In this bonus episode of the Overthinking It Podcast, Jordan Stokes interviews Bear McCreary, composer of the Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicle TV series. Enjoy!

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Episode 3 of the Overthinking It podcast takes its cues from Terminator Week on the blog, and features conversations highlighting:

• The Terminator Franchise: Its Place in Cinematic History
• The Terminator Mythology
• Aaahnuld
• Paradoxes of Terminator Time Travel
• The Social Message of the Terminator Movies
• How to Survive a Terminator Attack

…and so much more. The panel includes Belinkie, Fenzel, Stokes, and Wrather.

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It’s right up there with music, poetry and love — since the dawn of time, mankind has heeded a primal calling to construct unstoppable, unmanned killing machines. So, today, during this Terminator week, let’s take a look back at some of those triumphs of ingenuity, the human spirit, and our inborn urge to breathe the words “Hasta la vista, baby” into the Pygmalion-warmed lips of our creations (as well as our misplaced belief they will never turn on us for our hubris). more »

[Continuing Terminator Week, Matthew Belinkie imagines how John Connor's decision to send Reese back to 1984 might have come about. You'll hear this radio-drama enacted on our Terminator Week podcast, "How to Survive a Terminator Attack," to be released this Friday. —Ed.]

John: Are you sure, Walter? That’s an actual working time machine?

Walter: (he speaks in a “nerd” voice) I’m afraid so, Mr. John Connor. It looks as if, the Terminator is on its way back to May 12, 1984.

Reese: What? That’s years before Judgment Day. Why then?

John: I know why, Reese . It’s nine months before I was born.

Reese: Oh my God! That machine is going to impregnate your mother!

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[Since it is Terminator Week here on Overthinking It, here is an oldie but goodie from the earliest days of the blog. —Ed.]

MarketingBot 349-A Lands the T-1000 Account
by Matthew Belinkie

[This post begins Terminator Week on Overthinking It. –Ed.]

(Photoshopping courtesy of the lovely and talented Mr. Lee)

To be honest, I didn’t start watching “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” with high hopes. Terminator 3 had its moments, but it also had all the hallmarks of a franchise-killer, and TV spinoffs generally don’t inspire a lot of confidence. (With “Happy Days,” “Mash,” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the track record is actually better than you might think… still, I was expecting something closer to “Highlander: The Series”). Anyway, I’m glad that my girlfriend talked me into giving it a shot, because the show is really very good. Today I’m here to overthink the reasons why.

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