"The Pair O' Docs"

Synopsis: When Doc contacts Marty at the end of a long workshift and tells the teen to come over immediately because of an "interesting development," Marty imagines all manner of various disasters -- but even he can hardly believe his eyes when the scientist plays him a surveillance tape of the lab, showing what appears to be Emmett Brown himself pushing his family into the steam train time machine at gunpoint. It appears that an Emmett Brown from a parallel or alternate dimension has landed in there's and claimed Doc's family -- and one of his machines -- as his own. Something must be done, immediately; it's clear that "Doc B," as he is dubbed, is unbalanced and has mallicious intentions for changing history -- and Doc's own family. Using a tracking device, Doc and Marty take the DeLorean and follow Doc B through the ages, from Ancient Greece, to the Middle Ages, to the era of pirateering, all the while trying to prevent Doc B from changing history -- and then a terrible accident forces them to confront, firsthand, the world that breeded Doc B... and the surprising truth on who he really is.

Length: Approximately 78,000 words

Written: March 1996 - October 1996

Revised: March 1997; March 2001 - June 2001

What's New in '01: There's been a change to the opening quotes, first off. I found these two to be rather appropriate for the story. Chapters, overall, are lengthened a great deal as I condenced a bunch with my surgery. (It lost five chapers.) And therein lies the irony. I actually cut a great deal from this story, particularly with how much time Doc, Marty, and Doc B spent in each time. (I think of it as trimming the fat off a steak.) I felt that it amped up the pace a bit and also seemed to be truer to a character like Doc B, who would pretty much know what he had to do and be able to be in and out as quickly as possible. I suppose this "change" would not be looked upon favorably by Marty and Doc, particularly, as I gave them little time to rest on their crazed journey. Yet the cuts were replaced by so much new writing that the story is approximately the same length as it was in its original incarnation; it's gain is just 6,000 words longer than the first version. I changed some of the technicalities and aspects on how Doc B arrived in Marty and Doc's world. It made my brain hurt, but I think it tightened the story a bit, too. I tweaked the character of Doc B a bit, making him harder to sympathize with for most of the story and easier to hate. I felt it added a great deal of tension to the story and made the character seem less crazy funny and more disturbing, as he should be. I also added a great deal more details on Doc B's history. I completely cut one time period visit and, in it's place, penned a new one. This new addition was one stop that had been in my original notes but by the time I'd written myself that far I was feeling as wrung out as the characters and wanted to get to the ending. So I never penned it. And I sliced out the time that was once there mostly because I'm dealing with that time period more in depth in a yet-to-be-completed BTTF story that's been dragging its heels in being written for a couple years, now. I changed the name of Biff's son. This has been something I intended to take care of when I reached "The Ripple Effect" for revising, and have been planning to do for something like a year now, but it kind of came up here. So just go with it, m'kay?

Author's Notes: This story is, by far, my most popular, if the e-mails and the discussions on the BTTF web site bulletin board have been any indication. I suppose there are a number of reasons why; perhaps its the action/adventure, perhaps its seeing a character "met" (sort of) in one of the films, perhaps it's just the idea of Doc as a baddie. I have no idea. But revising it is something I've wanted to do for a great while, even at a possible risk of destroying that which makes it appealing to so many. Since people seem to be so into this story, pardon me as I now launch off into reminiscing the process of it: The tale of how the idea came to me is now fairly well known. The inspiration for this story originated in a dream that I had had sometime when I was 14 or 15. In the dream, one of the best BTTF ones I've ever had, I was with both Doc Brown and Marty in this dark, dreary world. Perhaps it was an alternative future; I'm not sure. We were trying to escape from a psychotic Doc Brown cyborg from the future, who wanted to kill us all. (Shades of The Terminator here, although I've never seen the film.) Robo-Doc looked the same as real Doc, except his eyes would glow red. At some point, Doc was seperated from Marty and I, making us confused as to which Doc was which. The dream climaxed when Robo-Doc was cornering us, ready to kill us, and the real Doc came out of nowhere and disarmed his futuristic clone. This story bears little resemblence to that dream (no robots, first off!) but I was intrigued with the premise of having two Doc's duking it out. I wrote my dream down when I had it and completely forgot about it....consciously. Yet I do believe it was jammed in my subconscious and rose to the surface a few years later. I'm also convinced that reading the Dean Koontz book, "Mr. Murder," might've helped pull things together. Back in 1995 - 1996, my junior year of high school, I finally started to read adult novels. As I liked reading horror YA novels, I entered the adult realm with Stephen King and Dean Koontz, borrowing copies of those writers' books from my best-friend-at-the-time's father. One of the books I enjoyed a lot (enough to buy, which is the ultimate expression of my enjoyment of a book since they're so bloody expensive now) was one by Koontz entitled "Mr. Murder." Perhaps a great deal of my enjoyment in that tale was provoked by the fact the main character's name was Marty (Stillwater), and in my mind I just saw Michael J. Fox in the role. The book was about this successful writer and how one day his life is turned upside down when a double shows up and claims he (Stillwater) stole his life. The double then tries to kill Stillwater and take back the family and life, which he feels is his, and the characters flee this very mysterious villian. I highly recommend the read. And I suspect that between that book and my dream, things got provoked in my brain. When I wrote this story, I had intended it to be the last BTTF story. I was feeling burned out by that point and out of ideas. My theory, then, was, "Hey, let's visit as many time periods as I'd like to write about, since this will be my swan song!" (It could also explain the length, which was the longest tale I'd penned for a while.) After I completed "The Pair O' Docs," I actually didn't write another BTTF story (although I do recall revising earlier ones for my new web site, at the time) until four months later. At that time, in February 1997, I had finally been given the opportunity to read Mary Jean Holmes' work and it inspired me all over again. A few weeks later, ideas began to roll in again and I started what would become "The Runaway Train." I feel that little hiatus was a turning point with my writing; it, and the plots, seemed better constructed after then. Whether or not you may agree with me is up to you, but that's always been my personal feeling. Going back into my file for the revision (I keep files for all my stories, filled with handwritten or typed notes, research, outlines, drafts, etc) was a weird sort of flashback. I penned the first draft of the story from Saturday, March 2, 1996 at 1:10 P.M. and it took until Saturday, October 12, 1996 at 11:15 P.M. to finish. In those months, I completed my junior year of high school and began my senior year; held down my first part-time job at Blockbuster Video (and recall writing many a scene in the breakroom!); and vacationed in WDW with my family. Seeing the handwritten notes, scenes I'd penned away from the computer, etc, was kind of a strange flashback to that time. God, that was five years ago, now.... Pirate Juan de la Vega, Sir Andrew of Parkington, and Poncho Alexander were all based on three different high school friends of mine -- Izzy, Mike, and Alex (better known as "Poncho," a nickname from freshman year Spanish class). This was one of the first times I did that in my BTTF stories and it sort of kicked off this thing where I put characters based on friends of mine in my stories. I had actually approached Izzy about doing illustrations for my stories in the summer of '97 and he knocked out this little sketch of the characters based on our friends -- and unfortunately nothing more, sigh. Clearly, even at just seventeen, then, he had talent -- and a rather high view of his character! You all can pretty much gather who's supposed to be who in the sketch -- and, yes, the likenesses were right on. (Izzy, BTW, was recently accepted into a prestegious Pasadena, Calif. arts school, where he can further his talents. Cool.) When I wrote the (revised) scene of Beethoven's concert, I decided to get in the mood by downloading the two songs that Doc and Marty hear the composer playing off Napster (love that service!) and listening to them as I wrote the scene. Since it takes me a bit of time to write out things, esp if I'm chatting or cooking or watching TV, etc, simultaneously, I listened to F�r Elise and, especially, Moonlight Sonata something like fifty times on repeat. I swear, to this day, I will twitch if they are played. (And, man, that second song is really... relaxing. Too much so. I really gotta question the people who had it filed under "good study music" on Napster.)

CHAPTERS 1 - 5 CHAPTERS 6 - 10 CHAPTERS 11 - 15