By DeWayne Hamby

In the midst of a writer’s strike that has all but erased all original content from TV, Fox’s mid-season replacement series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles bursts onto the screen with hand extended. You can almost hear Arnold’s voice: “Come with me if you don’t want to suffer through reality TV.” Hooray! The Terminator and the Connor clan (sans Dan and Roseanne) to the rescue!

There were explosions, gunfire and fistfights aplenty in the two-night series premiere. Unlike some action series, Terminator benefits from a classic story on which to build, although it virtually ignores the third film, which ended with nuclear Armageddon.

“Purpose,” a word that’s gotten a lot of mileage in the culture lately, is a key component in the mythology. As introduced in James Cameron’s original film, the machines of the future are sent back through time to alter the destiny of a man who will eventually rise up to lead a human victory against them. They target him (Terminator 2), his mother (Terminator) and even his future wife (Terminator 3). Thankfully his dog, Max, seemed to escape the series unscathed.

As a young man, John doesn’t understand his destiny. The responsibility of the future rests heavily on his shoulders. There’s something endearing about a story that gives humans such monumental impact. John’s life is not his alone.

Perhaps naming the series “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” was an attempt to cast the net a bit wider than the largely male audience of the films. As Sarah, Lena Headley (300) plays a lighter role than Linda Hamilton’s take-no-prisoners version. She smiles and laughs, which will play out better in an ongoing series, but she still knows her way around ammunition.

The series isn’t a family show and seems to push the envelope for violence in prime time. One terminator with a machine gun makes Swiss cheese out of a couple of occupied police cars in the opening sequence and another rebuilds himself with decomposed body parts. With that in mind, any discussion about the show’s title is moot; most women have already changed the channel.