The Terminator

The Terminator franchise were a series of movies and television shows released during the late 20th and early 21st century. The premise was that of a supercomputer, called Skynet, devastating Earth with nuclear weaponry in an attempt to wipe out humanity. Skynet then created armies of cyborgs called Terminators to fight a war with the survivors. The plot of the first film involved Skynet sending a Terminator through time to kill the mother of the leader of humanity, John Connor, before he was born.

References

In Brussels, Fitz Kreiner and Dave Young witnessed a man apparently die in front of them, then arise in a twitchy, robotic fashion. Young likened the awkward resurrection to Terminator 3. (PROSE: Escape Velocity)

Clyde Langer made two Men in Black inadvertently destroy each other. He picked up a pair of sunglasses worn by them and put them on, saying "hasta la vista", in a similar fashion to the Terminator, which wore sunglasses in the movies. Clyde later stated that they were "Clydenated", a pun on the term terminated. (TV: The Vault of Secrets)

During a visit to 1963 England, Sam Jones felt like she'd moved off the Terminator back lot and found herself on Summer Holiday. (PROSE: The Taint)

After accidentally getting trapped in the 1st century BC, Ibrahim Hadmani said the only things he knew about time travel he learned from Back to the Future and Terminator. (PROSE: The Last Pharaoh)

Alan Jackson likened Vinegar to the Uzi 9 Millimeter, a weapon used through the movie (TV: The Lost Boy)

Behind the scenes

• Skynet is very similar to WOTAN. Both are self-aware supercomputers that create robotic servants to take over the world. Also, WOTAN's War Machines are reminiscent of the T-1s from Terminator 3. Although the War Machine is simpler in design, the two have a similar shape: both have firearms mounted onto the top-left and right on their structures and numerical designations can be seen on the T-1.
• The Cell 114 sleeper agents share similarities with the T-1000 in the Terminator movies: both are infiltrators who are able to turn their hands into stabbing weapons. The Torchwood The Official Magazine Yearbook (2008) says that James Moran was inspired by the Terminator movies in creating Cell 114.