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Doctor Peter Silberman was a fanatical, mediocre criminal psychiatrist who worked for the state of California and with the Los Angeles Police Department. Silberman thought nothing of the so-called delusions shared by Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor other than being able to make a career from them being under his care. After a close call with seeing the Terminator in 1984, Silberman witnessed two in action in 1995 during Sarah Connor's escape from the Pescadero State Hospital

History[]

The Terminator[]

Dr. Silberman was brought in to interrogate Kyle Reese, the soldier sent from the future to protect Sarah Connor from the Terminator that tried to kill her. He downplayed Reese's story as delusional and constructed in such a way that it cannot be refuted, such as how there was no evidence of advanced technology because the time machine can only send things back that generate a bio-energy created by living tissue. He left the police station before the Terminator's attack, briefly passing the latter (who was disguised as a human) in the foyer.

He still believed the story was delusional and constructed even after the attack on the police station. The Terminator

Terminator 2: Judgment Day[]

Peter Silberman and Sarah

Silberman threatened to be poisoned by Sarah Connor.

Dr. Silberman was the chief and criminal psychiatrist at Pescadero State Hospital where Sarah Connor was imprisoned as a mentally unsound inmate, having been arrested for attempting to bomb Cyberdyne in the interim between the first and second films. Silberman made little headway with her, and was constantly a victim of her attacks when the opportunity presented itself, even stabbing him in the knee with his own pen at one point. Some time later Sarah looked at video footage of her doing that with disgust, and remarked that there was no evidence of any Terminator. She remarked how she had shown improvement with her behavior and requested a transfer to the minimum security wing, where she would be allowed visitors. Dr. Silberman remarked that he felt that Sarah was only telling him what he wanted to hear and recommended she remain in the maximum security section for another six months. In retaliation, Sarah took him hostage in her escape attempt later that night, threatening to inject him with acidic drain cleaner to force his staff to release her. He witnessed both the T-800 and T-1000 Terminators when Sarah attempted to escape, stunned as the latter machine stepped through a barred gate. He was ultimately left alone in the corridor terrified with the unconscious staff members as the Connors and the two Terminators traveled down to the car park. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Deviating timelines[]

Cybernetic Dawn[]

Dr. Silberman, who just became a patient at Pescadero State Hospital himself, has a meeting with Detectives Weatherby and Mossberg. After meeting the T-800, he was obviously starting to believe some of what Sarah always claimed. Search Mode

T2 3-D: Battle Across Time[]

Dr. Silberman became the director of Cyberdyne's Employee Health & Wellness Center. T2 3-D: Battle Across Time queue video

T2 Trilogy[]

Dr. Silberman has survived the professional disaster that was his last encounter with Sarah Connor, taking an extended break from his position at Pescadero for therapy. Coming to grips with what he saw and allowing his fellow practitioners to convince him it was all a psychotic break helped, but he was unable to resume his duties at Pescadero. Looking into private and clinical work was difficult for Peter as well, as background checks eventually revealed the reason for his departure from Pescadero, and rejections began to pile up. Eventually, he found acceptance at the Encinas Halfway House, handling the transition of patients, including those from Pescadero, back into greater society. Here, Dr. Silberman was again brought face to face with Sarah (a shock to both of them) while she recuperated from injuries received at the hands of Serena Burns. Coming to the realization that what he encountered that night was not Sarah's delusions but her stark and terrifying reality, Dr. Silberman offers whatever help he can to Sarah and her allies. In November of 2002 while conducting a covert meeting of allies under the guise of a therapy session, Dr. Silberman assists with her escape and helps Sarah across the border to Tijuana, Mexico. T2: Rising Storm

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines[]

Silberman

Peter Silberman in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

On 25 July 2004, a police force followed another Terminator, John Connor, and Katherine Brewster when the Terminator retrieved weaponry from Sarah Connor's grave. Among the police force was Dr. Silberman, who took Katherine aside and, quite unlike before, expressed some measure of self-doubt, possibly stemming from having seen the two Terminators previously in Pescadero, although he still seemed to partially put it down to stress from the traumatic situation. Upon seeing the T-850, however, Silberman ran from the scene. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles[]

SCC 107 dr silberman

Dr. Silberman in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

In 2007, he was tracked down by Sarah Connor, using information she obtained from James Ellison's apartment. Dr. Silberman has become a dangerous true believer in the Judgment Day as a parallel to the biblical Apocalypse, resorting to imprisoning and torturing Agent Ellison in the mistaken belief he was a Terminator. Dr. Silberman's recollections of the events surrounding Sarah Connor's escape from the facility imply a number of other survivors who also witnessed the T-1000 and T-800 from that incident. Ironically, Dr. Silberman is confined at what appears to be the Pescadero Institute. "The Demon Hand"

The Terminator RPG[]

After Judgment Day, Dr. Silberman was found by a Resistance cell outside the ruins of a damaged hospital. The group took up Silberman under the command of a man named Matthews. Occasionally, he would get drunk and rant about machines from the future, but the unit required a doctor, so they brought him along. He performed modest deeds of heroism as reparations for his lack of faith in Reese or Connor's claims. The group, which consisted of military and former LAPD officers, thought little of the man and saw him as cowardly but arrogant, but they needed his medical skills. During a work camp raid, the machines captured Silberman as HK-Tanks swept away the rest of Matthews' group. Silberman was initially forced to help Skynet study human psychology. Silberman soon broke down and, hoping that if he proved helpful to the machines he would allowed to live, he became a collaborator. He suggested that Skynet develop a series of humanoid Terminator units that could infiltrate and destroy the fledgling resistance. The T2 RPG Sourcebook

Notes[]

  • In the original script of Terminator 2: Judgment Day as the T-1000 returns to Pescadero to acquire a vehicle, there were plans to show Silberman being placed in an ambulance having a psychotic break. The T-1000 walks right by him. This deleted scene was referenced in the novel T2: Rising Storm.
  • In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Silberman seems to have taken a dramatic turn compared to his T3 parallel. Instead of being utterly frightened by Terminators, he sadistically tortures them (or rather, people he thinks are Terminators).
  • In the extended cut of the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "The Demon Hand", it was revealed that Silberman had killed a hiker believing him to be a Terminator prior to Ellison's arrival.
  • In the video game Terminator: Resistance, Jacob Rivers can pick up a file titled Prognosis while infiltrating a hospital converted by Skynet. It is not clear who Dr. Silberman's patient was, but it is implied to be a prognosis on Sarah Connor, and that the converted hospital was the Pescadero State Hospital.
  • In The Terminator RPG, Silberman starts writing a book about the Phone Book Killer case after the events in 1984. His opinions on different characters in the series, presented as research notes for his book, are sprinkled through both the core rulebook and The T2 RPG Sourcebook.
  • In an extended scene of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, he was shown to be killed by a nuclear explosion and only then realizing that Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese were telling the truth all along.[citation needed]

Behind the scenes[]

  • Dr. Silberman was portrayed by Earl Boen in the films. Boen and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the only actors to have appeared in the first three films of the Terminator franchise. He is, however, the only actor to play the same character in all three films, as Schwarzenegger represents three different versions of the same Terminator model.
  • Dr. Silberman was portrayed by Bruce Davison in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
  • In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, he is referred to as Doctor Silverman in promotional material.

Appearances[]

Films
Comics
Novels
Television series
Video Games
Roleplaying games

Quotes[]

Dr. Silberman: Why didn't you bring any weapons, something more advanced? Don't you have, uh, ray guns? Show me a piece of future technology.
Kyle Reese: You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.
Dr. Silberman: Why?
Kyle Reese: I didn't build the fucking thing!
Dr. Silberman: Okay, okay. But this cyborg, if it's metal...
Kyle Reese: Surrounded by living tissue.
The Terminator

Dr. Silberman: Let's go back to what you were saying about those Terminator machines. Now you think they don't exist?
Sarah Connor: They don't exist. I know that now.
Dr. Silberman: But you've told me on many occasions about how you crushed one in a hydraulic press.
Sarah Connor: If I had, there would have been some evidence. They would have found something at the factory.
Dr. Silberman: I see. So you don't believe anymore that the company covered it up?
Sarah Connor: No. Why would they?
Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Dr. Silberman: You're safe now, they can't hurt you. Kate, my name is Doctor Silberman. I'm a post trauma counselor for the Sheriff's Department, how are you feeling?
Kate Brewster: He's not human... he's really, not human.
Dr. Silberman: I know what it's like to be in a hostage situation, I've been there myself. The fear, the adrenaline you find yourself, imagining things, impossible things, crazy things, insane things...take years to get over it.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Dr. Silberman: I'm sorry for ever doubting you.
Sarah Connor: (cold-cocks Dr. Silberman) Apology accepted.
(SCC "The Demon Hand"):

External links[]

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