Loop hole in the BTTF universe? *SPOILERS*

edited March 2011 in Back to the Future
OK, so by Emmet not going to the movie and hooking up with Edna, And then when Marty and Doc go back, Doc disappears while they're in the car. When Marty arrives in the alternate 1985, my question is, if that doc didn't exist, and the new one never invented the time machine, hence all the things they changed in 1955 never happened, meaning Doc never built the time machine, then why didn't the time machine disappear as well? Also, why didn't Marty disappear as well? I mean, in BTTF2 they explained that while time changed, since they were in the time machine, the time stream changed around them, but then wouldn't Doc not disappear?? Just seems like a loop hole. Unless Doc did build a time machine in secret without Edna knowing. But even then, if the events in 1955 were never changed, and the time machine was never built then it would also effect the changes made in 1885 and 1931. Unless someone wants to explain this to me. But I don't think Doc Should have disappeared.

Comments

  • edited March 2011
    I think it's the same way that Old Biff disappeared in the deleted scene from BTTF2... he caused himself to retroactively become dead,* which has awkward existence failure side-effects.

    *Because he never would have gotten the life-extending rejuvenation in the future, and because this Doc is several years older than the Citizen Brown Doc, Doc in this new timeline wouldn't live long enough to be as old as he is, so he can't exist... Yes, neither can the time machine, but I think what happens is that no matter how much you screw up the timeline, the changes affect time travelers themselves more slowly, and it seems the changes will always impact the time machine itself last, if ever.
  • edited March 2011
    As Bob Gale said: It's just a movie. Game.
  • edited March 2011
    I tend to agree with AwesomePossum. Hehe, cool username by the way.

    I'd rather just enjoy the game/movies. If I pick on every single little thing, it would never end. You are right, Hituro, totally right! I just prefer to tone down the "Logic"-dial just a bit when playing this series. It's much more fun that way. :p
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited March 2011
    Like LuigiHann said, Doc and Einstein ceased to exist because without going for rejuvenation treatments, they are now dead. When your actions in time travel in cause you to die, the disappearing effect happens quickly as shown with Biff in Back to the Future Part II.

    The time stream doesn't catch up to Marty as quickly because Marty has only time traveled for weeks rather than years like Doc and Einstein, so he is still the correct age in 1986. The DeLorean still exists because time is still being written, as explained at the end of Back to the Future Part III. Doc exists in 1986 as Citizen Brown, so the DeLorean still has a chance of being invented. (It's like why the photo didn't disappear at the end of Back to the Future Part III even though it just showed grass. Time was still being written, since Doc would have to put up the tombstone showing his death after Marty got back to 1985 in order to prevent a paradox).
  • edited March 2011
    Because the timeline seems to be very slow in catching up with marty and the delorean.
  • edited March 2011
    Jennifer wrote: »
    Like LuigiHann said, Doc and Einstein ceased to exist because without going for rejuvenation treatments, they are now dead. When your actions in time travel in cause you to die, the disappearing effect happens quickly as shown with Biff in Back to the Future Part II.

    The time stream doesn't catch up to Marty as quickly because Marty has only time traveled for weeks rather than years like Doc and Einstein, so he is still the correct age in 1986. The DeLorean still exists because time is still being written, as explained at the end of Back to the Future Part III. Doc exists in 1986 as Citizen Brown, so the DeLorean still has a chance of being invented. (It's like why the photo didn't disappear at the end of Back to the Future Part III even though it just showed grass. Time was still being written, since Doc would have to put up the tombstone showing his death after Marty got back to 1985 in order to prevent a paradox).


    Omg you're right, I totally forgot that even though Doc is with Marty, he's much much older than the Doc of 1986 due to the excessive time travel. Plus who's to say Edna doesn't bump off Doc at some point in Doc's future. And also, that makes sense about the Delorean. It's almost like the car is the photo of the grass, rather than the objects in it. Also I remember in Back to the Future II, when Marty went back to alternate 1985, he didn't erase, and his clone was off in Switzerland. So yes, you're right, it makes sense now. Thanks for clearing that up! :)
  • edited March 2011
    I would think the car would work the same as objects like the photographs work. The picture of the tombstone remained even after the grave dissapeared even tho there is no way they would have taken a picture of the empty site that would later replace that one.
  • edited March 2011
    But why is there a photo of grass? I know that Doc's tombstone ceased to exist but surely over the years, somebody elses grave would be located there instead.
  • edited March 2011
    Masta23 wrote: »
    But why is there a photo of grass? I know that Doc's tombstone ceased to exist but surely over the years, somebody elses grave would be located there instead.

    thats just a movie gimic, yes there should have been a different grave there but it would confuse the audience if there was the name of a character they didnt know there and if it was one of the existing characters that they were saying was buried there instead it wouldnt rule out that doc might have just been buried somewhere else.
  • Hituro wrote: »
    Omg you're right, I totally forgot that even though Doc is with Marty, he's much much older than the Doc of 1986 due to the excessive time travel. Plus who's to say Edna doesn't bump off Doc at some point in Doc's future. And also, that makes sense about the Delorean. It's almost like the car is the photo of the grass, rather than the objects in it. Also I remember in Back to the Future II, when Marty went back to alternate 1985, he didn't erase, and his clone was off in Switzerland. So yes, you're right, it makes sense now. Thanks for clearing that up! :)

    Well actually we don't know if theres another marty in swizerland and another doc in a mental institution, it is never stated nor denied.

    Doc is at least 15 years older than he should be (his children are already to go to college) and we have no clue how long he was time traveling prior to bringing Marty to the future.
  • edited March 2011
    Already brought this up in some other thread weeks ago. Its a writers issue. They didn't know how to write it with a real doc and the FCB Doc in the same timeline. They probably felt that the episode would be more interesting if you were on your own.

    Did you know that time travel is not possible? THIS GAME IS INVALID!
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited March 2011
    tgeorgic wrote: »
    Masta23 wrote: »
    tgeorgic wrote: »
    I would think the car would work the same as objects like the photographs work. The picture of the tombstone remained even after the grave dissapeared even tho there is no way they would have taken a picture of the empty site that would later replace that one.
    But why is there a photo of grass? I know that Doc's tombstone ceased to exist but surely over the years, somebody elses grave would be located there instead.
    thats just a movie gimic, yes there should have been a different grave there but it would confuse the audience if there was the name of a character they didnt know there and if it was one of the existing characters that they were saying was buried there instead it wouldnt rule out that doc might have just been buried somewhere else.
    The way I see it, Doc tries very hard to prevent circular time paradoxes (where the events that happened must always happen even if they are changed, since if they don't there will be a paradox) as shown in It's About Time, so he had the tombstone created with his date of death on it even though he didn't die so that the Marty in the new timeline would still have a reason to come back to 1885, and that's why the photo of the grass still exists at the end because time is still being written since Doc didn't put up the faux tombstone yet. :)
  • Jennifer wrote: »
    The way I see it, Doc tries very hard to prevent circular time paradoxes (where the events that happened must always happen even if they are changed, since if they don't there will be a paradox) as shown in It's About Time, so he had the tombstone created with his date of death on it even though he didn't die so that the Marty in the new timeline would still have a reason to come back to 1885, and that's why the photo of the grass still exists at the end because time is still being written since Doc didn't put up the faux tombstone yet. :)

    Doc doesnt know what happens if a paradox occurs so he acts precautious to prevent one but maybe they already have happened and can exist; ie. part II should be a paradox because the future was fixed giving doc no reason to bring marty there and at least 2 timelines do not have time travel being invented (the biffhoric timeline and FCB)
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited March 2011
    Doc doesnt know what happens if a paradox occurs so he acts precautious to prevent one but maybe they already have happened and can exist; ie. part II should be a paradox because the future was fixed giving doc no reason to bring marty there and at least 2 timelines do not have time travel being invented (the biffhoric timeline and FCB)
    The first scenario I'm sure won't happen since Doc would make sure that Marty lets time take it's course with his son falling in the wrong crowd with Griff, since they both know everything works out in the end (which would explain why he worked so hard to build the time train because he needed to make sure he was around to guide middle-aged Marty to prevent a paradox).

    The third and fourth scenarios are definitely paradoxes by normal standards, but they are able to exist in the Back to the Future universe by that universe's rules of time travel, since the time ripples haven't caught up to Marty and the DeLorean yet.

    I'd personally love to see a paradox like Sliders or Futurama (where the paradox rips open a tear in the universe), but by this universe's rules of time travel, that would require a major paradox to occur (like the time machine ceasing to exist or forgetting to prevent a circular paradox) since this universe's rules are pretty paradox-proof. :D
  • Jennifer wrote: »
    The first scenario I'm sure won't happen since Doc would make sure that Marty lets time take it's course with his son falling in the wrong crowd with Griff, since they both know everything works out in the end (which would explain why he worked so hard to build the time train because he needed to make sure he was around to guide middle-aged Marty to prevent a paradox).

    The third and fourth scenarios are definitely paradoxes by normal standards, but they are able to exist in the Back to the Future universe by that universe's rules of time travel, since the time ripples haven't caught up to Marty and the DeLorean yet.

    I'd personally love to see a paradox like Sliders or Futurama (where the paradox rips open a tear in the universe), but by this universe's rules of time travel, that would require a major paradox to occur (like the time machine ceasing to exist or forgetting to prevent a circular paradox) since this universe's rules are pretty paradox-proof. :D

    pretty much any time the characters time travel intentionally to change the timeline (doc bringing marty to the future, biff stealing the delorean, doc and marty going back to 1955, marty going to 1931 to save doc and further back to save his grandfather and again to get kid arrested), that should create a paradox. So maybe the rules are the timeline simply continues linear in the event of a paradox. So for instance in the 2 timelines without any time travel all of a sudden marty disappears from wherever he is and appears in a delorean.

    Or had marty been unsuccessful in getting his parents back together in part I, he'd fade out and the timeline would simply show a mysterious figure named marty show up for a week in 1955 and fade out. Though in this case, i'm sure what would happen is as soon as doc got his hands on plutonium, he'd go back to that day, and bring marty back to 1985 before he got a chance to mess with the timeline.
  • edited March 2011
    In ep 3,

    How come the delorean still exists when doc never invented it in the new timeline.

    How come doc disappeared when they went back to 1986.

    How come Marty didnt disappear when in the new timeline he is a nerd (stiff).
  • edited March 2011
    -Jc- wrote: »
    How come the delorean still exists when doc never invented it in the new timeline.

    The DeLorean and all of its components still exist in this timeline, even if Doc didn't put them together. Maybe it will fade out over time, maybe not.
    -Jc- wrote: »
    How come doc disappeared when they went back to 1986.

    Doc is almost 100 years old. In the FCB timeline, he doesn't live that long.
    -Jc- wrote: »
    How come Marty didnt disappear when in the new timeline he is a nerd (stiff).

    Same reason he doesn't disappear when he's supposed to be in Switzerland in BTTF2.
  • edited March 2011
    Did you know that time travel is not possible? THIS GAME IS INVALID!

    The fact that no one's been able to time travel YET doesn't mean it can't be done ;)
  • edited March 2011
    PainDealer wrote: »
    The fact that no one's been able to time travel YET doesn't mean it can't be done ;)

    Well if it ever does, we will never know about it in our life times. Actually when I was 7, I wrote a note to myself with a specific date and time to travel back too. And then locked it up and put it in a little safe i had. I waited, and when the date came my "future self" didn't show up. I was so disappointed that I ripped up the note and threw it away. I do not remember the year, date, time or anything of what I had wrote down...21 years later, still no time travel. Now, did I correct the paradox or did by ripping up the time traveling request (time capsule) did I prevent myself from visiting myself during childhood?

    (i was a huge BTTF fan as a kid).
  • JenniferJennifer Moderator
    edited March 2011
    pretty much any time the characters time travel intentionally to change the timeline (doc bringing marty to the future, biff stealing the delorean, doc and marty going back to 1955, marty going to 1931 to save doc and further back to save his grandfather and again to get kid arrested), that should create a paradox. So maybe the rules are the timeline simply continues linear in the event of a paradox. So for instance in the 2 timelines without any time travel all of a sudden marty disappears from wherever he is and appears in a delorean.

    Or had marty been unsuccessful in getting his parents back together in part I, he'd fade out and the timeline would simply show a mysterious figure named marty show up for a week in 1955 and fade out. Though in this case, i'm sure what would happen is as soon as doc got his hands on plutonium, he'd go back to that day, and bring marty back to 1985 before he got a chance to mess with the timeline.
    Bob Gale did mention a ripple effect on the DVD, so I doubt that the DeLorean would be completely unharmed by any changes in the timeline, and I'm sure Marty wouldn't still be in 1955 if he wasn't born.

    But I suppose it's a possible theory at this point, since I believe so far the time ripple effect was never mentioned in the movies or the games. :)

    It would be weird to wrap your head around it though, since there would be a Marty without Marty being born. Although other fiction has done similar things with an object being given to a person in the past that came from that same person in the future, which would mean the object was a subject of a paradox since it never came from a specific place in time.

    It's perplexing. Would the timeline correct itself and erase Marty from 1955 in the past, or would he still be there in the past since someone had to intervene to get George to stand up to Biff. The ripple effect suggests the former, but in order for the timeline to progress linearly it would need the latter. Even more perplexing is your second example. If the timeline did keep Marty in the past, could Doc stop Marty from going to 1955 and still continue linearly from the changes made in 1955? :eek:

    If anything, if the universe is self-correcting and a paradox doesn't cause disastrous consequences, I imagine that if Marty or Doc created such a large paradox, the universe would just reset itself to how it all happened before they traveled through that particular time period and create a time bubble where Marty and/or Doc leave but never reach their destination (although a universe with disastrous consequences is much more fun than a self correcting one any day :D).
  • edited March 2011
    I think it depends on how close the timelines are. Timelines split and merge, but if they're far apart enough you get alternate timelines. Since Citizen Brown still had the idea and actually had the power to build a time machine, it wasn't going to disappear quite yet. Doc was on a very different timeline, one where he was eitherdead and at the very least a lot older so he faded out.

    It will start fading out next episode. Which would explain Marty's panic. Because he deviated the timeline further away from where Doc built it.

    If close enough timelines can and will merge. We've seen that.
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