Time Travel Is Confusing

Last night's episode of Terminator featured a storyline in which a Terminator accidentally traveled back in time all the way to the '20s. Which showed me two things: That time travel on the show doesn't work as I thought it did, and that Terminators are stupid.

I guess I always assumed there was some limitation on time travel in the Terminator universe, a reason why they could only travel into the present. Any time there is a situation where Skynet sent a Terminator back to get at the Connors, it was always into the present. I guess I just figured that maybe the Terminators could only travel, at most, 45 years into the past.

But then, here's this Terminator that goes back 100 years, in a botched attempt to assassinate the Governor of California, which blows my theory out of the water. It also raises the question, if the Terminators are able to travel that far back in time, why don't they travel farther back in time to kill off Sarah Connor and her spawn?

Let's look at the history. First, you've got a Terminator going back to '84 (which was the present at the time) to get Sarah Connor before she gets pregnant. But you've got Michael Biehn there to safeguard (and tap) that.

Then, you've got the Terminator(s) going back to '89, but this time, Sarah and John Connor are savvy to Skynet's plans, and they're looking everywhere for Terminators.

Now, you've got this show, where the Connor family actually jumps nine years into the future, and when the Terminators come back into the present, there are shitloads of people there safeguarding the Connors. At this pace, the Terminators are going to fail miserably.

It would seem to me that the smart thing to do would be to travel back to a period where the Connor clan wouldn't suspect anything, instead of just traveling into present day, where they are more than ready for any Terminator attacks. Why not go back to, say, 1876, when people didn't even understand electricity, much less time travel or artificially intelligent cyborgs? You could kill off Sarah's ancestors and change the outcome of the future. I seriously doubt you'd have much trouble killing those simple-minded motherfuckers.

But, no. The Terminators won't do the easy thing. They just keep attacking the Connors when they are at their strongest. Which would lead me to believe that Skynet and the Terminators are the stupidest machines in history.

I think there's a more practical answer, however. It's easier to make a movie or a TV show set in present day than it is to make one that takes place sometime in the past. You don't have to get "period" set dressing, you can use modern cars, you can wear modern clothing. Hell, the TV show had the Connors travel forward from '99 to '08 (something that Michael Biehn claimed was impossible in the first movie), just so they didn't have to haul out all the late-'90s set decor. So, as it turns out, the Terminators aren't so much stupid as the producers of the show are cheap.

I was hoping for a trip back to medieval times, but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon.