so the beloved doc brown of the beloved back to the future trilogy is often looked at as a great “humanitarian” or a great “scientist” or even a great “friend” to his sidekick, marty mcfly. emmett brown was a trust fund baby who spent 30 years and all of his inheritance money on building a time machine. you’d think he’d be a little more careful than he is.

if we take a look at his antics in the back to the future 2, we’ll see perhaps doc brown was not such a great consort to marty. in fact, because of doc brown, marty almost lost everything!

the doc had 2 tasks when they arrived in the future to ensure that marty jr. wouldn’t go to jail. he needed to take care of marty’s girlfriend and “tranq” marty jr. so that marty could take his place at the diner to meet griff (biff’s grandson) and his gang. he does neither of these things. the tranquilizer that he uses on jennifer knocks her out, so he leaves her alone in a sketchy alley. good goin’, doc. now she’s getting a police escort back to the mcfly residence! and because of him using the tranquilizer on jennifer, he doesn’t have enough to drug marty jr., who does in fact show up at the diner.

plan foiled. only mayhem can ensue from doc browns mistakes, and it does! when marty buys a sports almanac, doc makes him throw it away. why not wait until you go back to ‘85 to throw it away so you don’t risk getting it into the wrong hands?! aren’t you supposed to be a scientist who invented a working time machine? well sir, you may be genius enough to invent a time machine, but you’re still not street smart. thank god for marty mcfly who can save the day.