ground, while Cameron Terminator is crouched perfectly. (DRINK!)
Omg, it's the future! It looks... exactly the same.
Scary Cameron Terminator!
Cameron Terminator procures some clothes for them. (DRINK!)
Sarah is amused. John is all, GYAH naked robot woman kicking ass!
Bla bla, there are brief cuts of the FBI man and the jilted fiancee both learning that Sarah Connor is in LA.
The pre-air and final version of the pilot end with the same Sarah monologue talking about changing the future, protecting John bla bla bla. The difference is that the pre-air version does this over shots of the gang in a house cleaning weapons and ending with the kick-ass shot below, while the final version does it over a more relaxed scene of gang outside a house, and then entering it. The pre-air version also ends with the line "goddammn dog fight" while the final version uses "hell of a dog fight".
There's also the first few beats of the awesome Terminator theme, modified slightly. (I can't remember if it was written for the first film or the second.)
So it's 2007. Sarah Connor's alive, John Connor's a teenager, and they have a female Terminator in their midst.
That, and Kyle Reese has already been born. Will John get to meet his dad? MWAHAHAHA.