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skynet - Why were so many Terminators sent to T:SCC time (2007?) compared to 1 per year in movies?



A comment to this question raised a point I always found weird as well:



Why would Skynet send back one terminator to 1984, one to 1992 and three hundred terminators to 2007? That was never explained.



Answers only bases in canon please, no guesses.



Answer



So, using another answer as a source, there weren't nearly that many in SCC. The focus of the movies and the series are different, so it had more range of freedom in exploring the world - when on the run as in the movies, there isn't nearly as much time to go on the offensive, as they did in the series. (And I mean "offensive" in terms of stopping Skynet from being formed, not in attacking the Terminator currently after them)


Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season 1



  • Cameron and Cromartie - The protector/terminator of John Connor that parallels the movies


  • Vick Chamberlain's goal was to ensure Skynet would get created. He was to get close to Barbara Chamberlain, one of the key people who created Skynet in that timeline.

    • Would not have been encountered when in the "defensive" mindset.



  • Carter's goal was to protect what would become the endoskeleton factory.

    • Would not have been encountered when in the "defensive" mindset.





Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season 2



  • Catherine Weaver, on the side of the Resistance (sort of).

    • Was avoiding contact with the Connors as long as possible.



  • Carl Greenway replaced the real Carl Greenway and existed solely to ensure that the Serrano Point Nuclear Power Plant would be a failure, so that he Resistance couldn't use it in the future.


    • Would not have been encountered when in the "defensive" mindset.



  • The James Ellison replacement was an unusually inept Terminator, and was focused on replacing Ellison for unknown reasons.

    • Would likely not have been encountered when in the "defensive" mindset. However, its goal may have been to use the Ellison persona to get near the Connors, in which case, they would have encountered him.



  • Myron Stark's goal was to kill New York governor Mark Wyman.


    • Would not have been encountered when in the "defensive" mindset.



  • The Bedell Terminator's primary goal was to kill Martin Bedell. It did have a secondary objective to kill John Connor, though.

    • If he succeeded in killing Bedell, would likely have gone after John later.



  • The "Water Delivery Guy" was trying to terminate Catherine Weaver.


    • Would not have been encountered when in the "defensive" mindset.



  • Rosie's objective is unknown, just that it had something to do with Dr. Boyd Sherman

    • Would likely not have been encountered when in the "defensive" mindset, since IIRC it was only through going after the Turk that they encountered each other.



  • The Fields Terminator had the exact same mission as the Terminator from the original movie: Kill the mother before the kid can be born. But it was the Fields family, not the Connors.


    • Would not have been encountered when in the "defensive" mindset.



  • Unknown Terminator remains were shown to Ellison by Weaver, in a picture from 2002, roughly 6 years before that episode takes place.

    • Not encountered at all.




From this list, we only have 3 terminators that are known to have an objective involving John Connor, and a couple more that might have encountered the Connors.



One of the key differences in the Sarah Connor Chronicles from the movies is that they're no longer simply on the run from the Terminator currently after them - thanks to the time jump forward in the first episode, Cameron gave them freedom and, because she wasn't destroyed in the process, was able to impart some extra knowledge that allowed them to go on the offensive. Most of these Terminators would not have been encountered if they were still in a purely defensive "save John Connor" mindset.


Also mentioned in the series is that both Skynet and the Resistance are sending people all throughout the past century or so in an attempt to shift the timeline in their favor. If you accept SCC as canon (rather than solely T-3), it's fully possible that Skynet was sending Terminators into the past during the events of T-1 and T-2, but because the focus of those movies was on protecting John Connor, it just never came up.


So 3ish Terminators being sent to kill John Connor still seems rather high, right? Well, not quite:



  • Cromartie was sent in 1999

  • The Ellison replacement, the Bedell Terminator, and Rosie were all sent to 2008, and we don't really know for certain their goal was to kill John Connor.


9 years is a fairly decent gap.


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