"Warchild" <bob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:bob-6C4F94.22152108022008@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In article <MPG.22171a3c569c1f1798ba5c@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> Pete B <xxxh@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> In article <fhpnq3tjuk3q0pt0rji8t8h67oqs2igns1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
david@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> says...
>>
>> > >Why would this TV series have gone through hoops to reconcile itself
>> > >to Terminator 3 (by skipping ahead),
>> >
>> > No, they contradicted Terminator 3 (by skipping ahead),
>>
>> No, they changed the future.
>
> As far as the TV series is concerned, the events of T3 simply never
> occur.
Cameron specifically references Sarah's death from cancer in that
timeline.
It's part of the rationale for Future John Connor seeding the time machine
that allowed our three protagonists to skip forward. The writers got
Sarah
Connor for their series that way, but it also works beautifully within the
story as part of Future John Connor's motivation.
Your reverse-order theory is a good one in the sense the trips back don't
have to occur in the same sequence in the future, or be tied to a specific
date. As iterative changes get made to the past AND/OR the future, and
things get progressively better for humanity, Judgment Day might get
moved back or forward, or finally downgraded to a conventional (i.e.,
non-nuclear) struggle with the machines. Even the order of missions
might change or flip places, from Future John Connor`s POV.
At this point though, I think this TV series -- let's call it T3a -- does
have to have been initiated in the future AFTER the T3 iteration has
played out. Otherwise Cameron could not have known Sarah died.
Let's hypothesize this TV series is actually the FIRST mission back from
Future John Connor's point of view. He's holding his own and perhaps
starting to win the post-Judgment Day war, but time travel technology
is coming online as he of course knew it would. Having prepared for
that day, he's mapped out his step- by-step strategy to counter the
machine efforts to win via a time war.
At that point, he's winning because at the end of T3 he started the whole
resistance movement from that bunker, and gradually turned the tide. He
knows he must send back Reese at some point, and the good Arnie at
two points (T2 and T3), to counter the three terminators. An interesting
dynamic here is that the machines may not know what they're going to do,
or in what order, as they do it in the future. They aren't a single
entity
with a full, continuous memory of what happened before Skynet went
online.
The first machine use of time travel may have been the inept one that
we saw in the last episode. The machine goes into standby mode and
ends up getting himself locked up in the bunker. That unit has no "Kill
John Connor" mission, because the machines have just discovered time
travel and decided to use it to create and position reinforcements in
advance of the Judgment Day battle. They can only think tactically,
and don't see the bigger picture of the time battlefield the way Future
John Connor remembers it. Again, he knows what the machines will
do before they've even done it, which is how he knows to send back
the counters each time. He knows he will win, but he still sees all the
carnage of Judgment Day and his mother is also dead from cancer and
not around to see the final victory.
So he decides to strike a final blow against the Rise of the Machines,
as he remembers it from the events of T3. He decides to massively
alter the 1999-2008 and later era, in a way that may avoid Judgment
Day entirely and save his mother in the process, while still preserving
his own existence.
Conceptually, your reverse-order theory still works in that the latest
iteration takes place earliest in the future. The events of T3 are what
the latest Future John Connor remembers as his history. His first time
travel effort is dealt with in this TV series, his next will be the pre-
destined T2 and finally T1 in your theory. If he's successful in this
current attempt though, he'll be sending back Reese with a FALSE
story about Judgment Day, perhaps just to light a fire under himself
so he doesn't assume he can coast to victory.
It also occurred to me that the John Connor age issue could easily be
addressed if they want the Savior of Humanity to be older and more
prepared in the next few years. Have our Young John Connor go
back alone at some point, for training in everything from military
tactics to engineering and nuclear physics. From the point of view
of Sarah and Cameron in this TV series, it could be done at the end
of, say, season 3, when all might seem lost for some reason and
John blames himself for not being up to the task. That's Cameron's
cue to implement John Connor Time Loop -8. She sends Young
John back for 8 years of training and he brings back all that plus
the cavalry and a beard in the season 4 premiere. He knocks on
the door barely 30 seconds after leaving, much to the surprise of
Sarah but not so much to Cameron, because he`s instantly become
much more the John Connor she remembers. :-)
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