The New Sarah Connor Chronicles?
A future war series?
We had a think about angles for the new Terminator TV series…
Warning: contains major spoilers forTerminator: Genisys.
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So what direction could aTerminatorTV show take?
But how did a self-aware artificial intelligence come to wander about as a very convincing-looking normal bloke?
Yes, we know Skynet created the Terminators, but whats the reasoning behind Skynet having a leader?
And why would you then send Skynet-the-person into John Connors army?
It raised more questions than it did answers.
Until now, Skynet was almost always explained via dialogue and the actions of characters.
Thinking about this stage of the Terminator story brings up plenty of questions.
What were the people who built Skynet like?
Did the system deceive them with its crafty sentience?
Could it have been stopped?
Did anyone have doubts?
Again, in the two classicTerminatorfilms, we dont see much of the future war itself.
Only brief flashbacks to the future war occurred after the time travel plot beats had happened inGenisys.
Battling with an army controlled by a super-intelligent killer computer system is pretty bad as post-apocalyptic visions go.
Could a TV series visit this time period, then?
Between the events ofJudgement Dayand before the time travel antics ofThe TerminatorandTerminator: Genisys opening acts?
Theres certainly potential there, as well as a few stumbling blocks in the way of getting it right.
The biggest of these obstacles would be the no-win-scenario nature of the story.
Naturally, we know that the Resistance dont win.
Well, they nearly do, but then Skynet does its time-travel thing and the Resistance has to follow.
Saying that, how many great films and TV series have followed normal peoples parts in seemingly unwinnable conflicts?
How many characters that we loved have we watched die in war dramas?
Look atBand Of Brothersfor a prime example.
A show set during the future war could be gripping viewing, then.
LikeThe Walking Dead, death and danger could be lingering around every corner.
Linda Hamiltons everywoman waitress was nowhere to be seen when the recast Kyle Reese jumped back to the 1980s.
Instead, Emilia Clarkes Sarah skipped that part and went straight to the leather-clad bad-ass bit.
This was all thanks to Pops Arnold Schwarzeneggers original Terminator who has been repurposed by an unknown helper.
That sounds like it could be a great TV show to this writer.
While we know what happened when Arnie first arrived (pilot episode alert!
), we dont really know anything that happens after that, until Kyle turns up.
In the new timeline, we also dont know for sure if Skynet sent anyone else to kill Arnie.
This would offer us plenty of action and a central mystery of who sent Pops?
Perhaps Skydance are cooking up something else entirely.
Within the universe of theTerminatorfilms, there are plenty of points where you could plonk in some new characters.
Jumping straight to mind are the early days of the Resistance the immediate follow-up to Judgement Day.
We know that mankind survived, so there must be some other people out there doing something interesting.
Again, there are a few interesting questions here.
What happened to the Governments of the world?
How quickly did the Terminators appear to kill the remaining humans?
Did civilisation manage to rebuild at all while Skynet built its army?
Did anyone escape their concentration camps?
With new characters, though anythings fair game.
Is he the only one that ever went rogue and joined the resistance?
