WRITER: Josh Friedman DIRECTOR: David Nutter
CAST: Lena Heady (Sarah Connor), Thomas Dekker (John Connor), Summer Glau (Cameron), Richard T. Jones (FBI Agent James Ellison), Chad Brummett (FBI Agent), Dave Colon (LAPD Motor Officer), Arron Shiver (Officer), Babak Tafti (Kid In The Hallway), Joe Mannuel Gallegos (FBI Agent), Gary Houston (Mr Ferguson), Brandon Molale (Big Cop), Peggy Ann Kleeberg (Hero Student), Owain Yeoman (Cromarty), Genia Michaela (Teller), Danielle Lozeau (Hero Student), Shawn Prince (Daniel), Tim Guinee (Burke), Beth Bailey (Mrs Collins), Jennah Lintz (Bank Teller #2), Peggy Ann (FBI Visitor) & Nick Wechsler (Deputy Ridge)
Two years after destroying Cyberdyne, Sarah Connor and her son John are on the run from the authorities, whilst trying to avoid more cyborg assassins from the future...The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), the brainchildren of director James Cameron remain two great examples of both the action and science fiction genres. The original movie made a star of Arnold Schwarzenegger and was the springboard for auteur director Cameron to become "king of the world" -- when he swept the board at the 1997 Oscars with Titanic.
Since Cameron's awards success, he sadly took a break from the movies and turned his attention to underwater documentaries, although his return is imminent with sci-fi 3-D epic Avatar. But, despite his absence, his Terminator legacy began to march do a different drumbeat…
First came Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003), a sequel that was wholly unnecessary, but at least secured the return of Schwarzenegger in his iconic role as an unstoppable cyborg, and wasn't the unmitigated disaster many expected.
Now, amidst rumours of a Schwarzenegger-less Terminator 4, comes a Schwarzenegger-less TV series, known as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It's a clear case of cashing in on an established product that has a built-in audience and name-recognition.While it's normal for filmmakers to adapt television shows to the silver screen, doing the reverse is often far, far more difficult. By their very nature, movies are designed as journeys with beginnings, middles and ends. Just making a decent sequel can be tricky enough, never mind adapting a film to suit the television model of 20-plus episodes each year, for three years or more.
But, hoping to do just that is producer David Nutter (who served as a director during The X-Files' tenure) and writer Josh Friedman (who recently penned Steven Spielberg's War Of The Worlds remake). Not a bad pedigree, but can these two men successfully bring a beloved film franchise to life on the small-screen… and secure the blessing of fans worldwide?Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is set in the year 1999 (the timeline follows the T3 chronology; so John was born in '84 and T2 happened in '97). Since destroying the T-1000 and saving the world from "Judgment Day", hard-ass mother Sarah Connor (300's Lena Headey) and her son John (Heroes' Thomas Dekker), have been on the run and "off the grid", making it difficult for potential robot assassins from the future to find them.
As always, Sarah is stoically committed to protecting her son (and preventing a future dystopia), whereas John is loyal but conflicted, finding it difficult to lead a normal life under aliases, with the authorities always on their tail, and unsure he could ever become a messianic warrior anyway!The Pilot episode begins on a quality note, with a stirring action sequence inside a school, where Sarah drags her son outside to be faced with an army of police. After they're arrested, a lone Terminator strolls into the scene and causes mayhem, until a nuclear bomb detonates nearby and the shock-wave burns its flesh away to reveal the iconic Terminator endoskeleton…
Then, Sarah wakes up… and the episode essentially becomes a string of on-the-run action set-pieces, with a few character "twists" that will be patently obvious to most people! In another "hick town" school, John gets chatting to a saucer-faced babe called Cameron (wink, wink), who is later revealed to be a protective Terminator from 2027 A.D. She's here to protect them and help them destroy SkyNet, since they've clearly only managed to delay Armageddon…As a massive fan of the Terminator series (I'll even give T3 credit in some respects, I viewed The Sarah Connor Chronicles with a mix of excitement and trepidation. It’s clear to me that a TV series is not really needed, or even the best way to continue the Terminator franchise, but I was prepared to give it a chance.
Surprisingly, I found the Pilot to be more enjoyable than I was expecting. The caliber of those involved, particularly a cinematic screenwriter like Josh Friedman, certainly helped matters. This really does feel like a low-budget sequel to T2, although the absence of Arnold Schwarzenegger is still felt.
The casting is wonderful for the all-important leads. Lena Headey is a fine replacement for Linda Hamilton; believably gutsy and feminine, but less macho than T2's Sarah. It seems she's been toned down to exude more femininity, which is fine. Lest we forget, Sarah's now quite a few years away from that frightening mental institution she escaped from, so it's only right she doesn't have so much of a bitter gung-ho mentality.Thomas Dekker is also a great replacement for Edward Furlong. In fact, I'd say he's the best John Connor yet, as Furlong always irritated me and T3's Nick Stahl looked too weedy to convince. Dekker exudes teenaged angst and, more importantly, has real mother-son chemistry with Heady.
Summer Glau (Serenity) is fine as the "good Terminator", effectively taking over protection duties and putting a female spin on things. As with Kristanna Loken's antagonist 'droid in T3, Glau has that same icy glare down to a tea. However, earlier scenes show her effectively acting like a regular schoolgirl, so her sudden switch seems a little odd. Even the infiltration abilities of the "liquid metal" T-1000 never went much beyond a smirk and a polite nod. It might have made more sense if Cameron had been the school "weirdo", perhaps? There's also the questions of how long has she been attending classes, and who her family are? I don't think we'll find out.
Undoubtedly the one area many people will criticize Chronicles over is in its portrayal of the villainous Terminators. Here, ignoring the "dream sequence" Terminator, we have Cromarty (an allusion to "chrome"?), who is sadly the episode's one duff note…
I think the problem is that Arnold Schwarzenegger casts a big shadow, so anyone playing a Terminator of similar physical type just looks like they're doing an impression. James Cameron knew this trap, so he juxtaposed Arnie with the lithe Robert Patrick. Even Jonathan Mostow realized this, so he went with a buxom blonde. The television series is out of options, so they attempt to bring in their own version of Arnie… and actor Owain Yeoman just doesn't cut it.Yeoman tries valiantly, but he's just a collection of dead-eyed stares and stilted body movements. He doesn't have any threatening presence and he's not even particularly muscular; certainly not anything prime Schwarzenegger. I fully understand he has big boots to fill and limited screen time, but to have a lukewarm villain in the opening episode is unforgivable. The worst moment comes when Cromartie pretends to be a high school teacher and locates John by reading the class register! Laughable.
The production design is slick and textured. Director David Nutter drenches everything in his usual gloss, although some of his camera tricks and colour bleaching is a little overdone at times. Still, the action beats are handled well and, for a television show, you can certainly see that care and attention has been made.The special effects are of a good standard, mainly involving make-up for battle-damaged Terminators (of which, an exposed thigh of hissing servo's is the highlight). The episode's greatest effects shots are in the teaser (a wonderful mushroom cloud and a movie-quality Terminator endoskeleton), and some snazzy CGI fireworks for a bank vault finale.
Acting as the set-up to an ongoing series, it's difficult to see where Chronicles can really go. The Pilot just establishes that the mission behind the show is to avoid the authorities (particularly FBI Agent Ellison), protect John from futuristic machines and destroy SkyNet again. Of course, Terminator 3 covered all that in 2-hours, so won't the TV series really begin to drag around episode 4? The writers will undoubtedly be avoiding falling into the "Terminator-of-the-week" trap, but will audiences really engage with these characters when they're not running around shooting guns at metal men? After all, that's what 80% of the Terminator movies were all about!Perhaps the Pilot's best trick, especially for fans worried about continuity, is that writer Josh Friedman concocts a brilliant way to avoid stepping on the toes of the films too much, so that once the television series is over… you can slip right back into watching Terminator 3. Of course, that does mean we know John won't ever die… but, then again, did you ever really expect him to?
Overall, fans should get a kick from watching episode 1. Heady and Dekker are superb, Glau is decent enough, the visuals are excellent, the fights and gunplay are well-choreographed, and it's more steeped in Terminator mythology than you'd expect: "Reece" is used as an alias, the iconic "road shot" is used, T2's events are mentioned neatly, someone says "come with me if you want to live", there's a visit to Miles Dyson's widow… and, yes, Brad Fidel's fantastic theme tune arrives as the credits roll.So, consider me surprised: I don't want to see this series terminated.
