From script to screen

Here you can look at the rumours and speculation around the Pilot which surfaced prior to the first version coming out. What made it and what DIDN'T make it into the finished version, or was later changed/amended.

Character info/background

Jaime Sommers
She was to drive a circa 1974 Ford Pinto hatchback

One of her Jaime'ss neighbours is an older eastern European woman, early 60's, Mrs Arakelian, who works as a nurse [in the hospital opposite Jaime's Starbucks?]. Mrs Arakelian sometimes baby-sits/makes supper for Becca if Jaime is out or working late - Mrs.Arakelian was replaced by 2 of Jaime's young friends, to sit bayabysit 'Becca when she goes out with Will in the aired Pilot, although she remains in the Mae Whitman version.

Jaime works in a Starbucks cafe, alongside her friend Maggie - Jaime's occupation was changed to put her working in a bar. Maggie is not in the Pilot.

Jaime's parents were flying out to see her at an Honors awards dinner. Jaime had specifically asked them to come and feels responsible for what subsequently happened. Jaime dropped out of school and gave up a degree in Shakesperean lit. to take on looking after her younger sister - This could just be character background but is not discussed in the Pilot or in the first half-dozen episodes of the series.

Jaime has been going out with Will for 2 months, they met when Will started coming into Starbucks for his caffeine 'fix' every day - In the Pilot Will says they have been going out "5 months 14 days" and they originally met on campus.

Rebecca Sommers
'Becca is deaf/partiall deaf - Due to contraversy and feedback the role was re-cast with Lucy hale in the role of 'Becca Sommers

She has just got a third tattoo, which Jaime is NOT pleased about. When asked where it is, Rebecca replies "Don't worry. You'll never see it" - The re-cast 'Becca deos not have any tattoos that we know of, although is banned from using a computer.

Often catch a ride to school with a friend named Jason - Not in the final script, Jaime is the one who gives 'becca a lift to school.

Will Anthros
Will works in the hospital across the road from the Starbucks where Jaime works - they met at Starbucks when Will would come in for his coffee - In the script Will is college professor and meets Jaime on campus at one of his classes

Jonas Bledsoe
Bledsoe lies "like other people breathe" - Nothing of this is discussed in the Pilot

Jae Kim
Jae has an open dislike of Jaime, coloured by what happened to Sarah: "Sarah wasn't Sarah after the surgery. She changed". When Jaime confronts him in an alley as to why he is following her he says:"Jonas says watch, I watch. And someday if he says kill you, I'll do that too. Because you know what, Sommers? You're ticking bomb." - Jae is not this cold in the Pilot and doesn't actually have a converstion with Jaime directly.

A flashback reveals Jae has been at Jonas' side for several years - Nothing is seen prior to Sarah's break-out, which happened 3 years ago.

Sarah Corvus
Sarah has the ability to create sound waves/frequencies, amoungst other things. At one point in the story she adapts her hands to burn out a chip in Jaime's forehead by holding Jaime's temples - orginal script/slide idea, not seen in filmed version.

Jae admits to Jaime that if Sarah has a weakness it is how sure she is that humanity is "something disgusting. Repulsive. Weak" - again Jaime and Jae do not speak directly to each other in the finished Pilot.

Plot differences

Jaime's 'job interview' for working with Bledsoe appears to entails a full-on fight with Sarah, leaving Jaime's in tatters. Both are bloodied and bruised after the fight. - Jaime apparent needs to get dressed at the end of the fight, so it's possible that Sarah surprises Jaime at the apartment as she is changing/getting dressed possibly early morning or when getting home from work - Sarah and Jaime's fight now takes place ona rooftop, after Will is shot.

Jaime has a run-in with a drug dealer prior to the accident. The drug dealer confronts her again and threatens her, unbeknownst to him he is now facing a Bionic Jaime Sommers - The only person jaime confronts is a knife-wielding drunk outside the bar where she works. There is no indictaion they have met before.

Jonas tells Jaime Will is dead. He says he died on the operating table after being shot - is he really dead? - Strangely enough we only see Will being put into an ambulance at the end of the Pilot. It was planned for him to be in ICU at Wolf Creek, in episode 2, but extensive re-writes see episode 2 opening with Jaime, 'Becca and Jonas at his funeral.

Jamie for some reason does not complete her training with Jae, and reflects to Ruth after Will is shot, if she's stayed could she have prevented her boyfriend being hurt? Ruth said says she could: she would have had faster reaction times, better combat responses - Jaime does not do any training with Jae in the Pilot and the pair only start to work together in episode 2, 'Paradise Lost'

Jaime returns home at some point to find Sarah inside, holding Becca, the apartment trashed. This appear to be the second time they have met as when Jaime says she won't hurt Sarah if she lets Becca go, Sarah says ' "I'm not sure you could. You didn't last time" - This is not in the finished version, but Sarah does end up in Jaime's apartment and drugs/take 'becca hostage, in episode 3, 'Sisterhood'.

Early on the script tackles the issue of the fact that despite their 'machine' parts Jaime and the other cyborgs are still very much human. When she learns of the news of Will's death and how she has been deceived by Bledsoe, she pins him up against a wall and says " You're so far into your world of lies and secrets that you've forgotten what it means to be an actual person. Ironic, considering how much more 'human' you are than me. Technically" - again, Will's death is not revealed until episode 2.

Techno Sapiens is a term Sarah says is a phrase some of the cyborgs are using now to describe themselves - not a phrase Sarah uses in the final version.

The complex that Jonas works from is referred to as a Manhattan Project for the 21st Century. But the weapons were people and Bionics was only one of the programs - no more details are revealed about Wolf Creek in the Pilot.