Video: Terminator, the television series
posted at 8:32 am on May 21, 2007 by Allahpundit
Any new entry in the Terminator series is cause for celebration in theory, but take a gander at this. You can imagine the pitch meeting: “Think Dark Angel meets Alias meets Dawson’s Creek. But with terminators.” Oy.
Well, if nothing else, this guarantees us our first ever John Connor/terminator love scene. I think we all knew from the look in Arnold’s eye in T2 that it was bound to happen sooner or later.
Blowback
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Summer Glau’s in it. Shiny!
Darksean on May 21, 2007 at 8:39 AM
Now all we need is a little Mal.
serenity on May 21, 2007 at 8:43 AM
And the ‘bad-guys’ will be the same episode after episode….an over reaching conservative government starchamber cabal of oil greedy religious fanatics.
Limerick on May 21, 2007 at 9:08 AM
It won’t last – Fox has a history of really screwing sci-fi TV shows.
Mindcrime on May 21, 2007 at 9:14 AM
All stations screw good shows. Jericho is now gone, and so is Veronica Mars…yes, I am a 29 year old male who watched Veronica Mars…it was a good show.
bentman78 on May 21, 2007 at 9:24 AM
I’m still pissed the nets cancelled Space: Above and Beyond (Fox), Firely (Fox), even Sports Night (ABC) just to name a few. I would have liked to see where Jericho went.
Darksean on May 21, 2007 at 9:33 AM
Chick was cute.
Jaibones on May 21, 2007 at 9:46 AM
Network executives are as clueless as thier counterparts in any industry. The people with the least amount of common sense run the show. It’s been that way everywhere I’ve ever worked.
Privatestock on May 21, 2007 at 9:50 AM
I’m with you Darksean, “Space: Above and Beyond” was a great show. There was a history lesson in each episode.
I was hoping for a new Terminator movie (without Arnie) taking place where T3 left off, to see how John Connor emerged from the nuke attack to gather survivors and train them in his bunker. To see the evolution of the machines attacking the remaining humans and how Connor lead the uprising against them. I hope the series doesn’t ruin the storyline.
Tony737 on May 21, 2007 at 9:53 AM
How soon before Summer’s cyborg character goes pyscho? River is screwed up and lets not forget her recent character as a unit finacee went up in flames(pun intended.
allie on May 21, 2007 at 9:55 AM
I was able to get DVD copies of S:AAB froma buddy of mine who had the original syndicated tapes for re-broadcast on BBC. They are better quality than even the “official” SAAB DVD series. I still watch them often. For some reason I think the episode “Sugardirt” is still my favorite as well as the “Chiggy von Richtofen” episodes. The number of “really cool” one liners you can glean from that series is still priceless.
Faith1 on May 21, 2007 at 10:01 AM
Soooooo, the hero is a little teenage chick terminator…
Ooooo k.
benrand on May 21, 2007 at 10:06 AM
I’ll give it a try, but am not hopeful. Fox gives most shows about 3 weeks.
As for Jericho, CBS has promised “closure.”
Slublog on May 21, 2007 at 10:14 AM
Well, even if we were to ignore completely T3, this show makes no sense. This reminds me of Highlander: The Series. No point.
Krydor on May 21, 2007 at 10:18 AM
Sugardirt was an awesome episode, one of the best. They cancelled that show at the worst possible time in the storyline IMO. You’re right, Faith1. One of my favorites was when the Colonel told the Admiral they’d talk about his mother later. The Admiral’s reaction was priceless!
As to John Conner, he’s safe. Summer can kill terminators with her brain
Slublog, thanks for that link! That would be nice. If only more shows could get ‘closure’ like that. Though to be fair, I thought Jericho ended at a good spot (if there is such a thing). Nuts.
Darksean on May 21, 2007 at 10:19 AM
It needs a funny, talking dog.
stonemeister on May 21, 2007 at 10:26 AM
Rumor has it that Terminator 4 is also in early planning stage, plotting the struggle of adult John Connor against the machine army.
However, James Cameron won’t direct and Arnold won’t star.
Niko on May 21, 2007 at 10:27 AM
Chiggy von Richtofen / Angriest Angel was the best ep. Good call Faith and Sean. Ya beat me to it…
Admiral: “I’ll be a son of bitch if I go to YOUR funeral!”
McQueen: “Yes you will, but we’ll talk about your mother when I get back.”
Admiral: “Heh.”
Tony737 on May 21, 2007 at 10:30 AM
So while I love a realy good Sci/Fi story, the real story is that with the most important war ever facing the human race going on right now the majority of us will be lulled back to sleep by Hollywierd with another fantsy series. Will Hollywierd tackle the true problem that confronts us, hell no, just go back to sleep America, nothing to see here go back to sleep.
doriangrey on May 21, 2007 at 10:42 AM
“Arnold won’t star”
Thanks for the good news Niko. As the storyline goes, there is no need for Arnie or ANY T-800 and if there is, then it should be the bad guy, they’ve already worn out the “reprogrammed” good guy terminator. Maybe they do a whole new trilogy but this time call it “Skynet” and in the last episode show the Arnie skin being applied to the T-800 frame just before being sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah. Throw in a Kyle Reese and story is complete.
The best part of the whole Terminator series is the glimpse of the future. A new trilogy on the post nuke world would be great.
Tony737 on May 21, 2007 at 10:43 AM
I was never a big Terminator fan, but it’s still good to see some sci-fi make it to the fall schedule. Even if, as others have pointed out, Fox execs have the attention span of a coked-out chimp and will probably cancel it within three episodes.
Shivv on May 21, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Off Topic: Good News- The Lebanese Army is kickin’ the crap out of a.q. affiliated group Fatah Islam. Bad News – The White House is saying “Both Parties should take a step back.” Say WHAT? We step it up in Iraq and Afghanistan against a.q. but the Lebs oughta slow down???
I wish we had some terminators to wipe out these islamopignazis. Well we DO, they’re called U.S. Marines!
Tony737 on May 21, 2007 at 11:08 AM
Another O/T: Denmark’s “Little Mermaid” statue found covered in islamic dress!
Sorry for the O/T’s, I’ve been patiently waiting for a Lebenon thread to open. I know it’s coming soon, right? :-)
Tony737 on May 21, 2007 at 11:16 AM
“Come with me if you want to live.”
AAARRRRRRGH!!!! I knewknewknewknewknew she was going to say that. That does not bode well.
JinxMcHue on May 21, 2007 at 11:25 AM
Another ‘One Season Wonder’.
Great idea to begin with. But other than some iteresting cinema-magic it looks like a cheesey rehash of the same story line episode after episode.
Lawrence on May 21, 2007 at 11:30 AM
I like Tony’s idea.
Lawrence on May 21, 2007 at 11:33 AM
Have to admit…I like Summer Glau, but this will not survive.
tickleddragon on May 21, 2007 at 11:41 AM
at least this is someone creative and a nice change of pace from the assembly line sitcoms that come on. I liked Jericho for a time but it just got too idiotic for me to take. Heck I’m 23 and the ONLY TV I watch is the Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Sports and the History/Food channels. So maybe at least this Connor Chronicles will be an interesting change of pace.
I was a big terminator series fan and there was a series of books between T2 and T3 that were called the Sarah Connor (or might’ve been John) Chronicles about surviving from T2 to T3. This at least caught my attention so who knows, might end up being good.
Defector01 on May 21, 2007 at 11:44 AM
We had us some Nathan for about five minutes when those four episodes of Drive aired last month. And then Fox once again took him away from us. Fox sucks.
As for the show, it looks kinda lame, but Summer’s in it, so I’ll watch.
violet on May 21, 2007 at 11:49 AM
Does it make sense? Sure. Muck with the timeline, and you can create all the spin-offs you want.
So, when is this coming on?
Anil Petra on May 21, 2007 at 12:05 PM
SA&B was a good series even if it was a bit campy :) Sugardirt was the best episode – the ‘christmas episode (dont recall the name)’ the worst.
Summer Glau is great. Wished Firefly lasted longer – would have liked to see how the River character turned out – not to mention who were the blue hands men. Don’t forget River can also shoot with her eyes closed.
CrazyFool on May 21, 2007 at 12:52 PM
I thought he only was attacked a few times by terminators, not every freakin’ day of his life.
Tim Burton on May 21, 2007 at 1:08 PM
“Rum riff me riff ru ront to riv!”
John from WuzzaDem on May 21, 2007 at 1:44 PM
I was actually starting to like Drive…
serenity on May 21, 2007 at 2:12 PM
Big upgrade in the role of Sarah Conner. ;)
Malpaso on May 21, 2007 at 2:24 PM
Sorry, Space Above & Beyond was a bad show. Never really had any direction, and the fact the pilots were running around as Marines (even though they explained it, but it still makes no sense) was just plain annoying.
Had they made it like “Black Sheep Squadron”, now that would have been far more congruous.
As for the SCC, I’ll watch it because I’m hopeless. But terminator nookie? Ewww, gross.
Jericho deserved to get canned. They started off well, but started making mistakes, then compounding the mistakes, then ignoring key features of American society. I just couldn’t get past the idea of 6 presidents. Ever noticed that this small town in Kansas never had any rallies at the Church, or invoked God in any episode? My wife is from a town like that and you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone going to a Bible study. It really tasted tinny, like people in Hollywood imagining how life in a small Kansas town would be affected by a crazy event.
They really botched ground-burst fallout and direction. Come on– 20 kt yield ground burst giving a lethal dose of radiation to a town over 100 miles away? I was buying it until they little “Countdown” snippets on Innertube. They explain everything else except that.
I am just tired of Hollywood not doing their research.
Thanks for letting me vent. Deep breath. There. Serenity.
Nethicus on May 21, 2007 at 5:32 PM
Neth, c’mon, S:A&B was a great show! It was like a recreation of WW2, with an “Planet Hopping campaign” and a “Trojan Horse/Doolittle Raid” and a history lesson embedded in each episode. Yeah it was dumb that the fighter jocks were also grunts but hey, they’re Marines and therefore Riflemen first.
McQueen: “This is NOT the Air Force!”
The best part was that this is the only show that takes place in the furure where America is still a country. They had American flag patches and were UNTIED STATES Marines. Also, they had other countries represented too. Britian, Israel (!!!) China with a Tiawanese flag (!!!) The pilot episode had Gunny R. Lee Ermey! What I never liked about Star Trek was that they had no fighter wing, this one does. They had no Marines, this one does. They were from “Earth”, but these guys are Americans.
What didn’t like about SAaB was the “A.I.s”. But other then that it was cool.
Tony737 on May 21, 2007 at 7:10 PM
Is it just me or is anyone else tired of hearing how John Connor doesn’t want to do ANYTHING – command an army, save the world/humanity, “I don wannaaaaaa!”
What a puss – no wonder his Mom is in charge in this one.
Preachin and politics ruin all good sci-fi tv. Even the new BSG. I didn’t miss an episode, EVER, until they switched to Sunday and started all the touchy feely crap instead of working on, oh, I dunno, saving mankind, killing Cylons and finding Earth maybe!!!!
This feels kinda like the 80′s Starman tv show – just cheesy.
How smart can Skynet be anyway, it always only sends one freakin terminator to kill whomever. And the Terminators have always been so close to the Connors, why don’t they just blow up? Oh, right, they can’t self-terminate.
This stuff is getting a bit old though. Maybe it could be better explored in a book series or something.
catmman on May 21, 2007 at 7:19 PM
I had a BAAAAAD feeling when I read about this.
But that trailer isn’t bad…. I admit I’m a big Summer fan, so I may be biased.
But did the A*****E network people HAVE to show her off as a Terminator in the frickin TRAILER?!?! I mean, are they going to summarize the end of each episode at the beginning?!?!
How awesome would it have been to discover gradually that she wasn’t human? That would have been FRICKIN’ GREAT!
But NOOOO, we have to give the big mystery away in the TRAILER!!!!
And we wonder why the same people keep canceling great shows.
I thought Hamilton was great as Sarah – especially the changes for T2 – a lot stronger, a lot crazier, kind of like you’d expect for someone who’d been through hell and at the worst point of her life was given a messianic mission.
There are a lot of great opportunities for a series like this, let’s hope they don’t screw it up – and they keep it short and not too repetetive. I could see this as a 25- to 50-ep miniseries.
Merovign on May 21, 2007 at 9:52 PM
Does this mean John Connor is a Spartan?
Darksean on May 21, 2007 at 10:15 PM
Merovign, I know what ya mean about givin’ away too much. I will NEVER forgive John Tesh for doin’ just that when T2 came out. I’ll never forget it, I was statiooned in Germany at the time, we were watchin’ Entertainment Tonight on A.F.N. John Tesh says “Arnold finally gets to play a good guy.” (As if he’s never done THAT before!) What? GOOD guy? How the hell can the Terminator be the freakin’ GOOD guy??? When you watch the movie, you can’t tell he’s good and the other one is the bad guy until they all meet up in the hallway at the mall. I would LOVE to have been suprised by that but NOOOOOOOooooo John Frickin’ Tesh blew it! Thanks John, you suck!
Tony737 on May 21, 2007 at 10:43 PM
Tony -
Ask a Hollywood personality if they can keep a secret and they’ll smile and say “Nope!”
Your only hope is to avoid interviews and trailers like the plague. Even then, your buddy will run up and yell “Hey, that new Terminator TV show… John Connor’s girlfriend is a terminator!”
You have my permission to smack them.
Merovign on May 22, 2007 at 12:46 AM
Sliders as good, until they introduced the Kromags. I hope they dont something as stupid here.
hadsil on May 22, 2007 at 1:12 AM
Linda Hamilton?
Connie on May 22, 2007 at 1:57 AM