Page 131-133
OKAY, before we go ahead with today’s pages, I got an email from Drew that speculated that that whole “Doc paints green and feels better” thing was a JOKE added in by Gipe, because Doc had already painted the canvas red, and what does red plus green make? BROWN. Like - like Doc Brown. Hah hah hah oh my god.
You guys, I’m torn between “we are staring too deeply into the abyss and finding patterns that aren’t there” and “oh god OH GOD what if this is true and the book has become SO CRAPPY that my brain is now rejecting it and insisting that there’s got to be some unknowable yet non-crappy explanation for everything within??” and BOTTOM LINE: the abyss stares also, I guess?? I will say this now: if there’s a future scene where Doc sees a fly land on McDonalds burger and nudges Marty McFly and says “Remind you of anyone??” then I am abandoning this blog because GUESS WHAT the words describing that scene are the lyrics to the song you sing to end the Earth.
So! BACK TO THE STORY. Marty doesn’t want to be trapped in 1955, but Doc Red And Green Combined Subtractively says to look on the bright side! He could’ve been sent back to:
- the Dark Ages, “when you’d have to spend half your time dodging barbarians”
- during the Black Plague
- the early 19th century “when there were no anesthetics, no television, movies”
But instead he’s here, where we’ve got “3-D movies, hi-fidelity music [we all know how big Marty is into Sound Reproduction], Frank Sinatra, instant coffee…”
and Marty shoots back that 1985 is awesome because of:
- compact discs
- MTV
- birth control
- Burger King
and I love this because Doc says “I don’t even know what you’re talking about” which has got to be true, and also, yay, a Burger King shout out! Then Doc raises a pretty good point, especially for someone during the cold war!
But this time is so much safer. Here, you know there’ll be a 1985. In 1985, do you know there’ll be a 2015?
and it’s a nice moment, ruined in the next moment when Marty says he’s got a girl waiting for him in 1985, and shows Pervy Book Doc (who packed a Playboy to take with him to the future in case there wasn’t anything good to JO with in 2015), and Doc ogles Jennifer and declares her “not bad.”
JENNIFER PARKER: a solid 7 / 10??
Anyway FORESHADOWING AHOY because Marty is basically begging Doc to get 1.21 gigawatts of power and Doc says “The only power source capable of triggering that kind of energy is a bolt of lightning.” like in the movie, but of course KEEPS TALKING:
“And not a minor-league bolt, either. It would have to be a real wall-shaker, something big enough to stop a clock.”
oh god
