Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, Richard Jones, Brian Austin Green, Garret Dillahunt,
Dean Winters | Written by Josh Friedman, based on characters created by James Cameron & Gale Anne Hurd
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £29.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 389 minutes | Directed by David Nutter & others
You really, really have to be so careful when messing around with time travel. In the first Terminator film, the date of Judgment Day was never mentioned. In T2, it was given as August 29, 1997. In the awful Terminator 3, thanks to the events of the second film, it had been moved to July 25, 2004. And now, in the terrific spinoff TV series, it's been put back to April 21, 2011. So we've got a few years yet before the machines take over and try to wipe us all out.
In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, our heroes are once again trying to stop that from happening — by making sure that the Skynet computer system (which, on Judgment Day, becomes self-aware and declares war on humanity) never gets built. Set in 1999, just a few short years after the events of T2 (and ignoring completely the mess that was T3) Sarah (heady) and son John (Dekker) are living undercover, accused of the murder of Miles Dyson. When a substitute teacher (actually, a terminator from the future) at John's school tries to kill him, John is rescued by another terminator that has been sent back to protect him (He is, after all, the future saviour of the human race). A very cute teenage terminator, in the shape of Summer Glau. And named Cameron, no doubt in honour of the man who created the whole Terminator franchise in the first place.
So our three heroes are on the run, from both the US government in the shape of FBI agent Elisone (Jones) and the terminator Cromartie (Owain Yeoman). But there's a nice twist at the end of the first episode — Cameron has a time machine hidden in a bank vault, and so propels the three of them into the future ... to 2007. On paper, you really don't expect this series to work. And a lot of people were very surprised when the series was announced back in 2005. A reboot of a multi-billion-dollar franchise that doesn't have its biggest drawcard — Arnie himself? That completely ignores an entire movie in the series? That recasts a major role — with a weedy English actress? That has a cute, but pintsized, girl playing an unstoppable killing machine? But surprisingly, work it does. The action scenes are tremendous, the story is strong and the subplots engrossing. The characters are well drawn and perfectly performed, particularly from Heady who surprises as the eponymous heroine. Glau, too, shines as the emotionless cyborg, although at times she could out-pout Keira Knightley. Dekker is fine as Connor, but he's the only slightly weak link in a pretty strong cast. It's great to see another first-rate sci-fi actioner on our screens, because apart from Battlestar Galactica, there's been a lack of good genre material for a while. The Sarah Connor Chronicles debuted in the US in January to mainly good reviews and high ratings. Although it had a shortened 9-episode first season (thanks to the writers strike) it's been renewed for a 13-episode run for its second. Which means that, yes ... it will be back.
EXTRAS * Just a few deleted scenes. That's it. Once again Region 2 DVD buyers are being shortchanged. The special features on the Region 1 release include a behind-the-scenes look at the production process, audio commentaries, deleted scenes, a Gag Reel, cast audition tapes, a storyboard animatic featuring the sequence of the school session in the pilot where Cromartie attacks and John escapes, a Summer Glau dance rehearsal and an extended Director's Cut of the episode The Demon Hand.
