Quantcast
Exclusive Interview: WRITER JOSH FRIEDMAN FIGHTS THE FUTURE FOR 'TERMINATOR'S' TV 'CHRONICLES' - iFMagazine.com Send to a friend
© (C) 2008 Fox TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES Teaser Poster 4

TELEVISION:

Exclusive Interview: WRITER JOSH FRIEDMAN FIGHTS THE FUTURE FOR 'TERMINATOR'S' TV 'CHRONICLES'

The executive producer is a fan of the original movies and tells all about Skynet's secrets in addition to the ressurrection of Sarah Connor

By SEAN ELLIOTT, Senior Editor
Published 1/11/2008



Josh Friedman is not just the writer of the upcoming series TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, he is also a fan of the franchise that he is helping get a new lease on life. In fact he is so much of a fan, that he named Summer Glau’s character Cameron in honor of the TERMINATOR creator and director James Cameron. The series premieres this Sunday on Fox and is followed by the second episode airing on Monday, so iF MAGAZINE found out the goods on what we could expect to see on this first season, and what we might have to wait until the second season for in terms of robots, guns, and a drama about a single mother trying to keep her son alive so he can one day save the human race.

 
iF MAGAZINE: I assume that we won’t see much of the future war in the first season, but is there a chance of seeing more in upcoming seasons?
 
JOSH FRIEDMAN: I’d love to get into that at some point, and I love all of that stuff. Fanboys have been clamoring for a series like that for years, and I know a lot of people wish this series was just that, a post-apocalyptic war series. They think they want that, but that would be a tough show to do and it wouldn’t have the chance of lasting as long as something like this. I hope we can do some of that someday. [James] Cameron did that well and established it, but in the first movie he did it on a low budget so the aesthetic was not seeing miles and miles of devastation; so I think there is a way to do it and fans would think you are staying true to the way Cameron did it and it wouldn’t cost you a billion dollars, but that’s probably a long way off.
 
iF: People are already having issues with TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES and how this new show fits into continuity, but in science fiction you can accept that time has branched and now you have alternate timelines with different outcomes existing simultaneous alongside each other.
 
FRIEDMAN: Right! And that’s all it is. That’s was the way I used to want to describe it, with time branching and parallel times and that made me happy as a fan, and then I realized I would have a hard time explaining that to studio executives. So, I had to say T3 doesn’t exist; we’re T3 and let’s just go forward. Then they all got it and it was a lot easier for them to understand. It’s hard to go with time travel theory.
 
iF: TERMINATOR 3 brought Hunter Killer Terminators into the modern timeline. Any chance we’ll be seeing HKs popping up in the series as Skynet evolves to keep itself around for the future war?
 
FRIEDMAN: Probably later rather than sooner. You have to have something to do with season two. [Laughs]

iF: So your series is expanding on the human drama aspect more than the huge action aspect of the movies right?
 
FRIEDMAN: There has always been human drama at the core of the TERMINATOR story, so yes, that’s where I focus, is between a mother and her son.

Related Articles

 
iF: Well, it’s nice to see the icon that has become Sarah Connor get her own series that focuses on her, because she really is such a great character.
 
FRIEDMAN: That’s what I thought and that’s why I love this series. That’s what I didn’t like about T3. It’s not that it’s a horrible movie, but it’s not Sarah, and I think that’s what’s at the core of the problems fans have with the movie. That movie was missing the emotional center of what happened to Sarah since the last movie, and I missed her, everybody did. I think even the producers would say that they missed Sarah in that movie. 
 
iF: In terms of cameo roles, are any people from the movies coming in, even like Robert Patrick playing a military person involved with Skynet or something along those lines?
 
FRIEDMAN: I’m going to be very cautious about stuff like that. We’ve talked about getting some of those people like Richard Hatch coming onto BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. I want the world to feel real, and I think the more you confuse it, and it becomes ‘Where’s Waldo’ and that makes me a little worried. If I found a way to get them in, but I would really have to integrate them into the story in a way that mattered. I wouldn’t just do it to do it. If I had Robert Patrick on the show, it would cause a "holy s**t, what is that guy doing here?" reaction; it wouldn’t be a throw away.
 
iF: Any chance that you will check out the Dark Horse Comic’s series for any nifty ideas?
 
FRIEDMAN: No. I don’t look at other sources. We don’t have the rights, so I don’t look at the books or the comics. I just don’t go near it, and I’m sure there’s cool stuff, but I prefer to keep the blinders on. I had a hard time looking at BATTLESTAR when I was writing TERMINATOR.
 
iF: Yes, because the Cylons are now human and very much like Terminators themselves?
 
FRIEDMAN: I told Ron Moore it’s painful to watch sometimes because I feel like, "am I stealing from him or is he stealing from TERMINATOR?" He said he felt that way the fourth time he watched BLADE RUNNER. [Laughs]
 
iF: Since fiction can’t help but cross-pollinate ideas though, it’s inevitable that somethings do crossover thematically from time to time.
 
FRIEDMAN: There are a lot of compelling issues that get dealt with on several different shows that I think it’s ok to keep addressing as long as they stay interesting. 
 
SPOILER ALERT - don't read any further if you don't want a plot twist in the pilot episode revealed ....
 
 
 
 
 
 
iF: So may I ask where the idea to jump the characters to the present came from? Was it in part because of budget necessity or…?
 
FRIEDMAN: It solves some problems with networks because they are uncomfortable doing shows that aren’t present day unless they are a distinct period in the past. It was something I thought of when getting ready to pitch it to them and solve some of the problems of the show. How do you do show that isn’t them being hunted all the time, how do you keep them in one place for a while, how do they become more active, you do you turn the tables so Sarah is the hunter? Now the challenge is how to find Skynet and still stay off the grid. They have to be pro-active and not just sit on the couch and hide. To be proactive means to put yourself at risk.
 
iF: Won’t John himself not exist if time was re-written, and Sarah would go back to being a waitress with kids putting ice cream in her apron?
 
FRIEDMAN: Absolutely.  Or of they do accomplish changing things they cease to exist. It’s a loop and it’s hard to get out of the loop. You get right to the heart of the construct. I don’t look at it as a bad thing, but the Connors are inextricably linked to Judgment Day and the apocalypse, they are two sides of the same coin. How that works out in the future is to be determined, and you have to embrace that.
 
iF: As a fan of the original films, my biggest issue was with the alternate ending for T2 where Judgment Day never happened and John is a Senator and Sarah is an old lady. She may have still had a child, but that wouldn’t necessarily be John, is that right?
 
FRIEDMAN: Well not to get too crazy, but obviously there was some version of John Conner leader of the human resistance that was not fathered by Kyle Reese, because he had to be the one to send them back. TERMINATOR itself is the second iteration of the story. How did John Connor get born before there was a Kyle Reese to send back? Obviously Sarah got pregnant by somebody else. So technically, when Reese comes back and impregnates her, he may be f**king it all up!
 

Reader Comments

james from washington sez....
i wish i could contact the crew of the show directly, they should approach the scifi network with the possibility of continuing the series there since fox is gonna drop kick them to the curb
3/28/2009 3:34:32 PM

onoron from earth sez....
ok kyle reese could be the repacement father i guess but another possibility is that this teminator series is a third timeline rather than a second. in the first, john connor is not the leader of the resistance and kyle reese goes back for whatever reason (maybe to destroy a terminator that went back in time to help create terminators or kill a bunch of resistance leaders or something) and gets sarah pregnant. in the second john connor, son of sarah connor and klye reese, becomes the leader of te resistance and knows that kyle reese became his father the first time so he sends kyle back in time to protect sarah when the terminator goes to the past to kill sarah. and here we are now. if this were only the second timeline and the old john connor looked different then this one, then the terminators wouldnt be able to identify this john connor. therefore this has to be the thrid timeline
10/22/2008 3:19:49 PM

M. J. Young from New Jersey sez....
It's good to see the author recognizing the solution. I've been saying much the same for quite a while (the Temporal Anomalies in Popular Time Travel Movies analysis is well enough known that a reader of this article assumed from his comment Friedman must have read it, but I'm sure others have reached the same conclusion). The only way for causality to be maintained is for Reese to be the replacement father. It also explains why Skynet attempted to kill Sarah first--Sarah Conner's child might not even have been a boy in the original timeline. --M. J. Young
1/18/2008 4:00:41 PM

Josh from Canada sez....
His idea does have merit, given this exchange in the first film: Sarah: So your from the future? Reese: One possible future... I don't know tech stuff. True, eese may simply be mistaken, but consider the message John made him memorise: The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. Why bother to say that, if it is indeed a paradox and therefore the future events are immutable? It could be a lie ment to encourage Sarah, but I think that's stretching the truth a fair bit...
1/15/2008 6:26:05 PM

T-Fan from N. Ireland sez....
"Well not to get too crazy, but obviously there was some version of John Conner leader of the human resistance that was not fathered by Kyle Reese, because he had to be the one to send them back." Actually if you accept time travel concept than it's perfectly consistent for Kyle to always be the father. Sarah's taped monologue at the end of T1 suggests that John Connor already knew that Kyle would father him in his (future) past. t0 - Kyle impregnates Sarah with John t1 - Sarah records a message to John that Kyle will be his father t2 - John sends Kyle back in time to t0 when he will impregnate Sarah The sequence is just a time loop.
1/12/2008 7:30:01 PM

Ascaaear from Krokstadelva, Norge sez....
About the predestined paradox: I dont have problems with a original timeline where John Connor had another father. John became the leader of the resistance, not because of Kyle, but of Sarah who raised him to be a leader. Another thing: After John are raised up, knowing his father were Kyle etc., we see a different John that need to face that he one day will become a leader. We already see from T2 that he have problems with that fate. So naturally he wont be the same strong leader Kyle met first...
1/12/2008 1:29:48 PM

craig from england sez....
bull shut,reese was alwayse the father dumb nut....it is a predestined paradox,for e.g. a man reads about a fire in a building then goese back through time to see how it happend,and when he is in the building he by mistake knocks a candle over causing the fire resulting in the reason he went back in the first place...
1/11/2008 2:23:44 AM

Your Comments are always welcomed here
Your name?  Your location?
Tell us what you think?

Enter Security Code:
Code Image - Click on Load New Code if you see this message.
Load New Code


WHICH 'LATE NIGHT' TEAM ARE YOU ON?

TEAM CONAN
TEAM COLBERT
TEAM FALLON
TEAM FERGUSON
TEAM KIMMEL
TEAM LENO
TEAM LETTERMAN
TEAM STEWART

More Polls...



2