There is a difference between revisiting a story because there’s more of the story to tell (e.g., The Godfather: Part II) and revisiting a story because you can squeeze another buck out of it (e.g., The Godfather: Part III). This can be especially dangerous in SF, where sometimes belief can be suspended only if you don't look too closely.Take the Terminator Saga. In the first movie (1984) we learn that the defense computer Skynet became sentient in 1997 (!) and turned the tables on its creators when they tried to shut it down. It began a war to exterminate the human race and had almost succeeded until John Conner organized a Resistance movement and defeated it in 2029. But Skynet had one trick still up its virtual sleeve: it sent one of its "soldiers," a Terminator model T‑800 to 1984 to prevent John’s birth by killing his mother, Sarah. (To be thorough, the Terminator killed everyone else with the same name: imagine if her name had been “Mary Smith:” I counted seventeen in my local phonebook!) To counter this threat, John sends one of his best soldiers, Kyle Reese—who, it turns out, is (to be) his father—to save his mother and stop the T-800. This sets up our first Temporal Paradox:The very fact that John Connor is alive in 2029 indicates Skynet’s plan failed. Had Skynet had not tried its assassination scheme, John would have had no reason to send Kyle back, and if he hadn’t sent Kyle back, he wouldn’t exist in the first place. So Skynet brings about its own destruction by trying to prevent it.So Skynet sees its plan didn’t work and sends another Terminator to the past, this time the deluxe model, the T‑1000, to kill John as an adolescent (Judgement Day,1991) . Having temporarily run out of relatives, John sends a Terminator to protect him(self?) this time, the same model as the one who tried to kill his folks. Going against the advanced model, this is kind of like entering an SUV in a NASCAR race. (But hey, John knows how it all ends ‘cause he’s still alive in the future, right? Temporal Paradox #2: Since this happened in his past… does he remember it in the future? If he did, it sets up our first icky situation: Forget busting mom out of the loony bin, save my a$$ first!)Okay, John’s still around and Skynet concludes its programming team was either headed or heavily influenced by Wile E. Coyote. It’s also decided that old Hal 9000 ploy (“I know I’ve made some poor decisions lately…”) won't fly, so thinking the third time’s the charm, it sends back another new model Terminator, the T-X (Rise of the Machines, 2003) and John sends back… another T‑800. (Just how many time portals are there, anyway? Didn't Kyle say it had been destroyed in the first movie?)To Be Continued...
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