"When the Future Meets the Past"
Based on the characters created by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale
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Synopsis: When Verne developes a powerful interest in dinosaurs, Jules suggests that a trip back, to see the animals in person, would be a fun thing to do on a hot summer day. After modifying the time display in the DeLorean slightly, the boys take off for an afternoon of dinosaur viewing 67 million years ago. But only minutes after they arrive, something goes terribly wrong, stranding them there.
Meanwhile, back in the 1986 present, the boys turn up missing. Doc Brown goes to Marty McFly (and girlfriend Jennifer Parker) for their help in locating the boys. When it is discovered the DeLorean time machine is missing, Doc wastes no time in tracking down the location Jules and Verne went off to--then taking Marty along with him in the train for what is intended as a quick pick up of both the boys and the time machine. But with the DeLorean unable to travel through time back to the future with them, the group is stuck in the prehistoric past while Doc makes some temporary repairs on the car.... |
| Length: Approximately 32,000 words |
| Written: July 1997 - September 1997 |
| Revised: September 1997 |
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Author's Notes: I'd toyed, in the past, with doing a "dinosaur" BTTF story, but I didn't for several reasons--the largest one being that I couldn't see Doc Brown going back that far on purpose. I mean, the chances to skew history back then are quite good! For all we know, dinosaurs could catch human colds! But while watching (what else?) "The Lost World--Jurassic Park" in June 1997 with a group of friends, I was suddenly struck with the premise of the story! I was so excited with it that I could hardly concentrate on the rest of the movie. Late that night--on the eve of my last day of high school--I wrote down the outline in my notebook and added to it on and off as the weeks passed. By the time I started writing this thing, two weeks after finishing "The Runaway Train," I'd had the first four chapters outlined.
The research for this story was partucularly tricky. I never was interested in dinosaurs as a kid--cats, unicorns, and penguins were my big things back then--and I foolishly thought that there were only about 20 different species of dinosaurs that lived during the same time. HA! Was I proved wrong! I checked out about 5 books from the library before I started the writing on this story and almost died when I saw how much was in them! But it was a learning experiance, and I now know more about dinosaurs than I ever wanted to! But at least when I read "Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World", I won't be completely confused anymore! With a summer job working in close proximity with kids, it never ceased to amaze me how much they knew on the subject of dinosaurs. I talked to one eight year old boy about them one morning and he knew about all of them--even how to pronouce those long, strange names. It blew my mind. But did show me that it's not unbelievable for someone like Verne to know as much as he did. The story that Marty tells Jules of first meeting Doc, I based on one line that came from one of the screenplays (see the page on "Character Profiles" for that line). The line didn't tell me much, so I embellished the story a bit (I am a writer, after all!). It's my personal idea on how they could have met, based on that line and other observations from the start of the first film. One of the things that Bob & Bob never come out and tell (at least in the films) is how Doc and Marty met and forged a friendship, so I suppose my version is just as true as anyone else's. Knowing what is to happen in the next couple stories, I was able to do something I'd never had the chance to before with these stories--foreshadowing of events to come in future adventures. Most of that can be seen with the increasing friction between Marty and Doc, which is critical to the story after this. |
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