[T:SCC] Have the humans just made things worse?

[Crazedwraith]

Recently I managed to watch Season 1 of the Sarah Conner Chronicles and while watching Episode 6: Where Derek Reese is having flashbacks (ironically from the future) we see from his point of view when Kyle is sent back the protect Sarah. It's obvious in that episode that the war is far from over at this point; at odds to Kyle's lines in the original film that Skynet had been more or less defeated and him and the terminator being sent back was a last second maneuver by the defeated Skynet.

We know the timeline has really been fucked with since he said that (after all Judgment Day's moved from 1997 to 2011) So my question is: Have the alterations made by Sarah Conner actually help the humans at all? From what SCC's shown us of the future the human's victory isn't even certain anymore; Skynet still very much alive and kicking and in the fight by the time travel starts to be used.

[Thanas]

No, the humans haven't made things worse. T:SCC still shows them winning the war, like (spoilers) the resistance owning Skynet at the battle of the powerplant or (spoilers for 2x04) protecting future resistance fighters from Skynet. What happens is that Skynet sends more and more agents into the past and makes things harder that way.

Now, remember that Terminator 2 did not really show the humans winning as well - it showed them battling it out with Skynet and taking quite a lot of casualties. In the end though, the producers are not going to change the central tenet - that Skynet is on the brink of defeat.

[NecronLord]

Now, remember that Terminator 2 did not really show the humans winning as well - it showed them battling it out with Skynet and taking quite a lot of casualties. In the end though, the producers are not going to change the central tenet - that Skynet is on the brink of defeat.

That was cut for time and budget. The original scripted version of that battle ends with the terminators, with the exception of those set to infiltration, falling over as the Skynet CPU is destroyed. There was then going to be a scene of the time displacement equipment being used. This remains in the novel and some published versions of the script.

[Thanas]

^I didn't know that. Thanks.

[Atlan]

^I didn't know that. Thanks.

If you can find the novel you'll find that at least half an hour has been cut from the movie, from small things like the T-1000 "sampling" his environment by touch all the way up to pieces of the future war and Kyle Reese stepping into the Time Displacement Equipment. And a different ending to the movie as well.

[Anguirus]

^ That material, including several script drafts, is included on the "T2 Ultimate Edition" DVD.

There was an incredibly intricate Future War scene planned, complete with little worm-robots that scrambled into rebel guns and exploded, damaged Franco Columbu-type Terminators, a new model of Hunter-Killer smaller than the big tanks, a note that most soldiers seen should be South American, sub-Saharan, or Australian, narration by Future-John, an entire scene between Reese and Connor as he asks Connor why he was chosen for the mission, and Connor selecting the Arnold-type Terminator to send back (after Skynet was destroyed, implying that this was the only Terminator ever to be reprogrammed and it was taken right from the facility with the time-displacement equipment).

It's good stuff. Obviously not "canon" but it certainly informed the backstory of the final version of T2. Complete with oddles of concept art and models I might add.