Terminator - Sarah Connor Chronicles - DVD Review

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Review

Terminator – Sarah Conner Chronicles

Way back in time, 1984 to be precise a film came to our screen’s that was to become a cult movie. That movie was “The Terminator”. With several reincarnations, the last of which came to us in 2003 we thought that the franchise had been settled, but oh no, a new Terminator film called “Terminator Salvation” will be back on our screens in 2009.

I think that this new film has once again stirred up an interest in all things Terminator related and so Fox have decided to develop a TV drama series called “Terminator – The Sarah Conner Chronicles” and I have been lucky enough to have been sent season one to review.

Set between T2 and pretty much ignoring T3 Sarah Connor (Lena Headley) and her son John Connor (Thomas Dekker) are trying to both steer clear of the law after the destruction of the Cyberdyne labs (Which occurred at the end of the T2 movie) as well still trying to ensure the destruction of skynet which is the system that causes all of the destruction in the first place.

The law of course are still looking for them and agent James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) of the F.B.I is on their case in an attempt to bring them to justice. Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles of course would be nothing without Terminators and in taking a plot point from T2 we have the good Terminator and bad Terminators. Something I wondered about after watching the season was why do the good guys only get one Terminator and the bad guys seems to be able to send as many back as they wish?

The Good Terminator is Cameron Phillips (Summer Glau) she has been sent back by the older John Connor (the one in the far future) to protect the 15 year old John Connor as depicted in the program, and I also believe to give his younger self some lovely eye candy to look at, as he must have remembered not getting much when he was growing up. Cameron, like the Arnold Schwarzenegger character in T2 is sworn to protect John no matter what.

TV programs have an added difficulty over a theatrical release and that is that whereas a movie has on average 90 to 120 minutes to get its story out, a TV program has to engage the viewer over a much longer time span, therefore we need more character development as well as something to push the story along with each episode. But does The Sarah Connor Chronicles engage? Well I think that is a resounding yes. Each episode is approximately 40 minutes long and watched all 9 of season 1 Episodes in one sitting, I just felt compelled to watch the next episode as each one ended and that has to be an endorsement for the story telling. Oh and season 1 is only 9 episodes long due to the writers strike in the US when the program was in production. And I am pleased to say that a 13 episode season 2 has already been approved.


Acting wise everyone is very competent. The gorgeous Lena Headley who plays Sarah Connor looks tough yet beautiful at the same time even if she does seem a little young to play John’s mother. Thomas Dekker who plays John Connor is perfectly capable in the role, nothing really memorable about it but still he is convincing as the boy who knows what one possible destiny will make him. But a TV sow is nothing without a little eye candy and we have this in Summer Grau. She plays Cameron the “good” Terminator assigned by the older John Connor to protect his younger self. Some of the programs humorous lines go to her, mainly as she is of student age and trying to fit in, but yet she is a machine and does not know all the nuances of humanity, some of the comments she makes are great, but are delivered without belittling the show.

The bad guys are… well the bad guys. There are no real “bosses” in the program, at least not yet, and the Terminators seem to have different missions therefore not all are hunting Connor directly, we obviously see the Connors & entourage get mixed up with these Terminators to various levels.

I didn’t really detect anything that felt bad or out of place with anything over the entire three disks, there was one time when in the pilot episode there was a shoot out and the Terminators gun never seems to run out of bullets, even though he was using a regular pistol. But that was pretty much about it.


Anyone who enjoys programs like this will lap it up; it is a bit like the Terminator film but wrapped up in an X-Files-esque package and after creating a cracking first season I am really looking forward to season two.

Discs:

There are 9 episodes over 3 discs in season 1

Episode Listing
Pilot:
Gnothi Seauton
The Turk
    Heavy Metal:
    Queen's Gambit:
    Dungeons & Dragons:
    The Demon Hand:
    Vick's Chip:
    What He Beheld:

Each disc has an option to play which will play each episode in turn. Or you can go into Episodes to watch each individually. Some Episodes have a scissor icon next to them which I think indicates that you can see the cut scenes for that episode or you can go to a section called terminated scene’s to look at the deleted scenes. You also have the languages option to choose the language of choice.

Languages:
Spoken Language – English
Subtitles – English, Netherlands, off


Picture:
As you would expect from a brand new production with picture quality is superb, rivalling many movies that I have seen. Dark shot such as in warehouses, underground etc look great, the blacks are deep and yet don’t lose details; there are no problems that I could detect with the transfer at all. Outdoor scenes are generally bright and colourful, and there was no colour blooming. An excellent transfer with no detectable grain on my system.

Sound:
Most audio comes from the front array with the dialogue being clear and concise, there was the occasional use of surrounds but nothing excessive, explosions seemed full with a nice bass. The balance between the loud noises and dialogue seemed to be well balanced.

Extras:
Very disappointing on the extras front with just a couple of deleted scenes over 2 of the discs, none of them really add much to the story.

Overall:
A brilliant, well made TV show that has been given 2nd season approval. A good story line with each episode well balanced between action, effects and progression of the story, thoroughly recommended. it would have scored an 8 but the overall score dropped to 7 due to a real lack of extras.

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About Steve Peto

I think it was around 1979 when I tried to sneak into the local Odeon cinema to see Ridley Scott’s Alien that I started to become more aware of movies and finding out what I liked in terms of genre. But somewhat surprisingly even at that young age I was enjoying some of the older films such as Forbidden Planet.

It was not until I was given my first DVD that the bug hit me. And it was all down to a mate giving me a Region 1 version of “The Matrix” as his player was only a region 2. From there it has been a mainly constant purchasing process to increase my collection which currently sits at 1000+ individual movies and television episodes; although invelos which only counts per barcode shows it as 485.

I have been on the Digital Lard site since its earlier incantation DVD Lard, and after a period of time took the plunge into doing reviews and this is what I currently do.

My favourite genres are mainly Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi and Mystery although I do like films from other genres too.

Ten of my favourites film are (in no particular order) Alien, Aliens, 12 Angry Men (1957), Forbidden Planet, The Thing, Jaws, Blade Runner, 300, Full Metal Jacket, Forrest Gump, Although there are plenty more movies that I could list here.

Favourite actors at the moment would be Christian Bale, Christopher Walken, Johnny Depp, Basil Rathbone, Samuel L Jackson, Favourite directors are David Fincher and Ridley Scott.