Google’s detention of Spacetime: any mathematical model that fuses the 3 dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single 4 dimensional manifold. (Just a little bit of fun, no more science stuff now).
So as said above and in the last article, today’s subject is the space time continuum. This will include all ON SCREEN journeys made through the space time continuum with the DeLorean. We know at some point Doc must have made more journeys to know what he did about the future, and we’ll touch on these slightly, but we don’t know the precise times he went to. So instead of speculating, we’ll stick to what we know.
This will just be a short overview not a fully detailed log of the events that went off in each era. This will also be done in on screen chronological order rather than chronological order through time (i.e begin with 1985, rather than 1885).
The first time we see the DeLorean make a journey through time is at Twin Pines Mall. Doc is there ready to carry through the experiment with Marty’s assistance. Marty is on camera duty, and Doc goes into detail with the information of how everything in his new time machine works. We see Doc strap Einstein in making him “the worlds first time traveller”. Einstein then travels through time in the DeLorean from October 26 1985, at 1:20am (the last we see Einstein’s control watch it says 1:19am but we can assume one minute past before departure time, which also matches up correctly with the time he’d have arrived to in the future). Through Doc’s lead, Einstein travels to October 26 1985 at 1:21am, 1 minute into the future. Doc describes this as “temporal experiment number 1”, hadn’t been done previously, and had the potential to not go to plan.
Doc demonstrates the use various parts inside the DeLorean to Marty, one thing he does do is demonstrate how to use the time circuits. He does this by entering 3 example dates into the time circuits. These being:
- July 4 1776
- December 25 0000
- November 5 1955
We then know that Doc plans to take the DeLorean 25 years into the future, however this fails to happen.
Only a few minutes later we see Marty on the run from a group of Libyan Terrorists, who have just shot Doc after tracking him down after he gave them a shady bomb, and took their plutonium. This leaves Marty running for his life, and having the DeLorean to be the quickest escape that’s what he uses. However somehow Marty had forget that once the DeLorean hits 88MPH, it travels through time. In an attempt to escape the Libyans, Marty tries to get the car up to 90MPH, but is stopped at 88 as the car makes a journey though time. Marty then ends up making a journey from October 26 1985 at 1:35am to November 5 1955, at some point between 6am & 7am.
Obviously we know what happens here, this isn’t a run down of the film, it’s an overview of the journeys made through the continuum. But without going into to much detail, Marty spends a week in 1955, and spends a large chunk of this week trying to get his parents together after he disrupts there first meeting, Marty’s failure to do this will mean he would’ve been erased from existence. We know he achieves on his mission and is able to return to 1985 in once piece.
After arriving in 1955 without plutonium, on November 12 1955, Doc harnesses the energy from a blot of lightening that strikes the clock tower to create the 1.21 giggawatts of energy needed to successfully send Marty back to 1985. For me, this creates the best scene in the whole trilogy. Marty makes the departure from 1955 at 10:04pm, November 12. Arriving in 1985 at 1:24am, October 26, having chosen to go back 10 minutes early to warn Doc about the terrorists.
Not long after Marty’s return to 1985, Doc decides to make his wanted journey into the future. We know he goes 30 years, and goes past October 21 2015 in order to know what he does about Marty’s kids and have the newspaper evidence. But as for the exact date we can’t be 100% sure. However, a good guess would be October 26th 2015, exactly 30 years from his departure. And we know he returned to 1985 after visiting the future.
However, in around 8 hours or so, Doc greets Marty once again. This being likely between 10:30am and 11:00am, October 26 1985. This time Marty is with Jennifer and Doc persuades him to come “back to the future” with him, in an attempt to resolve the problems with his kids. From this moment, Doc, Marty & Jennifer set out to arrive at October 21 2015, 4:29pm. It’s here we hear the all famous “Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”
The 3 spend less than a day in 2015. It’s here that we see Marty go forward and prevent his kids from going to prison, with Griff and his gang going instead (wether this is a pointless journey as it disagrees with the time travel rules Doc promotes in the film is for another blog). We see how dark parts of Marty’s life have become as well. At some point during this time, Doc goes somewhere (mostly like 1985) to collect Einstein and bring him to 2015 too. It’s also in this time period we see Marty purchase the sports almanac which creates a series of problems, being the subject of the next journeys made through the space time continuum.
It’s actually Biff Tannen who makes the next journey in the DeLorean. Purely for the benefit of himself, Old Biff goes from October 21 2015 back to November 12 1955 (the day Marty went back to the future) to give his younger self the sports almanac to make himself rich.
We know Biff succeeds in doing this and returns the DeLorean to 2015 at around the moment he left, leaving Doc and Marty unaware at the moment of what happened. There is obviously the whole potential plot hole here, regarding whether Old Biff should’ve returned to this 2015 or not. But a whole discussion on that in more depth is for another time. But as the creators of Back to the Future have said, if Marty & Doc hadn’t got the DeLorean back, the story couldn’t have continued. So anyway, Old Biff returns to October 21 2015, during the evening.
Doc, Marty, Jennifer & Einstein then leave October 21 2015, 7:28pm and return to October 26 1985, 9:00pm. They leave Jennifer asleep on her porch once they arrive, in the hope when she wakes up she’ll believe it was all a dream. Doc drops Marty of at his house, and he and Einstein return to his lab. They eventually discover they’re in some sort of alternate 1985 (which is later known as Biffhorrific 1985). Eventually they discover what old Biff did with the almanac, leading to his high status and power now. Doc explains to Marty the rules of time travel and that travelling to the future won’t change the problem, their pathway to success is in the past. Marty then discovers via Biff what he needs to do to change history and revert this 1985 back to the normal one.
Marty knows Biff was given the almanac November 12 1955, so he informs Doc they need to go back to this day in order to stop that event from taking place. Doc describes Biff picking this date saying: “unbelievable that Old Biff could’ve chosen that particular date, it could mean that that point in time inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance almost as if it were the temporal junction point of the entire Space Time Continuum. On the other hand it could just be an amazing coincidence.” I have a couple of theories for a later blog as to why I think Old Biff chose that particular date, but that’s for another time.
It now being the early hours of October 27 1985, Doc and Marty set out to return to 1955 at around 2:42am, with an arrival time of 6:00am on November 12. Despite Marty having doubts on their ability to succeed, Doc reassures him “we must succeed.”
We see the time circuits malfunction, appearing to read: January 1 1885, 12:00 pm, foreshadowing further events. Despite this, their departure from 1985 and arrival to 1955 goes to plan.
The aim of them going back in 1955 is to prevent young Biff from attaining the almanac. As always, the 2 of them succeed in their mission, and all seems to be going well. They plan to head back to 1985, destroy the time machine and return to their normal ways of life.
Of course it’s not that simple, we know the time circuits are malfunctioning. Unfortunately despite Marty’s warning, a blot of lightning strikes the DeLorean, likely hitting the flux capacitor, creating the 1.21 giggawatts needed to time travel. Unfortunately this sends 1985 Doc on another journey through time, to the date that previously appeared in the malfunctioning, January 1 1885 at 12:00pm. Doc unintentionally makes this journey just before 10:00pm on November 12 1955, leaving Marty stranded in 1955 (for now at least).
Via a letter in a few moments, Marty learns about his friends whereabouts. Doc instructed Marty in a letter to leave him in the old west and use the DeLorean to get himself back home. The DeLorean needed fixing so 1955 Doc was at hand to help. It’s then that Marty discovers the death of his friend back in the 1885. He decides to go against 1985 Doc’s wishes and use the DeLorean to go back and rescue his friend.
Again with the assist of 1955 Doc, Marty is ready for a journey to 1885 to help his friend. Marty travels from November 16 1955 to September 2nd 1885 8:00am, giving him 5 days to locate and save Doc.
As always, Marty is successful in the end. He ensures both him and Doc are in the clear and aren’t at risk of murder, meaning after 5 days together in 1885, they can both return to 1985, destroy the DeLorean and rerun to their normal lives.
However upon arrival, Marty ripped the fuel line, draining the DeLorean of fuel. With no where to get fuel in 1885, they had to have the DeLorean pushed up to 88MPH, which was done by a locomotive. Scheduled for 7 September 1885 (the day Doc had died in the last time line). This was done by having Marty in the DeLorean and Doc on the train, who was planned to join Marty in the DeLorean to head to 1985. However Clara decides to find Doc again after previously doubting his time travel stories. The first plan is for Clara to join Doc & Marty and go back to 1885. However when Clara is in danger, Doc chooses to save her life, meaning he misses the DeLorean and Marty returns to midday October 27 1985 alone.
Shortly after his arrival, a train in 1985 (that Doc & Marty hadn’t planned for) collides with the DeLorean, destroying it, which had been Doc’s intention once the 2 of them got back to present day. This leaves Marty saddened because he believes Doc is now gone, and unable to return to 1985 meaning he’ll never see him again.
As always Doc never lets Marty down. At some point in history Doc has rebuilt a time machine out of Locomotive that runs on steam. We don’t know how many visits Doc, Clara and his now 2 sons (Jules & Verne) make in the DeLorean, we know they stop off somewhere to get Einstein. However they do stop off to see Marty (& Jennifer) not long after Marty arrived back from 1885, on October 27 1985).
Doc makes 1 final onscreen journey in the DeLorean with Clara, Jules, Verne & Einstein. When Marty asks Doc if he’s going “back to the future?” Doc replies “No, already been there!” Then we see him fly off in the new time machine-train with his new family, leaving the story open for fans to speculate over what happens next.
Things happen in the animated series & in comics and books that fell further adventures of Doc, Marty, Clara, Jules & Verne, but the journey of the 3 films ends here, leaving the story open.
That ends our overview of journeys through the space time continuum. So just to briefly summarise: here’s a little list of the dates and journeys made though the continuum on screen.
- October 26 1985, 1:20am to 1:21am (Einstein, temporal experiment 1)
- October 26 1985, 1:35 am to November 5 1955 (Marty)
- November 12 1955, 10:04pm to October 26 1985, 1:24 am (Marty)
- October 26 1985 to around October 2015 (Doc)
- Someone time in the future (likely October 2015) to October 26 1985 (Doc)
- October 26 1985 to October 21 2015, 4:29 pm (Doc, Marty & Jennifer)
- October 21 2015 to November 12 1955 (Biff)
- November 12 1955, 6:38pm to October 21 2015 (Biff)
- October 21 2015, 7:28pm to October 26 1985, 9:00pm (Doc, Marty, Jennifer & Einstein)
- October 27 1985, 2:42am to November 12 1955, 6:00am (Doc & Marty)
- November 12 1955 to January 1 1885, 12:00pm (Doc)
- November 16 1955 to September 2 1885 (Marty)
- September 7 1885 to October 27 1985 (Marty)
- Unknown time (likely 1885) to Unknown time (likely 1980s) (Doc, Clara, Jules & Verne)
- Unknown time to October 27 1985 (Doc, Clara, Einstein, Jules & Verne)
- October 27 1985 to Unknown time (Doc, Clara, Einstein, Jules & Verne)
As said, they’re likely more journeys that we don’t either know full details on or don’t even see at all, however above you’ll find all the information we do know (and I’m worrying I’ve missed something important off).
I hope you enjoyed that little overview of the Space Time Continuum. Please let us know on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc what you think, and don’t forget to follow and support (@theBTTFblog). If anyone didn’t see, Tom Wilson credited the last blog (talking about the 7 different Tannen variations) over on Instagram, so even Biff likes The Back to the Future Blog!
The plan is in a couple of days, to post a new blog that will be considerably shorter where we’ll be looking at the 3 film posters (and other promotional art done at the time). It will make a change, however I can promise a new theory next week that I actually just came up with today.
So until next time, stay safe and see you soon.
Edit:
I’ve made the decision to delay future blogs as I feel I’m creating the content I want, but not many people are seeing it. So I’ve decided I’m going to delay blogs in the future until the social media’s have a decent following on Twitter & Instagram, so please get behind and support so I can start writing blogs again as soon as possible (@theBTTFblog) thanks.
The Back to the Future Blog 