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Terminator: TSCC / Season 2


Jango Fett
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This bitch can see bar graphs and thermo vision, yet I am supposed to believe this robot became confused into thinking she was a real human, even though she weighs 500 pounds, can do a gazillion math problems in her head per second, and rip a friggin door off it's hinges?

 

I have been around a lot of computers, but not once have I seen a broken computer start to believe it's a chicken or a cat. broken machines don't assume new identities, they malfunction.

 

The whole premise of the episode smelled like crap to me. Although, it is interesting to see what a sexual deviant John becomes in the future.

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wait a sec

 

This bitch can see bar graphs and thermo vision, yet I am supposed to believe this robot became confused into thinking she was a real human, even though she weighs 500 pounds, can do a gazillion math problems in her head per second, and rip a friggin door off it's hinges?

 

I have been around a lot of computers, but not once have I seen a broken computer start to believe it's a chicken or a cat. broken machines don't assume new identities, they malfunction.

 

The whole premise of the episode smelled like crap to me. Although, it is interesting to see what a sexual deviant John becomes in the future.

 

well...you know...this show is about time traveling robots/ cyborgs.

 

Just saying.

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I have been around a lot of computers, but not once have I seen a broken computer start to believe it's a chicken or a cat.

 

My computer has defaulted to original paratimers several times, so I can buy into the idea that a terminator, the replica if a human being (Allison Young) who had interrogated that human for information in the purpose of impersonating that human could in fact take on the persona of that human, yeah... that seems possible.

 

But the main point that should not be ignored is that Cameron is malfunctioning and (although John has tried to fix her) she will malfunction again.

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In other news:

 

Last week, the ratings were being called "armageddon-like" and worthy of cancellation, and they've only gotten worse since then - this week's episode saw only 5.53 million viewers tuning in, down half a million viewers from a week before, and almost a million from the second season premiere.

 

Bad news! ESPECIALLY for a FOX show since they love to cut and run. The show currently has 13 episodes on tap (total) so we'll hopefully get those. But a full second season isn't looking good. I expect a time change or mid-week rebroadcast soon that isn't up against Monday Night Football or another pseudo genre-geek show CHUCK so they can be sure that isn't the cause.

 

Rumors have it that word will come down next week as to what they are doing.

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Well, crap. That sucks! :(

 

Going back to Future John's age, don't forget we're talking about two different timelines here.

 

Timeline #1: Cameron doesn't go back in time, John doesn't jump through time, his mom dies in 2005 of cancer, the war happens, etc etc. Which means that John is eight years older in the future, which means he's in his 40s while Alison is 16. ROWL, etc, etc. In this timeline, John sees nothing special about Alison other than her hawtness because he never encountered Cameron in his youth. This is the future where Future John sends Cameron back in time.

 

Timeline #2: This is the one we're currently watching. John does jump through time, so he'll be eight years younger as we move forward, and he DOES meet and know Cameron so most likely even if he does meet Alison later on he'd likely be spooked by her since he knew the Terminator version.

 

Oh, and you can't compare your PC today to Terminator computer chip anymore than you can compare the 1960s mainframes that took up a whole room with a PC today. There are malfunctions that PCs today experience that those 1960s mainframes couldn't even ****ing IMAGINE. I can easily see a computer chip designed to mimic personalities and whatnot malfunctioning and getting confused about who it was.

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Well if you think it is plausibility that a terminator can malfunction and take on a completely new set of code it never had, I am not going to argue about it.

 

 

But, Monday's show sucked and the ratings confirm it :)

 

Who is to say that the code wasn't there to begin with and Cameron just now "discovered" it.

 

Who is to say that computers cannot write their own code in the future?

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The fact that he's smiling about bad ratings for this show tells you he's more interested in bashing the show than discussing plot points.

 

Speaking of the ratings, I looked into it and noticed that this show did a 5.9 and Heroes, a show with twice the budget and three times the marketing force behind it, did a 6.0. Given that, just imagine what this show could do with a larger budget and more marketing behind it.

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Who is to say that the code wasn't there to begin with and Cameron just now "discovered" it.

 

Who is to say that computers cannot write their own code in the future?

 

A. It doesn't make since that that code would already be there because if executed, it would cause a terminator to fail at it's mission to destroy the resistance.

 

B. Maybe they can, but not randomly and in the mists of a failure.

 

It's not a "new set of code", it's set of code that the terminator got when it was learning to impersonate Allison Young as a means to successfully infiltrate John Connor's base of operations.

 

That wasn't the creation of a new AI she was learning, just a mere database of facts relating to one person's existence. An error can't create an entirely new AI. And what about the "new code" that temporally takes away her ability to detect minute shifts in the building, every other memory she had as a terminator including her own manufacturing process except one interview with a prisoner (note the terminator in the room at the time), and that nifty heads up display she sees complete with bar graphs, text output, reticles, and infrared vision?

 

 

The fact that he's smiling about bad ratings for this show tells you he's more interested in bashing the show than discussing plot points.

 

No, I like the series and you can see me praise the show in this very thread. But some fanboys got all up in arms when I said the episode on Monday sucked. They can have their own opinion, but mine is perfectly validated by the ratings.

 

:D

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Fair enough. But personally I'd never point to ratings to validate my opinion of a series or an episode. Journeyman and Jericho got terrible ratings and I considered those two of the best things on TV last season. Meanwhile **** you'd NEVER catch me watching because I think they suck total ass got monster ratings. **** ratings.

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George-- what your saying makes sense from a technical aspect. But if we're going to the sci-fi real here of an Ai gaining sentience, doesn't that through a lot of the rules out the window?

 

Also-- we haven't talked about a the Machine faction that wants peace. Was that all a crock? It seems like as far as Cameron is concerned it was, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

We've also never figured out what happened to Derek and his team that were abducted by the machines.

 

I looked into it and noticed that this show did a 5.9 and Heroes, a show with twice the budget and three times the marketing force behind it, did a 6.0. Given that, just imagine what this show could do with a larger budget and more marketing behind it.

 

Is that a testament to how GOOD Sarah Conner is... or how BAD Heroes has become?

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You're right about the ratings. The ratings shouldn't matter when just expression an opinion.

 

I just didn't like this one episode. It's just like how I love Lost, but really didn't like the episode that was all about Jack's tattoo.

 

Totally with you here. I'm really big on people should be allowed to love or hate an episode/series/book/movie all they want without having to "prove" their opinion with extraneous bull****. It's just such an easy habit to fall into when you break **** down as much as we do here at Nightly. I do it as much as anyone. But the bottom line is taste is taste. Period. Torchie wouldn't walk into a diner and call someone a moron for liking Apple PIE more than Pecan PIE so that shouldn't happen here either.

 

Also-- we haven't talked about a the Machine faction that wants peace. Was that all a crock? It seems like as far as Cameron is concerned it was, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

It's a crock. She was trying to play Alison and Alison didn't fall for it for one second. Good girl!

 

We've also never figured out what happened to Derek and his team that were abducted by the machines.

 

Two words: Robo Strapon. Why else would Derek flip out when he first saw her? Dude couldn't sit for a week after his little trip to the basement! :eek:

 

I looked into it and noticed that this show did a 5.9 and Heroes, a show with twice the budget and three times the marketing force behind it, did a 6.0. Given that, just imagine what this show could do with a larger budget and more marketing behind it.

 

Is that a testament to how GOOD Sarah Conner is... or how BAD Heroes has become?

 

I think it's both, and I think it comes down to show runners. The Terminator showrunners are good, the Heroes ones aren't. I hope what happens is what you said above, Terminator slides over to the SF channel where one third their current ratings would be considered awesome and Heroes goes bye bye. Or, if I remembering wrong and you said Heroes would be going over to SF, I want my version to happen.

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Heroes has been of SF before as they are both owned by the same parent company-- but it's just been rebroadcasts. If si-fi were to take it as original programming the show would have a HUGE budget slash. No way sci-fi can afford to take on a network budget show without some major overhauls.

 

Sarah Conner is even less likely considering it is a Fox property and they have equity in the brand name as a franchise. If it were an original show it might be possible, but with new movies coming out, there's no real way to legally let sci-fi take the show over. Re-broadcast maybe, but not as an original.

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That wasn't the creation of a new AI she was learning, just a mere database of facts relating to one person's existence.

 

It indeed was a new personality she was learning, that "database" of information she gathered from interrogating Allison Young was for the purpose of impersonating that human as closely as possible in order to fool other human beings and gain their trust.

 

Think about this and keep in mind the dialog of T2...

 

John Connor: Can you learn stuff you haven't been programmed with so you could be... you know, more human? And not such a dork all the time?

The Terminator: My CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer. But Skynet pre-sets the switch to read-only when we're sent out alone.

Sarah Connor: Doesn't want you doing too much thinking, huh?

The Terminator: No.

 

It's clear from this dialog that the CPUs of the terminators are designed to learn and impersonate human behavior, so Cameron obviously has within her memory a program that is a near exact duplicate of Allison Young's personality. Something malfunctioned (one of the so-called "switches" was somehow flipped) and caused that program to take over and she essentially became the personality of Allison and also bits of her primary mission to kill John Connor came back as well.

 

Like I said before Cameron is malfunctioning, and various switches could potentially be tripped causing her to revert to her past programming, and that includes her adopting the personality she previously learned to imitate.

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Finally watched this one online tonight...

 

I loved the expansion on Cameron's background (as well as Allison's), especially the deepening ambiguity about her true motives. Is she really on the side of the Resistance? Was she reprogrammed just like all previous "good" Terminators or did she sign up as a representative of a rogue Terminator sect on the side of the angels? Or is she a triple agent pretending to serve John but actually undercover for Skynet?

 

I was surprised by Detective Ellison's career decision. I was even more surprised by the introduction of Savannah. Is she human, or more than human? Either answer is fraught with potential creepiness.

 

I was relieved that the baby-daddy wasn't a stereotypical scumbag, but I now assume Trevor and Sarah are destined for a confrontation involving his job, her mission, and many guns.

 

I was intrigued by the parallels between Terminator subterfuge and street-urchin pathological lying, and the insight into Cameron's present-day character. We've seen her being evasive and shifty in previous episodes, and I was begining to wonder if they were straying from that. It's nice to know that side of her hasn't just been swept under the rug.

 

Overall, there was lots of meaty material here to inform and affect future episodes in wild 'n' crazy ways, should Fox choose to hang in there. But I very much hated exactly one thing about this episode:

 

But the main point that should not be ignored is that Cameron is malfunctioning and (although John has tried to fix her) she will malfunction again.

 

Like she just did at the top of the season. And once or twice last season. And likely will repeat every four episodes until cancellation. For lack of other plot devices, she's now become as unreliable and unsafe as a Star Trek holodeck. I'm not sure how many more times I care to see Cameron go off the deep end just because of random internal syntax errors, and/or just because the writers think it's cool every time she goes nuts.

 

After this episode, if I were John, I'd be stoking the nearest giant foundry and making contingency plans for melting Cameron into harmless metal goop.

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I agree.

 

Last night's episode carried some of the urgency you see in the movies, John wasn't acting like a bitch, they had a clever plan to take out the terminator, A robot got freakin shot in the head point blank by a 50 caliber rifle, and I find the episodes that center around people that have some future importance interesting.

 

As a bonus, we had some guy prematurely ejaculate on some robot.

 

Who can ask for anything more?

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I really enjoyed this ep. Unlike Heroes, I'm going to miss this when it's cancelled. :(

 

You raise an interesting point, George. Sure, the dude was premature. But it would have only taken 3 seconds to kill him once she got him back into the alley. Staying out there longer just exposes you and risks someone walking past and seeing the two of you together. True, she was in a different form at the time, but it's still sloppy assassin work. I mean, if James Bond is sent in to kill a woman, do you really think he's going to **** her before killing her?

 

Okay, bad example.

 

I mean, if The Jackal is sent in to kill a woman, do you really think he's going to **** her before killing her? Hell naw! He's taking her dome off in 1.3 seconds and he's ****ing GONE, man. Any good assassin takes only as long as they need and they're gone.

 

And yet she stayed for kissing, groping, and whatnot. Most likely she'd have let him finish no matter how long it took. Which means, she's a bad accent having overly makeuped liquidfied terminating FREAK! ROWL! Hey, if you're going to kill a fat old guy anyway, might as well break him off one last time, right? That's solid, lady. Solid! <pumps fist>

 

And finally, this episode was aired out of the original intended order. I don't know why this is, but I know it's true. Firstly because scenes from it were among the scenes showed in the very earliest previews for this season, which means it was one of the first episodes shot. And secondly I had the captions on so I always catch the lines that are deleted late in the editing process. Usually it's little stuff like the name of a character or company or location will change. Sometimes an extraneous line like "are you okay?" will be snipped out. Last night I noticed they cut out the date code at the beginning of their phone conversations. Why? Because this episode was supposed to air before that code got busted by the Terminator, but is now airing after that.

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