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Back to the Future

Episode Studies by Clayton Barr

enik1138-at-popapostle-dot-com
Back to the Future: Biff to the Future (Part 4) Back to the Future
"Biff to the Future" Part 4
Back to the Future: Biff to the Future #4
IDW
Story by Bob Gale and Derek Fridolfs
Art by Alan Robinson
Inks by Alan Robinson & Jaime Castro
Colors by Maria Santaolalla
Letters by Shawn Lee
Cover A by Alan Robinson
April 2017

 

Mr. Biff goes to Washington.

 

Notes from the Back to the Future chronology

 

This issue opens in 1973 and continues into 1981.

 

Didja Know?

 

Biff to the Future was a six-issue comic book mini-series published by IDW in 2017. It tells the story of the alternate timeline created when Old Biff from 2015 gave his teen self in 1955 the 2000 edition of Gray's Sports Almanac, resulting in the dark 1985 discovered by Doc and Marty in Back to the Future Part II.

 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this story

 

Lorraine McFly (becomes Lorraine Tannen in this issue)

George McFly (mentioned only, deceased)

Joey Baines (mentioned only)

Biff Tannen

Sam Baines (mentioned only)

Stella Baines (mentioned only)

Dave McFly

Linda McFly

Marty McFly

Match

Skinhead

3-D

Sgt. Stan Reynolds

Mrs. Blumberg

Red the bum (mentioned only)

Henderson (mentioned only)

Bob Woodward

Carl Bernstein

Mr. Keller

President Nixon

Jimmy Carter (mentioned only)

Pat Nixon

Sal (on telephone only)

Louie (on telephone only)

Goldie Wilson

Stanford S. Strickland

Terry (dies in this issue)

Mark Dixon

Doc Brown

 

Didja Notice?

 

On page 2, Doug, Linda, and Marty are seen at the wedding of Biff and Lorraine when Biff says, "Third time's the charm!" This is a scene from the Biff Tannen Museum video in Back to the Future Part II, though Lorraine's kids are not seen there.

 

On page 5, Biff has purchased the Washington Post and changed its name to the Biffington Post. While there, he fires reporters

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who are working on the Watergate story at the time. Watergate was the name of a scandal in 1972, in which the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon attempted to cover up its involvement in a break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. In the real world, Woodward and Bernstein's investigative reporting of the Watergate incident led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974. In this altered timeline, we know that Nixon went on to somehow serve at least four terms as president and running for a fifth in 1985.

 

On page 6, panel 1, the United States Capitol building is seen in the background as Keller has Biff driven to meet President Nixon.

 

On page 8, panel 3, the Washington Monument is seen in the background as Biff leaves the White House.

 

Thanks to Biff's money greasing the right palms, the 22nd Amendment is repealed, allowing the U.S. President (in this case, Richard Nixon) to run for an unlimited number of terms.

 

Page 10 reveals that Nixon ran against Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election, just as Carter ran in the real world against Gerald Ford. Here, Carter loses, while in the real election, he won.

 

    Also on page 10, Biff meets Frank Sinatra. Sinatra (1915-1998) was a singer and actor who got his start in nightclubs and whose repertoire has become a staple of nightclub musical acts. As Biff calls him here, one of his nicknames was "the Chairman."

    Biff tells Sinatra that From Here to Maternity was a great flick. He means From Here to Eternity, a classic 1953 film starring Sinatra.

 

Biff says money is the root beer of all evil on page 10.

 

On page 18, Lorraine appears to be drinking a brand of vodka called Vod Ka.

 

At the end of the issue, Doc Brown appears to the secret committee, saying he has been their silent benefactor and that his newest, untested invention could stop Biff permanently. That invention: a time machine!

 

Doc reveals that he allowed rumors of his having invented a death ray, among others, to spread so that people would be afraid to approach him or his home while he worked on his experiments in solitude. The death ray rumor is mentioned in "How Needles Got Here" and "Who is Marty McFly?" Part 1.

 

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