Hils's journal

That was teh awesome :D

First off, I'm a massive fan of Garbage, and Shirly Manson (definitely her singing at the beginning), so I love that she's in this. A Scottish Terminator - that's cool on so many levels.

Actually, her character is very revealing. So far, we know that SkyNet is this all encompassing AI - but it's Terminators are given automaton status (i.e. instead of a robot (which is entirely programmed), we get an android (which I take to be a machine that is given a target and parameters, but free reign to achieve that - implying some level of imagination and decision making), however the parameters of their automaton status are generally limited. The previous assassins sent back have been rudimentary. The T-X had greater imagination - but still the parameters were limited, (I still assume T-3 happened, but John chose to change the past, not just preserve the present (which is what 1,2, and 3 are about - though changes have been significant - such as John Connor's father changing, the nature and strength of the resistance, etc...), because of how things went in T-3). They couldn't really exist as individuals in society.

Now we've got this new T-1000, clearly it has created itself a place in society, it's running a business. She's sociopathic, even before she kills the head of AI, but she still functions as a human being, all be it a very weird, and warped one. To achieve this, the level of automaton status is going to be greater than any other Terminator sent back (which is significant because the more freedom you give a clone of yourself effectively, the higher the chances are that it supersedes you, in the way you supersede your original controllers - SkyNet risks creating it's own non-human competition in other words).

Actually, I'm already forgetting series 1, aren't I? There was the Terminator that had mimicked a real life, with a wife. However, when John was watching the Terminators memories, you've got to say the woman was just a dumbass, worthy of being on Prison Break for not working out that he had no social norms. She kind of reminded me of a character from a book I once read (which I'll dig out tomorrow as the author's name, and book name escape me - and it's bugging me), she's an undercover agent, she meets this guy who's job is studying insects, she barely knows anything about him, it's a whirlwind engagement - he's actually an agent for the guy she's hunting. She's a complete dumbass, anyone else would go. Anyway, she reminded me of that character.

Back to point, it makes her (Shirley Mansons character) far more dangerous - Terminators typically play the short game. They identify targets, they hunt targets, they kill targets - mission accomplished. This new one, feasibly, has the ability to plan long term, to manipulate far more subtly, and can think more randomly. She's shown signs of a higher intellect than any Terminator sent back, in her observations of humans in the street, (though I did kind of feel that was a throw in from the first Matrix film). She's also shown signs of emotion, more cold hearted than anything.

Also, it took great lengths to kill the first T-1000, an occurrence that would be hard for John and Sarah to replicate. They don't have a nice convenient chip to pull out, you can't crush them, shoot them, or generally beat them to a pulp. The T-X is by and large a better killing machine - her nano technology based weapons, and ability to control other machines, were more effective - but she had a metal chassis, and a power core that was vulnerable.

In essence, I really don't see a way to defeat her, short of them getting hold of a tank of liquid nitrogen, spraying her with it - then find a vat of high temperature molten metal with which to dilute her, and breakdown the molecular bonds that act as her digital brain. I suspect, even if they stop her building SkyNet, she will escape at the end of the series.

Enjoy!

Hee! Yeah, Cameron is awesome!

Yeah :(