"Brothers" is the pilot episode of Back to the Future: The Animated Series.
Brief synopsis
Upset with his brother, Jules, Verne runs away from home using the DeLorean time machine. Doc, Marty and Jules go back in time to find him during the American Civil War. When General Beauregard Tannen's armies tie up Marty, Verne gasps. Jules and Verne end up on opposite sides of the war; Verne is recruited by the Confederates and Jules in the Union army. During a big battle, both armies see the boys meet and huddle together in the center of the battlefield. The soldiers realize that they are fighting their own brothers, cousins, uncles and nephews. Both parties walk away from the battle without fighting.
Plot
Marty McFly studied for a Civil War test at Hill Valley College with the assistance of an holographic tutor. Marty went on with playing his guitar with headphones on, ignoring what the tutor was saying. She yelled the date of "February 11, 1864; Chattanooga, Tennessee" within range of the new DeLorean time machine's audio-activated time circuits, enabling the car to change the date and location. Verne Brown upset that he was second to his older brother Jules decided to hop into the DeLorean and take it for a test drive, unaware that the time circuits were activated. Verne drove the DeLorean off the launch pad and broke the time barrier in the sky.
He emerged outside Chattanooga (after the DeLorean was rebuilt with spacial displacement) and was confused by the Confederate Army for some kind of Union Army "devil" wagon. The DeLorean clipped a series of Confederate tents before Verne activated the time machine's night vision. The DeLorean ran into another tent, catching it, and came to a stop. While under the cover of the tent, the car compacted into a briefcase, with Verne to its side.
Verne then encountered Confederate General Beauregard Tannen and his men at the campsite. Tannen asked if Verne was a spy for the Union Army, which he had no answer. Doc Brown, Jules, Marty, and Einstein were forced to take the Jules Verne Train to rescue Verne from the past after finding him in a picture taken of Confederate soldiers a day before the battle, as the text had indicated that the Confederates were wiped out in a massacre. Doc and Jules were captured by the Union army and Marty and Einstein by the Confederate army.
On the day of the battle, Doc and Jules built an electromagnet from an electric magnetic machine marketed to General Ulysses S. Clayton, and used it to attract all the weapons from both armies. When this failed, Jules was thrown into the middle of the battlefield and Verne came to protect him. When both armies saw this, they stopped and admired the brothers' bonding. Brothers, cousins, and uncles from both sides began to embrace one another and a truce between Tannen and Clayton was forged.
During the live-action segment, Doc reveals that Marty studied for the wrong test, rather it was over the Spanish-American Civil War.
Factual errors
- Doc claims that Babe Ruth was born on February 7, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland whereas the famous ballplayer was actually born on the previous day (February 6, 1895). Doc made a similar mistake with the birth of Jesus Christ in the original film, placing it on Christmas in the nonexistent year zero (additionally, most scholars believe Jesus was born in springtime).
Notes
Marty wears a 32 slim for pants, which he notes when trying on Confederate clothing.
This pilot episode marks the first time that Bill Nye made an appearance on television, before getting his own show Bill Nye the Science Guy.
New continuity
New individuals
- Confederate General Beauregard Tannen
- Confederate Captain Wilcox
- Union General Ulysses S. Clayton
- Cousins Roy and Jimmy
New locations
New dates
New technology
- Compact DeLorean time machine with suit case conversion for the DeLorean
- Audio receptive time circuits
- ELB Night Vision
- Thought inducing autopacer
- Electrical magnetical machine
- Converted into an electromagnet
- Video encyclopedia (During Live-action segment)
New objects
- The Civil War with Verne's Civil War photograph
- Chitlin stew?
- Raspberry pie (Mentioned only)
- Pizza (Mentioned only)
New slang and phrases
- Oucha magoucha
- What in blue blazers?
- Jumping jigowatts! or Jumpin' jigowatts!