Writers: Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz
Director: Jeffrey Hunt
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah Connor), Thomas Dekker (John Connor), Summer Glau (Cameron Phillips), Dean Winters (Charlie Dixon), Brian Austin Green (Derek Reese), Brendan Hines (Andy Goode), Andre Royo (Tad), Peter Mensah (Perry), Jonathan Jackson (Kyle Reese), Edoardo Ballerini (Timms), Jonathan Sadowski (Sayles) & Matt McColm (Vick)
Derek fights for his life, remembering his past fighting machines in the future, as Sarah explains herself to Charlie...
Finally! An epic scope and undertones of a more complex storyline bubble to the surface in episode 6's Dungeons & Dragons – even if it relies almost entirely on plugging gaps in the Terminator mythos and repeating many of its classic lines to fan-pleasing effect...
Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz essentially write an episode that speaks directly to the Terminator fan-base who want action, special-effects and big revelations, but manage to ensure there's a worthwhile dramatic element going on for Sarah (Lena Headey), John (Thomas Dekker) and Charlie (Dean Winters).
The story has wounded Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green), brother of Kyle Reese, fighting for his life on their kitchen table – unaware that his brother was Sarah's time-travelling lover, and fathered John – the leader of the human resistance in Derek's war-ravaged future (see the events of 1984s The Terminator, as if you haven't already...)
Derek slips in and out of consciousness, as Sarah's one-time fiancé Charlie does his best to drain his lung and patch him up, and we're treated to flashbacks(forwards?) of Derek's life – hiding underground with brother Kyle (Jonathan Jackson) and soldiers Wisher and Sayles (Jonathan Sadowski), huddled beneath the "junkyard" of Los Angeles above, as part of a human resistance against Skynet...
It's actually quite surprising that a TV show has the budget to do justice to this nightmarish dystopia, providing nostalgic thrills for fans of the Terminator films and (perhaps) a nod at where the proposed new trilogy of futuristic Terminator films will go? That's if you still consider Chronicles canonical to the film franchise, or its own alternate spin-off adventure...
In the present, Sarah reveals her secrets to ex-lover Charlie, providing plenty of evidence about her unlikely story by way of the T-888 endoskeleton. Cameron (Summer Glau; getting even hotter?) is tasked with destroying its body, to prevent altering the timeline if any components fall into the wrong hands. Of course, we already know, and she later discovers, that the T-888 is missing its left hand...
The future plot with Derek is undoubtedly more interesting, as his team are captured by the enemy after emerging from their subterranean stronghold and being split from Kyle, whilst in search of a Skynet "super-weapon" – that might involve a jet engine some skinless Terminators are seen pulling along...
Derek's team are taken to an abandoned old house, chained to the floor by an injured rubber-skinned Terminator (resembling Michael Myers from Halloween!), and have barcodes lasered onto their forearms, for some unknown purpose. It's here that Wisher admits to Derek that his real name is actually Andy Goode (Brendan Hines) and he helped create Skynet, but found he couldn't control it and therefore was ultimately responsible for the apocalypse.
Rather strangely, Derek is taken by the rubberized Terminator down to the basement and pushed into a room – but we never learn what happened in there, or who/what he met. Instead, the Terminators all leave the house soon after, enabling Derek to escape with his team, but they return to their underground base to find it's been destroyed.
Weeks later, Derek is still searching for his missing brother Kyle and has joined a new resistance cell, where he discovers Cameron working alongside humans! Derek is told the resistance have begun capturing and reprogramming Terminators to help them, but Derek is soon caught in the middle of a gunfight with a reprogrammed Terminator that starts killing people.
Cameron arrives to save Derek's life by killing the malfunctioning fellow cyborg, revealing to him that reprogrammed Terminators sometimes "go bad" like that, but nobody knows why.
At this point, Derek is given a secret mission from John Connor himself (unseen), and is led into a room containing equipment that can create time-portals. He agrees to lead a small team back in time to 2007, and shares a moment with Wisher/Andy -- who clearly wants to be freed of his guilt.
Derek and his team arrive in 2007 through the portal, crouched together naked in the middle of L.A, ready to carry out their mission – which, for Derek, also involves assassinating Andy at a chess tournament (see last week's Queen's Gambit) to alter history and save his friend from a life of guilt.
In the present, Charlie is unsettled by Cameron's emotionless evisceration of the T-888s fleshy body, calling her "a very scary robot", before she incinerates the metal endoskeleton using a high-burning thermite...
However, she secretly pockets the chip she took out of the T-888s skull to disable it – for unknown reasons. Is it another example of her wanting to preserve herself, like when she ensured some metal alloy wasn't destroyed a few weeks ago? Or has she "gone bad" and is now operating with an ulterior motive? But if so, why doesn't she just kill John? Surely that's the top prize for any Terminator?
With an unexpectedly larger scope and production values for its decimated future world, there's plenty to savour visually this week. The episode also acts as neat pay-off to a few recurring plots, particularly Andy's role on the show, whilst managing to embellish the Terminator mythology regarding time-travel and Kyle Reese.
It's actually ironic that one of the best episodes post-Pilot marginalizes the regular cast and takes place in the unexplored territory of the near-future! While that's not a great sign for the show at large, you can't deny Dungeons & Dragons provides the most compelling episode of Chronicles in weeks – by not only massaging geeky adoration of the events and atmosphere from the original films, but also setting in motion some interesting new ideas of its own...
For once, I finished watching this episode with questions burning in my head: what did Derek see in that basement? Why did the Terminators capture his team and barcode their arms? What "super-weapon" is Skynet making that requires a jet engine? Where did Future John get his time-portals from? Why do some reprogrammed Terminators revert to their true nature? Is Cameron doomed to do the same? Has she already turned bad, but hiding it? Does Cameron have a secret mission from Future John that she can't reveal?
I'm actually quite excited to see what happens next, but I hope Chronicles' cast can start claiming credit for this upswing in quality, as Dungeons & Dragons is principally a triumph because it riffs on the superior movies...
18 February 2008
FOX, 9/8c pm
Director: Jeffrey Hunt
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah Connor), Thomas Dekker (John Connor), Summer Glau (Cameron Phillips), Dean Winters (Charlie Dixon), Brian Austin Green (Derek Reese), Brendan Hines (Andy Goode), Andre Royo (Tad), Peter Mensah (Perry), Jonathan Jackson (Kyle Reese), Edoardo Ballerini (Timms), Jonathan Sadowski (Sayles) & Matt McColm (Vick)
Derek fights for his life, remembering his past fighting machines in the future, as Sarah explains herself to Charlie...Charlie: Hey. You could have told me.
Sarah: Would you have believed me?
Sarah: Would you have believed me?
Finally! An epic scope and undertones of a more complex storyline bubble to the surface in episode 6's Dungeons & Dragons – even if it relies almost entirely on plugging gaps in the Terminator mythos and repeating many of its classic lines to fan-pleasing effect...
Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz essentially write an episode that speaks directly to the Terminator fan-base who want action, special-effects and big revelations, but manage to ensure there's a worthwhile dramatic element going on for Sarah (Lena Headey), John (Thomas Dekker) and Charlie (Dean Winters).
The story has wounded Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green), brother of Kyle Reese, fighting for his life on their kitchen table – unaware that his brother was Sarah's time-travelling lover, and fathered John – the leader of the human resistance in Derek's war-ravaged future (see the events of 1984s The Terminator, as if you haven't already...)
Derek slips in and out of consciousness, as Sarah's one-time fiancé Charlie does his best to drain his lung and patch him up, and we're treated to flashbacks(forwards?) of Derek's life – hiding underground with brother Kyle (Jonathan Jackson) and soldiers Wisher and Sayles (Jonathan Sadowski), huddled beneath the "junkyard" of Los Angeles above, as part of a human resistance against Skynet...
It's actually quite surprising that a TV show has the budget to do justice to this nightmarish dystopia, providing nostalgic thrills for fans of the Terminator films and (perhaps) a nod at where the proposed new trilogy of futuristic Terminator films will go? That's if you still consider Chronicles canonical to the film franchise, or its own alternate spin-off adventure...
In the present, Sarah reveals her secrets to ex-lover Charlie, providing plenty of evidence about her unlikely story by way of the T-888 endoskeleton. Cameron (Summer Glau; getting even hotter?) is tasked with destroying its body, to prevent altering the timeline if any components fall into the wrong hands. Of course, we already know, and she later discovers, that the T-888 is missing its left hand...
The future plot with Derek is undoubtedly more interesting, as his team are captured by the enemy after emerging from their subterranean stronghold and being split from Kyle, whilst in search of a Skynet "super-weapon" – that might involve a jet engine some skinless Terminators are seen pulling along...
Derek's team are taken to an abandoned old house, chained to the floor by an injured rubber-skinned Terminator (resembling Michael Myers from Halloween!), and have barcodes lasered onto their forearms, for some unknown purpose. It's here that Wisher admits to Derek that his real name is actually Andy Goode (Brendan Hines) and he helped create Skynet, but found he couldn't control it and therefore was ultimately responsible for the apocalypse.
Rather strangely, Derek is taken by the rubberized Terminator down to the basement and pushed into a room – but we never learn what happened in there, or who/what he met. Instead, the Terminators all leave the house soon after, enabling Derek to escape with his team, but they return to their underground base to find it's been destroyed.
Weeks later, Derek is still searching for his missing brother Kyle and has joined a new resistance cell, where he discovers Cameron working alongside humans! Derek is told the resistance have begun capturing and reprogramming Terminators to help them, but Derek is soon caught in the middle of a gunfight with a reprogrammed Terminator that starts killing people.
Cameron arrives to save Derek's life by killing the malfunctioning fellow cyborg, revealing to him that reprogrammed Terminators sometimes "go bad" like that, but nobody knows why.
At this point, Derek is given a secret mission from John Connor himself (unseen), and is led into a room containing equipment that can create time-portals. He agrees to lead a small team back in time to 2007, and shares a moment with Wisher/Andy -- who clearly wants to be freed of his guilt.
Derek and his team arrive in 2007 through the portal, crouched together naked in the middle of L.A, ready to carry out their mission – which, for Derek, also involves assassinating Andy at a chess tournament (see last week's Queen's Gambit) to alter history and save his friend from a life of guilt.
In the present, Charlie is unsettled by Cameron's emotionless evisceration of the T-888s fleshy body, calling her "a very scary robot", before she incinerates the metal endoskeleton using a high-burning thermite...
However, she secretly pockets the chip she took out of the T-888s skull to disable it – for unknown reasons. Is it another example of her wanting to preserve herself, like when she ensured some metal alloy wasn't destroyed a few weeks ago? Or has she "gone bad" and is now operating with an ulterior motive? But if so, why doesn't she just kill John? Surely that's the top prize for any Terminator?
With an unexpectedly larger scope and production values for its decimated future world, there's plenty to savour visually this week. The episode also acts as neat pay-off to a few recurring plots, particularly Andy's role on the show, whilst managing to embellish the Terminator mythology regarding time-travel and Kyle Reese.
It's actually ironic that one of the best episodes post-Pilot marginalizes the regular cast and takes place in the unexplored territory of the near-future! While that's not a great sign for the show at large, you can't deny Dungeons & Dragons provides the most compelling episode of Chronicles in weeks – by not only massaging geeky adoration of the events and atmosphere from the original films, but also setting in motion some interesting new ideas of its own...
For once, I finished watching this episode with questions burning in my head: what did Derek see in that basement? Why did the Terminators capture his team and barcode their arms? What "super-weapon" is Skynet making that requires a jet engine? Where did Future John get his time-portals from? Why do some reprogrammed Terminators revert to their true nature? Is Cameron doomed to do the same? Has she already turned bad, but hiding it? Does Cameron have a secret mission from Future John that she can't reveal?
I'm actually quite excited to see what happens next, but I hope Chronicles' cast can start claiming credit for this upswing in quality, as Dungeons & Dragons is principally a triumph because it riffs on the superior movies...
18 February 2008
FOX, 9/8c pm
