Russell Blackford’s young-adult “New John Connor Chronicles” trilogy continues to be redundant and overwritten in the final book, “Times of Trouble” (2003). The previous book ends with a promise of going to Jade’s World, yet the first 258 pages (!) of this book are spent on mop-up duty in Skynet’s World. There’s a sense of inevitability to this whole story, as Blackford telegraphs everything. A reader slogs through battles until everything comes to fruition.
That having been said, there are some good chunks of writing here; in fact, I think Blackford has become a better writer as the series has progressed. He has a little more sense of what to do with Sarah, who embraces her warrior nature, and John, who is distracted by his crush on Jade but gradually learns to be a fighter. The best parts, though, are the author’s outlining of time travel and timelines: Blackford presents the rules of this universe quite clearly (see below).
I also like his pontifications about the dangers of Skynet’s technology, which adds a thematic thrust to the book. General John, after consulting with his top men and women, agrees to destroy all Terminators in one year’s time, but first he needs to utilize reprogrammed units to fight Skynet, and even some human enemies.
I just wish he had included one character with an alternate viewpoint: These machines can be used for good — not only for winning battles but also for making humans’ day-to-day lives easier (for example, transporting heavy loads). We see this obvious fact play out on the pages, but no character voices the idea that these robots are valuable tools that should be preserved.
CHARACTERS
John Connor: He is split into two versions of himself here: Teenage John, who comes from 2001 John’s World and is visiting 2029-30 Skynet’s World; and General Connor, who exists in Skynet’s World. On Feb. 28, 2030, General Connor celebrates his 45th birthday.
Sarah Connor: She’s frustrated by the complexity of the never-ending war across dimensions, but she’s always willing to fight. Sarah feels responsible for the creation of Skynet’s World, as this is the world that came about in 1994 when she chose to NOT attack Cyberdyne (as chronicled in “Book One: Dark Futures.” (John’s World springs from what we see in “T2.”)
Kyle Reese: He has no role in this book. The events in Skynet’s World take place after the famous 2029-to-1984 time-travel mission. And that mission never happened in Jade’s World.
Jade: She’s the last surviving Specialist (a human enhanced by nanotechnology) from the group we met in “Dark Futures.” Young John has a crush on her. In the end, they part ways and promise to always remember each other, as they must continue to keep watch over their respective worlds.
Danny Dyson: In Skynet’s World, he has become proficient in reprogramming Terminators. He likewise demonstrates this skill in the Malibu Comics. In “Genisys,” he goes a different direction and follows his fathers’ footsteps as the genius behind Skynet at Cyberdyne.
Juanita Salceda: Essentially she’s General Connor’s girlfriend in Skynet’s World, although they don’t have time for love. Similarly, in the “T3”/“Salvation” lore, John’s wife, Kate Brewster, fights by his side as his second-in-command.
Enrique Salceda: Juanita’s dad, he’s still around in Skynet’s World, too, fighting the good fight into his 80s.
TERMINATORS
T-799s, and T-800 model 101s: The Resistance reprograms and utilizes these models (the “Eve” model from earlier in the Blackford books, and the familiar Arnold model, respectively) in the battles in Skynet’s World and Jade’s World.
T-1000s: The Resistance reprograms two of these mimetic polyalloy Terminators, and they prove invaluable in the field of battle. They can even reprogram and take over Skynet’s machines, something that I don’t think we see from the T-1000 in “T2” but we do see from the T-X in “T3” and the T-XA in this trilogy. Blackford doesn’t clearly explain what the T-1000s use as their default human appearance. Here, T-1000s can store weapons within their bodies while traveling through time vaults (Robert Patrick’s T-1000 can’t, or at least doesn’t, do that in “T2”). Here, T-1000s can merge with laser cannons; this essentially makes them as effective as a T-X, which has built-in weaponry.
T-XA: Basically the next step up from a T-1000, the T-XA is likewise a mimetic polyalloy Terminator, but it can also read human minds and brainwash humans and split into multiple, independent entities. In Jade’s World, Skynet downloads itself into a T-XA as a last-ditch measure and tries to escape in a time vault, but the Resistance thwarts it (p. 364).
CONTINUITY AND CONTRADICTIONS
“Times of Trouble” continues from “An Evil Hour.” Our heroes are mopping up against the machines in 2029-30/Skynet’s World. All the while, they plan to take the fight to 2036/Jade’s World, which they eventually do. And John and Sarah also want to get back to the early 21st century of their own world (which continues from “T2”), where they had at least temporarily stopped the creation of Skynet. They return to 2004 at book’s end, and indeed, Skynet has not been created yet.
The machines continue to fight in Skynet’s World after the destruction of Skynet’s central computer. This is a bit unusual in “Terminator” lore, as usually the machines all shut down once the plug is pulled. “The Burning Earth,” which ends with a shot of red Terminator eye, suggests that perhaps the machines do fight on in that story, too.
The Resistance deals with warlords in Skynet’s World. While other stories (particularly “The Future War,” where some humans ally with Skynet) had touched on the idea of rogue humans, “Times of Trouble” features the most overt human-vs.-human battles in the apocalypse.
Although Judgment Day doesn’t happen until 2021 in Jade’s World, Skynet is more prepared to fight the war in this world compared to others. By 2036, it has essentially won (until Resistance fighters from another world turn the tables). This is despite the fact that it didn’t develop Terminators right away (p. 138). Rather, Skynet’s aircraft did most of the damage after the bombs. Also, in Jade’s World, Skynet created T-XAs but not T-1000s (p. 331).
Paraguay is among the battle sites in Skynet’s World (p. 232), which is interesting considering Sarah and John make a home there in the S.M. Stirling novels. Blackford makes no connection, though.
When working among themselves, Terminators converse using human language, but sped up 10 times (p. 331). At least, that’s how reprogrammed Terminators communicate. Skynet’s Terminators tend to use radio communications that can’t be heard by an outside observer, as seen in the Dark Horse 1984 saga.
In Skynet’s World, Skynet’s core essence jumps from Colorado to Spain, as we saw in the previous book, “An Evil Hour.” In Jade’s World, though, Skynet has grown complacent. It doesn’t have the ability to jump from Colorado to another site. That’s why it desperately downloads itself into a T-XA (p. 351). Living on in a single cyborg is how Skynet survives in the future of “Aliens vs. Predator vs. The Terminator.” However, its plan is thwarted here.
TIMELINES AND TIME TRAVEL
It had been hinted at in the first two novels, and it’s firmly spelled out here: The time vaults (called “time-displacement equipment” and “continuum transporters” in other stories) can be used to transport people or cyborgs across time and/or space and/or dimensions. Additionally, time vaults can also measure and map space-time, allowing for the Resistance to track Skynet’s travels and vice versa, and also for the operator to view a map of space-time on a computer monitor. Whereas some other “Terminator” stories struggle to establish the idea of a battle across timelines, “Times of Trouble” does so quite clearly.
When the Resistance fighters view the space-time map (p. 207), they see three distinct worlds: Skynet’s World (where they are located), John’s World and Jade’s World. These are the three worlds explored in Blackford’s novels, and the backgrounds of all of these worlds come from “T1” and “T2.” Skynet’s World and John’s World branch off in 1994, when Sarah attacks or doesn’t attack Cyberdyne, and John’s World and Jade’s World branch off in 2001, when Jade’s Specialists appear or don’t appear in a time bubble.
By saying there are three worlds, Blackford snubs a ton of worlds from other books and comics. Yet he also clearly states that when someone goes back in time, they cannot change the past, they can only start a new timeline. It’s not necessarily a contradiction, because when he talks about tangled “nodal points” (p. 203) in 1984, 1994 and 2001, Blackford seems to be allowing for the merging of timelines if they are similar enough.
Another way we can reconcile the fact that other timelines don’t show up on the space-time map is to argue that the other timelines come into being “later” (in a meta-time sense). So while it may seem that Blackford is snubbing, for example, the “T3” world where the events of “T1” happened in 1980, it isn’t a snub if that timeline comes into being after the Blackford timelines.
If we want to be really generous toward Blackford, we could argue that the characters are “zooming in” on the portion of the space-time map that shows the three worlds that branch off from 1994 that they are concerned with. At this point, the group features representatives from all three worlds – Skynet’s, John’s and Jade’s. While there may be a Malibu World or a Stirling World or a “T3” World branching off as well, those perhaps are not clustered with these three Blackford worlds, and therefore of no concern to the characters.
Although the Resistance fighters are viewing the space-time map in 2029 in Skynet’s World, the map shows them the future up to 2036 in Jade’s World (p. 206). It seems odd that the space-time map would be able to show the future. But it’s a complex issue, so I’ll set it aside for now.
The time vault can deliver travelers to within a 1-mile radius of its target in space (p. 119). When it is making the space-displacement from a close distance, it can be very precise: For example, Skynet uses its Colorado time vault to position Terminators in the field of battle right outside the mountain (p. 335).
For the record, here are the uses of time vaults in “Times of Trouble”:
- Cecelia and six good Terminators (three T-800 model 101s and three T-799s) travel from 2029/Colorado/Skynet’s World to 2029/Argentina/Skynet’s World (p. 119).
- Sarah travels from 2029/Colorado/Skynet’s World to 2029/Argentina/Skynet’s World (p. 212).
- A T-XA travels from 2036/Colorado/Jade’s World to 2001/Mexico City/John’s World (p. 216). We saw the continuation of the T-XA’s mission back in “Dark Futures.”
- A T-XA travels from 2036/Colorado/Jade’s World to 2036/Brazil/Jade’s World to deal with newly arrived Resistance fighters (see the next entry) (p. 220).
- A whole gaggle of our heroes – notably John, Sarah and Jade – travel from 2030/Colorado/Skynet’s World to 2036/Brazil/Jade’s World (p. 256).
- Reprogrammed Terminators travel from 2036/Brazil/Skynet’s World to 2036/Colorado/Skynet’s World for the final battle (p. 327). Meanwhile, the human Resistance fighters make the trip by aircraft.
- The T-XA holding Skynet’s essence attempts to jump from 2036/Colorado/Skynet’s World to a safer location (p. 364), but it is thwarted when the Resistance throws a metal endoskeleton body into the time vault. Because the time vault can’t deal with metal objects, the T-XA gets “disintegrated and scattered across infinity.”
- And finally, John and Sarah travel from 2036/Colorado/Jade’s World to 2004/Salceda compound/John’s World (p. 374).