You Can't Terminate Good Science Fiction Media Many science fiction related shows and movies have demonstrated quite a long shelf-life.
Star Trek of course is the most prominent example, being killed by it's network after a 3 year run from 1966 to 1969. Fan interest keep the series in rerun syndication that only caused it's popularity to grow. So much so that finally movie producers went on to launch a highly successfully series of Star Trek related films, which led to to the creation of even more Star Trek influenced TV series that continue to this day, over 40 years after the debut of the original show.
Next in line is likely the Aliens series, begun in 1979 with a film by director Ridley Scott in which the crew of a space exploration ship finds itself being hunted by an alien being in their environment. That original movie was so well received it led to three sequels, plus the branching out of the story chain into the present Aliens vs. Predator movie franchise, which had it's second film debut this past Christmas.
Now it appears another science fiction media has demonstrated a remarkable shelf-life of it's own: 23 years after the original film debut of The Terminator in 1984, and the debut of it's two sequels in 1991 and 2003, a television series has been spawned, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which debuted on January 13, 2008 on the Fox Network.
The story depicted in the new series takes place shortly after the end of the second sequel and before the beginning of the third. Once again bad Terminators are after John Connor and his mother, in an attempt to ensure he doesn't grow up to lead the human resistance against Skynet and the machines under it's control, and once again a good Terminator shows up to aid John and his mother in their fight for survival.
An interesting twist to the new TV series is that the 'good' Terminator is played by sexy young actress Summer Glau, while all the bad Terminators are male. This is the direct opposite of the plot to the last film in the series, 2003's Terminator: The Rise of The Machines, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger reprised his role as the good guy Terminator sent back through time to save John from being killed by a sexy bad female Terminator played by blonde bombshell actress Kristanna Loken.
Reviews of the new series' premiere episode were quite positive, with many blogs and TV review web pages heaping praise on an exciting storyline, fast-paced action and pretty darn good CGI effects for a TV show.
If the reviews were good, the ratings were positively glowing. Various sources report that 'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' garnered a 7.6 rating/18 share from viewers between the ages of 18-49. That meant the debut of a new sci-fi series drew a bigger audience than the telecast of this year's Golden Globes.
Off to a fast start, with a bright future ahead of it, 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles' has extended the life of one of the strongest science fiction story arcs in American entertainment history.
