Summary
The Sarah Connor Chroniclesintroduced many new aspects ofTerminatorlore, including the arrival of the series' most advanced model yet seen. The show was theTerminatorfranchise’s only attempt at a television series, centering around Sarah Connor as portrayed by Lena Headey in the aftermath ofTerminator 2.She was joined by Summer Glau’s Cameron, a terminator sent back to protect John Connor. It was the typicalTerminatorsetup,with the twist that Cameron blended in far better than any Terminator audiences had seen before or since.
The Sarah Connor Chronicleswas a hugely underratedTerminatorinstallment, which holds up better now than some of the franchise’s later films. The show explored a period of the franchise that had never been seen before, while allowing crucial characters to develop. Although the series met an untimely end, largely due to a lack of real promotion and the 2007 writer’s strike,16 years later,Terminatorhas yet to produce one of the titular robots quite like Cameron. That may change in time, but for now, Glau’s Cameron has the distinction of being the franchise’s most advanced model.
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The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ Cameron Was A Highly Advanced Terminator
She Was No T-800
Cameron was introduced early inThe Sarah Connor Chroniclesas a classmate of John’s, and from the outset, it’s made clear that she’s very different from the Terminator models that preceded her. Programmed with a level of social capability beyond other models,Cameron was able to act like an average human teenager with feelings and even the ability to cry. A T-900 model, much likethe other Terminators over the years,she was reprogrammed and sent back in time, yet with a far greater range of subtle physical and emotional abilities than her predecessors.
Cameron’s skills included a range of behaviors that other Terminators have simply been incapable of. While not as strong as the T-800, she’s far more flexible and programmed with several martial arts. Beyond that, it’s established that she can eat;something that seems like a glaring oversight in other models,given their intended purpose of infiltrating human resistance cells. This establishes Cameron as a key step in terms of Terminator advancement.
Why Cameron Was So Much More Advanced Than Previous Terminator Models
The Reason Was Ultimately Practical
The Sarah Connor Chroniclesestablishes that Cameron was made as advanced as she is to better facilitate infiltration, which is a perfectly good in-world reason that doesn’t need much more explanation;though it raises questions about why those features were never implemented before or since. Ultimately, though, the real reason was a more practical one intended to help the longevity of the series.
Giving Cameron the ability to feel made her more human and relatable, and allowed her to develop a chemistry with the rest of the cast – essential in sustaining a series.
In theTerminatorfilms, the Terminator models are often taciturn; emotionless robots that only superficially pass as humans. This works great for a 2-hour film, but on a TV series running for multiple episodes and ideally for multiple seasons, that sort of thing can get boring quickly. Audiences could begin to tune out, and it would likely get tiring for the actor portraying the character as well. Giving Cameron the ability to feel made her more human and relatable, and allowed her to develop a chemistry with the rest of the cast – essential in sustaining a series.
What Happened To Summer Glau’s Cameron In Terminator’s Lore
It Was Left Open-Ended And Unrecognized
At the end ofThe Sarah Connor Chronicles,the Terminator Cameron is left deactivated while the AI John Henry travels to the future with her processor chip, pursued by John Connor and Catherine Weaver. Audiences never got to see what happened after that, with Cameron’s fate left in question. While her body remained in the past, her processor chip was taken with her to the future,which could have meant a return for the characterprovided the characters that had found their way to the future found a new body for her.
After the series' second season left on a cliffhanger, the franchise moved back to the big screen, andthe status ofThe Sarah Connor Chronicleswas left uncertain.EveryTerminatorfilm since has ignored the television installment, so it’s unlikely audiences will get to see a resolution to the arcs of these characters any time soon. It could be exciting to see a resolution to this version of events and what the future might hold for Cameron, though with the movies returning to less sophisticated models, it’s clear that the franchise has little interest in revisitingThe Sarah Connor Chronicles' trail-blazing approach.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Cast
This spinoff of the Terminator franchise follows Sarah Connor, her son John, and Cameron, a Terminator reprogrammed to protect John. Pursued by time-traveling Terminator assassins, they must cope with life on the run as well as the impending threat of Skynet.
