I’ve been thinking more about TCW lately. As I mentioned in the previous post, a good part of that is that some new snippets and whatnot are dancing around in my head. With my mind in that place, I was curious when I looked at my blog logs and saw a uri from summer-glau.net as a referrer.
Cameron’s Bad Day II (pencil sketch) ©2010 CJ Carter
I’d only dropped by the forum there to lurk a few times during the writing of TCW, as I did a few other blogs. I was knee-deep in the second half of season 3 at the time, so my visits around the web were infrequent and brief. So, this was the first time I’d read more than the introductory post that contained a link to TCW. It brought back a lot of memories.
(Warning: spoilers may ensue from this point on. You’ve been warned.) The thing that I remembered most was the frequent asking for a more emotional relationship between John and Cameron. That was a constant request and sometimes a very contentious point. A lot of fans strongly desired seeing John and Cameron together. While the story I wrote left a few unsatisfied, I couldn’t help feeling–personally–that there had been one heck of a romance.
Huh? A lot of you are saying. Others will remark that it was so subtle that it was useless. Perhaps. I’m just the writer and not always aware of these things. But here’s the thing for me: I was writing Cameron as someone very full of love but not able to show it. One of the crutches I had to not let that gush forth is the fact that screenplays are visual. You weren’t in Cameron’s head like I was. From my perspective, it was an Austin-esque romance novel.
That is, I’m sure, what many of y’all wanted. Still…the signs were there. As I’ve mentioned before, Cameron was very cautious when testing to see if John was ready to entertain something more than professional or fraternal. Theirs was a very mature relationship. It wasn’t lustful but it was still deep. It’s the sort of relationship that allows for those ever-rarer marriages that last 50 or 60 years.
John confided in Cameron as he did to no one else. For him, that was a significant commitment of trust. It echoed what Cameron alluded to previously when she’d say that she and future-John “talked a lot”. Cameron showed her love by not pushing it. After all, she’d more-or-less gotten back her John. Still…she wanted more. With just a touch of his shoulder, Cameron communicated to John that she’d never leave. Ever. They didn’t need anything more visible. Not yet. Not with the troops watching.
When I was writing this stuff, I never would just write that Cameron touched John’s shoulder, or that John stared at Cameron. I had to feel what they were feeling. Connecting but having to keep the relationship somewhat unrequited. You wonder why writers are a little nuts? This is why. Regardless of whether we put it on the page or not, we still have to feel it.
Thank goodness for Allison. Allison wasn’t nearly as reserved as John and Cameron. Allison let me give Summer a character that was more “normal” than usual. It would let her have a character that, while damaged, was also still just a girl.
Ali would play men–sometimes because of her job, sometimes for power, and sometimes for fun. I think that Allison loved John “in that way” for a while…at least until Cameron showed up. If it wasn’t for his focus on the mission, John could have easily fallen for Ali. After all, Cameron was patterned on my interpretation of AFP Allison–although, AFP Allison was every bit the deceiver as this Allison could be, and that helped make Cameron different from Allison.
Where John and Cameron were about a mature love, Allison was about a younger love: more in-the-moment. Still, she does evolve. At the start, she seems a bit of a slut. At the end she’s a wife and mother. As this relates to John and Cameron: Cameron takes cues from Allison’s behavior to help her communicate with John. The increase of touching is a prime example.
I should mention that the season 3 finale was originally going to lead to an emotional release. While it was planned from the start to be cliffhanger with a Skynet Cameron trying to assassinate John–though in a church-like setting–I’d left open the possibility of a huge relationship moment. It’s also important to note that at this stage of story development Cameron didn’t show up whole and complete until the season finale. Until then, Camenry was meant to be John’s companion through the season. But as you work out plot problems and character arcs…and decide to add a short fourth season…things change.
Getting back to what I mentioned at the start of this post: something that stuck with me was that the referrer was from summer-glau.net. That mattered because I’d be less than honest if I said I didn’t miss having two Summer Glau characters in my head all of the time. Now, I don’t know Ms Glau. I don’t pretend to know what she’s really like as a person, but what she’s presented to us through her works and appearances served as clay from which I molded TCW’s version of Cameron and Allison. For both characters I tried to preserve their essential Summer Glau-ness.
I’ve had hundreds of characters in my head over the decades, but rarely have I enjoyed their company as much as with Cam and Ali. So when I saw the link, it sparked some very happy memories. Even though she had no involvement whatsoever, I do have to thank Summer for bringing whatever it is she brings to the roles.
Hi! I’m using this opportunity to thank you CJ, for the work you did on TCW and which allowed me (and many others I’m sure) to enjoy a bit more of John, Cameron, and the others. I came late to the TV show itself, and even later to your blog, still stunned and beside myself with this season 2 cliffhanger that would never have a sequel. I could go on for a while but that would be writing out loud the obvious so, in few but sincere words, thanks.
As to your above thoughts, my feeling is that you did it right (note : I only read your season 3 so far). The development of the relationship between J&C is extremely subtle in the TV show, and only progress with a few words here and there, some sentences that mean an awful lot but are quickly (and purposefully) discarded by a John who forces himself not to see what’s going on, or what could go on, reminding himself to be wary as she’s “just a machine”. Your story followed the same track and did it well, as far as I’m concerned, avoiding the easy trap of displaying a lot of J&C emotional in the early episodes (despite the blasting “he’s got her chip, he’s got her” that sticks in our heads). No… you made us wait, and it makes the ending all the better. An ending that remains true to your track, and to the TV show, with soft sentences that hit louder than easily displayed emotions. Thumbs up!
Not to say you couldn’t do even better (I’m not good at only giving praises), as a bit more description around Cameron/Alison could help us remember how S.Glau played during the TV Show, and a bit more about Derek who you either dislike of put away for a reason (and which I very much liked in the TV Show
). Well ! Enough and again, thanks!
Merci. It was a long season of choices with Cameron and John. As a rule, I don’t like unnecessarily stringing audiences along. Some of that is a requirement of storytelling, but I feel some writers use it as an excuse to show how clever they are. I constantly evaluated why I was developing John and Cam’s relationship as I did.
The key, for me, was that I wanted a mature, thoughtful relationship being represented. That contrasted mightily with how a lot of writers write such things. In this case, I thought it was warranted. When I watch action movies, I’m often taken out of them when two protagonists decided to go at it like rabbits in heat. I wanted this story to make more sense for the characters involved…though I’ll readily admit that some of that was driven by the requirements of that final scene.
Ah, Derek. I came into this with the mindset of presenting Derek as someone who was sort of a Salieri to John’s Mozart. Derek evolved into being leader, and romanticized how good a leader he was, but the fact is that he was frustrated that he couldn’t measure up to John and how people would just follow him on any damn fool mission.
For Derek’s story, I took as my source clues from TSCC. Cameron told John that Derek’s team was sent back to wait for John, but Derek instead had a kill-Billy agenda as well as sending out his team to do some unwise RECON that ended up putting them in Vick’s radar, killing them all except Derek. Derek lying to Sarah. Derek saying the diamonds belonged to him and his group (I thought everything belonged to John and the mission?) Derek saying to Cameron that that the ammo dump was for him and his (now dead) men when, again, Derek should still be *under* John’s command; i.e. the ammo is John’s. Also (as implied from Jesse’s memory): Derek broke after his capture.
Individually, these all seem like hard-life Derek. When taken together, I chose to have it as Derek’s fatal flaw. (Tangent: in early outlines, Derek didn’t die, but when Kyle sided with John they became foes.) Derek thought he was the favored court composer, but then this prodigy comes along and shows him for the “mediocrity” he is (although he’s actually still quite good). It created a natural story conflict that I exploited.
Anyhoo…thank you again. I hope you enjoy season 4.
hi CJ.
interesting post. I think that developing J&C relationship slowly and subtly was a good decision. their relationship is
not a normal ‘boy meets girl’ story. hell, in the situation they’re in, its not even a normal ‘boy meets cyborg’ story.
too much jameron would have hindered the story and distract john.
anyway, thanks CJ for season 3 and 4.
I enjoyed them very much.
any news about TSCC movie or other
TCW deleted scenes?
No word on a TSCC anything, lately. At least not that I’ve heard.
TCW deleted scenes? Yeah, there are still some left. I’m mostly focusing on writing up some new stuff for y’all, though. Even if it’s just a few pages here or there, I still want to play in this sea of paper (well, paper on my side of the interweb).
Hey CJ,
I can see your point in taking things slowly.
My problem was that at the end of S2, we see a distraught John tossing everything aside for the pursuit of Cameron.
If that’s not love…I’m not sure what it was.
I think that’s why it bugged me so much that John and Cameron , after they are finally re-united, are so tame around each other.
It was like a brother and sister relationship…..and not a romance like was hinted to happen up to “Born to Run”.
I kept reading in hope of something more substantial to happen.
Then there is Allison…. now I do see a potential between her and John.
Maybe something interesting could have happened between them ….but shortly after Cameron is brought back, well, we would see them part ways due to the tension brought on by Cameron being around.
That could have also made it so Cameron would hold back on trying to be intimate with John….as she would have thought he wanted to be with her human counterpart, instead of her.
If what I just mentioned did happen…well….both Jamerons and Jallisons would be up in arms….lol.
I think it would have made for some interesting situations and conflict within John’s mind and between John and the two girls ( well Girl and cyborg)
To sum things up, I just missed having the potential of either Jameron or Jallison to be explored and fleshed out.
Even mature relationships need some more intimate interaction.
And that’s fair. It just didn’t turn out to be this particular story.
Jallison wasn’t as troublesome a can of worms as Jameron. Thing is, once you go there, it’s really tough to have it not become the prime story. As we all learned when we were young from Zymurgy’s First Law of Evolving Systems Dynamics: “Once you open a can of worms, the only way to recan them is to use a bigger can.”
I didn’t have a bigger can.