[crossposts from rec.arts.tv altered]
"MikeM" <MichaelMLGPR@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:e8574b71-6c03-4da3-bd18-f0e4fed1a9d3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ... If Sarah Conner loses, her son is killed by a
> Terminator and the series -- not to mention the world she and her
> buddies inhabit -- is gone. But if she succeeds, and somehow manages
> to stop the construction of the intelligent supercomputer known as
> Skynet, then...
>
> ... the protector won't be assembled
Not necessarily. The two writing constraints that the show now has,
in terms of the time travel element, can be described as:
(i) the human protector from the first movie (John Connor's father),
must go back to circa 1982 and conceive John. The Terminator
must also go back to be the nemesis back then; and
(ii) the subsequent terminator and machine protector from T2,
and the current terminators and protector (Cameron) depicted in
this series, must likewise go back (unless the series somehow
changes its own history by doubling back on itself; let's assume
they don't do that).
Though I had serious doubts the TV series could work, it seems clear
that they've thought it out pretty well. The skip forward 8 years, and
Judgment Day being only four years away, have basically erased the
Terminator 3 movie timeline, Sarah's death from cancer, and changed
the way in which Skynet threatens. Yet they've still left themselves
almost total flexibility in telling the story from here on in, with only
the
constraints mentioned above.
I put it to you that even Judgment Day itself is not set in stone. A
Terminator 4 theatrical movie dealing with it is scheduled within the
next couple of years, but it can be thought of as the Awful Future that
Sarah Connor (and John, and the protector) are still trying to alter
at that point. The TV series, if it continues (and its viewer****p has
held pretty well the last three episodes) simply goes on trying to
postpone or avert Judgment Day.
In season 7 of the TV series perhaps, after delaying Judgment Day
by three years, the series could end with the humans having "won"
and Judgment Day having been delayed indefinitely.
The Terminator machines could be produced and sent back as
they were, but as part of an ongoing battle with human forces led
by John Connor. The human forces could have their own very
advanced Protectors, sent back by John Connor with accounts
that match what he remembers as his own history, even if it's by
then much improved because the human side is faring better.
As for the "franchise", it could still go on past the TV series, and
an ending like I described, because the machines could always
enjoy a resurgence at some point. :-) By then Judgment Day
might be 2050, and the first movie might be in 2020 to start the
next cycle.
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