The fate of The Sarah Connor Chronicles is what Fox makes.. There are endings, and then there are new beginnings..

This past TV season, sci - fi fans saw the premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which expanded on the popular time - travel foundation laid by the hugely successful Terminator films.. Although the series got off to a great start, The Sarah Connor Chronicles was forced to shut down production and reshuffle its season episodes when the writers hit the picket lines.. After an abbreviated run, the series reached the end of its strike - shortened first season on the Fox airwaves in its 2 - hour season finale on the 3rd March..

As of today, Fox hasn’t announced whether or not they’re going to bring the show back next season.. I really hope we hear some good news sometime soon but Judgment Day for this series might not come until May, when Fox announces their fall lineup..

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is set after the events in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the series follows fugitive Sarah Connor ( Lena Headey ) and her son, John ( Thomas Dekker ), after they decide to stop running and focus on preventing the birth of Skynet, with the help of Cameron Phillips ( Summer Glau ), a machine sent from the future..

In case you haven’t been watching the series, what the writers have basically done is eliminate the third movie from the equation ( And who can blame them?) and adapted a small screen version of the story that takes place in the years following the events that took place in the second film.. Cameron ( Summer Glau ), a terminator arrives in the post - T2 world in the first episode and eventually meets up with Sarah Connor ( Lena Heady ) and her teenage son John ( Thomas Dekker ).. On the run from a terminator, they time - travel to the future, into our present day.. After which, the three are on the run from terminators and the law as well as working to prolong Judgment Day yet again..

All of that is familiar territory for anyone who was a fan of the films.. It’s always been about taking down Skynet, stopping Judgment Day and of course, battling scary almost - indestructible robots from the future.. The Sarah Connor Chronicles is taking the story a step further.. What TSCC has delivered in nine episodes, aside from fight sequences and the occasional explosion, is a story about people.. None of the characters fit the clichés one might expect, given a series of this nature.. Sarah’s not just the hardened warrior - woman.. John’s not just the kid with the destiny.. And Cameron isn’t just the emotionless robot..

It is because the characters are so interesting that I want to see this series stick around.. I want more scenes of Cameron doing things like pretending to be a high school student, kicking terminator ass or doing something unexpected; like smiling.. I love how she interacts with John, Sarah and the other people she comes in contact with.. There’s just something about the way Glau portrays the character.. From the way she speaks to the way her eyes follow everything, as though they really are sorting and processing every shred of information they can capture.. I also want to see John and Sarah’s relationship continue to develop..

There are also some great side characters that have begun to play vital roles in the story.. Take Derek Reese, Kyle’s brother ( John’s uncle ), for example.. Played by Brian Austin Green, Reese’s character not only provides another link to the films ( Sort of ), but, being from the future, he’s able to provide reminders here and there about how bad things will get if John and Sarah don’t do something to change the course of the future.. Reese also serves as an alternate perspective when it comes to Cameron.. While Sarah and John are willing to trust Cameron almost unconditionally with their lives, Reese comes from a world where it’s never okay to trust a machine.. This causes some conflict between the main characters and forces us to question whether or not Reese’s paranoia when it comes to Cameron is justified..

Tomorrow’s Entertainment dialed into a Fox conference call to talk with The Sarah Connor Chronicles creator Josh Friedman and series newcomer Brian Austin Green ( Derek Reese ) about various elements of time travel, incorporating humor into the show, whether fans will get to see the unproduced content left behind by the writers’ strike, and whether we’ll see Derek Reese return for a second season if Fox gives it a green light renewal..

The show’s ratings have been pretty good, but it’s a very expensive show to produce.. What do you think the odds are of renewal?
Josh Friedman: ” It’s not actually an expensive show to produce.. In fact, I think we’re below the budget of many action shows that are on TV right now.. Our budget is much more in line with your basic drama that you would find on any network.. So, I don’t think that cost, at this point, plays much of a factor.. As for the ratings, I don’t know what to make of it, really.. The show has done well for a new show, and a new drama.. And, we do very well in certain demographics.. We do very well in DVR.. We do very well on downloads.. For our type of show, that is a big chunk.. We are one of the top five shows being TiVo’d right now, which is how I watch the show..”

Are you expecting an offer for Season 2 any time soon?
Josh: ” I hope so.. The ritual for first year shows is to go back into the network and tell them what Season 2 is.. Things are just a little weird this year because of having the strike, so we have to re - adjust what our Season 2 plans are.. We’re going to go in and sit down with the network, and we’ll do a post - game on Season 1 and talk about Season 2.. Then, Fox will make the decision.. They haven’t made a decision on any shows yet.. So, I fully expect to get in there with them and, hopefully, have an answer pretty soon because we need to start writing..”

What can you say about the season finale, without giving too much away?
Brian Austin Green: ” I was online last night going through some of the chats, just to see what people were talking about, and this is one of those shows where, if you give any little bit of anything, people will talk enough about it and start to figure out what’s going on.. So, it’s a very fine line of what you can and can’t talk about..”

Josh: ” I’m a fascist about spoilers.. I’m the biggest pain in the ass to the marketing and promotion department.. I think they were very happy that I was on strike for 14 weeks.. Since I’ve gotten back, I get these little emails that say, “ Can we show this?,” and I say, “ No..” If I had my way, the commercials would be 30 seconds of black with the words Sarah Connor on them..”

Brian: ” I actually did a talk show, and the only clip we could get of me on the show, because I hadn’t premiered on it yet, was the teaser from the episode before.. It was like, “ Next week on The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” and it showed me running and fighting.. We couldn’t get anymore footage than that..”

Josh, how did you decide that the point that you’re reaching in the finale was the right point to end the show for the season? And, what sort of finale is it, in terms of the tone you want to leave viewers with?
Josh: ” It’s serendipitous.. I wasn’t there.. I was on strike, and so, this is the number of episodes that we had reached.. We had only written and produced up to this number, when I went out on strike.. It just happens that a lot of stuff locks in and comes together during these last two episodes.. That’s just dumb luck.. If we would have gone one episode more, or one episode less, it would probably have been less satisfying..”

This is not the end point that you determined when you initially pitched the first 13 episodes to Fox?
Josh: ” No.. But, I don’t know that four episodes from now would have been a much better finale than the one that we have now..”

But, hypothetically, there’s still some cliffhanger points that you’ll have to get to next season?
Josh: ” Yes.. I’m thinking about that, right now.. The strike was such a weird situation, but the school of thought is that you could start next year by picking up almost where you left off.. But, episode 10 isn’t necessarily right for a season 2 premiere.. You have to rethink how much you want to carry over.. I have a plan going forward.. It’s just about how we integrate that into the beginning of Season 2..”

In the series, it seems like there’s a highway going back and forth in time.. How do you keep that highway in check, so you’re not stepping on yourself by creating potholes all over the place?
Josh: ” I try not to abuse the time travel too much.. We think about it all the time.. I’ve been in the writer’s room and it happens at least once a day where, all of a sudden, we just go quiet and everyone stares at each other because we can’t wrap our brain around what we’re trying to do.. I have a pretty specific idea as to what I believe the rules of our universe are, and I try not to violate them.. Chaos theory abounds, and that’s always my argument.. Skynet can’t send a nuclear bomb back. At this point, Skynet probably understands that the causality is so complicated that it’s unclear as to what any one thing might do.. So, to do something en masse, they might end up destroying themselves, and they need the humans as much as the humans need them. Once they’re created, then who knows..”

Do you think that’s something that might eventually come up in the plot, if there is a second season? Or, is that something that fans will have to assume is there and just argue it out?
Josh: ” I think it’s great to argue it out.. When it’s the movies, there’s that sense of refrigerator logic where you sit down, watch the movie, it’s a big chase, there’s adrenaline and it hits you when you’re driving home.. You’re like, “ Wait, he just sent his best friend back to birth himself..” You can go crazy just off the first movie.. And, with a series, obviously there’s much more time to analyze it.. Over time, we have to introduce more elements, so it becomes more complicated and it starts to fold in on itself.. I just try to keep it clear and stay true to the basic ideas of the movies.. It’s a lot to wrangle..”

Brian: ” We had the conversation of the possibility of bringing Kyle Reese onto the show, instead of Derek.. But then, within that was the whole concept of, “ Okay, at what point are people actually dead, and at what point do we have to realize that a character is gone?” It’s a weird, confusing line.. I don’t know how specific you can really get with any of it because, at the end of the day, it’s something that’s completely nonexistent, at this point.. Who knows how one thing can overlap into another and how one decision can affect another? It will probably be an argument we’ll be having until the end of time..”

Brian, how is it to know that you are officially now a member of the Reese family, and that your character has become a part of the mythology of the show? Have you thought about how your character might get integrated into other things down the road, like novels or comic books?
Brian: ” No, I haven’t thought about that at all.. It’s almost like wrapping my brain around actual time travel.. Just going into the first episode that I had, I was really worried about how people would respond to me playing this character.. I was a huge fan of the films, and I was a huge fan of Michael Biehn and Kyle Reese, as a character.. So, I knew I was holding a heavy weight, in taking it on.. At this point, it’s not really how involved in the franchise, or how big a part of the franchise I am or not.. For me, it’s really just the daily stress of making sure that I’m being true to the character in the franchise.. That’s the most important thing to me, at the end.. At the end of the day, this is all just really cool..”

What were some of the acting challenges you found, stepping into this role, and how have you seen your character grow and develop in the episodes you did?
Brian: ” The biggest challenge, going into the show, was the fact that I was hired the night before I started work.. So, I really knew very little of the character, except for the first script that I had in my hand, which is the first episode that everybody saw of my character.. I would just ask Josh as many things as I could, and try to get as many answers to questions as I could because there was so much involved in every script.. The scripts were so detailed, and I really had no reference.. The hardest thing for me, as an actor, was trying to make sure that I had enough backstory to really understand what Derek was doing and what his thought process was.. Development - wise, he went from living in the future, where he was fighting every day to survive, to now being in a world with a blue sky and grass, and fighting for a different reason.. At times, it’s just a huge roller coaster for him.. He really has no grasp of it. He’s just coming out of nearly dying, so he’s got a lot of growing to do..”

Where was the future war battlefield location shot, and did you have a good time with that?
Brian: ” Oh, I had a fantastic time with that.. That was sort of shot all over.. Most of the battle stuff was in downtown Los Angeles, in a concrete recycling factory.. It was helpful because they didn’t have to bring the actual cement in, just everything else..”

Did you get to keep your outfit?
Brian: ” I wish.. If I did, I would actually have it on one of those mannequins in my movie room or something.. It was the coolest thing ever.. The fact that I was the only one with a green scope on my blaster was pretty cool.. There were a bunch of little details on the costumes that you really didn’t pick up, but everybody had Terminator kills on their sleeve, and these little badges.. They were just little Terminator heads, and everybody had one for every kill.. Some guys had one, and I think I had seven, which was pretty cool..”

Will Derek Reese be kept around as a character, if there is a second season?
Josh: ” All I’ll say is that I think Brian is doing an awesome job, and he’s brought more to the series than I even imagined that he would.. So, I’m really happy..”

Originally you wanted to bring back Kyle Reese.. How far did you have that mapped out before Derek joined the picture?
Josh: ” I’m not going to say how I was going to do it, but I had an idea that was one of those things that probably worked really well on paper, but was probably something that was a bit too far for an audience.. Kyle is a sacred cow.. It’s one thing to see him in the future, and it’s another to see him in the present.. I still hold out hope that, somehow, I’ll figure out how to get him back.. But, every time I ever brought it up, everyone looked at me like I was completely insane.. I listen to everyone, when it’s unanimous..”

Brian, what was it like to be in a scene with an actress that is playing a machine, so she can’t react to you the way a normal actor would be able to react to you?
Brian: ” It was fantastic for this job.. Summer is so good at completely staying in those moments.. That oddity is what creates the tension and excitement in the scenes.. You do scenes all day long with people that react and, when you have somebody that just sits there and blankly stares at you, they almost end up becoming these staring competitions.. And, Summer and I will laugh by the end of them, if we haven’t made it all the way through, just because it’s an interesting relationship between the two of us.. They’ve both known each other for a long time, and there’s a lot of tension within it..”

In episode 7 ‘ The Demon Hand,’ Summer was doing ballet.. Is there going to be more emotional stuff going on with the Terminators? Are we heading to a point where the Terminator’s are going to be more like Cylons ( on Battlestar Galactica ), and are going to have more emotional stuff going on? Because it seemed like there was a hint of that..
Josh: ” Well, first of all, I would argue, with all due respect, to Galactica exec producer, Ron Moore, that the Cylons have wanted to be like Terminators for many years.. Probably all of them wanted to be like Blade Runner.. I think she is a more advanced model and she has more ability to, at least, mimic.. Any time you have any form of cyborg or android, there’s always a temptation by the writers to start exploring that whole humanity thing.. How far it goes, where it goes and what her limitations are, is something I’m still exploring.. There are two groups of people who watch these shows.. There are the real sci - fi people who watch these shows, and then there’s everybody else.. For the people who’ve seen these things before, you want to keep them interested, so you want to explore it in the ways that they haven’t seen it before.. It’s a delicate balance, and we only had nine episodes to do that in.. Everyone has a different idea as to what Summer should be doing, what Cameron’s attitude should be, and whether she is feeling emotion or if she is just pretending to feel emotion.. It’s something that we toss around a lot, and we’re working through it..”

Brian: ” Well, it’s fantastic for this job.. Summer [ Glau ] is so good at completely staying in those moments and I think that oddity is what sort of creates the tension and excitement in the scenes.. You do scenes all day long with people that react and when you have somebody that just sits there and blankly stares at you they almost end up becoming these staring competitions.. And Summer and I will sort of laugh by the end of them if we haven’t made it all the way through, just because it’s an interesting relationship between the two of us.. They’ve both known each other for a long time and there’s a lot of tension within it..”

Is nothing funny in the future? Cameron gets all the comedy, but nobody else ever seems to be anything but angry..
Josh: ” It’s weird.. In the pilot, there’s absolutely no humor at all, and I say that having written it.. And then, I sat down and wrote the second episode and put a lot of jokes in it, and most of them were Cameron’s.. No one thinks that I’m ever funny, and I know for a fact that I’m hysterical.. Every time people put on the boots and the leather jackets, it just seems like they get pretty serious.. I’m going to try to get more comedy in next season.. One of my vows is that we explore more of the dark humor of the situation.. Buffy did a great job with that, many moons ago.. They had a great balance.. So, if it’s not funny, that’s really just my fault for not getting there.. Every time I sit down to do it, it just comes out the other way..”

Brian: ” And, you never know when humor is going to be funny until you shoot it, on the day.. You read it and you don’t really pick up the humor, until you’re doing it.. There are just a lot of odd moments that become really humorous.. Those are the ones I always laugh at..”

Are you planning on integrating the last three episodes from this season that you never got to make, into the second season somehow?
Josh: ” That’s what I’ve been sitting around, thinking about.. I can’t tell you what Episode 10 is, but Episode 10 was a fantastic episode, and an absolutely horrible season premiere for a Season 2.. I really wanted to do Episode 10.. It was one of my favorite ideas, and I can’t do it because it would be a terrible season premiere.. It’s not doable.. It’s going to take some re - jiggering but I think there are ideas, from those episodes that we had planned and hadn’t filmed, that will definitely be making their way in.. I’ve got a little perspective on the show now.. When we were working on Episodes 10, 11, 12, 13, we had yet to air Episode One.. It’s nice to actually now have seen the show because we’ve educated ourselves on what works and what doesn’t work.. It’s like having a second chance..”

Would Season 2 just be a half - season like this year, or are you hoping to do a full season of 22 or 24 episodes?
Josh: ” That’s up to Fox.. I don’t know.. Last year, I had 22 planned and we switched it to 13, and then we did nine.. When I sit down and plan a season out, until someone tells me otherwise, I plan for 22, so if it’s not going to be 22, I make adjustments.. But, I always plan for 22.. I’ve had ideas for probably the first three or four years.. I’ve got arcs for them.. Sometimes it just a matter of moving things up or moving things back, or seeing where it goes..”

In a recent interview; when Thomas Dekker was asked if he gets sick of people asking whether or not John and Cameron will have a romance, Dekker laughed and said he actually likes it! He thinks the idea of a human and a robot having that sort of relationship is interesting and cool and added that fans should ” wait until the second season, because some really great stuff is planned - all those questions will be answered!“ And yes, that’s a direct quote - he was speaking as if season two were already a done deal..

Stay tuned for the latest news on The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season II..