Fictional Entry—Friday/Sunday, July 25, 2003/2004*
Time travel is a mess.
Some claim the timeline is immutable. Time travel can exist, but can’t change the past since it always has existed and always will exist. More importantly, since its existence is a given, any travels are already part of the immutable timeline. Therefore, a traveler can have no effect on time, since the existence of time travel is part of the delineated timeline.
Others claim that timelines are mutable, but only in the manner that a change in the original timeline alters things such that a new timeline is created. The original timeline continues unchanged, except the traveler is no longer part of it. This prevents causality loops such as the classic grandfather killer paradox by sidestepping the question. The person killed in the past prevents any version of the traveler from existing in the current timeline only. The traveler’s grandfather wasn’t killed in the timeline from which the traveler started. Hence no paradox.
Another concept is past and future mutability, one where changes made to the past timeline do directly affect the future. The motion picture Looper used this version. In this type of time travel, the grandfather paradox cannot occur, because as soon as the grandfather is killed, the traveler vanishes from reality. This isn’t a paradox since until the moment of the grandfather’s death, the traveler’s past was still the same.
The fourth concept is also a constant mutable timeline with time loops. In this, like the first approach, only a single timeline exists, and like the third approach, both the future and past are mutable. What makes it different from the third approach is time loops. These allow for any time traveler’s past to exist independent of the new future created by the traveler’s changes. This also sidesteps the grandfather paradox since any changes to the past do not change the present from which a traveler is from, but only the new version of the present and future which will now occur.
This option is the one the Terminator franchise seems to hold. That a traveler from the future can change the past, and that the more travelers who make changes, the less predictable both the future and past become. It also explains why the Terminators and Resistance people can continue to travel to the past and effect changes without invalidating their own existence.
By the time the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines occur, there have been between five and twenty time travelers who have affected the timeline. This number is based on whether Terminator 3 occurs during the timeline that includes The Sarah Connor Chronicles or Terminator: Genesys. No matter what, Judgement Day has shifted twice before, and possibly a third time based on date differences in the prequel novels for Terminator Salvation.
After the destruction of the Cyberdyne Systems headquarters, the Skynet project shifted to Cyber Research Systems (CRS) Corporation. They purchased patents from Cyberdyne Systems and gained access to the data on the Terminator chip from off-site backups. CRS continued the research as part of the Hunter-Killer (HK) robotics and advanced cybernetic warfare program for the United States Air Force (USAF).
The USAF placed the project at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Lieutenant General Robert Brewster was the commanding officer for the project. The project's purpose was to interface with CRS and test developing autonomous weapons platforms for both the physical and cyber battlefield. General Brewster oversaw the testing of the T-1 Battlefield Robot, the Hunter-Killer Aerial Weapons Platform, and the prototype testing of both the T-600 and T-800 Infiltration Units.
When the T-X infiltrated the project, it injected several of the T-1 with a nanotechnological transjector. These machines activated and killed all of the personnel in the building. The T-X also uploaded the virus code to bootstrap the Skynet Defense Network into self-awareness. When self-awarness occurred, Skynet launched nuclear missiles at various targets worldwide. This day became known as Judgement Day. At least for now.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Motion Picture
Warner Brother Pictures
2003
* 2003 is the year given for Judgement Day in the “Terminator Timeline” on the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines DVD and in the novel Terminator Salvation: Cold War.
* 2004 is the year given for Judgement Day in Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes.
This Day in Science Fiction History examines notable events, real and fictional, concerning fantasy and science fiction in various media.
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