It’s that time of year again, when leaves will soon begin to fall off the trees, and DVRs will fill up with either new television shows or new episodes of old television shows. Here’s the new sci-fi stuff I’m planning to watch next week and why …
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season 2
(Monday, FOX, 8pm EST) The first season of this show started off a bit uneven, but really hit its stride about midway through, particularly after the introduction of Derek Connor from the future. And holy crap, the last half-hour of the season finale? That pool scene? Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around”? I still get goosebumps. If you haven’t already seen Season 1, or just want to watch it again, FOX has full episodes up on their website. Or you can always just go back and read my recaps. Continue reading →
Back in January, several friends and I carried on a lengthy and completely ridiculous email debate about the Terminator universe that dragged on for several days. In honor of the new season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles starting in a few weeks, I’ve decided to share a chunk of this debate with the world. Some minor editing has been done to keep things coherent, and to protect everybody’s identities, I’ve enlisted a few of my other friends to act out the lines. Please to enjoy …
I watched the first and second episodes of the new Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles show, and enjoyed it. Great action and special effects for a TV show, and seems to be remaining true to the mythology established by the first two movies. The writers also found a really clever way to completely bypass the sucky third movie.
Why don’t the machines just send back a whole damn army and kill everybody if they’re that good at rifling back machines? Jeez, if I was Sara Connor I’d be crying foul at some point.
Was Terminator 3 the one with the cop in it and they made what’s her name a psycho survivalist eager to martyr herself? The cop alone could have killed everybody on the planet.
Just thought I’d tease you with a couple of trailers …
Looks like Cameron will be back (as if anybody believed for a moment she wouldn’t) — but she may be having a bit of an identity crisis. Also, we get our first glimpse of new cast member Shirley Manson (of the band Garbage). Here’s the second clip …
“[The show] premiered in January as a midseason drama, but Fox is shifting the show to its fall lineup for next season. The network on Monday handed a 13-episode order to the sci-fi drama [which] will likely get a new time period next fall rather than stay at Mondays at 9 p.m. NBC puts the similarly sci-fi tinged Heroes in that slot, which was on hiatus due to the writers strike when [the show] aired this season.”
“The series could also get an early back-nine order… Next May, Warner Bros. will release the fourth ‘Terminator’ film, which could make for some ideal corporate synergy should the TV series survive the fall.”
“[The show], which launched in January, is the highest-rated new scripted series this season among adults 18-49 with an average of a 4.4 rating/10 share. The Warner Bros. TV-produced series drew an average of 10.5 million total viewers.”
Okay, so just for the record? What we saw last night was not really a “two-hour finale” for The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was the next-to-last episode and the season finale, played back to back. I’m just saying. I enjoyed both episodes very much — more on that in a moment — but I wish networks would stop playing this particular marketing trick. Because some shows actually do go out of their way to create finale episodes that sustain and cohere over two hours, and that’s not what this was. There’s a way to advertise things like this without being deceptive.
Rant over. On with the nice words now …
In “Vick’s Chip”, we do NOT find out that Skynet’s grandfather is the Commodore VIC-20, if that’s what you were thinking. Because we all know that Turk is the illegitimate love child of an Apple IIe and a TRS-80 (Model III). No matter what that tramp Amiga 500 says. Continue reading →
The Connor Crew cleaned up some loose ends this week on The Sarah Connor Chronicles. First, there was the “Case of the Missing Hand” — tracking down that pesky cyborg appendage that got left behind a couple of episodes ago. Exercising her usual restraint in dealing with issues like this, Cameron blacks out the entire city in an attempt to retrieve said hand from the police evidence locker, but comes up short. Disappointed, Sarah assigns her to the “Case of the Missing Turk” — tracking down Andy’s computer, which is now in the hands of The Russian. Continue reading →
This week’s episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles picks up where the last left off. Charlie manages to save Derek Reese’s life, with the help of a blood transfusion from nephew John, while Sarah finally breaks down and gives Charlie the whole story, cyborgs and time machines and all. He takes it remarkably well, warns Sarah about the FBI agent (who we know is Cromartie) that’s on her trail, then exits gracefully. I’m sure it’s not the last we’ll see of him, though. Continue reading →
Well, it happened. I knew it would. After the first 4 or 5 episodes of a sci-fi series, either I decide it’s simply not worth my time — as most recently happened with Flash Gordon and Bionic Woman — or the other thing happens … I get hooked. The latter happened for me with this week’s episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The premise has been firmly established, a few ongoing plot lines have been set in motion, the characters have become familiar, and now it’s as if the writers have just pulled up in a truck and said to me, “Come with us if you want to live.”
No painted doors this week on The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Cromartie is looking for Coltan, the stuff Terminators are made of. The Connor Crew are looking for Cromartie (who is now the guy from The 4400). The Connor Crew instead find another cyborg, Freakgirl’s boyfriend Brian Bloom, who is stockpiling Coltan for use after Judgment Day. They stop him, destroy the Coltan, and Cameron saves a little bit for herself.
Okay, so if you watched this week’s episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, odds are you want to talk about those painted doors. Because seriously, what the hell was up with that? And I have some ideas. But first, let’s run through the rest of the episode …
Using photos left behind by the Future Freedom Fighters, Sarah gets a lead on somebody who may be responsible for the creation of Skynet — a former Cyberdyne intern (Andy) who now sells cellphones. She dates him for a few days, and learns that he’s created “The Turk” — a primitive AI that mostly just plays chess. When she learns from Andy that The Turk has moods — that its choices vary from day to day for no logical reason, she realizes this is perhaps the first sign of Skynet-like self-awareness, and decides to act. In the end, instead of killing Andy, she burns down his house, thereby destroying The Turk. Continue reading →
Okay, so just for the record? What we saw last night was not really a “two-hour finale” for 
The Connor Crew cleaned up some loose ends this week on 
This week’s episode of 
Well, it happened. I knew it would. After the first 4 or 5 episodes of a sci-fi series, either I decide it’s simply not worth my time — as most recently happened with Flash Gordon and Bionic Woman — or the other thing happens … I get hooked. The latter happened for me with this week’s episode of 
No painted doors this week on 
Okay, so if you watched this week’s episode of