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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 5) Back to the Future
"Biff to the Future" Part 5
Back to the Future: Biff to the Future #5
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
May 2017

 

With Doc Brown's help, the Hill Valley Citizens Committee journey into the past to stop Biff Tannen.

 

Notes from the Back to the Future chronology

 

This issue opens on May 1, 1983 and makes detours to May 16, 1946 and December 6, 1936.

 

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

 

Biff Tannen

Lorraine Tannen

Marty McFly (mentioned only)

Doc Brown

Goldie Wilson

Mark Dixon

Stanford S. Strickland

Mrs. Blumberg

Einstein

Miss Hodges

George McFly (as a boy in 1946 only)

Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (mentioned only)

Creel brothers (mentioned only)

Thomas Tannen

Myra Benson

Match

babysitter (unnamed)

Gertrude Tannen (in 1936 only)

Skinhead

3-D

 

Didja Notice?

 

Cover A of this issue is the same art as panel 1 of page 1.

 

Lorraine gets her breast enlargements on May 1, 1983.

 

On page 2, Lorraine tells Biff that Marty hasn't been returning her calls and the boarding school can't reach him either. What happened to him? The answer comes in "Biff to the Future" Part 6.

 

On page 2, Biff says, "Children shouldn't be seen or heard."

 

Doc introduces his time machine to the citizens committee. Instead of a DeLorean or even an automobile at all, the time machine is actually a time chamber built into an old refrigerator, possibly a Philco model judging from the V emblem on the door. In the first draft of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's screenplay for Back to the Future, they had Doc (then Professor) Brown build the time machine into a refrigerator.

 

In panel 1 of page 3, Doc's mind-reading helmet is seen on the workbench. Also, a large tarp-covered object in the background looks as if it may be a DeLorean.

 

On page 3, Doc explains that a time traveller using his time chamber has only four hours in the time they've travelled to before they will be automatically snapped back to the chamber in the time they travelled from. He demonstrates the idea using a soda can that looks similar to a Coca-Cola can. In the first draft of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's screenplay for Back to the Future, they had the time machine run on Coca-Cola, so this may be a nod to that. (I'm glad they ditched the "running on Coca-Cola" idea...a little too silly for my taste.) The soda can seen here looks like it has a brand name something like Coda; this is a fictitious brand.

 

On page 4, Strickland says he remembers a bullying incident with Biff on May 16, 1946. He remembers the date because the night before he'd celebrated his birthday by seeing The Postman Always Rings Twice at the Essex Theater. This would mean Strickland's birthday is May 15. When he goes back in time here, he realizes he misremembered and it was actually Gilda he saw the night before. The third version of The Postman Always Rings Twice was released on May 2, 1946.  Gilda was released April 25, 1946. The Essex Theater is seen in the 1955 and 1985 versions of Hill Valley in Back to the Future.

 

In this version of the timeline, Strickland becomes the world's first time traveller.

 

On page 8, little Biff calls Strickland a "sex herbert".

 

In Back to the Future Part II, a sign is seen in front of the Biff Tannen Museum that reads "Smoking Required". On Page 11, Doc finds out that smoking really is required there. The ticket seller tells him tickets are five bucks and cigarettes are three bucks. When Doc informs him he doesn't smoke, the seller tells him to just light and hold it!

 

On page 11, Doc sees an exhibit at the museum telling how Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen shot and killed the three Creel brothers on March 18, 1884. Doc makes use of this information in "Biff to the Future" Part 6.

 

Page 11 reveals that Biff's absent parents are (Thomas) Tom Tannen and Myra Benson. They were officially married on December 6, 1936 at the Hill Valley Church of the Heather. The name "Thomas" for Biff's father may be a nod to actor Thomas F. Wilson who played Biff, Griff, and Buford Tannen in the Back to the Future movies. In the storyline of Back to the Future: The Game, Biff's father is a similar-looking figure who was a local gang boss by the name of Irving "Kid" Tannen. Possibly, he started going by Thomas Tannen after a stint in prison for his crimes to try to shed his criminal stigma. Maybe his full name was Irving Thomas Tannen, but that is unconfirmed.

 

On page 12, Doc's plan to put the kibosh on the wedding of Tom Tannen and Myra Benson calls for claiming that the bride is already married to his son Melvin and that she is pregnant with Melvin's child. Of course, there is no Melvin. In the Back to the Future novelization, when Doc uses his telepathy device to try to guess Marty's name, one of the names he guesses is Melvin Petrucci.

 

When Doc arrives at December 6, 1936, he sees that Things to Come is playing at the Essex. Things to Come is a 1936 British science-fiction film written by H.G. Wells. It was released in the U.S. on May 2, 1936.

 

After her wedding to Tom, Myra says she's going to Reno.

 

On page 19, Biff is seen to be wearing a belt buckle with his initials BT on it.

 

The last page of this issue features the front page of the May 23, 1983 edition of the Hill Valley Telegraph as seen in Back to the Future Part II, with the headline "Emmett Brown Committed". The text in the front page articles here is the same random sentences that appear in the newspaper seen in that film.

 

Back to Back to the Future Episode Studies