"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, December 15, 2008

Space, Time, and Blogging in The Sarah Connor Chronicles

"We all know how reliable bloggers are," John sarcastically observed in Episode 2.13, the Fall finale, of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Hopefully, he'd feel differently about this blog, and you will, too...

As for the episode, it was powerful, and game-changing, although not in the subtlest way. Then again, subtlety was never the strong suit of any of Terminator stories, not to mention the Terminators.

The most interesting part of tonight's episode, for me, was former agent Ellison schooling the reborn Cromartie. Why is Ellison doing this? He knows how bad Cromartie can be. I'm guessing that Ellison may be on the way to developing a good Terminator, in Cromartie's form.

Also significant is what more we learned of Riley, though her ultimate allegiance - whether to John or Jesse, and what about Sarah, if John and Jesse have different views of whether to protect or get rid of her - has yet to be determined. What is very clear, at this point, is that Jesse is not the nicest person. War with metal in the future probably did that to her - but she's even tougher than Derek.

And what of Sarah? I don't know - the least believable part of tonight's story is that she is being taken in by some kind of UFO - from outer space or the future, it's hard to say - and, if the coming attractions are any indication, John's father Kyle is among them. Meaning, what? Kyle wasn't really killed at the end of Terminator 1, the very first movie?

We'll see in February, when The Sarah Connor Chronicles will have the tough competition of Lost as another series that travels through time...

See also 2.1 Cameron's Back ... 2.2 Firing on All Cylinders ... 2.3 Who, Truly, Is Agent Ellison? ... 2.4: Meet Allison ... 2.5: Unpacking the Future ... 2.6: Terminator Mom, Human Daughter ... 2.7: The Saving Robbery and Cromartie ... 2.8 Perspectives and Death ... 2.9: An Idiot's Guide to Time Travel in The Sarah Connor Chronicles ... 2.10: Riley Lashes Out at Facebook ... 2.11: Cameron Meets A. E. Housman and Andre Bazin ... 2.12 Sarah Connor Chronicles in Triple Time






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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

about this episode.. Ellison-JH talk the best.

Merry Xmas.

Nick! said...

Oh, wow, is the whole UFO thing something you picked up from the previews, because if that is a road that they're going down, I don't like the sound of it.

I suppose - and bear in mind I haven't seen those previews - that we may be about to see Sarah Connor in captivity by common or garden humans, and that they may torture or interrogate her to the point that she relives or hallucinates encounters with Kyle Reese.

I got the impression that the UFO we saw at the end of this episode was actually man-made in secret - which would explain the humans guarding the building that Sarah snuck into. Maybe using tech from the future, but also potentially just new and secret advancements, like the stealth bomber was.

If the latter is the case, there's a further significance to it - if you ignore T3, which is what everyone seems to be doing, that UFO, that looks a lot like similar technology to the oft-seen hunter-seekers from the future, would be the first example in the series of actual physical technology that doesn't exist in our present-day world being designed and built by humans, without pre-existing materials or influence from the future.

Not sure how to unpack that properly, if it's the case, but so far, despite the earlier films touching on humanity's folly, every example we've seen of the future being built, at least physically - I see software as different - has been a result of future-Skynet interference - a paradox-centered continuity.

This new appearance, if it means what I thought it might mean, touches back onto the idea that regardless of the time-travel, this is the terrible future we were always going to make for ourselves.

Sorry if I ranted on - I've just been going over the last few episodes for my own blog, and these thoughts occured to me!

Great post as always, Paul!

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