I've just started watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD, and while it does seem quite interesting, the character of female terminator Cameron is a bit weird. In the pilot episode, she's able to behave in a convincingly human way when she first meets John, but through the rest of the series, she appears quite naive and clueless when it comes to being like a regular person, constantly saying and doing things that other people find freaky. I've read that it was a conscious decision on the part of the show's makers to have her act more like a machine, but is there any way to rationalise the radical characterisation shift in an in-universe way?
Cameron (Terminator: TSCC)
- Thread starter EJA
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In the commentaries, they just say that Cameron's initial personality is her cover used to attract John. Once she has him, she drops it. It is odd that she never bothers to feign human personality characteristics again. But I suppose the Schwarzen One's terminator was pretty one note as well until recreating Sarah's mother's voice in the first film.
Who cares? She's the funniest character on the show. 
ReadyAndWilling
Fleet Captain
i started watching this show and it's great!
me too 
I had an instinct to chide you for taking this sort of thing too seriously, but then, I am the guy who theorized that the temporary power-weakening (aye, even in its torps) wrought by the black hole-journey explains how the Narada could smash up two large starship fleets and yet get pwned by a single, small boat as the Kelvin, so...
Why would she? Her program said to do a certain thing to a certain point, and then it stops.
So, once she found John, and became his protector, that was the end of that line of programmin'.
As for not even tryin' to fake it for others, she didn't give a fuck. The Conners knew what she was, and everyone else could go to Judgment Day.
me too
Me three...
But this is something that felt a bit silly, it's not like acting normally wouldn't be a help if she could do keep doing it!
me too
Me three...
Me infinity.
I can see what the writers were doing here, making her act machine like, and it's one of those things that work as drama even if it would be detrimental in real life. Besides which, Summer Glau is superb at portraying off kilter, slightly creepy characters.
And as Scrawny71 points out, it allows humour into the show.
I don't think there was any in universe explanation as to why it happened, apart from 'she's gotten to John so she doesn't need to do it any more'. There are plenty of circumstances where more human behaviour would be useful. It would be possible to make up a plausible sounding explanation if we want. Maybe the cultural behaviour processor in terminators isn't shielded against EMP. So Cameron travels back in time, acts robotic, gradually learns human behaviour, meets John, travels forward through time, has all her behavioural knowledge wiped, and starts acting robotic again.
Or maybe she just doesn't like it. We know that Cameron has distinct preferences and emotions, though she'd deny it. We see her doing too many things that make no sense otherwise.
My idea is that acting human reminds her too much of Allison Young and brings up all sorts of lingering emotions that she doesn't want to deal with, particularly guilt or as close of an approximation as she can feel.
After Allison From Palmdale, I'd go so far as to say that the human-like persona is the real Cameron and the cold emotionless machine is just an act she used to cope with her emotions.
My idea is that acting human reminds her too much of Allison Young and brings up all sorts of lingering emotions that she doesn't want to deal with, particularly guilt or as close of an approximation as she can feel.
After Allison From Palmdale, I'd go so far as to say that the human-like persona is the real Cameron and the cold emotionless machine is just an act she used to cope with her emotions.
me too
Me three...
Me infinity.
Me infinity...and BEYOND!
But then again, I also wanted Bionic Woman to keep running, so take my input with as many grains of salt as you like.
As for Cameron, she didn't talk much like a normal girl after hooking up with John Connor, but she did try to adopt non-robotic body language on occasion.
'Tis a pity it was cancelled so soon. From what I've seen so far, it's really interesting and exciting, and Lena Heaney and Summer Glau are both stunning. I've just watched the episode where Morris, the guy at John and Cameron's school, first meets her and is instantly crushing on her.
The first season is arguably the best of the series. Our own NX1701g has written his own fantastic conclusion for the series that I would highly recommend checking out once you've finished watching the series.
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=99452&highlight=Terminator
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=99452&highlight=Terminator
^ Some might say "distant second".
Actually, the first season was a pretty tight nine episodes. The second season, I thought, kind of lost its way for a while but rallied towards the end. I really think that this could have been one of those shows that takes until a third season to really work it out. It's a pity that it was not to be.
While I'm here, I'll express an opinion that Lena Headey was a more interesting and nuanced Sarah Connor than Linda Hamilton was.
Actually, the first season was a pretty tight nine episodes. The second season, I thought, kind of lost its way for a while but rallied towards the end. I really think that this could have been one of those shows that takes until a third season to really work it out. It's a pity that it was not to be.
While I'm here, I'll express an opinion that Lena Headey was a more interesting and nuanced Sarah Connor than Linda Hamilton was.
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