I am watching Back to the Future as I write this. You may remember that at the end of the film, Doctor Emmett Brown, in a role that could not have been better suited for Christopher Lloyd, travels 30 years into the future.
However, at the beginning of the 1985 film, before the complications with the Libyans, Doc Brown plans to travel only 25 years into the future. Upon doing the math, one realizes that he planned to travel to the futuristic-sounding year 2010-- or, as we affectionately call it, this year.
So, I suppose, we are here in the future. Dr. Brown intended on bringing his own supply of cotton underwear, fearing his allergy to synthetic fibers would be an issue. Had he made the journey, he would have been pleased to find cotton briefs in abundance.
He muses about learning who will win the next 25 World Series. Though unless Dr. Brown is a New York Yankees fan, I feel he may find nothing but disappointment.
He would likely be pleased to find that those Libyan terrorists are now the least of his worries. To tell the truth, he should probably be more afraid of the American government.
A wild-haired old man claiming to be a time traveler would almost certainly be jailed and forgotten. Once the feds realized his technology actually works, the damage they could do is uncertain and unimaginable.
What is certain, however, is that Dr. Brown would receive no credit for his discovery and would more likely receive a lifetime committal to Bellevue.
Come to think of it, it is probably best that the good doctor was shot dead by the Libyans before he could make his journey. We’re all better off.
