BACK TO THE FUTURE: "Forward to the Past" Talkback

[Anthonynotes]

OK, granted, "talkback" probably should be labelled "monologue" since I'm the only one who seems to be posting these things (despite everyone apparently at least *reading* the thread, even with no responses), but anyway...

Back to the Future: "Forward to the Past" Talkback

PLOT: Doc, Jules and Verne travel back to the Mesozoic
(the age of the dinosaurs) to test out a new invention of Doc's
(a disintegration device), only to find when they return to the
present that the dinosaurs still exist.

COMMENTS:
OK episode, though see below for my biggest complaint about it...

NOTES:
Apparently for years larger than four digits, the destination
indicator's top line is used to hold the number.

"12,000 pounds at 5.8 cents an ounce"...
Jules' calculations are *way* off--- according to the figures given
by him, it'd be worth about..uh...(taps on a calculator) ...$11,136.
Still plenty of dough for some kid like Verne, though.

"3 Million B.C. = Dinosaurs?! What th---?!"
OK, my biggest gripe: 3 Million B.C. was *NOT* the Cretaceous period,
nor was it at any point where dinosaurs were even *remotely* alive---
the actual Cretaceous period (and the end of the dinosaur age) ended
approximately 65 million years ago. Instead of dinosaurs, they probably
should've seen various mammals or (perhaps) the earliest forms
of *humans* instead. It seems rather surprising that a TV show such as
this one (one that involves *time travel* and featuring at least two
characters that're geniuses, and seems to show some attention to
period details in other episodes) would be off-base on this one. Then
again, maybe it's the result of being made a few years before "Jurassic
Park" made dinosaur trivia/knowledge more popular and well-known
among the general public (and breaking the mold of such stuff as "The
Flintstones"), or something... :-)


Wonder why Verne didn't just yank the rocks off the gas pedal and
stop the car *before* it hit 88 (since he apparently did it *after* it
travelled through time, anyway)?

"1.21 jigowatts" is of course the oft-cited-in-the-movies amount of
power required for the flux capacitor to activate (and perform time
travel)---which is what Mr. Fusion's for, of course.

Birds are generally believed to be descended from dinosaurs.

Lines cut from this episode:
A second or two is shaved off from the initial pteranodon flight
sequence (just after Jules' "junk food" line).

A split-second's shaved off of Donny's double-take at seeing the sudden
return of the Browns.

"Forward to the Past" is a reversal of the title: "Back to the Future". :-)

NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE:
"Gone Fishin'"---probably one of the best episodes of this animated series.

-B.

[DianaGohan]

Ahhh, poor Brainatra. I know what it's like to be talking to yourself in a talkback. Well I watched the episode, and though it was okay. Nothing great, nothing that good. I give it a B. At the very least, now this thread isn't just one person talking, it's two.

[DemonKrowno]

Wait,they're airing the back to the future cartoon series? Wh-where? When? How? Help!

[zimfan3000]

It comes on at 8:30 EST (7:30 CST) on the Fox Box. If you normally sleep in on Saturday, you better tape it or get up early!

[DemonKrowno]

Thanks. Shame that doesn't help me any. My cable provider doesn't carry FoxBox,dispite the numourous requests.

[Anthonynotes]

And speaking of taping it, just a reminder that tomorrow's episode, "Gone Fishing", is one of the few BTTF eps that haven't been released to home video (yes, there's a early-90's-produced VHS series of episodes of the show, two per tape, but one has to hunt on amazon.com/ebay to find copies...my one copy, containing "Verne Hatches an Egg" and "Forward to the Past" was bought in the "used video" bin at Blockbuster)---so you might want to tape this one (figuring that BTTF will be knocked off the air in favor of "Ultra Cyber Neo-Hoosier Cowboy Beebop-a-looza Techno-Force Z" or somesuch before it's rerun again)...even if it'll probably have some bits cut for more commercials and/or have some idiotic Recycled Stock Footage(TM)-Foxbox character cavorting on screen for a few seconds per some FoxBox promo...

-B.