Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Premiere

Plot: Two years after the events of Terminator 2, Sarah (Lena Headey) and John Connor (Thomas Dekker) are on the run once again.

A great premiere, really awesome fun, tense and dramatic throughout. I suppose the great thing about using an existing IP, such as Terminator is that a knowledge of the back story can be assumed. This allows the SCC premiere to skip over laborious introductions. We know that two years ago, a Terminator was sent back to protect John Connor from the T-1000. The T-1000 was on a mission to assassinate Connor, thus preventing him from rising to lead a band of rebels in a war against machines. We know that.

It's made clear that Sarah and John have been on the run for much of the past couple of years, though Sarah has seemingly made some attempt to settle down, accepting a proposal from a man. A frightening dream unsettles her though and she leaves with John to a new town. Sarah's psychosis in regards to the fate of her son is understandable. The man with a purposeful walk should always be feared, as he could be a split second away from pulling a gun on her and her son.

At the new town, John begins school and is befriended by the pretty Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau). She's not quite what she seems though, as when a substitute teacher turns out to be another assassin, she takes a trio of bullets for John. John escaped out the window and is in danger of being executed before Cameron runs the assassin down with a truck. Joyously and emphatically she exclaims 'come with me if you want to live!'. It's a great moment and brings some awesome memories flooding back. This is an IP to respect and respect has definitely been paid here.

The Connors' problems are further compounded by the fact that they're not just facing robots from the future anymore. The FBI are also on their tail, following the destruction of Cyberdyne and the murder of Miles Dyson.

In the end, the assassin forces Cameron to resort to desperate measures to protect her charge and bring down Skynet, which we discover is brought online in 2011, though it's not known who by. Cameron locks herself, John and Sarah in to a bank vault and they quickly begin assembling a weapon split in to parts hidden in a number of different safety deposit boxes. On top of that, Cameron also has a time machine hidden away. As the assassin breaks through the bank vault, Sarah fires the weapon, killing him and Cameron activates the machine, sending them from 1999 to 2007. There, they'll work to discover who is working on Skynet and attempt to destroy it.

Bringing the show in to the present day seems to be a reasonably clever move, especially considering the time line that we've been given. That allows four years before Skynet is due to become active and possibly four seasons worth of episodes, assuming one year of plot per 22 episode season. Of course, Skynet could be found long before then, but for now I think it'll work.

Now, the characters. Lena Headey plays Sarah Connor. She's probably best known for playing Queen Gorgo in last year's 300. She somewhat enchanting to watch and wears the responsibility of protecting the saviour of the world well. It'll be interesting to see how she grows in to the role over the course of the show, especially considering the character's severe paranoia over her son.

Richard T. Jones plays James Ellison, an FBI agent charged with tracking down Sarah and John Connor to bring them to justice for the death of Miles Dyson. He believes Sarah to be an extremely dangerous psychotic. We don't really learn much about him in this episode, but I can see him fulfilling a similar role as Mahone in season two of Prison Break. I could also see Ellison eventually coming round to join the Connors' fight, especially given the evidence that he sees in this episode alone to support Sarah's story.


Summer Glau, well known for playing River Tam in Joss Whedon's Firefly is given the role of John Connor's protector. Cameron Phillips seems to be a later model than Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator and I'm looking forward to seeing what tricks she has up her sleeves. Summer Glau is very cute when she's not playing a crazy person and it was a clever move to cast her. She'll certainly appeal to that male demographic that are a little too young to relate to Lena Headey.


Finally, the star of the show, saviour of the world, John Connor. He's played by Thomas Dekker who starred last year as Zach in Heroes. I'll admit, I was a little cagey about his ability to play the role for the first few scenes that he appeared in, mostly because I was seeing Zach, rather than John Connor. That quickly changes though, He's headstrong, smart and mindful of his importance. But he's also caring and you sense that he's wary of the toll that his continued existence has on those that are trying to protect him.

It was a great start to a show that has blockbuster potential. The Terminator films have always thrived on providing big budget action and big budget thrills. With a TV budget, that might not be possible, but a strong cast of characters have already proven that big action may not always be necessary. Regardless, this is surely going to be an exhilarating ride and one that I'm looking forward to being a part of. Episode 2 airs tonight, more from me tomorrow.

8 out of 10