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Back to the Future
"Citizen Brown"
Back to the Future: The Game Episode 3
Telltale Games
Written by: JD Straw
Story Consultant: Bob Gale
Directed by: Eric Parsons
March 28, 2011 |
Marty emerges into 1986 in a "utopian" Hill
Valley run by an Orwellian government.
Read the story
summary at
Futurepedia
Watch the
video playthrough by Domstercool at YouTube
Notes from the Back to the Future chronology
This episode takes place on May 15, 1986.
Didja Know?
Back to the Future: The Game was a
video game produced by Telltale Games in five episodes released
from December 2010 to June 2011. The story takes place about 8
months after Marty returns to his own time at the end of
Back to the Future Part III.
Christopher Lloyd reprises his role as Doc Brown, providing the
character's voice. The other characters are mostly different
actors than the ones seen in the films. AJ LoCascio does a
particularly good imitation of Michael J. Fox's voice.
The title of this episode was probably inspired by that of the
1941 drama film Citizen Kane.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
Jennifer Parker
Marty McFly
Citizen Brown
Kid Tannen (mentioned only)
Edna Brown
Danny Parker, Jr.
Biff Tannen
George McFly
Lorraine McFly
Leech
John
John's paramour
Burt
Burt's friend
Agnes
Agnes' friend
Lester
Nathan
Nathan's friend
Einstein
Dave McFly (mentioned only)
Linda McFly (mentioned only)
Didja Notice?
1986
In the altered 1986 of Citizen
Brown, notice that the symbol of the human figure used
on the propaganda of the Hill Valley government is in
the same shape as the flux capacitor that Doc never
invented in this timeline. |
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When Jennifer sees that Marty has crashed a DeLorean into a
billboard, she asks who he's supposed to be, Luke or Bo?
This is a reference to the fictional characters of Bo and
Luke Duke, brothers on the 1979-1985 TV series The Dukes
of Hazzard, where the boys would frequently jump their
muscle car, the General Lee, off of half the hills in the
county and crash into all sorts of objects such as shacks
and signs.
Jennifer, now wearing purple and yellow highlights in her
dark hair, tells Marty she uses Helter Skelter brand hair
dye. This is a fictitious brand. She also wears a jacket
that says "Baby Fist" on the back, with a logo of a raised,
baby-like fist.
Jennifer calls Marty "Geekzilla". This is a play on the term
"geek" (slang term for someone who is overly-obsessed with
some hobby or is socially awkward) and "Godzilla" (a
gigantic reptilian/dinosaur-like creature appearing in
eponymous
Japanese film franchise).
Though generally sarcastic and insulting towards him in this
timeline, Jennifer does congratulate Marty on sticking it to
Big Brother by crashing a car through a Citizen Brown
billboard. "Big Brother" is a reference to the authoritarian
character in George Orwell's 1949 novel 1984. The
Hill Valley government of Emmett Brown and Edna Strickland
does turn out to be similar to that seen in the novel,
though somewhat more benevolent. In
"It's About Time", Edna was
seen to have a copy of the novel in her apartment.
Marty pulls a Permacell 12-volt battery out of the wrecked
DeLorean to power the hoverwheel. Permacell is a fictitious
brand.
Marty leaves the wrecked DeLorean behind outside the city
gate when he gets into Hill Valley.
Different businesses are seen in this version of 1986 Hill
Valley. Hill Valley Bureau of Discipline, All Citizens Bank,
Stemmles's Staycations (named for the game's co-writer
Michael Stemmle; a "staycation" is taking days off from work
and entertaining oneself at home or in the same city),
Citizen Reading Room, E. Brown Industries, Soupmo,
Combformist, and Ministry of Tourism.
Propaganda posters advocating "HILL VALLEY UNITY" and
"ANOTHER DAY DRY" are seen in Courthouse Square.
Jennifer's father (Daniel Parker, Jr.) is a cop in this
timeline, but Marty indicates he was a shoe salesman in the
original timeline.
Marty learns that in this timeline he is an honor student
and Brown Cadet three months running. He is also president
of the Junior Brown Brigade and is apparently a terrible
guitar player. He is the recipient of a scholarship to
Strickland College and winner of the Courthouse Challenge
Deportment Award. The Marty who is part of this timeline is
currently up at the lake for the Mathemagics Competition
"until tomorrow." Leech refers to this Marty as Brown-noser.
The Citizen Plus program Biff was subjected to is similar to
the Ludovico Technique seen in the 1962 novel and 1971 film
A Clockwork Orange. In all of these instances, the
subject of the social improvement program is conditioned to
feel physically ill when they think of resuming their old
vices, such as violence, sex, and intoxicants.
Jennifer spray paints "Leech and the Wooshbags" on an alley
wall. This phrase sounds as if it's the band of her boyfriend
Leech. "Wooshbag" is a slang term that more-or-less means
the same as "douchebag", i.e. someone who is more than an
asshole.
Empty buckets of Nana's Soy Mud are seen in the alley. This
is a fictitious soy product.
Jennifer tells Marty that just because she let him tag along
to a couple of concerts doesn't mean they're Romeo and
Juliet. Romeo and Juliet are the infamous young lovers from
William Shakespeare's 1597 play of the same name.
For some reason, there is yellow "CAUTION" tape posted in a
Z-pattern over the front door of the McFly house. No reason
is stated and it seems as if the McFly family still lives
there with relative freedom.
George has a box of Sophia Rae Peanut Brittle on the
workbench next to him as he monitors various citizens over
closed-circuit cameras and microphones in his garage. In
Back to the Future,
George eats a nearly identical box of peanut brittle with
dinner, but the brand there is Sophie Mae. The reason for
the altered name is that
Sophie Mae is a real world brand of
peanut brittle, so the game designers used an altered name.
One of the citizens George is spying on remarks, "I tell ya,
Burt, this regime is a joke! They're all laughing at us over
in Fairfax."
Fairfax is a town in California near San Francisco.
The guitar Marty retrieves from his garage is the
Erlewine Chiquita travel guitar seen briefly at the
beginning of
Back to the Future
and in
"It's About Time".
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At Soupmo, Leech tells Marty they have scrole ribolini.
In
"It's About Time", in 1931,
Cue Ball told Marty the soup kitchen served "scrole
ribollita". Leech says the "mo" (more) in "Soupmo" is for
"neatloaf", made with textured wheat protein, and
"humburger", made from pressed hummus. "Neatloaf" is an
actual term used for vegetarian meatloaf. "Humburger" is a
term sometimes used for sandwiches made with hummus as an
ingredient. |
Leech tells Marty that the dog who keeps knocking over the
soy dog sample tray is a smart little S.O.B. The dog turns
out to be Einstein. S.O.B. stands for "son of a bitch."
According to the Developers Commentary on the
Back to the Future: The Game bonus features DVD,
Leech was originally written to be Needles, but they changed
the character when they did not have time to find a voice
artist who sounded like the original performer, Flea.
Jennifer uses Barf Spray Paint in her graffiti. This is a
fictitious brand.
When Marty tells Jennifer he's going to see Citizen Brown
about fixing the "utopian" government he and his wife have
established in Hill Valley, Jennifer sarcastically asks if
she can go with him, saying, "...maybe he can give me a
heart when he gives you a brain!" She is making a reference
to the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, where
the Scarecrow wanted the wonderful wizard to give him a
brain and the Tin Woodman wanted a heart.
When Marty tells his mother about finding Einstein and the
dog getting taken away by Edna, she tells him Einstein is
probably just on the train to Utah because "all good dogs go
to Utah." This may be a play on the 1989 animated film
All Dogs Go to Heaven.
Lorraine mentions that Marty's brother and sister have left,
presumably meaning they moved away from Hill Valley when
they became adults.
The statues on the clock tower are now a pair of sheepdogs
like Einstein instead of the cat statues normally seen
there.
Citizen Brown reads from Marty's file and says that he's 18
years old. According to "Hard Time" Part 3, Marty's birthday
is June 12, 1968, so he still has almost a month before he
turns 18.
Marty sees the same fish tank in Citizen Brown's office
that he had used to grow bacteria as part of his rocket fuel
experiment in 1931. The experiment was seen in
"Get Tannen". Now, the tank has
plants in it, but no fish are seen.
The portrait of Emmet and Edna in front of
the clock tower seen in the office is a parody of the
classic 1930 painting by Grant Wood, American Gothic. |
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Hill Valley Gothic |
American Gothic |
Citizen Brown reveals he and Edna went to see the movie
The Virtuous Husband on their first date back in 1931
instead of Frankenstein. Frankenstein we
already touched on in the study of
"It's About Time". The
Virtuous Husband is also an actual movie from 1931.
A Nemotech FXD 3.5" floppy disc drive and Pepson dot matrix printer are seen
on George's workbench. These are fictitious brands, though
Pepson is a play on the
Epson
brand.
A close look reveals that the decycling room is
the same
basement room the El Kid speakeasy was in in 1931 as seen in
"Get Tannen".
In the decycling room, a stack of automobile license plates
is seen. The one on top is 6H 96472. This was the plate on
Biff's Ford Super De Luxe Convertible in 1955 as seen in
Back to the Future
and
Back to the Future Part II.
When Biff sees it, he says, "Sheila?" Presumably, that was
the nickname he used for that vehicle.
Cases of Wannemaker Beer are seen in the decycling room.
This is a fictitious brand.
A magazine called Girlie is seen in the decycling
room. This is a fictitious magazine, the name being a play
on the generic term "girlie magazine", i.e. a magazine aimed
at men featuring photos of nude or scantily-clad women. Video
cassettes called Stag, Skin, and Smut
are also seen on the same shelf.
Skateboards are also seen among the among the objects that
have been decycled. I guess skateboarding is a
crime!
Biff's middle name is revealed to be Howard.
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Notes from
the comic book adaptation published by IDW
Back to the Future: Citizen Brown #3
IDW
Adapted by Bob Gale & Erik Burnham
Script by
Erik Burnham
Based on the Telltale Games video game written by Bob
Gale, Michael Stemmle, Andy Hartnell, and Jonathan Straw
Art by Alan Robinson
Inks by Alan Robinson, Salo Farias & Christian
Docolomansky
Colors by Maria Santaolalla
Letters by Shawn Lee
Cover A by Alan Robinson
July 2016
|
Read the
issue
summary at
Futurepedia
Additional characters in the comic not present in
the game episode
Dave McFly
Linda McFly
Stanford S. Strickland
Goldie Wilson
Didja Know?
Back to the Future: Citizen Brown was a
five-issue comic book adaptation of
Back to the Future: The Game. The
Citizen Brown title of the series is
borrowed from that of episode three of the game.
Didja Notice?
1986
On cover A of this issue, the Citizen Plus poster Marty is
looking at reads, "DOC EMMET BROWN SAYS YOU COULD BE A
CITIZEN PLUS." But in this timeline, Emmet Brown is not a
doctor and is known as Citizen Brown, not Doc Brown.
When Marty hotwires the hoverwheel and rides it over the
Hill Valley wall, he thinks it's more fun than a straight-up
hoverboard and maybe he can market the idea in 30 years.
Here in the comic, Hill Valley has flying camera drones
monitoring the town. These were not seen in the episode; the
cameras were all mounted to poles or other staid surfaces.
When Marty sees how different Hill Valley is in this
timeline, he exclaims, "No Shanerburger? No Hill Valley
Video? No record stores?" In
"It's About Time", the
video store was called Valley Video rather than Hill Valley
Video. Shanerburger is a restaurant that appears in
"Who is
Marty McFly?" Part 1 and "OUTATIME".
In the episode, the rear license plate of Citizen's Brown's
personal vehicle read "BROWN". Here, we only see the front
plate and it readss, "CB 1".
On page 8, a propaganda poster in Hill Valley reads, "FEELS
GOOD TO STAY IN LINE."
Some different Hill Valley businesses are seen here than are
seen in the episode: Chastity-R-Us, Knittin Needles, Closet
Organizers, Germ Away, Tofu Tacos, and something beginning
with Food.
In the episode, it's implied that Marty's brother and
sister, Dave and Linda, have left Hill Valley some time ago.
Here in the comic, they are still living at home.
On page 9, Linda says Marty is supposed to be in
Sacramento (instead of at the lake as stated by George
in the episode). George says Marty's not supposed to be back
until next week on page 10 (instead of "tomorrow" as in the
episode).
Dave seems to refer to the lawn and gazebo in front of the
courthouse as Monument Park.
On page 10, George has his surveillance office in the house
instead of in the garage.
George says that a group of citizens broke into a
spontaneous round of "Kumbaya" on Main Street a half-hour
earlier. "Kumbaya" is an African-American spiritual song.
Principal Strickland is Prefect Strickland in this timeline.
He's the one who has the misbehavin' Marty sent for a talk
with Citizen Brown here instead of Edna as in the episode.
On page 17, Marty compares the long hallway in the
courthouse to the one in the Wizard's castle and he remarks
that he almost expects Citizen Brown to be a giant floating
head. These are both references to the aforementioned
The Wizard of Oz.
On page 20, the Citizen Wilson who rats out Citizen Brown's
odd behavior is Goldie Wilson, the mayor of Hill Valley in
the normal timeline.
Edna has the wrecked DeLorean taken to the Brown Institute.
Memorable Dialog
can you help me down?.mp3
we've got everything under control.mp3
nightmare alternate timeline.mp3
armies of Biff clones.mp3
a
real butthead.mp3
behaviors that excite your privates should be kept in
private.mp3
brain-washing.mp3
now I get physically ill if I try to break a rule.mp3
I kind of like you like this.mp3
you strike me as somebody who would turn in somebody like
me.mp3
public displays of affection.mp3
I'll stay a Citizen Minus.mp3
couldn't hurt to ask.mp3
happiness is overrated.mp3
a scheduled life is a happy life.mp3
constant supervision.mp3
if you help your old man out.mp3
a toast to Citizen Brown.mp3
we'd all be tempted to follow our own impulses.mp3
a hot
lick.mp3
first or fourth.mp3
we don't use words like that in this town.mp3
all good dogs go to Utah.mp3
I don't go in for that new hippity-hoppity stuff.mp3
girlie
mags.mp3
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