Cameron (Terminator)

Cameron
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles character
Summer Glau as Cameron
First appearance	Pilot episode
Created by	Josh Friedman
Portrayed by	Summer Glau
In-universe information
Alias	Cameron Baum Cameron Phillips Allison Young
Species	Cyborg
Manufacturer	Skynet
Class	TOK715
Model	Unknown

Cameron is a fictional character on the FOX television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is a spin-off of the Terminator film franchise. Cameron first appeared in the series' pilot episode as an unknown model of Terminator — a fictional type of cyborg envisioned as a soldier and assassin. Cameron is portrayed by actress Summer Glau who, in 2008, won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television for her performance.

Although initially referred to as Cameron Phillips, that surname was used only in the pilot episode. Since then, it generally poses as John Connor's sister and, accordingly, uses whatever surname is being used by the Connors at the time. In the first season, that name is Baum, an in-episode homage to L. Frank Baum, whose novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Sarah used to read to John when he was a young boy.

Cameron is a cyborg from the apocalyptic future described in the timeline of the Terminator universe, in which a self-aware computer program, Skynet, launches a nuclear holocaust and wages war against a rebellion led by John Connor. In the pilot, Cameron is sent back in time via time travel to 1999 by John to protect John and his mother, Sarah and stop Skynet's creation. Cameron's role is that of John's guardian, much like Arnold Schwarzenegger's characters in the second and third Terminator films.

Character concept

Cameron was named in homage to Terminator film franchise creator James Cameron, whose original Terminator character concept was referenced by series creator Josh Friedman as he created the character. James Cameron envisioned Terminators as robotic, humanoid infiltration units "that could blend in with humanity." In keeping with this idea, Friedman introduced his character as the most advanced model of Terminator, whose ascendancy over other models was defined by its ability to mimic human behavior. The decision to make the character appear to be a teenaged female with a small physical stature was also influenced by James Cameron's infiltrator idea. According to consulting producer James Middleton, "Terminators — and this is from [James] Cameron's vision of the mythology — are actually infiltrators. If that is the case, then what better infiltrator than a beautiful, petite teenage girl?"

Cameron's background story was introduced in the season two episode "Allison From Palmdale," which was written by co-executive producer Toni Graphia. Graphia's conception of Cameron's past was heavily influenced by a scene Friedman originally wrote only for the actresses auditioning for the role of Cameron; the scene detailed Cameron revealing to John how, in the future, it came to find and attempt to kill him after torturing a resistance fighter for information on his location. Finding that the story within the scene aligned with the show's mythology and also answered fan questions about Cameron's origins, Graphia fitted the scene's content into "Allison From Palmdale," giving the resistance fighter from Friedman's scene a name (Allison Young) and adding the plot detail concerning Cameron's external appearance being based upon that of the resistance fighter.

When Cameron first appeared in the pilot episode, it appeared to behave humanly. In subsequent episodes, however, the character behaved more mechanically. It has been confirmed by Friedman that this behavioral change was the result of a conscious decision; however the explanations he has given of the logistics behind this decision have varied. At the Television Critics Association press tour, he stated that within the story, Cameron had been prepared for the events of the pilot. Once the characters "jumped forward in time though, she was as adrift as everyone else." In an interview with IGN, Friedman stated that as he wrote the second episode, he became interested in exploring the "calmer, odder part of" Cameron, reflected in a scene in the pilot in which Cameron asks questions of John "in a very programmed way." He continued to say that Cameron's behavior may appear inconsistent to a viewer, but that this inconsistency may be operative in the completion of its tasks. In any case, the character's robotic interactions with humans were manipulated for humor, but Friedman did express a wish to avoid "cheap jokes" in favor of more seriously exploring Cameron's existence as a cyborg. Summer Glau in an interview said about Cameron's changing behaviour: "We were experimenting with Cameron quite a bit, and we wanted her to be able to seem human. We wanted especially John to be fooled by her, so that he would let her into his life. And so in the pilot, I do act very human. And then as I go through the series, it appears that I’ve taken steps back and that I am acting more like a terminator would. We did that for several different reasons, but I know for me it’s fun because I get to take more time for her development, her human development. I think that it also is funny and I think once her cover was blown with the Connors, she kind of was able to drop that persona and become who she really is around them, if that answers the question."

Friedman also hoped to use Cameron as a device to advance the "coming-of-age" theme he intended on incorporating into the narrative. This theme would concern John Connor's maturation from an adolescent into a man. To do this, Friedman planned on portraying Cameron as a second significant female presence in John's life, after his mother, Sarah. He believed Cameron would be instrumental in lessening John's dependence on Sarah, which, Friedman thought, would encourage John's growth into adulthood. In season two, this idea was expanded to include yet another female presence in John's life: the teenaged human Riley. According to Summer Glau, Riley's introduction allowed her to explore the possibility that a robot could feel jealousy — an idea that, along with a subplot about a functioning glitch Cameron had, played heavily into one of the season's main storylines regarding the efforts of a character named Jesse to reduce Cameron's influence over John.

Summer Glau

Summer Glau at WonderCon 2008

Four years prior to The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Josh Friedman developed another pilot in which he wanted to cast Summer Glau. However, she was already committed to Serenity, a spin-off film of the television series Firefly, on which Glau was a regular. Despite this, Friedman "always kept her in mind" and as the pilot for The Sarah Connor Chronicles was being cast, she was called in to audition. Glau did not plan on auditioning however, because she had a preconceived idea that the producers wanted "statuesque, icy blondes" for the role, and felt that she did not suit such an image. She agreed to audition after being encouraged by her mother to do so and became comfortable with the idea of performing upon the realization that Friedman had a different idea for how Terminators would be portrayed on the show.

Friedman wrote the scene used for the audition; it involved Cameron discussing with John the future in which it meets him, how he saves its life and "how [it] feels about [him]," even though as a robot, it is technically incapable of any feeling at all. The audition continued with Friedman and the other producers watching Glau's fight scenes from her previous work on Firefly and Serenity. Glau was cast in February 2007 with Friedman feeling that "there was really no second choice [and that Cameron was] basically written for her." Lena Headey, who portrays Sarah Connor, revealed Glau's role to the public a month later.

Glau trained with stunt coordinator Joel Cramer to prepare for the physical demands of her role. In learning martial arts for Serenity, Glau used her training in ballet to learn fight scenes by counts, as if they were choreographies. About bringing the practice to Terminator, Glau said, "When you're working with a stunt guy ... and you need to anticipate every swing he's going to take at you ... it's important that you know exactly the timing that it's all going to play out." Training focused heavily on the destruction of breakable set pieces, safety in hand to hand fights and the use of a variety of firearms. Glau was challenged during fight scenes by not being able to move or act humanly by things such as pushing her hair out of her face. Glau modeled Cameron's walk after that of a dressage horse for its precision.

Characteristics

The factory in which Cameron will be built is shown in "Heavy Metal" when the cyborg and the Connors track a shipment there of coltan - the metal from which Terminator endoskeletons are constructed.

The appearance of Cameron's outer organic covering is modeled after a captured human resistance fighter, Allison Young. The episode "Allison from Palmdale" shows the cyborg interrogating Allison in a future Skynet prison about the details of her life, the location of John Connor, and the nature of Allison's superficially innocuous bracelet pass. Once the interrogation is complete, the Terminator kills Allison and sets out to infiltrate the resistance in Allison's place to terminate John and "placing his head upon a pike for all to see".

At some point, the cyborg is captured and reprogrammed by John to serve as their ally, just as the T-800s in the second and third films, and a T-600 in Sarah Connor Chronicles episode "Dungeons and Dragons", were. Flashbacks detailing Cameron's time in that episode exhibit John's uncle, resistance fighter Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green), acting with suspicion towards Cameron. When the reprogramed T-600 suddenly goes on a rampage before Cameron can destroy it, Cameron explains to Derek that "sometimes they go bad; no one knows why." In the episode, "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today", Cameron claims to be the confidant of a lonely John Connor in the future. Rogue time-traveling resistance fighter, Jesse (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen), confirms the pair's close relationship in "Strange Things Happen At The One Two Point" and suggests that the present-day Cameron may still be (vice have been) John's confidant twenty years in the future.

In the pilot episode, Cameron states it was sent to 1999 from the year 2027 by the future incarnation of John Connor to protect himself. This departure from 2027 follows those of each of the Reese brothers on similar missions, as evidenced by the cyborg's presence in his headquarters in "Dungeons and Dragons" when the Reeses both leave. A temporal engineer is sent back in time to 1963 to build and hide a time machine in a bank vault; either his/her departure was prior to Cameron's, or he/she contacted Cameron after its arrival in the past and informed of that resource, as Cameron is fully aware of its location, operation and date of installation. In the timeline from which Cameron came back from the future, John had been an orphan since 2005 when Sarah died of cancer..

Cameron arrives in the town of Red Valley, New Mexico, and enrolls as a high school student under the name "Cameron Phillips", sometime prior to the Connors' relocation to the town. In the fall semester, sometime after the Connors leave Nebraska on August 24, 1999, John enrolls in the high school and is immediately greeted by his classmate, Cameron, fully aware of his identity. When Cameron promptly saves his life from substitute teacher Mr. Cromartie (Owain Yeoman), a T-888 Terminator, by using the phrase, "Come with me if you want to live," the same words to Sarah both by Kyle Reese in the first film, and by the T-800 to both Connors in the second film. Chased by Cromartie, Cameron takes the Connors to a bank branch, sealing themselves in the vault, where it assembles and activates a time displacement device with their assistance, sending them forward to 2007 with the intention of stopping Skynet's creation, thereby eliminating the threat it would later pose. Several plot lines that spanned the rest of the season were introduced in the three episodes immediately following the pilot; however, the season was cut short because of the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike.

The first season's main story arc concerned the efforts of Cameron and the Connors to locate and retrieve a chess-playing computer called The Turk, which was destined to evolve into Skynet. In the second episode, "Gnothi Seauton," Cameron and Sarah (Lena Headey) obtained weapons, money and information on Skynet's creation from resistance fighters, including Derek, sent to 2007 from Cameron's time. This information led Sarah to the man responsible for the computer's creation, Andy Goode (Brendan Hines) in the following episode. Two episodes later, Andy was killed, The Turk was stolen and in a story arc that encompassed the second half of the season, Cameron worked with Sarah, John and Derek to acquire it from a man named Sarkissian (James Urbaniak). However, Sarkissian managed to catch Cameron in a car bomb, as part of the season finale's cliffhanger.

A wounded Cameron frees Sarah Connor from LA County lock up.

Two additional plot lines are also developed over the course of the season. In the fourth episode, "Heavy Metal," Cameron discovered that Cromartie (now portrayed by Garret Dillahunt) continued to pursue John after the events of the pilot; several episodes later, Cameron identified Cromartie posing as an FBI agent, unsuccessfully looking for John. The episode "Heavy Metal" also introduced a storyline concerning Cameron assembling materials involved in the construction of a Terminator; the cyborg has collected a bar of coltan — a metal used in Terminators' endoskeletons — and a computer chip from a Terminator destroyed in the episode "Queen's Gambit." It is suggested in subsequent episodes that these pieces were retained in order to effect necessary repairs.

In the second season finale, Cameron denies that exposure to terminators and their shielded nuclear power cells cause cancer in humans, as John believes that if his mother is sick it could be from living with her for so long. Cameron states that it has internal sensors to detect radiation leakage. While rescuing Sarah from the Los Angeles County lock up Cameron sustains heavy damage, including the loss of its left eye covering. Cameron then enters the basement of ZeiraCorp to find John Henry. The cyborg's body is subsequently found inside the room where John Henry was kept, but missing its chip; the original chip (from Cromartie) was destroyed (bashed) by Sarah Connor.

No model number for the Cameron Terminator has been mentioned yet. The only thing known about the model is that it has the ability to mimic human emotions and behaviors far better than other models. In the pilot, Cameron eats a corn chip, marking the first time a Terminator unit has eaten food on-screen, and eats part of a pancake "The Demon Hand". Cameron has also demonstrated the ability to determine nutritional content of foods as it scans an apple during a grocery store run, and seems to prefer carbohydrates ("Allison from Palmdale"). It is also shown that Cameron's visual display modes include full color and green tinted sections instead of the exclusively all red or blue "Termovision" screens from other models.

- - In the second episode, "Gnothi Seauton", the Terminator sent to kill the resistance fighters living in 2007 scans Cameron during a fight and is only able to identify it as an "unknown cyborg". In the sixth episode, however, Derek Reese recognizes Cameron on sight as a Skynet Terminator, both in the past and in the future. Cameron is shown analyzing biomarkers in humans by touching them, and can detect tumors by physical contact, but claims an inability to perform complex scans, such as a CAT scan.

- - After the pilot episode, Cameron has remained relatively emotionless and has relatively poor social skills in a school setting, beginning in the third episode. Cameron mimics the behavior of others, such as the Latina lookout from the second episode, or impersonating the voice of a distressed student it met just prior to the girl committing suicide. When John comments on the differences in Cameron's behavior at different points, the cyborg replies, "Fooled you." In the episode, "The Tower Is Tall But The Fall Is Short", Dr. Sherman (Dorian Harewood) confuses this behavior with Asperger syndrome. As well, this Terminator also displays awkward humor, such as in the fifth episode when she and John are entering a vehicle driven by Sarah. John, wanting to ride in the front passenger seat, calls out "I call shotgun," to which Cameron responds, "I call nine-millimeter."

- - Although Cameron is socially awkward and emotionless as a rule, the Terminator is fully capable of convincingly mimicking human emotion and behavior while attempting to seduce. When approaching John in the pilot episode, it flirts, smiles and engages him in pleasant conversation. After being damaged and reverting to its mission to kill John in the second season opener, "Samson and Delilah", Cameron passionately pleads with John not to deactivate it and professes its love for him. In "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today", Cameron lies next to John on his bed to talk with him about his need to break up with Riley, telling him that it understands that being John Connor can be lonely, and that they will have many conversations about it together. John is noticeably uncomfortable during this exchange, and comments on the fact that Riley would "freak out" were she to see him and his "sister" like this. In a deleted scene from "Dungeons and Dragons", Charley Dixon questions John about the latter's feelings toward Cameron; John unconvincingly dismisses Charley's concerns. In numerous publicity interviews for the second season, Summer Glau has stated that John's love interest, Riley Dawson, causes Cameron to feel the closest thing to jealousy and threatened as a Terminator is capable of feeling. Cameron similarly displayed warmth and human pleasantries when posing as Sarah's technology consultant in "Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point", also displaying a fluency in the Japanese language.

- - In "Samson and Delilah", Cameron sustains significant damage in an explosion, including a compromise in its chip, right leg, and biological covering. The chip reverts to earlier programming, which designates John for termination. Cameron seals the wound to its biological covering with a heavy duty staple gun in public, and has to be deactivated to allow John to make field repairs to the chip. Since the explosion and reactivation at the end of the first season, Cameron displays unusual and, as yet, unexplained behavior inconsistent with its actions in the first season. In "Automatic for the People", Cameron experiences a delay in decision-making when ordered to pursue another Terminator, and in "The Mousetrap", gauges the exact center of the Connors' house and determines the precise rate of its uneven settling; when asked, Cameron states that the settling has no tactical impact, but will necessitate repainting in the next year. In "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today", Cromartie takes notice that Cameron's behavior has been inconsistent, and asks Sarah if Cameron's chip has been damaged.

- - In the episode "Allison From Palmdale", Cameron again malfunctions, remembering the original objective to assassinate John Connor, adding that it wishes to decapitate him and "put his head on a pike for all to see." At the end of the episode, Cameron finally reverts to its normal identity as John's guardian..

- - Cameron becomes concerned when John cannot be found in the Mexican police station after Cromartie has ransacked it, telling Derek, "I can't let anything happen to him.".

- - In "Queen's Gambit," John explains to Cameron that sometimes humans write notes or letters to express grief when spoken words can not fully articulate how humans feel. After Andy Goode has been killed, Cameron offers Sarah a pencil and John's advice. At the end of the episode, as Derek Reese is lying on the kitchen table, bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound, Cameron proceeds to write a letter to itself. At the end of "The Demon Hand" Derek Reese observes Cameron performing ballet alone. Cameron's choice of music for this dance, Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor No. 20, is the same as that played in the basement of the future prison where Derek was held in "Dungeons & Dragons." During her interrogation, Allison Young admitted to Cameron that her mother had affection for Chopin's music. Later, in the episode "Complications", Cameron inexplicably changes the radio station in John's car to pop music instead of a previous station. In "Allison From Palmdale", Cameron's malfunction causes the Terminator to confuse itself with that of future resistance fighter Allison Young (who it was patterned after), "remembering" Allison's recited memories as its own. As Allison, Cameron experiences normal human emotions such as fear, sorrow, and remorse, and seems to genuinely enjoy playing a game of Foosball. Cameron's affinity for games is developed in "Strange Things Happen at the One Two Point", when it obtains a go board and stones and displays a keen interest in the myriad permutations of the game, even in the privacy of the Connor home.

- - Cameron enters John's bedroom in a tank top in "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today", she claims to have shed its jacket because it was hot, and refutes John's assertion that Terminators cannot feel temperature. In the following episode, "Complications," Cameron extends a bare foot out of the car window while John is driving. When John asks about this very human of actions, Cameron responds that it is "feeling what it's like to get away from it all." In response to his assertion that it cannot "feel", the cyborg states that he does not understand how Terminators work, that it has sensations and can feel, and that it would not be of much use if she could not.

- - In the initial episodes of the series, Sarah Connor is shown trying to teach Cameron to value human life more after it fatally shoots a contact on the possibility that he intends to give away Sarah and John's presence in 2007. In "Complications", Cameron observes Sarah righting an overturned tortoise and moving it away from their truck's wheels. When discussing the incident later with John, Cameron states that the tortoise did not pose a threat and "We are not programmed to be cruel." Minutes later, Cameron turns James Ellison onto his front after injuring him. This is in contrast to the disappointment expressed at not being permitted to kill a bird in "The Mousetrap".

- - The episode "Self Made Man" revealed that Cameron secretly spends her nights at a college library, pursuing knowledge of literature and history, such as the "ancient" muzzle loaded artillery used in the Modoc War of 1872-1873. There, Cameron has befriended a cancer-stricken, paraplegic graduate student/library assisant named Eric, though this interaction has mixed results. Cameron describes him as being its only friend, and shares potentially compromising information with him despite there being no operational need to do so. At his request, the cyborg reads Shakespeare's Othello, the Moor of Venice commenting that it was more violent than it had expected but not unpleasantly so; their discussion was reminiscent of Cameron's and Sarah's agreement that the slaughter in Genesis, Chapter 34, was "[Cameron's] kind of story".

- - In the episode "Ourselves Alone," Cameron has shown that it has retained various pieces from previously destroyed terminators for the purpose of repairing itself, and while capable of doing so, prefers to let John work on its damaged arm. When confronting Riley later on in the episode, Cameron defines Riley as a threat but does not harm her. Cameron explains to John later to an uncertainty regarding attacking Riley. At the end of the episode, Cameron plants a small explosive next to its processor and gives John a detonator to activate it, in case the Connors need to stop the cyborg again.

- - In "The Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter" it's seen that Cameron has met Jesse Flores in the future, after Jesse sunk USS Jimmy Carter and caused the loss of a special package for John Connor that contained a T-1001 that he wanted to recruit.

- - Cameron's secretive behavior is again seen in the season finale, when James Ellison brings a message from the T-1001 masquerading as Catherine Weaver: "Will you join us?", the exact same question John Connor asked to the T-1001 in 2027 about joining the resistance. Cameron intentionally lies and denies any knowledge of this supposed code. After breaking Sarah Connor out of jail, Cameron penetrates ZeiraCorp's basement facility and confronts John Henry. The same question is repeated again, this time by John Henry after which Cameron pulls out a blade and closes the door. When the Connors, the T-1001 and James Ellison reach the room, they find a deactivated Cameron sans chip. While John Connor blames John Henry for the incident, it's explained by the T-1001 that Cameron gave its chip willingly. In the same scene, all the computer monitors in the chamber repeatedly display the message "I'm sorry John."

Reception

In 2008, Glau won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television for her portrayal of Cameron. In the same year, she was also nominated for two Teen Choice Awards for her work on Terminator, in the categories of favorite action adventure television actress and favorite female breakout television star. Glau was also a nominee for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television in 2009.

In a poll held by E! Online columnist Kristin Dos Santos after the series premiere, 60% of participants voted Glau their favorite series regular. Her performance has been praised as one of the show's best elements, with The Star-Ledger commenting, "if there's a reason to stick with "Sarah Connor," it's Glau," and Zap2it.com exclaiming that Glau was "the stand-out in early episodes." IGN also praised Glau's performance of the human character Allison Young in season two, writing, "This episode would never have worked if Summer Glau was not as good as she is ... Glau [is] terrific as the flesh and blood Allison, and it's wonderful to see her display unbridled emotion ..." However, Mark Wilson of About.com called Glau "infinitely [flat]" and wrote, "I know robots are supposed to be emotionally muted, but Glau's character comes across as lobotomized." In another negative review, Tim Goodman of The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Glau "looks like a teenage Ally McBeal" who might "get her teeth punched in by wispy Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

The actual character, Cameron, has also received a mixed response. A reviewer for the LA Times said that Cameron "conveys an intriguing, if limited, humanity that, one hopes, will enrich future story lines." In another E! Online poll, the character was voted the favorite model of Terminator, accumulating 53% of the vote. Criticisms have focused on the character's seemingly uneven ability to behave humanly. In a review of the episode "The Turk," Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly called Cameron an "inconsistent machine," saying that in the first episode it could "navigate high school like a pro," but that after, it "displayed an alarming lack of savvy when dealing with members of the human race." Travis Fickett of IGN also noted the change in the character's writing, calling it "an unintended continuity problem," and describing the response as "a point of contention with fans."

See also

• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture
• List of fictional doppelgängers
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Terminator (character concept)