The Terminator Timeline has Been Terminated

Ok, so “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” just came out yesterday on TV, and I gotta say that I was very impressed. It had some really good action scenes, and some excellent effects… well, make-up at least. And it even tried to add some realism to the action (Read: Kevlar put in the back of the Lazy-boy). However, what it did not try to do was figure out the timeline.

As it stands right now:The Terminator took place in 1984. Fine, no problemo.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day took place in 1994. Fine, no probl… wait a second. You expect me to believe that John Connor is 9 (he would have been born in 1985) in T2? Eddie Furlong was 13 when he acted in that movie, so everyone figured that John Connor was approximately the same age.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines took place in 2004. Ok, John could be 20 or 23 or whatever in that movie… it works out.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles starts in 1999. Fine, no probl…. Wait a second. In T3, Sarah was said to have died of Leukemia shortly after Judgment Day was supposed to have happened. Hmmmm. Well, let’s just pretend that John was lying, and that Sarah was in hiding, or off the grid (because her coffin did not contain her body). But then they jump to 2007 and… wait… doesn’t the war start in 2004 as per T3? Did they just decide to ignore T3 and start the franchise over at 1999? I’d be ok with that, however, here’s something that they can do to make EVERYTHING work out.

Instead of hard-coding the year in the movies and TV shows, they can just asterisk them, and I use the following as an example.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day takes place in 1994. Because it was the best movie, that will stay firmly in place. John is 13. Thus, The Terminator can take place in 1***. Any year you want… 1874? Sure, but that makes no sense, so for now we’ll make the variables 980 so it takes place in 1980. Remember that she was pregnant, and probably wouldn’t have had John until 1981.

After T2, we now have Sarah Connor Chronicles, and it starts in 1***. Now, in T3, she was said to have died shortly after Aug 29, 1997 (Judgment Day). If instead of dying, she just dropped off the grid for 2 years, then low and behold, we can make those variables 999, and it works! Hey! Look at that! So in 1994, John was 13, and 5 years later, he’s 18. And can still be in High School! Grade 12!

Then they jump ahead to 2***. To make things easier, we can call it present day, so they don’t really have to invent or down grade technologies, so the variables can be 007. 2007!

Now that we have variables, T3 takes place in 2***. Right now, let’s say that John was 23 in T3, which is 5 years from the Pilot of Sarah Connor Chronicles, so the variables are 012. T3 now takes place in 2012. But these dates are not hard and fast. They remain variables, so any changes that come up (in either upcoming episodes of Sarah Connor Chronicles, or the upcoming trilogy staring Christian Bale as John Connor) can be easily dealt with, because any dates that show up should be 2*** from now on. Just put in the date that makes sense for the timeline.

There I just fixed it. The Studios can send me money.