Summer Glau

You like it—you really, really like it.

That’s what we’ve gathered from the Save It or Sink Poll for Fox’s Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, which premiered last night.

A whopping 70 percent of you said you want the show to stick around, while only 7.9 percent of you didn’t like it.

The public at large also turned out in droves to watch this series: It received 18 million viewers last night. That’s Lost-in-its-heyday type numbers! (And yes, the lack of competition clearly helped, but still...that’s a lot of peepers.) The second episode airs tonight on Fox (and it’s even better than the first, IMHO—let me know tonight what you think of it in the Comments below), so the rest of you still have a chance to get in.

By all accounts, Terminator’s breakout star of the moment appears to be the resident toaster (terminator) Summer Glau (of Firefly cult-fame), whom 60 percent of you say is your favorite series regular so far.

As luck would have it, I just grabbed some quality Q&A time with the lovely Miss Glau, and here’s what she has to say about her new kickass role... Summer Glau, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

For the kids who haven’t seen it yet, tell us whom you play.

I play a terminator that has been reborn and sent back from the future to basically be John’s bodyguard while he goes to high school. He is a teenager in our story. So, I’m supposed to blend in and sort of...you know, I could be his friend or I could be his sister. And I just pretend to be normal.

But you are totally badass.

Yes. I get to break things, I get to run people over and I get to beat up the guys.

It’s such a physical role! How did you train for it?

I did this one movie where I had to do martial arts. I did all the fights scenes myself, and they were choreographed from start to finish. And I’ve never worked so hard in my life. I had to do things I never want to do again. And then my stunt coordinator from this show, we’re [asking], “How does a terminator fight?” And he was like, "Basically, just pick people up and throw them, run people over and shoot big guns" Thank goodness, it’s much easier than martial arts! With the terminators—there’s no finesse involved. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (promo poster)

Did you get any bumps or bruises?

If you watch the pilot, I have a scar on my face. I can’t remember which side it’s on. While we were at the shooting range, one of the shells jumped back and got stuck in my face. I had to pull it off, and it burned a hole in my skin. And then during the pilot, Dave Nutter, who is the director of the pilot, said let’s not cover it up, let’s just leave it, so you can see it in the pilot.

Let’s talk about that crazy poster of your naked torso I’ve seen all around town. What did you think when you first saw that?

My first reaction was, "You’re not going to use that one, are you?!" Because we saw all these different ideas they had for the posters. And I thought, you know, I’m naked and I’m amputated. And I thought, Oh my gosh. But then when I saw it...I thought, I can see why they use it—because it says a lot in her face.