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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!hhb!anwar!rob
From: rob@anwar.UUCP (Robert R Stegmann)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Berserker and Terminator
Message-ID: <183@anwar.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 14:57:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: anwar.183
Posted: Tue Jun 18 14:57:39 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Jun-85 07:40:29 EDT
Organization: HHB-Softron, Mahwah, NJ
Lines: 23

[rumor: the line eater bug is a hoax]

It seems to me that a concept central to TERMINATOR was that of
a robot assassin capable of passing for a human.  In addition,
the robot and human antagonists pursued each other using time
travel.  Both of these ideas have been employed together in
Fred Saberhagen's Berserker stories, which I believe antedate
TERMINATOR.  I am unsure as to whether they antedate Ellison's
work.  Has Ellison ripped off Saberhagen or vice versa?  Have the
people responsible for TERMINATOR ripped off Saberhagen?

The scene in TERMINATOR showing a flashback to the future
in which a terminator robot infiltrates a human enclave and begins to
shoot up the place very strongly brought to mind the Berserker stories.

To my mind, the only plausible justification for Ellison's victory is the
evidence that the story was plagiarized from scripts he submitted and
which were rejected.

rob

{allegra,ihnp4,decvax}!philabs!hhb!rob