1985B

The Rolls-Royce is nearly hit by Needles' truck.

1985B is an ABC timeline and a year in the 20th century. It was created when Marty McFly returned from 1885, and Dr. Emmett Brown stayed behind with Clara Clayton.

On October 27, Marty had returned from 1885, and had safely crossed the Eastwood Ravine bridge in the DeLorean time machine. Before Marty had a chance to react, a diesel locomotive hit the DeLorean and totaled it.

Later that day, Douglas J. Needles dared Marty to compete in a drag race by calling him chicken. Marty learned in 1885 that his ancestor, Martin McFly, died because he was insecure about being called a coward. Not wanting to share his fate, Marty decided to not let Needles get to him, and backed up his truck instead of racing him.

Needles narrowly missed hitting a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I, and Marty realized that if he had raced Needles, he would have collided with it. Jennifer Parker, who had picked up a fax in 2015 stating that the middle-aged Marty had been fired from his job, witnessed the text on the fax vanishing — i.e. being erased from existence.

Marty and Jennifer then traveled to the site of the destroyed DeLorean. Marty found the photograph of Doc and himself in front of the clock tower of the newly constructed Hill Valley Courthouse that had been taken in 1885. However, the portion that showed Marty had been burned away.

Behind the scenes

• Back to the Future: Continuum Conundrum revealed that Doc had accidentally traveled to 2035 in his steam time car before he finished the Jules Verne Train, and only was able to return to 1893 with the help of Marty and Jennifer's counterparts from 1986. Because Doc visited 1986 before he visited 1985 at the end of Back to the Future Part III, Doc would not have shown up with his family in this timeline.

Appearances

• Back to the Future (IDW Publishing)
  • Back to the Future: Hard Time
    • Issue 18: "Stowaway to the Future" (Mentioned only) (takes place after Doc went to 1986, but before he fixed the time train)