Comments on: “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and Time Travel

by: Omar

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:50:43 +0000

1984 A.D. May 12, 1984 - Sarah Connor & Kyle Reese. (T1)
1985 A.D. February 28th 1985 - John Connor is born

1992 A.D. - Sarah Connor; Pescadero Mental Institute.

1995 A.D. May 12, 1995 - John Connor 10 years old (Sarah Escapes) (T2)

1997 A.D. - (Attempt 1st & 2nd) 2:14A.M. E-Time August 29, 1997 Judgment Day)
1997 A.D. – Sara Connor Dies

1999 A.D. - John Connor 14 years old (Sarah Connor Chronicles) Sarah is alive

2004 A.D. July 24 2004 – (T3) (Attempt 3) It Happens Judgment Day!

2007 A.D. - John Connor still 14 years old Jumps into time. (22 years)

2011 A.D. - Judgment Day!

2027 A.D. – T-Cameron

(T1)2029 A.D. - Kyle Reese to save Sarah Connor
The Terminator -800 kill Sarah Connor (PT1)

(T2)2029 A.D. - Terminator -1000 to kill John
Terminator -800 (CSM-101) save John (PT 2)

(T2)2032 A.D. - Terminator T-X to kill John
Terminator -850 (CSM-101) save John (PT 3)

2032 A.D. Current Time Kills John Connor

by: Patrick Thompson

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:59:45 +0000

I think we just have to assume that the TV series is making a wholesale edit to the timeline, outside the time-travel mechanics of the story. From the perspective of the TV series, T1 was 1984, but T2 was 1997 (rather than the original 1994), and so presumably all the other dates were similarly pushed forward a few years, so that the Judgment Day we saw in T3 is now scheduled for somewhere in the 2007-2011 range. Yeah, this negates any mention of dates in the movies, but there are already problems with anything that ties the movie dates down too much; notice for instance that T2 takes place in a 1994 where Russia/USSR is still seen as a major geopolitical threat, rather than what was actually the case in 1994.

The latest episode (”The Devil’s Hand”) drove it home repeatedly, since there were repeated explicit references to the events of T2 taking place in 1997. Within the series, T2 happened in 1997, when John was 13, and from his POV 2 years have passed since. This isn’t a time-travel change, this is an editorial change

by: Todd Seavey

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:50:18 +0000

Years of DC Comics reading have led me to the conclusion that this attitude leads to the least heartbreak, anyway.

(At least rampant time travel means the possibility that many things of which we and the characters are not even aware have been subtly changed, including perhaps the presence of cancer-causing particles, that would if known make sense of things, lazy as that sounds — just as Star Trek could make all sorts of excuses using their “temporal cold war” if they really wanted to [and weren’t simply rebooting the franchise].)

The biggest non-time-travel-related screw-up in the whole Terminator franchise, though, remains the opening narration of T3 in which John thinks the attack in T2 happened when he was thirteen, though he was actually only ten then, since the movie took place around 1994, not in the year of its release, 1991 (and 1991 would have made him three years younger, not older, so I really don’t know where they got thirteen).

If we can let that slide as a mistake on John’s part, I suppose we can also accept randomly-varying cancer rates in different timelines. Not that I want to sound indifferent.

by: Dan

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:37:25 +0000

(My own reply was written before your reply Todd.) So basically we just have to “go with it” and trust that it sorts itself all out.

by: Dan

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:33:52 +0000

I do realize that the TV series says she “dies” in 2005. But how does that change what I said above?

Todd, you explain the “time traveling doctors” but wouldn’t you think Sarah would know something about that at some point between 1995 and 1997?

I do have one other explanation…she never REALLY dies as explained in T3 (fakes her own death) as a cover up as she goes into hiding maybe?? But then she and John would kind of know about that one too…

by: Todd Seavey

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:31:51 +0000

For details like that, annoying though the errors may be, I think we may just have to invoke the “random temporal displacement of cancer-causing particles in the life-histories of eventual time travelers” theory — and then not look too closely at the results.

Again, I expect they’ll rarely mention the 90s again: our heroes are in the present now, where it’s most convenient for the writers to have them, and it’ll probably just be “present-vs.-future,” broadly speaking, from here on out.

Aesthetically, Terminator requires robot assassins in the present and a wasteland in the future, and the precise year that = the present is probably secondary in the writers’ minds (though they haven’t been as cavalier as they could be, happily — strictly speaking, they could just have the present-day characters cause drastic random changes in history by accidentally blowing up a time machine or something, acquire a surefire cancer treatment, completely destroy SkyNet in the present [erasing the familiar future], and move on to stories about a cybernetic teenage John Connor fighting Venusians and international drug gangs, if they really wanted to).

by: Dan

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:14:25 +0000

My problem with Sarah’s cancer is that (presumably) she never travels in time until 1999 (to 2007.) Then why didn’t she still develop the cancer and die in 1997 like T3 explains? Her timeline never changes until 1999, two years after she is supposed to have died…or did it? The TV series is going to have to explain this at some point. Her doctor’s visit tells that she doesn’t have cancer at all, but two years after her “death”?? That rules out the time travel from ‘99 to ‘07 as the “cure.”

by: Richard

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:19:05 +0000

Sarahs cancer may have been due to something she was exposed with, that never happened since she vanished for those years. So cancer may be off the cards now.

by: Tito

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:49:19 +0000

And another thing, didn’t TX infected the new Skynet computer with something and turned it hostile in the first place? So perhaps had he not been around to help prevent Kate’s death (and eventual trip to see her father), TX would have never had the chance to infect Skynet since she would have easily killed her at her office. And since John knows that 2011 Judgment Day was prevented (and possibly pushed backed again, after all its inevitable), it wasn’t a big deal interfering in the present.

by: Tito

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:21:17 +0000

I came across this web page trying to look for answers as to how the TV show ties in with the movies. Upon reading your take, its a bit clearer now. Obviously there are certain things that can drive a person crazy, such as John’s dad being from the future, its akin to the Grandfather Paradox. How can John be born in the “Original” timeline if his father is from the future, a person whom he will send back in time to protect his mom, and in essence father him. But most of us are willing to let it slide, afterall its a good story.

In any case, you theory just lit up this light bulb over my head. It helps in cleaning up the timeline mess, at least for me. Now in T3, the TX was sent not after John but his lieutenants since John has been off grid. So it doesn’t matter whether the Connors time hopped over to 2007 to prevent the 2011 Judgment Day from happening or not. But what if their jump to 2007 to prevent the 2011 Judgment Day actually ended up pushing it earlier to 2004? Let’s say they were successful in preventing the 2011 Judgment Day, and the Connors (or at least John) was then sent back to his proper timeline (1999 + the time spent in the future, and Sarah dying of leukemia). So say if they stayed in the future for 4 years, he ends up being sent back to 2003. Enough time to go to high school and still meet his future lieutenants. Now I know in T3 he explained about how he stayed off the grid, but hey, maybe he intentionally left the part of traveling to the future, since that would even be even more difficult explaining in a 1 and half hour movie versus a TV series. And as to how to the Judgment Day being pushed forward, well they were gone from 1999-2007. A time in which they could have been fighting to prevent Judgment Day anyways. And since we have that FBI guy hunting them down, maybe had they stayed he perhaps became an ally, being convinced somehow of the existence of the cyborgs (perhaps through Cameron) to their war and actually helped in at least pushing it back to 2011. But since they took off, it means such alliance never materialized, and there was also no one left behind the fight the war. By the time John got back, the Air Force already have Skynet up and running. Yes, I realize that Cameron’s files says 2007 to be the focal point for the 2011 Judgment Day, but she comes from that particular timeline, the timeline where she didn’t “interfere.” So perhaps the reason why she says 2007 is the focal point and not any time between 1999 and 2004, is because the Connors had been fighting a guerrilla warfare in preventing Skynet’s creation and it wasn’t until that time that the Air Force (or whoever else that might have been responsible for Skynet’s creation, since she doesn’t know anyways) was able to put things finally together wherein it is recognizable as Skynet (or her predecessor). As for the Air Force no longer being involved, maybe the FBI man was able to make believers of enough people in the Air Force (or government) which led to the scrapping of the program. Which could also explain why there is no other information about Skynet until 2007 since it is reasonable to assume that the government in some way would try to prevent the creation of Skynet. Which means her creation has to be underground, perhaps some programmer (the usual conspiracy theory) or some hacker who hacks into the original Skynet program inadvertently releases it into the unknowing public. Maybe some kind of shareware or p2p programming or virus or a combination thereof, and it wasn’t until 2011 that there was enough infected computers that Skynet was finally able to become self-aware. I mean we have those SETI distributed program, so maybe it’s like that one. Combine enough computers (which continually evolves into more powerful ones every year), faster internet connection, and in essence, even though there are thousands of computers, the communication between those computers are instantaneous that we now have a supercomputer in our hand that is capable of hosting Skynet’s massive programming. And which means, the new trilogy can still be based of the movies we have come to know and love.

Just my 2 cent, I’m sure someone out there can explain it in a better way, or improve upon it.