*sigh of relief*

[alixtii]

From the IGN interview with Josh Friedman:

IGN TV: Another thing we wanted to follow up on was your plan to bring Kyle Reese into the show directly into the story. But James Middleton (series consulting producer) convinced you that the idea would just anger the fans of the movies. Can you talk about what the original plan was?

Friedman: The plan never got into a lot of details. I always believed that in some version of the time travel theory I could bring Kyle Reese to the present day from the future and not upset the continuity of the previous movies. I had a whole way it worked in my head and the more I tried to explain it to people, the crazier it sounded.

IGN TV: So you mean Kyle would come back to protect Sarah a different way?

Friedman: Sort of, yeah.

IGN TV: Without having any of the experiences of the first movie?

Friedman: Yes.

IGN TV: Because the future changes, with Judgment Day moving, so Kyle's point of origin would also change?

Friedman: Right. But it becomes confusing when you have certain characters living with that character in a certain way and other characters experiencing them a different way and he's dead in one version of their past, and he's alive in their future…I think it makes sense but it's one of those things where James sat across from me at the table and said "Dude, you've gone down the rabbit hole." People are going to go crazy.

This sounds right to me, which is a relief. I always did believe that the writers of SCC knew it was important to get the temporal mechanics right; let's just hope that Friedman is able to keep enough control of the reins to keep the show from screwing up.

ETA: And now I really need to write Joss/Summer/Josh, don't I? (Or someone could write it for me, and I'd love them forever.)