Sarah Connor Chronicles Pilot Episode Review

The full title of the pilot is “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”, and casts movie actress Lena Headey (”300″) as the titular character. The pilot informs us that the year is 1999, and much of the storyline takes its cues from “T2: Judgment Day”, with Sarah in the wind, while teen son John (Thomas Dekker, late of “Heroes”) attempts something approaching a semi-normal life. When we first meet them, they are somewhere in Nebraska, and Sarah (going by Sarah Reese, no less) has found herself married, and John looking to start school. It doesn’t last, however, as the two are suddenly on the road again, with Sarah leaving behind a bewildered fiance.

Mother and son end up in New Mexico, where John immediately comes into focus for attractive female classmate Cameron (Summer Glau), who seems very interested in our would-be savior of all mankind. Unfortunately John has to spur her advances, lest she discover that his mom is a wanted fugitive, and yeah, that whole killer cyborg stuff. Mom is no better off, given to abandoning lovers in the middle of the night and staring obsessively at John as he sleeps, something which creeps him out. Later, John makes up with Cameron, just in time to greet the new substitute teacher, who has a habit of sticking knives into his calf while he’s doing roll call. And he, too, seems mightily interested in John Reese…

The people behind “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” know that you want action, and that’s what you get from the very first minute of the pilot. Director David Nutter and writer Josh Friedman don’t waste any time re-introducing the Terminators, and just assumes you already know the story, or you’re familiar enough not to have the entire Terminator mythos rehashed for you. This leaves the hour-long pilot to pour on the fireworks and pathos, and things rarely stand still for very long, making for an impressive re-introduction to the franchise. Can they keep it up? The ending of the pilot would seem to indicate that future episodes would not be quite as action-packed, but still action-oriented.

The pilot continues the formula of the last three feature films — one good Terminator and one bad Terminator are sent after John. By now it should be readily obvious (if not from other reviews of the pilot, then from spoilers available on the net) that Summer Glau’s character is a Terminator, one of the good kinds fortunately, sent back to protect John. Remember, it makes perfect sense that the future Resistance continues to send back aid to its leader whenever he needs it, just as it makes perfect sense that Skynet continues to send killer Terminators. Time is relative, and in the future, the past stands still. You can continue to send an endless supply of cyborg killers, as long as you know where your target is. For Future John, sending back aid to when he needs them is also easy; having already lived his past, he knows where he’ll be at any given time.

Where the series slightly diverges from the movies is the introduction of a third faction in an FBI agent who is assigned to pursue Sarah Connor for the death of Miles Dyson and blowing up Cyberdyne (as shown in “T2″). Although it quickly becomes obvious that the FBI Agent will eventually become an ally in the fight against a burgeoning Skynet, itself not really shown in the pilot. In the space of the hour, evidence is already piling up for our G-man that Sarah isn’t the crazy loon he’s been told she is. When 20 students tell you that their substitute teacher, who just tried to kill John in the middle of a classroom, has a “metal robot leg”, you start believing in some pretty weird things. Including the FBI agent, the cast of “Chronicles” is kept surprisingly small, at least for now.

The pilot’s script, credited to Josh Friedman, has a couple of non-action highlights in-between all the gunplay and cyborg battles. Consider this gem by Sarah to son John, moments after she has informed him that they must uproot and abandon the life they’ve been living for the last two years: “Half an hour. One bag. Plus the guns. I’ll make pancakes.” Of course it helps that Lena Headey is the one delivering those lines. Fresh from a thriving movie career, it’s odd that Headey would start on TV work; one would think a successful series would not be indusive to a movie career. Thomas Dekker is serviceable as young John, but of course the pilot (and series, judging by the title) is more about Sarah Connor than John. And “Firefly” castaway Summer Glau as the savior Terminator? I heard about it, and saw it coming a mile away, but seeing Glau throw down with a 6-feet plus male Terminator was still too cool for words.

It’s still unclear how the writers plan on navigating the treacherous continuity problems already put in its way by the movies, especially considering the events of the third Terminator movie, “Rise of the Machines”, which had a 20-something John on the run, alone, and the war that John and Sarah worked so feverishly to stop eventually proving…unstoppable. So does that mean the entire TV series is built on a foundation of inevitability? Or do the writers plan to do more than tweak the plotline of “Rise of the Machines” to accommodate a storyline worth following in the series? Questions, questions…

What kind of chances do I give “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” when it debuts this fall? Plenty — as long as FOX doesn’t demand instant gratification by way of huge ratings, as network TV is wont to do. If given a chance, the show could find an audience beyond the rabid “Terminator” fanbase, because there’s enough good things here for everyone. There is plenty of drama in Sarah Connor’s plight to save humanity, but most of all, save her son. Add the wild action and spectacular stunts to that, and you have a show worth following. Someone, please, give this show a chance.

By the way, remember I said that the pilot picks up in 1999? Well, not for long…