Episode 44: What Killed the Terminator?
Cold War political anxiety isn’t working for the Terminator franchise anymore.
Terminator: Dark Fate barely made a dent in the world of pop culture, despite the fact that Terminator 2 changed the course of blockbuster cinema back in 1992. What made this series so electrifying in the twentieth century, and what's different now? Why did the new Star Wars trilogy reboot succeed using the same formula that made Terminator: Dark Fate fail? Also, what are the kinds of robot uprising stories we'd like to see in 2019 and beyond?
Notes, Citations, & etc.
Terminator franchise
Lena Headey, star of Sarah Connor Chronicles
Halloween, dir. David Gordon Green (2018), starring Jamie Lee Curtis
Golden Girls
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Eureka
Doctor Who, “Day of the Daleks”
I, Robot, dir. Alex Proyas
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
Her, dir. Spike Jonze
Ware Tetrology by Rudy Rucker
Battlestar Galactica, created by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick
What We’re Obsessed With:
Weird Tales classic covers
Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed