This post is a reaction to the review of the season finale of
Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles of that can be found here:
http://blog.nj.com/alltv/2008/03/better_late_than_never_reviews.html The reviewer's name is Alan Sepinwall. The forum it was published on is owned by New Jersey's
The Star-Ledger.
This post contains minor spoilers for
T3 and the
end of season one of
Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles (only implied), and spoilers for the
LOST episode "The Constant."
Okay, so here's what the person said:
"Still, despite the improvements, I'm still not sure if there's a long creative life in this concept. (That's assuming Fox even renews it, considering how much the ratings slipped from that big debut audience, and the fact that the network has committed big money for next season to sci-fi shows from Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams.) It's a Gilligan or Fugitive premise, where the characters can only come so close to accomplishing their goal before the end of the series. And unlike "Lost," where getting off the island was also the chief goal, there aren't enough interesting detours along the way to get in the way of that. Either they're going to get their hands on the Turk and then realize that it's not the start of SkyNet, or they're going to spend seasons chasing the Turk as it continually changes hands; either way, I expect it to get old."
My reaction: Um, isn't that the whole point--that Judgment Day is NOT avoidable? If
T3 can speak to anything, it's that. In this universe, they are always fighting to prevent something that will happen. We know Judgment Day will happen, because we are still getting time travellers in
the present from that version of the future. There is no way to completely prevent Judgment Day, because otherwise there would be no opportunity to prevent Judgment Day. It's much more complicated than Marty just disappearing in the past if his parents don't get together at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. To quote The (Tenth) Doctor, it's more "like a big ball of Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Whimey. . . stuff" when you get into time travelling narratives.
Essentially, John Connor will always grow up to be the savior of the human race, because the human race will always need saving (from the machines, from themselves, whatever it ends up translating to in the long run).
The only thing that Sarah and crew can be fighting for on the show is creating a less-successful Judgment Day. In other words, they might be able to eventually create a glitch in the system (or something) which will allow John and his followers to overtake the machines at some point in the future. Like a fail safe. And, this would be incredibly difficult, since it doesn't just require that Sarah and crew build some fail safe into the system; they will also have to build a fail safe that remains undetected by the machines until John and his followers activate it.
But, Sarah and crew haven't even gotten this far yet. They're still tracking down the Turk--or what they think is the Turk. And the Terminators never seem to be able to figure the fail safe thing out either, which might be a good thing or something that is terribly ineffective with their problem-solving powers.
But really, this is all a reaction to this reviewer's comments about the inability of The Sarah Connor Chronicles storyline to perpetuate and reinvent itself over a long period of time. I find this observation very simplistic. If I were Doc Brown, I might even accuse the reviewer of "not thinking fourth-dimensionally."
Anyone who's watched a good time travelling show knows that--if used correctly--just having time travel around gives you an infinite amount of storyline possibilities. The trick is to use it in a
way that doesn't drive your audience crazy. But, unless you're Tim Kring, most head writers of sci-fi shows know how to not annoy the crap out of their audiences. Take
LOST as an example. They killed off Nicki and Paolo when they saw it wasn't working, and they've recovered from the slight faux-pas (according to everyone, even though I never really minded the new additions) of the beginning of season 3 to the bigger and brighter--though shorter--season 4. (And, anyone who's been watching along knows that time travel has resurfaced in the Desmond storyline--at least time travel of a person's consciousness. Again, time travel provides infinite possibilities for good writers.)
Basically, I really want FOX to renew Sarah Connor--or send it over to FX and air a new season
there. I can't mention pleading for this show without mentioning
Dark Angel--another show that dealt with the threat of dystopic future and was the brainchild of James Cameron. It was cancelled at the end of a season that included some of the worst episodes ever, true, but also within 8 months of 9/11. I always wonder if we're ready as a nation for the dystopic future in a post-9/11 world. I'm not implying anything, because the cult-appeal doesn't always help these shows' cases, either. I am just wondering if that's why it's more difficult to get "enough" viewers for these shows.
I just can't help it. I love me a good dystopia.
