This episode nearly got pulled due to the expense of recreating a devastated future landscape.
During the future sequence, we see one of the T-600 Terminators that was described by Kyle Reese in the original The Terminator (1984) as being easy to spot because they had rubber skin.
This was filmed last in the season to allow as much preparation time as possible.
In the future, the character Andy Goode uses the alias "Billy Wisher"; a reference to William Wisher who co-wrote and had cameos in the first two Terminator films.
Cameron knows much about Derek and Kyle Reese but not the fact that Kyle is John's father nor Derek his uncle. This because in the future John never told anyone who his father was in order to protect Kyle Reese from being targeted by Skynet.