Think back to Doc Emmit's chalk board explanation in BTTF:2 every time something changes, the timeline changes, so it makes sense that the time line would change after each of the event filled films.

Add me to the Summer Glau fan club!

Well if you really really want to get technical about the timeline than you should take into account that none of it is actually real, the writers of the shows and movies are totally different people. Obviously made up timelines will never make sense, hell I can barely keep my own real history straight let alone try to keep details of some 23 year old movie correct and relevant for todays audience. If we are going to suspend reality long enough to believe that a robot can be sent back in time to protect John Connor from a robot sent back from an earlier time I think we can suspend reality long enough to accept that the timelines will often conflict.

You are all forgetting the most important thing that the timelines are ignoring.

T2-3D.

'nuff said.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T2_3-D:_Battle_Across_Time

I should also add, I'm not counting the deleted ending footage from T2 (which shows Sarah as an old woman in the far-off future). But if we count that, then it means there are four timelines now. (The events of T3 created Timeline #3; Now the series has created Timeline #4.)

The explanations that fans of the movie and this series are giving here are pretty good, folks.

Look at it this way: Events of T2 rewrote events of T1. Now the events of this series are rewriting the events of T3 (which followed the events of T2). The future, unseen John Connor in the T2-T3 timeline sent Glau-bot back to 1999 to rewrite history (which would include trying to save his mom from cancer). So in summary...

T1 = Timeline 1
T2 to T3 = Timeline 2, which altered Timeline 1.
The series = Timeline 3, which is altering Timeline 2.

The events of T3 aren't necessarily being ignored -- elements from that movie could "seep in" across the episodes. The goal for the characters is to prevent those bad things from still happening.

I don't know how they got the house, I assume they're just squatting until they can find a more permanent arrangement. But the show covered how they got some money - from the 2007 resistance fighters. I'm not clear on why those people are in 2007, but they are there with resources. School was a simple matter once Sarah had access to that cash. The identities provided to her by the nephew of "El Finito" (Master Bratac of SG-1) were "good enough to get Welfare." Now that they have identities, they can get jobs = money and housing. Sarah's been on the run for 15 years. She knows how to acquire things without calling attention to herself.

It looks like cancer is going to be an issue in this show. In the final scene, Sarah was going to the doctor. Early detection increases her chances of fighting it off. Moving into the future gives her access to more advanced drugs. None of that means that she is guaranteed to beat cancer, but it gives the writers a way around the problem. However, if she ends up needing treatments or drugs, it will also give the FBI (and anyone else tracking her) a way to find her - any dependency will damage her ability to hide.

The series also established that Sarah and John will have another ally in the fourth resistance fighter (who watched them leave his apartment). I think this could be a fairly interesting show if they would back off of the "Terminator of the Week (ToW) shows up to kill the Connors" formula. These characters need a little bit of time in 2007 to lay low and investigate who is going to eventually build Skynet, since it's obviously not Miles. I think it would be interesting enough for their only adversary to be the FBI for a while. But then I guess it wouldn't be Terminator. I just don't see how they can keep the same level of danger going every week.

I just have one question. If Sarah dies of cancer how is time travel going to save her?

No matter how far she travels in the the future the body she has will still be the same.

Where's a theoretical physicist when you need one??

T3 was considered to be an awful film so this is their way of erasing the stain off of a franchise. Also Terminator movies aren't for the deep thinkers. So there isn't always going to be alot of logic in the show. Its popcorn entertainment.

I think The Doctor explained it best in the episode "Blink" - wibbly wobbly timey wimey