# Would a kid be able to cope with everything Marty McFly went through? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 26, 2021, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397 "2021-09-26T22:19:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [September 28, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/41 "2021-09-28T15:29:19Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And when Q reset things back to where they were, what happened to all those other people? Did their lives mean nothing? - They never existed. ---
**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:** [September 28, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/42 "2021-09-28T15:45:56Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > They never existed. But they did for a “while”. If Picard took the time, found one and talked to him or her, learned their hopes and dreams, and then had Q reset the timeline, did their existence not count? In this scenario, Picard (alone) would remember them. Were they not real, if only for a while? They would have said so, before they were never existed. Think Tasha Yar in Yesterday’s Enterprise. ---
**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:** [September 28, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/43 "2021-09-28T15:47:41Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > But they did for a “while”. If Picard took the time, found one and talked to him or her, learned their hopes and dreams, and then had Q reset the timeline, did their existence not count? - It would depend on how thoroughly Q reset the timeline. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/44 "2021-09-28T16:50:31Z")
But timeline resets don’t wipe out things that happened, they just wipe out the memories of them. If someone is tortured to death, they experience that pain. Going back in time to prevent the torture doesn’t mean the pain never happened, just that the timeline is altered. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/45 "2021-09-28T16:57:57Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#): > > But timeline resets don’t wipe out things that happened, they just wipe out the memories of them. Is that right, now? Remind me again where you got your degree in Mad Science? 😃 ---
**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:** [September 28, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/46 "2021-09-28T17:02:30Z")
The place I got my degree in Mad Science no longer exists, but oh! the pain! ---
**Author:** ![Slight\_Off\_Hand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Slight\_Off\_Hand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slight_Off_Hand)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/47 "2021-09-28T17:02:34Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > I don’t understand this rather common criticism of the movie. Many people look similar. By the time Marty was 17, thirty years had passed since another guy named Calvin Klein spent a week in their high school and presumably no pictures were taken. I agree. I spent my childhood as an Air Force Brat. We moved every two years. I’ve been looking through yearbooks and such from when I was in grade 11 and 12 and barely recognize people that I used to spend time with and that’s looking at photos and knowing that I should know these people. If someone popped into my life now that was the spitting image of my old girlfriend’s friend that was in town for 2 or 3 weeks and hung out with us, there is no way that I would pick up on that. Especially if they came into my current life as a baby and slowly aged into the appearance they had at 16 or 17. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/48 "2021-09-28T17:07:19Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > The Undiscovered Country - This would have been a good high note to end the voyages of the original crew. It pretty much was, wasn’t it? Only Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov appeared in _Generations_, and the latter two only in the opening scene, if memory serves (I haven’t watched it in a while, I could be wrong). Personally I would have preferred a clean break. Go straight to _First Contact_, no “handoff” from the older crew. There is really no good reason for _Generations_ to exist at all. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/49 "2021-09-28T17:56:51Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Is that right, now? Remind me again where you got your degree in Mad Science? 😃 Trying to make any sense of causality in time travel stories is an exercise in trying to climb into one’s belly button. Even the MCU attempt to subvert the tropes of time travel movies (specifically calling out _Back To The Future_) by indicating that travel into the past is just an extension of one’s personal future doesn’t really stand up to much scrutiny, and postulating separate timelines that one can jump back and forth between causes so many logical and physical problems that trying to make some kind of sensible and self-consistent rules about it is like trying to build a model of physics based upon Warner Bros. cartoons. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/50 "2021-09-28T19:04:02Z")
Like _The Man Who Folded Himself_. He (David Gerrold) also wrote _The Trouble with Tribbles_ episode. A sci fi bookshop I patronized way back when actually sold some of the tribbles from that episode. I still regret not getting one. ---
**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:** [September 28, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/51 "2021-09-28T19:12:07Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > There is really no good reason for _Generations_ to exist at all. It gives is the “answer” to a question no one cared about; Where Guinan came from. But then it doesn’t answer why she has “mysterious powers”, so…a net wash. That movie is a waste of time and good characters. The only good thing you can say about it is that it isn’t as bad as ST:V. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/52 "2021-09-28T19:50:24Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > It pretty much was, wasn’t it? Only Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov appeared in _Generations_ , and the latter two only in the opening scene, if memory serves (I haven’t watched it in a while, I could be wrong). Personally I would have preferred a clean break. Go straight to _First Contact_ , no “handoff” from the older crew. There is really no good reason for _Generations_ to exist at all. Pretty much, but _Generations_ was technically where they passed the torch from the original crew to the next generation. It was just so disappointing because, as you say, there is no good reason for it to have been made. ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/53 "2021-09-28T22:14:21Z")
The only thing Marty’s note tells Doc Brown is that on the night he goes back Doc gets shot by terrorists. How does he know it’s not a headshot? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/54 "2021-09-28T22:32:53Z")
Heroes never get headshots. It’s always either a burst to the body armor they were wearing, or a “flesh wound” to some insignificant body part like the thigh, hand, or shoulder, which in movie anatomy have no crucial arteries, nerves, bones, or other crucial connective tissue. Those members are basically just foam stuffing. Stranger ---
**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:** [September 28, 2021, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/55 "2021-09-28T22:36:45Z")
> [@Galactus](#): > > How does he know it’s not a headshot? Not to mention that 1985 body armor won’t stop a round from an AK-47. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/56 "2021-09-29T04:32:24Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ofQ6i9I1IYY/hqdefault.jpg "What if he shot you in the face?!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofQ6i9I1IYY) ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/57 "2021-09-29T05:01:00Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Not to mention that 1985 body armor won’t stop a round from an AK-47. Yeah, I always was bugged by that. Unless he had a level 3 or above those rounds would have gone through that vest like he wasn’t even wearing it. And that vest did not look like a level 3 and I don’t even know if such a vest was available at that time, especially to civillians. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/58 "2021-09-29T13:06:40Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Not to mention that 1985 body armor won’t stop a round from an AK-47. Maybe he invented one that could? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/59 "2021-09-29T13:22:01Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Maybe he invented one that could? The “Doc” (Doctor of what? From what institution did he get his degree?) could barely invent a refrigeration system capable of making an ice cube even though [Dr. John Gorrie demonstrated a working ice machine](http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~ihas/gorrie/fridge.htm) more than three decades before 1885. Most of his inventions, aside from the time machine, seem to work badly if at all, and his grasp of actual science and engineering are tenuous at best. It seems likely that someone behind the scenes is manipulating the Doc and feeding him what information is needed to make time travel work for reasons unknown. Maybe there was a second escape of future Liber8 prisoners from _Continuum_… Stranger ---
**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:** [September 29, 2021, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397/60 "2021-09-29T13:25:54Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Most of his inventions, aside from the time machine, seem to work badly if at all, and his grasp of actual science and engineering are tenuous at best. - That’s _just_ what he wants you to think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-a-kid-be-able-to-cope-with-everything-marty-mcfly-went-through/951397.md?page=4)