"Forward to the Past" is the third episode of the first season of Back to the Future: The Animated Series. It first aired on September 28, 1991. The title is a play on the title Back to the Future.
Back to the Future 2 is an adaptation of this episode.
Brief synopsis
Traveling back in time to the Cretaceous Period with Jules and Verne, Doc Brown tests his latest invention - a device which effectively disintegrates objects - on a meteor headed for the Earth. Returning to the future, they find themselves in 1991A, where humans don't exist and dinosaurs have developed a human-like civilization. Before they can be erased from existence, the Browns return to the prehistoric era and Doc reintegrates the meteor, restoring the correct timeline.
Plot
To test a new invention called the Sonic Garbage Molecular Redistributor, Doc and the boys head back to prehistoric times so that they won't endanger anyone. Before they can run their test, a Tyrannosaurus gives chase and with the help of a friendly Pteranodon, they escape. At nighttime, they finally set up to run the test. Doc spots a shooting star, which is actually a large meteor, heading toward earth. Doc zaps it with his redistributor and destroys the meteor, thus saving earth but draining his car battery. Using lemons to power the battery, they head back into the future and civilization as they know it has changed. Odd breeds of dinosaurs rule the earth. Doc realizes that he must return to the past to restore the meteor and in doing so, sentencing their friend, Donny the Pteranodon, into extinction with the rest of the dinosaurs. When the group returns to present-day Hill Valley, Verne befriends a little bird that resembles Donny.
Factual errors
- This episode claims that the Cretaceous Period was in 3,000,000 BC. The period actually lasted from 145 to 65 million years ago, so it would have been long over by that date. Though dinosaurs did flourish in the Cretaceous Period, the largest reptiles by 3 million BC were crocodiles.
- In the episode, lemon trees are growing in Hill Valley during the Cretaceous Period. Lemons were first introduced to the Americas in 1493.
Behind the scenes
- The episode has some intersting surreal animation, including a moment where Doc thinks at a hyper-accelerated speed, and a chalkboard animation sequence.
- The "Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Event", which marked the beginning of the extinction of the dinosaurs, is believed to have occurred 65.5 million years ago
- The meteor itself is believed to have been an asteroid about 6 miles in diameter. Clearly, the redistributed molecules of the meteor remain in outer space rather than being stored in the redistributor itself.
- The point of impact on Earth was at the location of modern-day Chicxulub on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The descending meteor, which the Brown family spotted about 4 minutes before impact, would have been visible from California.
- The odds against the Browns arriving at the hour of impact of a body from outer space would be, like the body itself, "astronomical".
Dramatis personae
- "Doc" Emmett Brown
- Jules Brown
- Verne Brown
- Einstein
- Marty McFly
- Jennifer Parker (Mentioned only)
New continuity
New individuals
New dates
- 1961
- October 10, 3000000 BC (as specified)
- 1991A
New technology
- Doc Brown Blackboard
- Electroglide boots
- Lemon battery
- Proprietary Ultrasonic Subatomic Molecular Redistributor
- Universal Linguistic Translator
New objects
New slang and phrases
- Galloping Galileo!
- I'll be a simian's uncle
- Okey monokey
- Out of the beaker into the bunsen burner
- Ring my Alexander Graham Bell
- What in the constantly expanding and shrinking universe