Oh I know. It’s pretty much the same problem I have with a lot of time travel stories, especially ones with sequels, and more especially ones when the future-self of a character is actively involved in what’s going on with the present-self.
Which probably means I shouldn’t be watching anything in the Terminator franchise.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Tim Guinee? I remember him playing Vala’s sort of Ori husband on Stargate SG1 when Vala was trapped in the Ori galaxy. He always reminded me a bit of Nathan Fillion, Capt. Malcolm ‘Tightpants’ Reynolds from Firefly.
The internets say that Guinee was originally the fiance, but they then changed the character name and personality, and recast Winters, reshooting the relevant scenes in the pilot. So we’re both right!
Chalk me up as another person who would probably have passed on any interest in this show (in spite of the good reviews that I’m reading) if it weren’t for the involvement of Lena and Summer.
Lena has played lesbian roles well, and that is enough for me to go out of my way to keep up with what she’s doing. I also consider myself a Firefly fan and have no problem with also being biased toward an interest in the other works of the actors. I enjoyed the show and Serenity, and the cast and crew seemed to have an especially good experience making the show and the movie. The all seem like “good people”, and that is enough to put them on my own little special list.
I also choose to eat at restaurants where I enjoy the friendliness of the staff, even if there might be better food next door.
Heh. That’s pretty funny. 
Maybe the reason the antagonist Terminator wisecracks is the same reason the Summer Glau model is “different.”
Any chance that this human is still alive in 2007? 70 years old or somesuch, filling the Wise Old Man role I’d wager.
The wisecracks don’t bother me-remember that the T2 Terminator due to John’s erudition became more humanlike and even managed a few one-liners of his own (“I need a vacation”).
not that we really need more evidence of Cameron being a different, newer model of terminator, but in tonight’s episode when the older model terminator scanned her, he didn’t recognize her as a terminator, just some kind of cyborg.
Watched ep. #2. Overall kind of meh, but I’ll give it about a month to grow into itself.
I found the Headless Terminator rather unintentionally humorous.
Me too. I guess humans have what, some kind of a USB port in the back of the skull?
How about we let this thread shuffle off this mortal coil and post to the new thread?
Link to it, then.
Yeah, what Rucksinator said. I don’t see a new thread for the second episode, just this one and the “It was bad” thread. I don’t think it was bad, so I don’t want to post in that one, so for now that leaves this one.
It was enough to keep me watching for a while.
I liked that the terminator executed Enrique - not so much that we found out she was right. Better to leave it ambiguous.
The story really needs to emphasize the alienness of the terminator. It doesn’t think like a person. It’s not sentimental. Everything it does is a logical step in fulfilling its mission.
So when you’re dealing with a guy who could identify you, who could PUT THE FATE OF THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE IN DANGER by selling you out, if it’s logical to execute him*, you should. Sarah wouldn’t do it because of the sentimental attachment. But the fate of mankind trumps any one person’s life, even potentially innocent, a billion fold. The Terminator understood that - within the context of its mission - which is part of what makes them interesting as characters.
I worry that the show will humanize her, let her pick up habits from people, and essentially become a flawed human character that can kick ass. I hope they don’t go in that direction - the story is much more interesting with alien terminators.
Telling us that the terminator did the right thing at the end of the episode like that makes it black and white and easy to handle. It indicates to me that the writers don’t intend to challenge the viewer. Leaving it ambiguous and making the audience ponder whether it was the right thing to do would be more interesting. I thought they were going to go that route when the terminator said “he was possibly lying”, rather than saying “his voice tension indicated a 99.4% chance of lying” or something, so the ending was dissapointing.
I have a bad feeling that Cameron has an emotion chip. That or she’s a human who’s been cyborged.
Hmm. I wonder how low the ratings have to go before we start seeing John bang the terminator. “Are you… fully functional?”
Emotion chip would be terrible and totally ruin the story. Terminator stories are interesting because of the nature of the terminators, not because they’re generic stories in which one of the characters happens to be able to throw a bus.
ummm…Hasta la vista baby?
It’s been well established since T2 that terminators can learn to be more human…and not such a dork. (although I think it’s probably easier to start with a cute girl than a cartoonishly large Austrian dude).
Still, I agree that I wouldn’t want to see her totally human. They should always be a little stiff and “off” from real humans. Kristina Lokken from T-3 was good as the female terminator probably because she’s such a crappy, wooden actress.
Ironic, the one actor who should be stiff and wooden, isn’t. Unfortunately, Ms. Glau seems more like the twitchy little girl from Firefly than an emotionless terminator.
Are you kidding? That would have been the first thing I would have asked after I figured out it wasn’t there to kill me.
That would make her…Jack Bauer.