The sinister terminators from the future are still after John Connor, the leader of the resistance in the dark days following Judgment Day. Bent on thwarting Connor's efforts to lead the humans to victory over the robots from hell, the robots send back yet another terminator into the past (our present, of course) to kill the young John Connor before the robots even take over. However, the adult John Connor of the future is onto the evil robots' plans (having lived through Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, he's seen this plot before). As in the second and third Terminator movies, Connor sends back a reprogrammed Terminator robot to protect the young John Connor. However, the orginal Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was unavailable due to his being elected the governator of California. Instead, John Connor selects the extremely cute but deadly terminatrix Cameron to go back to the young John Connor, who is immediately overwhelmed by lust for his robotic protector.

At the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah Connor, her son John and the 800 Series Terminator successfully destroy the T-1000, as well as the arm and computer chip from the first film's Terminator. The T-800 from the second film, at its own request, is then also destroyed in order to eliminate any future technology that could be used to create Skynet. In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, it is revealed that Sarah subsequently dies of cancer and that Judgment Day has not been averted but merely delayed. At the beginning of the television series, Cromartie, a T-888 is sent back to the time following Terminator 2: Judgment Day, to kill John. Cameron, a Terminator that John sent back from 2027 to protect his earlier self, leaps forward in time with John and Sarah to 2007 jumping over the year in which Sarah would have died. Thus history changes and from John and Sarah's perspective events now occur differently from those that occurred in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Now wanted fugitives with the fear of pending cancer playing on Sarah's mind, they must also face the reality that other enemies from the future could be after them.

The pilot episode is set in 1999 and introduces Sarah, her son John, and Cameron, a Terminator that has been re-programmed to protect John. They are being pursued by a Terminator (Cromartie) sent back through time to assassinate John and also by FBI Special Agent James Ellison, who believes Sarah is an insane criminal (based on the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day). Sarah is romantically involved with a paramedic named Charley Dixon, but ends her relationship with him to stay on the run. During the pilot, Sarah, John, and Cameron make a temporal leap to the year 2007. Cromartie suffers extensive damage while trying to kill them, begins repairs to his endoskeleton and artificial flesh, and continues his search for John in 2007. Because John is frustrated with their life of running, Sarah resolves to go on the offensive against Skynet. But the world in 2007 proves complex: they find Skynet has sent additional Terminators back in time to support its own creation, and the resistance movement has sent back its own fighters to interfere. As they seek out an intuitive chess computer called The Turk, which they suspect may be a precursor to Skynet, they forge an alliance with Derek Reese, resistance fighter and John's uncle. As the series progresses, the Connors are confronted with the reality that they would find more enemies, either at the present or from the future, bent to reshape the future for their own goals.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a science fiction television series that aired on Fox. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Television and C2 Pictures. It is a spin-off from the Terminator series of films. It revolves around the lives of the fictional characters Sarah and John Connor, following the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The series premiered on Sunday, January 13, 2008, on the U.S. television network Fox. Production for the series was provided by Terminator 2 and Terminator 3 producers and C2 Pictures co-presidents, Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna, C2 Senior Vice President James Middleton, David Nutter, and Josh Friedman, who not only served as Executive Producer but also wrote the script.

The show opened mid-season with a shortened run of nine episodes, January through March 2008. It was the highest-rated new scripted series of the 2007-08 television season and was renewed for a second season, which began on September 8, 2008, and ended April 10, 2009. On May 18, 2009, despite fan efforts, the brain-dead president of Fox entertainment announced that the network would not renew the show for a third season. This untimely demise of the series had two predictable results:

• Viewers were left twisting in the wind wondering what had happened to John Connor and the delectable Cameron following the second season cliff-hanger.

• The machines saw their chance and seized power, leading to the carnage depicted in Terminator 4: Salvation, which despite its title, doesn't have a lot of salvation in it, requiring, off course, yet another sequel.

Here are the main characters in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

• Lena Headey as Sarah Connor: Sarah Connor is a major character in the Terminator series. She is the mother of John Connor, who will one day become the leader of the human resistance. The authorities, however, see her as a deranged fugitive. Series creator Josh Friedman saw over 300 actresses for the role and described the actress he was looking for was someone "who embodied that spirit and who was believable in that role and not just some glammed up, Hollywood, actressy thing". After a friend recommended English actress Lena Headey for the role, Friedman watched her audition tape, and thought she was "a tough, tough woman". Having seen The Terminator when she was a teenager, which "scared the hell out of [her]," Headey was aware of the iconic status of the character and in regards to Linda Hamilton's portrayal of the role in the film series, she remarked, "Linda Hamilton will always be the original Sarah Connor and it's a very strong print that she's left, but hopefully people will embrace what I bring to Sarah and see it with fresh eyes". When asked about her approach to the role, Headey said "I'm playing a mother who is a single parent, bringing up a teenage son, who also happens to save the world ... as a byline to her life. And the way I would play that is someone who's passionate and scared and angry and a mother, all these things. So I approach that just trying to be honest within the boundaries of her". However, the choice to cast Headey was criticized by several fans and critics who argued that she bore no resemblance to the athletic, muscular woman established by Hamilton, who transformed her body into that of a muscled warrior for Terminator 2.

• Thomas Dekker as John Connor: John Connor is Sarah's son and the future leader of the human resistance. He is only 15 years old at the beginning of the show, turning sixteen in the season one finale. As the series progresses, John struggles with his feelings for Cameron, who is a Terminator. Dekker was cast after Headey secured the role of Sarah Connor. Regarding the Terminator films, Dekker says "They are like my favorite films when I was younger. So it's very ironic that I'm getting to do this. And I know for the younger generation and for myself, John was equally important to me as Sarah was, and I know a lot of the people that I hear from really, really care about John". Dekker describes his character as "a continuation of Eddie Furlong's character" but "he's in a darker, more mature place now".

• Summer Glau as Cameron: Cameron is a Terminator whom John Connor sent back from the year 2027 to protect his earlier self. Her model and exact capabilities are not known, but she can mimic human mannerisms better than the T-800 model could, and she can also consume food, a first for Terminators. Her name is a homage to Terminator film franchise creator James Cameron. Glau had not seen the Terminator films prior to being cast as Cameron Phillips, whose role in the series was initially kept concealed but was later revealed to be a Terminator sent from the future to protect John. Friedman had previously wanted to cast Glau in a pilot he wrote four years prior to The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but she was already committed to Serenity. Glau almost did not audition for the role because of her preconceptions of the character and she felt that she did not have "that Terminator look". On playing Cameron, Glau said she was "intimidated" by the role because it was a challenge for her to balance the human and robot characteristics. Later in the series it is revealed that Cameron stole the identity of a resistance fighter, Allison Young, before being reprogrammed.

• Richard T. Jones as James Ellison: James Ellison is an FBI Special Agent pursuing Sarah Connor. At first puzzled by what he initially thinks is Sarah's outlandish story, he later collects inexplicable evidence of the Terminators (including the body of Cromartie) and gradually realizes the truth. Jones describes his character as a "man of faith" and likens him to that of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive. Jones was allowed to improvise a few lines to provide "a little bit of comic relief" to the show. In the second season, Ellison pursues employment with ZeiraCorp, allying himself with Catherine Weaver (whom he does not know is a Terminator until the series finale).

• Brian Austin Green as Derek Reese: Derek Reese is a Resistance fighter sent to the past by the future John Connor. He is the older brother of Kyle Reese (John Connor's father) and paternal uncle of John. He knows Cameron in the future, but still does not trust her and becomes paranoid every time she's around, but throughout the series he begins to have a love-hate relationship with her. He is recurring in the first season but becomes a regular in the second season. Derek knows Jesse Flores who arrives from the future. He is killed by a Terminator while attempting to save Savannah Weaver. Another Derek from an alternate timeline is introduced in the series finale.

• Leven Rambin as Riley Dawson: Riley Dawson is John's new love interest that he meets at school, much to the consternation of Sarah. John does not reveal the story of his life to her, but as they get closer, he realizes he is endangering her life. Unknown to John, a resistance fighter, Jesse, has brought Riley back from the future to prevent John from getting too close to Cameron, and to get close to John. She appears to develop genuine romantic feelings for John. Jesse later kills Riley after a struggle.

• Garret Dillahunt as Cromartie / John Henry: Cromartie is a T-888 sent back in time to kill John Connor in the pilot episode, in which he was portrayed by Owain Yeoman. He takes damage to his biological covering, revealing his metal endoskeleton. After he finds a new biological covering in the episode "The Turk" in the shape of actor George Laszlo, he continues his search for John. After chasing John and Riley into Mexico, Cromartie's chip is destroyed and John buries his body in the desert. When John returns later to destroy Cromartie's body, it has been moved. Ellison has recovered the body for Catherine Weaver, who connects Cromartie's body to the Babylon A.I. named John Henry. Dillahunt was a recurring character in the first season, but becomes a regular character in the last season, portraying Laszlo, Cromartie and John Henry.

• Shirley Manson as Catherine Weaver: Catherine Weaver is a shape-shifting Terminator disguised as the CEO of a high-tech corporation called ZeiraCorp. A model T-1001, her liquid metal form as she changes shape resembles a faster and an easily-recovering version of the T-1000 seen in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. She is focused on developing artificial intelligence using The Turk, the intuitive computer at first believed to be a precursor to Skynet (but later shown to be a separate entity). She targets other Terminators in order to reverse engineer Skynet technology in the present, and to prepare for the future war. She plans on using this research to fight Skynet. Despite the revelation that Weaver is an enemy of Skynet, it is still unknown where her allegiance lies. Weaver hints at her motives in the episode "Born To Run" when she asks Cameron, "Will you join us?" through messenger James Ellison. During the episode "Today is the Day, pt.2" Cameron explains to Jesse Flores that John Connor asked the same question of the T-1001 in an attempt to forge an alliance against Skynet.

• Dean Winters as Charley Dixon: Charley Dixon, a paramedic, is Sarah's fiancé until she leaves him in the pilot episode and travels eight years forward in time. Although he marries another woman in the interim, during subsequent episodes he builds a friendship with the Connors and renders medical assistance when needed. When his wife is killed in the second season episode "The Mousetrap", he is not seen again until the episode "To The Lighthouse", which reveals that he now lives in a lighthouse, being a safe house that Sarah set up for him, which he has booby trapped and alarmed to protect against further attacks. When the house is invaded by human assassins acting for the apparent proto-Skynet, Charley is killed enabling John Connor to escape.

• Stephanie Jacobsen as Jesse Flores: Jesse is an Australian resistance sailor and Derek Reese's love interest. In her timeline, she sailed to Los Angeles for supplies aboard the upgraded nuclear submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), captained by a reprogrammed Terminator, Queeg, of which she is the executive officer. In 2007 she is on a mission to find and stop Cameron from adversely influencing young John, by recruiting Riley Dawson in the future and bringing her back to frame Cameron for her murder. In the future from which Jesse comes, John has withdrawn from humans and speaks only with Cameron. It is unclear whether this mission is self appointed, but comments by her and the fact she was able to access the time travel machinery with Riley suggests others in the Resistance leadership group may share her concerns about Cameron's influence on John. John Connor later figures out that Jesse killed Riley and informs Derek, but orders her life to be spared. Derek confronts Jesse, but it is left ambiguous as to whether or not Derek actually kills her.

-- T.J. Powers