Paranoid Android

The Second Season of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” has begun broadcasting in the States with a surprise piece of casting. In retrospect, the addition of Shirley Manson, lead singer of rock band Garbage, to the original team of actors shouldn’t have caught me unawares, due to the recent penchant for substituting pop stars for actresses in science fiction, but, nonetheless, I was slightly taken aback. I think that’s probably down to the fact that unlike Billie Piper, Hannah Spearritt and Kylie Minogue, Shirley Manson at least has some credibility! The difference is that Scot’s lass Shirley hasn’t built her career on a succession of namby-pamby pop hits exploiting the easily satisfied. I mean, let’s be honest, who on earth handed Billie her initial success for “Because We Want To”?!! It’s unmitigated dross. But, she wouldn’t have landed her plum role in “Doctor Who” without it! And, while Garbage isn’t exactly Beethoven, “I’m Only Happy When It Rains” is a step up from the likes of songs in the mould of “I Should Be So Lucky” or “Don’t Stop Moving”!! Some may argue each to their own, in defence of the Pied Piper, but what makes Billie anymore suitable a piece of casting, in a serious sf series, than the much-maligned Bonnie Langford? If Bonnie was wrong for “Doctor Who”, because she lacked the necessary authority, why, twenty years on, do fans who criticise her then accept someone equally suspect of wanting in gravitas?

Shirley Manson has yet to prove herself as an actress, of course, but her image, in the rock arena, is that of a tough cookie. “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” is a hard-as-nails series so it’s likely to suit her perceived persona. There’s no light relief waffle about handy hands in this show! She trained at a theatre school before joining a band so, like Billie Piper, it could be claimed Shirley is returning to her roots. In “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”, Manson plays both Catherine Weaver, the CEO of a major technology company, ZeiraCorp, and also a new type of liquid-metal terminator, T-1001, sent by SkyNet to continue the hunt for the Connor family. In addition, she sings the Blind Willie Johnson song heard in the opening scene of “Samson and Delilah”, the first episode of the new season. The episode concludes with an already much-discussed cliff-hanger in which one of the characters, about to take a leak in the men’s washroom, suddenly observes the urinal before him morph into Miss Manson! Happens to me every time I feel the call of nature!! One can only hope she managed to complete the transformation before the possibility of receiving what she herself sings about in the Garbage song “When I Grow Up”. And, before you all rush off to checkout the lyrics, let me reassure you that the guy - having royally pissed her off - is, naturally, quickly dispatched in a manner similar to one of the early death scenes in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”.

“Come with me, if you wanna live!”

“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” starts in the UK, on Virgin1 (Freeview 20), in a week’s time on Thursday, 21 February at 10pm. All you have to do is remember to switch over immediately after episode three of “Ashes to Ashes”! The story picks up where the second movie, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, left off. Like “Bionic Woman”, which we’re still waiting for ITV2 to broadcast, the lead is played by an English actress. Lena Headey takes over from Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor. She is the mother of John Connor. John is only fifteen years old at this stage of the story but, as we all know, is destined to become the future leader of the human resistance. He’s played by Thomas Dekker. Sarah is seen as a deranged fugitive by the authorities, who do not believe her story about the Terminators. Lena was cast after Series creator Josh Friedman watched her audition tape, and thought she was “a tough, tough woman”!

Like the second sequel in the movie franchise, “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”, the TV series features a female Terminator although this one is sent back from the year 2027 to protect John Connor. Her model and exact capabilities have not yet been revealed. She can mimic human mannerisms better than the T-800 model, and possibly consume food. Her name is Cameron Phillips, presumably after the director of the first two movies, James Cameron. She’s played by Summer Glau, probably best known to genre fans as River from Joss Whedon’s space western “Serenity”. The Connors are pursued by FBI agent James Ellison played by Richard T. Jones. Lena Headey’s Sarah Connor has already been criticised, in the States, for not being as muscular as Linda Hamilton, in “T2”, but I think the new series should be worth a look despite, obviously, being made on a smaller budget than that first sequel!