S2E13: VS Terminator Timeline

[Angry Geek D-Rod]

Was this confusing? It sounds confusing. I hope it wasn't confusing...

I usually have charts and diagrams (and booze) when I explain my theory to captured party guests.

Let me know what you thought!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ang ... 99697?mt=2
https://soundcloud.com/angrygeeksvs

[Mike]

Okay, I was at camp, so I'm just getting caught up. I loved this episode. I've only seen 1-3, so now I'm all motivated to watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

My only nit-pick is right at the beginning when you say "time travel doesn't work that way". More correctly, time travel doesn't work that way in the Terminator universe .

But the problem is... it could have. The Terminator was MY Terminator. I saw it in my formative teen years. I loved it. And looking at just that first movie, it would appear that it was operating on the principle that time is a closed loop, and that everything that happens... even with time travel... has always happened. Kyle has always been John's father. John has always been the leader of the resistance. In such a world, time travel changes nothing, and can change nothing. The tension in the movie only comes from the fact that we are unaware of that until the end.

But then in Terminator 2 (your Terminator), they firmly establish that that's NOT how time travel works. Instead they tell us that time travel can and does change history, thus necessitating the multiple timelines you play with.

I think that for an ongoing franchise, that's the way you have to go with it. But it means that it makes parts of the original, which was intended as a standalone work, pretty nonsensical in retrospect.