Wednesday, 2 July 2025

3 July: Back to the Future

On this date in 1985, Back to the Future was released. 10 things you might not know:

  1. Back to the Future was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. It’s about a teenager called Marty McFly, whose friend Emmett "Doc" Brown, an eccentric scientist, is building a time machine using a DeLorean car. Marty is accidentally sent back to 1955 where he meets his parents as teens and almost prevents them from getting together when his mother falls for Marty instead. The plot is about Marty’s efforts to make sure his parents get it together and get home to 1985.

  2. Michael J Fox was the first choice to play Marty, but he wasn’t available when filming was scheduled to start. John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, Ben Stiller, Billy Zane, and Robert Downey Jr. were among the actors considered instead. The part initially went to Eric Stoltz, but it soon became apparent that although Stoltz was a good actor, he wasn’t right for the part. He took it way too seriously when what was needed was “screwball energy”. So Stoltz was fired and by this time, Fox was available. Jeff Goldblum, Dudley Moore, Ron Silver, Robin Williams, John Cleese, Mandy Patinkin and Gene Hackman were among the actors considered for the role of Doc Brown.

  3. Billy Zane did get a role. He played Match, one of Biff's three sidekicks, the only one without a single line in the entire film.

  4. The inspiration for the film came when Bob Gale came across his father’s school yearbook and wondered if he and his father would be friends if he could go back in time and meet him as a teenager.

  5. The script was rejected 44 times before any studio agreed to make the film. All the major studios turned it down because they didn’t think a film about time travel would make any money. They thought it was too twee and several suggested taking it to Disney. Disney also rejected it because there is a scene where Marty and his teenaged mother are in a car and she comes on to him. Disney said that was incest and far too raunchy for them.

  6. The score was composed by Alan Silvestri. The only direction Zemeckis gave him was "it's got to be big". The soundtrack also includes a song by Huey Lewis and the News. It nearly didn’t. Lewis initially refused because he didn’t do movie songs and wasn’t inspired to write a song called Back to the Future. Zemeckis was keen enough to use the band’s music that he told Lewis he could write whatever he wanted and the result was The Power of Love. Which didn’t contain the film title at all, so memos had to be sent to Radio stations to ensure that DJs would mention the connection of the song to the movie.

  7. In early drafts, the time machine wasn’t a car, but a chamber resembling a Fridge which was carried on a truck. The DeLorean was eventually selected for its futuristic appearance and gull wing doors, which would appear like a space ship to people in 1955. After the film's release, body kits were made for DeLoreans to make them look like the time machine, and the car’s creator, John DeLorean, wrote to thank Bob Gale for featuring his car.

  8. There’s an urban myth that the sequel, in which the characters travel to 2015, predicts the result of the 1997 World Series. Marty does watch a match while he’s in 2015, which inspires him to buy an almanac to take back so he can make some money betting on sports events, but the contents of the almanac are not revealed in the film.

  9. It was also rumoured that Ronald Reagan was offered the role of Hill Valley's mayor in Back to the Future III, but turned it down. Reagan and his family were fans of the films, though, and he hosted a screening of it in the White House. He even quoted the line "Where we're going, we don't need roads" in one of his speeches. The parts of the script with references to President Ronald Reagan had to be approved by the White House, so as not to offend the president. Producers worried that Reagan would take exception to Doc Brown's line mocking the improbability of his being president in 1985, but they needn’t have worried. Reagan was said to get a kick out of it. You can just imagine a certain tangerine tyrant having a hissy fit if something similar happened today!

  10. Whittier High School, an actual school in California, played the role of Hill Valley High School in Back to the Future. This was the school Richard Nixon attended. The former president gets a mention in the Hill Valley Telegraph, when it reports that Doc Brown has been declared legally insane. Beside that story, there’s another, purportedly from 1985: “Nixon to Seek Fifth Term; Vows End to Vietnam War by 1985.”



Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


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