# Back to the Future- Marty wakes to a new future - question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 25, 2023, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115 "2023-12-25T06:02:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/41 "2023-12-26T02:02:49Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > He might have been writing short stories, scripts, speeches, ghostwriting and/or articles. Definitely would have been. That’s solid middle class at best. Very few writers, mainly novelists, achieve tremendous wealth from writing and most take several different gigs to make a living, if not an outright separate job outside of writing. You know you’ve reached the big leagues when your name on the book is larger than the title (Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and so forth) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/42 "2023-12-26T02:50:42Z")
Of course, if George and Lorraine were so impressed with what Marty did for them, why did they wait for their third kid to use the name? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/43 "2023-12-26T02:54:54Z")
Stop\_Asking\_Questions. It spoils the fun. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/44 "2023-12-26T08:57:11Z")
> [@de\_Worde](#): > > > [@GuanoLad](#): > > > > There’s only one thing about the new timeline that bothers me, and that’s why they have such a crappy house when they’re such a successful family. > > Well, it’s only his first novel that just got published. So it’s not like he’s a wildly successful author. They seem comfortably middle class … maybe splurging a bit for the BMW and Marty’s truck. You’ve got me wondering now… Maybe the whole ‘successful middle class family’ thing is a complete facade. George, as we know, has only just published his first novel (at the age of about 47 or 48), so isn’t a massively successful writer. Did he self-fund this venture, and overstretch himself financially? Are George and Lorraine in debt up to their eyeballs with a mortgage, expensive country club memberships and a fancy(ish) BMW that in truth is way beyond their fiscal means? Does Dave really have a cushy office job? Perhaps he leaves the house each morning, gets to the end of the road and then turns left instead of right and goes to work at the burger place, and he’s been lying to his parents about the outcome of that job interview all along. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/45 "2023-12-26T10:53:48Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > They don’t exist yet. They will exist again, or new people will exist. I find that way too facile. Maybe in the normal sequence of time, they don’t exist yet, but in my hypothetical timeline in this story, they most certainly had existed: in what would have been the experience of my character, that trip through the 1971-1987 interval is **past** , it really happened as far as my character was concerned, and ‘my’ experiences were real enough and would have informed the progression of the story. So if ‘my’ experiences were real enough and their memory is preserved, I have a real problem with the moral universe where everyone else in that timeline are so unimportant that their experiences during that time period I’ve lived through are wiped out, and the people there are wiped out along with it - that they existed just to create the world that I am the lone survivor of. I’d spit in the face of any deity with such a casual view of the lives he created. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/46 "2023-12-26T13:00:30Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Maybe the whole ‘successful middle class family’ thing is a complete facade. George, as we know, has only just published his first novel (at the age of about 47 or 48), so isn’t a massively successful writer. This isn’t bulletproof, but Carl Sagan was 51 when _Contact_ was published. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/47 "2023-12-26T14:30:55Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I have a real problem with the moral universe where everyone else in that timeline are so unimportant that their experiences during that time period I’ve lived through are wiped out, and the people there are wiped out along with it - that they existed just to create the world that I am the lone survivor of. I’d spit in the face of any deity with such a casual view of the lives he created. I’ve had that problem since TNG. In Yesterday’s Enterprise, all the unnamed, forgotten beings that lived (and died!) in the Klingon war alternate timeline - do their lives not count? When Q fucks with Picard’s head in Tapestry, the people that had entirely different lives between the Nossican incident and “now”, did their realities mean nothing? There were people that were born, lived, had children, relationships, careers, adventures, heroism, cowardice, and possibly died “during” those alternate timelines that never did before. And then they were gone, GONE! Never existed. And no one cares, because the whole experience was to teach Picard a lesson. Did their lives not count. Metaphysically speaking, if there IS a God and heaven, do they get to go to it? > [@running\_coach](#): > > Stop\_Asking\_Questions. > It spoils the fun. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/48 "2023-12-26T14:39:44Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > George, as we know, has only just published his first novel (at the age of about 47 or 48), so isn’t a massively successful writer. I have reason to believe that he got something _other_ than a novel in print well before 1985, and that he successfully got whatever amount of wealth the story requires as a result, and that what he wrote featured Darth Vader. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/49 "2023-12-26T14:43:58Z")
If he wrote any of _that_, they could live in a _much_ nicer house. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/50 "2023-12-26T14:56:43Z")
I’m half-kidding, of course, but: what if he half-assed it? What would the financial ramifications be if, at this or that point in time, George McFly can point out to George Lucas that a sci-fi magazine published a short story back when (a) about Darth Vader? Or (b) about Darth Vader, who wears a breathing mask? Or (c) about Darth Vader, who wears a breathing mask and hails from “a galaxy far far away” and does some “it is your destiny” speechifying? How close does he have to miss it before he’d get X amount of money — but _not,_ y’know, X+Y+Z amount of money? ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/51 "2023-12-26T15:02:01Z")
He could have simply been more successful in general - not super successful, just more successful with the confidence boost - and he finally got his novel published after years of work. There was no requirement for him to be super successful. So - most things were just as they were - just with confidence and not backing down to Biff all the time. The main one affected was clearly Biff - who ‘lost it all’ in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/52 "2023-12-26T15:07:05Z")
Even in the bad timeline, George is competent at his office job - Biff is just taking the credit. In the good timeline, George gets the credit and salary he deserves and also has the confidence to get a book published as a part-time writer (exciting even if he’s got a dsy job). And instead of being in the worst house in a middle class neighborhood he’s got the nicest one (but choose to upgrade the house rather than move - he had three kids to put through college) ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/53 "2023-12-26T15:27:31Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > about Darth Vader, who wears a breathing mask and hails from “a galaxy far far away” and does some “it is your destiny” speechifying? Except that Marty’s “Darth Vader” is from the planet Vulcan - which points to another potential source of cash. Of coure, Gene Roddenberry was practically impoverished in the 70’s when the legal hullaballoo over the whole thing would have happened, and would not have been the “deep pockets” in George McFly’s copyright suit. But then, perhaps Roddenberry was impoverished precisely _because_ he was defending against this suit in our timeline? Ah, there are wheels within wheels here… ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/54 "2023-12-26T16:02:27Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > The real question is what happened to the ‘Alternative’ Marty; the one who grew up in this timeline and with whom the other characters are familiar, who was suddenly and inexplicably replaced by ‘Prime’ Marty? > > Stranger So this Marty probably was kind of douchey growing up differently from Marty Prime but Doc doesn’t want to create a paradox and he also wants to protect the current timeline as it now is so he: Figures out a way to befriend Marty 2 so they have a relationship so he can invite him to the Lone Pine Mall parking lot. Events in the parking lot play out as Marty Prime partially sees but what Marty 2 doesn’t know is that time machine was preprogrammed not to go back to 1955 but rather ahead billions of years to when the Sun has expanded into Earth’s orbit. Marty 2 and the Time machine are incinerated such that they can cause no trouble and Marty Prime slips into his new life in the new timeline. Easy peasy. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/55 "2023-12-27T09:44:37Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > When Q fucks with Picard’s head in Tapestry, the people that had entirely different lives between the Nossican incident and “now”, did their realities mean nothing? > > There were people that were born, lived, had children, relationships, careers, adventures, heroism, cowardice, and possibly died “during” those alternate timelines that never did before. And then they were gone, GONE! Never existed. And no one cares, because the whole experience was to teach Picard a lesson. Did their lives not count. In that one, at least, Q promises that only Picard’s future would change. How exactly he pulls that off, I don’t know. Best guess is that he planned on healing Picard the whole time, and that was the only final result. So everything else never happened. As for the rest: TNG has a canonical multiverse, as shown in “Parallels” (where Worf keeps shifting to different timelines) So those timelines likely still exist. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/56 "2023-12-27T10:58:32Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > They don’t know Marty’s reality. > He doesn’t know theirs. If other changes to the timeline can wipe Marty out of existence (as they began to do), how is his mind immune to timeline changes? I mean, I know the answer: so the movie can happen ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/57 "2023-12-27T17:07:52Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > In that one, at least, Q promises that only Picard’s future would change. How exactly he pulls that off, I don’t know. Regarding the episode “Tapestry”—there is also the question whether Picard **actually** went back in time or if what happened was simply a dream/hallucination directed by Q. ---
**Author:** ![SlipperyPete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@SlipperyPete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlipperyPete)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/58 "2023-12-27T18:58:47Z")
You guys have forgotten the key scene here. When Marty-prime goes back to 1985 (Lone Pine Mall) he sees Marty-new driving the DeLorean and ZAP back to 1955 he goes. So we know exactly what happened to Marty-new. Then he sees Doc get shot by the Libyans but he survives with a bullet proof vest. In the BTTF-verse all time travel loops and causality must be maintained to avoid a paradox that could destroy the universe. So they have to just hope for the best that Marty-new will be able to pull off all the important stuff that Marty-prime accomplished back in 1955. Eventually Marty-new will return to 1985 and anything he did differently will be reflected in his new reality. If he makes a major screwup though, and breaks a causality loop, poof goes the universe. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/59 "2023-12-27T19:15:53Z")
Well, we know, possibly with several universes gone by the wayside, Doc learns his lesson and gives up time travel as the Long Island Iced Tea of science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115/60 "2023-12-27T19:36:46Z")
> [@SlipperyPete](#): > > Then he sees Doc get shot by the Libyans but he survives with a bullet proof vest. Yeah, about that…no vest is going to stop rounds from an AK-47. And that’s assuming none of the rounds hit him in the head or neck. Even an arm hit at that range would be serious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/back-to-the-future-marty-wakes-to-a-new-future-question/995115.md?page=4)