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[Image]From syfyportal, Josh Friedman says there's a lot of problems with "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," that came out in 2003. But the worst part wasn't the story, or the writing, or even the overall concept. It was simply lacking Sarah Connor.

Friedman recently told Terminator Files that he hopes to correct that with his new Fox series "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," which will pick up where 1991's "Terminator 2" left off.

"I think the big thing about T3 is, obviously, there was just no Sarah Connor and that's something the fans were never happy with," Friedman told the Web site. "I don't even think the people who made T3 were happy with that. It just wasn't a choice of theirs."

Linda Hamilton, who had portrayed the character in the first two movies, opted out of a third one despite the fact her character played a key role in the original T3 script, Friedman said. The writers had to scramble five years ago to craft a new story without her.

"They wanted it to be kind of her trilogy, and it never could be," he said. "So I think that my feeling was this TV series to me sort of serves as the third act to that trilogy -- what could have happened had we followed that after T2. So I almost think of this as T3."

For those worried about continuity with the franchise, however, Friedman said that this could be considered more or less an "alternate timeline," where it will tie in strongly with the first two Terminator films, but will ignore anything that has or will happen in the third. That includes one of the major plot points that involved Sarah Connor contracting leukemia and dying, Friedman said. It won't happen to the character as portrayed by "300's" Lena Heady.

"You should not expect her to get leukemia in Season 3," he said. "Unless Lena really pisses me off."

One aspect that Friedman does want to change is the fact that the movies focused on a lot of time with the Connors on the run and the Terminators chasing.

"Chases, I don't think, work very well in television week to week," Friedman said. "I think we have to sort of expand the world. I think it would become sort of monotonous for me to do a chase show every week, besides considering how producible that is. I think we'll see them a lot more proactive and involved in a lot of things more mysterious and deeper than kind of a Terminator-of-the-week story."

Friedman did somewhat confirm that the series will be set in the 1990s, and not in the present time, picking up where the second movie left off.

"I'll tell you that it picks up after T2 and goes forward," he said. "That's all I will say. I'll leave it to everyone to see what it does, but I think we've thought of some cool stuff."

"The Sarah Connor Chronicles" is set to premiere on Fox in early 2008 starring Heady as well as
"Heroes'" Thomas Dekker and "Firefly's" Summer Glau.
For Terminator Files' complete interview of Friedman, including what attracted him to cast Glau, read the full interview by clicking here.