From Terminator Wiki

Hello! I love the Terminator mythology (especially T2), and am really enjoying the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I am glad that the T3 timeline isn't being emphasized. I can't wait for the mythology to be fleshed out more, as only TV can do.

I've added or fleshed out a number of articles about little things in the Terminator universe that show up a lot (or are mentioned multiple times). I think these little things are what give the Terminator universe the sense that it's consistent and makes it feel real. I love that TSCC is going out of its way to make sure that it's consistent with the movies (and with itself):

• Dog
• Barcode
• Skynet Work Camp
• Fuel cells
• Plasma - is there a difference between phased plasma and plasma weapons?
• Sarah Connor snapshot
• Infiltrator
• Hyperalloy
• Combat chassis
• Head-up display
• Metal detector
• Living tissue - I want to add some snapshots of living tissue from some of the comics

There are a number of terminator-related concepts that have been fun to write up:

• Cyborg
• Mission
• Self-terminate
• Reboot
• Standby mode
• Reprogram
• Replacement
• Impersonation
• Self-destruct

I also enjoyed drafting these random articles on stuff from Season One of TSCC:

• Trompe-l'œil graffiti
• Security Trust of Los Angeles

I've also tried to help build consensus around a general structure for Episode pages... and to add Continuity, Notes, and Quotes for the ep's. For some reason, I don't usually write Synopses... although I generally will edit them once the first draft goes in. I also created a page for Season 1.

I've spent a lot of time trying to understand what is canon and not. There is a lot of random data on terminator series out there, and some of it is speculative while others are drawn from licensed properties (like the Terminator Trading Cards!). I've tried to source as much of it as I can, and cite sources on the pages. If the data is speculative or fanfic though (or a source can't be found after a long interval), then I think we should delete it from the wiki.

I'm also really interested in time travel, although I'm not yet satisfied with my understanding of it. I wrote an article on the predestination paradox and destiny, to help get a sense for things. I'm really thinking a lot about how multiple timelines are handled. The easiest way to think about time travel is that there are infinite worlds and timelines. But in that model, you can never really truly kill Skynet - not that satisfying from a plot perspective. So trying to find a model of time travel that is both internally consistent and also dramatically fulfilling.

I'd also like to help build consensus around Guidelines for the wiki. Rather than proactively pushing on this myself, I figure we will identify issues as they emerge. Generally I will wait until other community members propose guidelines to deal with issues; then as that happens, I can maybe help hash out the guidelines and as we build consensus, we can transfer them into a Guidelines document.

I am really fascinated by Cameron's arc. I wonder why she is holding onto the coltan and the chip, and why she wrote that letter to grieve. I can't see her being "evil"... although it's interesting that they're hinting that maybe Derek is evil. That would be a nice role reversal of good terminator and evil human, if they can pull it off.

I am working a lot on the various Terminator Series pages. MJBurrage has done some incredible work with the nomenclature of the series; I'm trying to help a bit with that, and also improve the information on each series. A lot of it needs to be sourced, especially since so much of the technical and weapons data comes from various licensed video games.

Finally, I am trying to help out where I can with Templates. I did some template work earlier; once I settle in more, I may start to do more. I will build templates upon request, but generally won't add my own until a clear need emerges. Then I'll post a proposal to my sandbox, and will collect comments.

I'm an admin on the wiki, but that mostly means that I'm on here a lot and I'm responsible for deleting spam pages and banning spammers. There are so many great editors coming onto the wiki that it's a really exciting time. I wish that we had an active Bureaucrat on here, to give out more admin status to our great editor team!

Contents 1 Wiki Todos 2 Articles 2.1 Reboots 2.2 Reprogramming 2.3 Time Travel

Wiki Todos

• The movie articles are in pretty sad shape... we just have the Wikipedia synopses in there. It'd be nice to flesh those out and maybe add some other sections in there too.
• Ascaaear is doing a great job of adding the comics to the wiki! I think the SCC may be drawing plotlines from the comics, so I'd love to finish getting those in there.
• The video games sections are in rough shape. Same with the novels. So I'd love to get at least placeholders onto those pages, so we can flesh them out over time.
• Want to start drafting Guidelines based on what patterns in the articles to date.
• We really need more templates, including episode and character infoboxes.
• There is a lot of stuff on timelines in the wiki, and a fair amount of it is duplicative. Would love to draft a general guide to time travel, and map various movies/comics onto the different ways to handle time travel.

Articles

Reboots

I am working on an article about rebooting and restarting Terminators (and how a reprogrammed or (self-aware) terminator struggles for control against Skynet). It's actually happened a lot, which makes sense since it makes for great drama.

Finally turned this into a full article: reboot. Thanks to Fulongamer for helping out! --Kanamekun 03:01, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Reprogramming

Turned the draft here into an article on reprogramming. --Kanamekun 03:39, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

Time Travel

It's becoming increasingly clear that TSCC time travel works according to the "one timeline" model. There can only ever be one timeline... and changes made in the past then change the future timeline. However, humans/terminators sent from the future can change the timeline... at which point, their old "future" will never come to pass.

Examples:

• Jesse Flores remembered Derek as being tortured by terminators and obsessed with Charles Fischer... that never happened in his timeline. Something that Derek or others did after he went back in time (killing Andy Goode perhaps?) caused the future to change and for his future self to be captured and tortured.
• The episode "Alpine Fields" clearly shows that actions in the past (i.e. saving the Fields) can affect actions in the future (i.e. saving Derek and others from a future plague). The terminator sent to kill Lauren Fields is stopped, and the timeline is preserved (more or less - her mom is dead presumably earlier than would've happened otherwise).

Earlier visions of the Terminator (i.e. The Terminator, T2) seem to embrace predestination paradoxes.