Reason why they likely won't focus much on the future as a setting...
A lot of fans were disappointed that the game did not offer us the glimpse of Hill Valley's future which we thought we'd been promised with OUTATIME. Well, we did have the nice little coda in the end with the three alternate future Marty's...but frankly, I really don't think Telltale is ever really going to explore the future for any significant length of time in future installments, if any.
The reason is quiet simple...the series' philosophy, as revealed at the end of BTTF3, has been, by and large, that the 'future is not written'. This is reinforced at the end of the game, when Marty asks Doc which of the three Marty's is him and Doc says "Isn't it obvious", implying that he's the only REAL Marty, because the future is not written and the other Marty's are thus only projections of possible futures.
Now...if the future is not written, and nothing that we see of Marty, or any other character's destiny, is set in stone (because they can all be changed with the minimum of effort once Marty and Doc are back in the 1980's and live out their lives into a new future), then there really is no point in our investing much time in a plot line which we know doesn't really make a difference to the characters because its only a 'possible future'.
I mean, if you consider BTTF2...well the sole reason for showing us the future was to show us what kind of sci-fi wonderland Hill Valley's become. True, we also learn about Marty's messed up future, and his messed up kids...but ultimately, at the end of BTTF3, we learn that whatever Marty and Doc did to help Marty Jr was meaningless ultimately because the future wasn't written anyway, from their POV. In fact, I've always believed Doc's real motive in bringing Marty to help his son is so that Marty himself matures over the course of his experiances and gets over his 'chicken problem'.
Ultimately, if you look at it, the only real lasting significance the 2015 segment has to the overall plot is Old Biff stealing the Delorean and Almanac and altering the past...so once again, it is the PAST which is the focus of the series, and NOT the future.
So even if we do catch a glimpse of the future...expect it to be nothing more than a sneak peek which, at most, sets up the main plotline which is concerned with the past. After all, its only if Marty and Doc are in the past, that they can truly get "Back...to the Future"!
The reason is quiet simple...the series' philosophy, as revealed at the end of BTTF3, has been, by and large, that the 'future is not written'. This is reinforced at the end of the game, when Marty asks Doc which of the three Marty's is him and Doc says "Isn't it obvious", implying that he's the only REAL Marty, because the future is not written and the other Marty's are thus only projections of possible futures.
Now...if the future is not written, and nothing that we see of Marty, or any other character's destiny, is set in stone (because they can all be changed with the minimum of effort once Marty and Doc are back in the 1980's and live out their lives into a new future), then there really is no point in our investing much time in a plot line which we know doesn't really make a difference to the characters because its only a 'possible future'.
I mean, if you consider BTTF2...well the sole reason for showing us the future was to show us what kind of sci-fi wonderland Hill Valley's become. True, we also learn about Marty's messed up future, and his messed up kids...but ultimately, at the end of BTTF3, we learn that whatever Marty and Doc did to help Marty Jr was meaningless ultimately because the future wasn't written anyway, from their POV. In fact, I've always believed Doc's real motive in bringing Marty to help his son is so that Marty himself matures over the course of his experiances and gets over his 'chicken problem'.
Ultimately, if you look at it, the only real lasting significance the 2015 segment has to the overall plot is Old Biff stealing the Delorean and Almanac and altering the past...so once again, it is the PAST which is the focus of the series, and NOT the future.
So even if we do catch a glimpse of the future...expect it to be nothing more than a sneak peek which, at most, sets up the main plotline which is concerned with the past. After all, its only if Marty and Doc are in the past, that they can truly get "Back...to the Future"!
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
The 3 marty's plunging around time are threatening to collapse of the entirety of time; our marty has to go into the future to track them down and stop all 3 before they kill time; eg get each bk to their own timeline and get them stuck there.
From what I understand, all three Marty's are possible future selves of 'our' Marty...in other words, they've all diverged more or less from each other on May 15th 1986 (i.e. the time of the end of the Game)...they're unlikely to screw around with Marty's timeline BEFORE that date, because it would affect each of THEIR personal histories...and anything AFTER that is fair game from 'our' Marty and Doc's POV because the 'future isn't written yet'...
Think of it this way; biff shows up in 1955 specifically from 2015 of the second version of the timeline (first being the original one at the beginning of part I). The belief is that in the third timeline (the biffhoric one) Biff is dead by 2015 but let's assume he's not and gets a delorean in that timeline and goes back to 1955; now we have 2 biffs from 2 different timelines. The timeline has changed several times since then an so lets say biff gets a delorean again in the current timeline and goes back to 1955; exact same scenario we see at the end of the game.
And it's never revealed whether or not those 3 marty's are from the same year. One talks about his great great grankids meaning one of 2 things; due to a rejuvination clinic he's living to a very old age (seamus is marty's great x 2 grandfather so following similar timelines it would likely be around the 2080s) or this marty has traveled into HIS future.
I could see this as a Scrooge type scenario; Marty seeing different futures depending on his choices.
I don't know if there's enough material to make a potential second season have a central future year like they did with 1931; traveling into the past you see the cause and effect wheras going to the future you could only see this if you had a newspaper or photo. If there is a second season it will likely go one of 2 ways;
1) we'd see different eras in the future which would be good so we can rekindle with Griff and Marty Jr.
2) it goes somewhat like part II: we see the future and then another era in the past. Mind you we already saw 2 alternate presents and an alternate past in season 1 so not sure how many of those they could do (though when dealing with the future there's infinite possibilities).
Yeah, I agree...when you see stuff changing in the past, you know it will have an impact on Marty's present, and there is the possibility that it will endanger his existence (e.g. Arthur McFly being killed, Emmett not becoming a scientist et all)...so the stakes are high. With the future, it really doesn't make much of a difference, because you know Marty can simply go back to 1986 and lead his life differently...OR you wonder why Marty and Doc even take the effort to alter the future when they could simply say "Oh what the hell...this stuff isn't even going to HAPPEN for another thirty years!"
Marty's life might be crucial to the world of BTTF, but I'm having a hard time whatever he changes about it could alter THE WHOLE world.
The Future might not be "set in stone", but... Well, neither is... THE PAST.
Marty's present is the past's future. He knows things, he changes things in the past, that changes his present. It's kinda the same.
Going to the future doesn't mean it's a bogus world... Moreover, they dared to set the plot line majorly in 1931 where there were almost nobody we knew from the movies, why couldn't we see a distant future then ?
Aren't you guys interested in our Heroes' legacy ? About how the crazy world of BTTF can evolve ? Sure there might be some problem they have to "fix" in the past (which is their present), but that's the whole point of BTTF, isn't it ?
I find the excuse of saying "oh lol they can just change the future" the most lazy answer ever. They're changing the past, the present, I don't see what's wrong with changing the future.
Moreover, Doc might have said that, but it's also completely stupid.
The future IS set in stone. If you take into consideration the fact that it was always planned that Marty would see a possible future and change his life according to what he saw.
Either you take time travel as a variable to deal with, and that means, of course, that the future can be changed just as much as the past, either the future is already written, since no matter what our characters do, the future already knows....
Doc just meant that what Marty saw was not necessarily what will happen. But BECAUSE he saw it. Otherwise it would have happened.
If Telltale really goes that route of having nothing ever mattering in the future, they're just extremely lazy and unoriginal.
Let me clarify...I have NOTHING against setting the sequel at least partially in the future. In fact, I would love to see the new 2015 (or will it be 2016 now) and a more successful version of Future Marty and a Marty Jr who isn't a wimp.
What I'm saying is that, given the way time travel in BTTF is revealed to work, from Marty and Doc's POV, the future plot line is unlikely to hold as high stakes for them (or ANY stakes for them, for that matter) as much as a plot line in the past.
I agree, changing the past is technically the same as changing the future. But, from Marty's POV, a change in the past could endanger HIS existence in his present form and completely erase life as he remembers it...whereas, a change in the future doesn't really affect his existence. Sure, seeing possible futures can influence his own decisions (thus spawning OTHER possible futures!)...but from Marty's POV, anything he sees in the future is only hypothetical (that doesn't make the future 'bogus'-after all, it is still the 'most likely future' at the time of the time traveler's departure from the present).
I mean, look at it this way. Say you have Kid Tannen about to kill Arthur McFly in 1931. And on the other hand, you have Griff trying to kill Marty Jr. in, say, 2025. Now both occurences would alarm Marty and cause him emotional distress, because his family member is being threatened in both cases. And he will no doubt do his best to try and save both of them. But ultimately, even if Marty fails to prevent his son's death in the future, then no matter how much it pains him, he knows that from his POV, it hasn't happened YET, and he can simply go back to 1986, live out his life, and somehow ensure that Marty Jr doesn't fall into Griff's clutches.
Whereas, if he fails to prevent Arthur's murder, then he's basically screwed because he will be erased from existence!
The stakes are DEFINITELY higher when alterations to the PAST are concerned...
-impossible to erase his own existance
-you're basically removing any and all scenarios of knowing what will happen (lightning bolt at the clock tower, dance)
-doc WOULD be dead for sure (he was shot by lybians)
-you couldn't have the scenario marty had of meeting his parents as teenagers. Nor could you have his kids there if he's seemingly stranded in the future
Or try and apply the games concept to 2031 instead of 1931
-well the whole edna/newspaper puzzle would be pointless. Marty would have no way to find doc without the last time displayed working
-Even if marty is able to read the last time departed, he'd have no clue where to find doc in the future.
-you lose the entire plotline of marty having to meet another version of emmett
-as mentioned the fading plotline would be impossible
-The only possible way to return to the present and find an alternate timeline as we see twice in the game would be someone to steal the delorean in the future.
We know Emmett and William McFly does show up. Not a lot but in 1885 in part III we didnt get a single character from the films. I thought 1931 was an excellent spot, we had basically 2 missing generations in each of the tannen and mcfly's bloodlines, we got to see 1 of the tannens we never met and completed the mcfly bloodline of 6 generations (from Seamus to Marty Jr/Marlene) .
And let me clarify I'm not saying the future shouldn't be done. That segment from part II was one of my favourite in the trilogy. Depending on how crafty the writing is, they could do 1, 2, maybe even 3 episodes in the future but you really do lose that sense of urgency since you can't do as much in the future with a back to the future concept which centres around the timeline. Presumably if they do have a second season at least one episode will involve being stranded in the future (likely the last one).
The only other way i could see it work is to have 2 central points in the future with the results of one affecting the other and doc and marty going back and forth to try and fix something.
You hit the nail right on the head!
Agreed. I wouldn't mind an episode or 2 in the future...maybe we could see the possible future of the Tannen and McFly lines...but you really can't have any high stakes in the plot for Marty and Doc. Unless...well the whole 'stranded in the future' thing would be interesting, since it may answer the whole question of whether or not the future selves/descendants of time travelers will get erased if they fail to return to the present after some time. Then again...the major reasons why they have been stranded in the past before is due to the Delorean either breaking down (in the games) or due to a lack of suitable technology/parts/power sources in the past (plutonium, gas, replacement parts for time circuit control chip et all). If they're in the future, they shouldn't have any problem fixing the Delorean (even upgrading it beyond its current capacities). (Who knows, maybe FIXING the Delorean can be a nice mini-game set in the future?)
But of course, most of the high stakes plot lines in BTTF revolve around the time travelers endangering their existance, or the timeline being altered in some catastrophic way...and that kind of story simply doesn't work out with the future.
Seamus McFly helped Marty but he was more of a tertiary character and not nearly as critical as Arthur, George, and Marty Jr.
Now I've posted in this thread how there's more to do in the past with BTTF but here is one benefit to the future: Marty and Doc have no clue where anything is or how things work. Yes the technology should be there but that doesn't mean it will be accessible.
They could do an episode in the future with a similar concept as part III: have a puzzle to actually get back to the present but have Marty and Doc stranded in the future until then with marty's descendant as a helping character (and likely a run in with a Tannen that makes this process critical).
Hey...that's a pretty cool idea. And that would add to the sense of urgency a bit, with Marty's descendant having to ensure Marty gets back to the present fast (or he/she will be erased from existence).
That said, with regards to BTTF3...Doc getting killed in the past and Marty going back to save him WAS the major plot point. The whole getting back to the future thing was more a reflection of the first movie, than anything else.
To my mind, the game successfully captured each of the major plot points of all three films-Marty endangering his own existence (BTTF1; Episode 2), a dystopic alternate timeline being created and Marty having to fix thing (BTTF2; Episodes 3-5), and Marty discovering that Doc died in the past and going back to save him (BTTF3; Episode 1).
I was thinking they could use elements of the abandoned 'numebr two' script (which was written by Bob Gale and not Zemeckis); actually they already did. In that script Marty looks out the window as they are leaving 2015 and sees Doc's house disappear (due to the timeline changing) similar to what we see in the game. They could use the grand canyon sequence (time circuits were damaged so they had to fly the delorean into an electrical field to get back to 1985. That script was not as good as the film we got but the time travel sequences were executed; as they were leaving 1985A, they were being chased and shot at by police the flying circuits got damaged in mid air and they struggled to reach 88 MPH. You could do this by having one of the future Marty's be a criminal of sorts and our Marty identified as the culprit. Use an escape sequence such that they get away to another time (maybe a different point in the future) and need to get back.
Yeah, I've read the 'Number Two' script and there are a lot of good ideas there (didn't much fancy the whole 'pain transference between doppelganger's though). I would love to see the 60's used as a setting in one of the future games (though of course, that's the past, and we're talking about the future here).
I haven't read its entirety but I've skimmed through it (it's on the official BTTF site). I do happen to know Gale wrote it singlehandedly as Zemeckis was working on Roger Rabbit.
Some good sequences which could be used;
-a more elaborate hoverboard sequence with marty getting lifted to a high altitude and getting saved by Doc
-I guess somewhat similar to 1985 Jennifer getting mistaken for her future self, Marty uses his thumb to identify himself in the future when his DOB pops up (which could be even funnier in the distant future having a 50 year old 'look' 18)
-the 'escape from biffhoric times' sequence
-Marty was supposed to stop his own conception (he was born in 1968). Although since it happened again in the game I'm not sure how often they can keep doing this.
-doc constantly trying to avoid his younger self.
-the version of doc from this era was hilarious. Supposedly in the 60's doc was a prof and addicted to LSD (although I'm not sure if they want drugs to be a plot point).
-there was a lot more of dave and linda, they were present in 2015 and as young children in 1967 (not sure if they were written out of the future due to Wendy Jo's pregnancy).
-1967 Doc again helps marty get back to the future but is unaware his future self is present. His calculations for the grand canyon sequence were based on one person and the script is pretty funny with them throwing stuff out of the delorean to make it
-old man peabody was part of the script as well apparently being in a mental institution for the past 12 years for spouting about the 'space ship' he saw. Upon his release he sees the flying delorean and starts going crazy again. The last thing marty throws out of the delorean is a backpack with the almanac. Peabody burns the almanac but keeps the backpack figuring it will be worth money some day.
Now given the fact that this script was written as a stand alone sequel (it does not end on a cliffhanger setting up a third film as this was unconfirmed), things would need to be tweaked. Not sure if marty going back and visiting doc at a different era in the past AGAIN is a great idea although unlike the first film the plot for number TWO did not seem to involve marty changing Doc's future.
I certainly thing another hoverboard sequence would be a great idea, this time in a future setting. Ditto for the whole scene of Marty trying to buy things in the future using his thumb print ID and having to explain why he looks so 'young'.
More Dave and Linda (at different ages) would be cool as well. Marty interacting with younger versions of his older siblings has a nice touch of irony to it. And I wouldn't mind seeing Old Man Peabody again...it would be a nice tie in to BTTF1. (In fact, wouldn't it be cool if Old Man Peabody's young, who was a small kid in 1955, shows up in the future as an old man and sees the Delorean..."THAT ain't no AIRPLANE" indeed!)
I'm not sure about YET another version of Doc...I think the first game has had enough of them already...although we MIGHT get to see how the changes in 1931 affected Doc's pre-1985 past (for instance, maybe we see how he sets up the Foundation in his father's name).
If they do travel to another period Doc is alive I'd prefer they keep the 'other' docs involvement to a minimum. It's okay to interact with him a little but preferably not in a manner which will change his timeline AGAIN. And in the number TWO script he does help Marty but it doesn't seem to change his timeline. If it's between 1931-1955 (and hopefully not, there isn't much there that's left to see) Marty would have to identify himself as Harry Calahan to him and can't tell him about time travel. If it's between 1955-1985, Doc obviously knows Marty is a time traveler. I wouldn't mind the 60s for a short bit but if/when they go back into the past I'd prefer circa 1900-1910 (meet Kids father/Bufords son). I would say meet Beauregard Tannens Mcfly counterpart but it's likely that the McFlys were nto in america yet.
Yeah...that would fill in the last gap in the Tannen family...by introducing us to William McFly's 'adversary'. And I suppose Biff's grandmother (whom we hear in BTTF2) will be this Tannen's wife.
Yeah, I don't want Marty to visit any era between 1931 and 1955. Honestly, I think ANY time travel before 1955 is just likely to screw up events in 1955 even more (and the events of 1955 are very crucial to sustaining Marty's current timeline, as he knows it).
About the future time period though...I wouldn't mind sometime in the 2020's...maybe we'll see a 20-something Marty Jr. and an EVEN older Marty. Or perhaps the FAR future...like the 2050's (wouldn't it be great if they visited November 12th 2055!!! and witnessed the centennial celebrations of lightning striking the Clock Tower!).
When it was assumed that episode 5 would feature the future a lot of people thought 2025/2026 would be featured showing the duplicate delorean show up and Doc steal it from griff. One possible plot point is something they do in the future prevents Doc from stopping Griff.
Something to keep in mind here; even though Gale and telltale said that they only considered the films to be canon, the game is faithful to the tv show; Arthur being Georges dad, Beauregard being Bufords father, Tiff Tannen being Biffs daughter, Martys middle name being seamus, Verne being a video gamer were all brought up in the show. Well the TV show only featured one episode in the future; traveling to the year 2091 where Marla McFly was an astronaut and Ziff Tannen (Griffs grandson) was the tannen of that era. Just something to watch for.
I'm kind of thinking it would be the mid to late 21st century featured; they probably wont do 2015 for the simple reason that it's not turning out the way the film showed and they'd rather not deal with that plot point.
Well it's actually not mentioned in the game either (he does look like the tannen shown in episode 4). The civil war ended 1865 so it should be the same one.