I will take any excuse to think or talk about Back to the Future, so seeing this post on the Guardian last week was another excuse to bring up the topic of my favourite movies. The premise of the article is just a revisit of the film trilogy on its 40th anniversary, recapping the history of it but also bringing it into context a little bit.

Finished off the trilogy of novelisations with this final book that covers Marty and Doc’s exploits in 1885. It’s very true to the movie, with quotable lines throughout, and only a couple of additional insights. Of the three books it’s probably the one that adds the least, but it’s always fun to be in the Hill Valley universe and I’m glad to have read it.

Another novelisation of my favourite movie series, this time following Marty McFly and Doc Brown as they head to 2015 (the future for them, the past for us now!), cause lots of chaos and have to fix everything before it all ends in a giant paradox. We know the story, so am mostly interested in how the novel version compares - it was a lot closer to the film than the first book was, although it’s nice to see Marty’s motivations sometimes, and there were some extra bits that didn’t make the movie (Marty meeting his brother outside Biff’s hotel in the rogue 1985). Either way it’s just enjoyable to spend more time in this world.

Yay, another novelisation and this time for the best film there is. Unfortunately, I stumbled across a pdf version of this book rather than any official physical or digital copy, but I couldn’t resist reading it - and even though the scan wasn’t great, it was SO worth it. Love this story, love the characters, love the extra little insights and slight deviations in the book, it’s all just more of the same brilliance.

I’ve been fascinated by these minimalist movie posters I saw on Kottke. They’re by graphic designer Michal Krasnopolski and are a challenge to present a movie poster with the limits of using only lines in and around a circle… and different colours. Something about this really makes me happy - the challenge of it, the idea of summing up everything about a movie to make it easily identifiable with such a limited set of tools, just brilliant. Really showing off what graphic design does best.

Finally, I have managed to cross ‘Watch Back to the Future: The Musical’ off my to do list. There have been a couple of failed attempts and I’ve been worried that the universe didn’t want me to see it, but I’ve thwarted the universe and seen the brilliance of this show.

I’ve been looking forward to this documentary since I first heard about it and was determined to watch it on the very day it was released, and I’m so glad I did. It’s wonderful. I knew a lot of the facts and plot points having read Fox’s memoirs, but it’s different seeing these moments on screen.

While dreaming up ideas for potential 30 day challenges, I pondered whether thirty days of Lego would be something that could work. I love the sets they do featuring elements from popular culture - a lot of fun and nostalgia all in a handful of plastic bricks. It didn’t take long to drop the idea because have you seen how expensive these sets are? Maybe one day in the future but for now, I had to settle for just browsing the online store.

Before I started building up a digital bookshelf with seemingly every book available via Kindle or Apple Books, I used to pick up most of my reading material from charity shops. There’s usually a good variety to choose from and one of the great things is seeing the older books that are dropped off for re-use. One of the best genres in this category is movie novelisations - an author’s official take on the plot of a film with more prose and less script. They can offer a lot of interesting insight where films don’t do so well, getting inside the head of the protagonists or antagonists, but at the same time can sometimes steer quite far away from your take on the original material. It’s always a bit of an adventure.

In 2021, I managed to read and review about 150 titles in my Books section, which has to be an all-time record. I say titles, rather than books, because some of them were shorts, some reference, some audiobooks, there’s a mish-mash of stuff I’ve enjoyed all year long. But even so, that’s still a lot to have managed to get through. Partly that’s because of the ongoing efforts to Hibernate for Health, but also because I’ve become absolutely obsessed with reading and do it every minute I can - cleaning my teeth, waiting for the kettle to boil, when I’m supposed to be sleeping, you know the kind of thing.

A medium level spring clean uncovered this little gem in a dusty box tucked away in a random corner. I got super excited when I first saw the edge of it, because I thought it was the original part one book by George Gipe. Sadly that one is still missing in action. And I never did have a copy of part three.

It’s taken me a long time to read this as it’s a gorgeous hardback coffee table style book, so I would just dip in and out every now and again. At the heart of it, it’s a week-by-week analysis of how the three Back to the Future films came together, from concept to shooting schedules, to release. There’s lots of great insight, behind the scenes knowledge, and it’s stacked full of great photographs I’ve never seen before.

One of the things keeping everyone going during lockdown is bonus quizzing from a variety of sources, and that has reminded me that I have been meaning to do a Mastermind update. I rarely pay attention to the quiz show, as good as it is, but just occasionally they pop up with a subject I love and then I can’t help but share the questions. Previously celebrities have taken on Back to the Future, Friends and The Archers. This time, it was a non-celebrity edition and once again everyone’s favourite time travel trilogy was the specialist subject.

It’s that time of year, when offices start going a bit crazy with decorations, Christmas lunches, office parties and goodness knows what else. A trend I have noticed is the Christmas jumper competition, and whilst your snowmen and santas are all well and good, I’ve found a couple of Christmas jumpers that might be slightly more fun to wear. There are loads of good Star Wars ones out there. “I find your lack of cheer disturbing,” is a good one, but I’ve picked the Yoda one, because you know, Yoda knows best. This one is kinda subtle in the sense that you have to have seen Stranger Things and know what it’s all about to get it. It’d be a good way to find your fellow Stranger Things fans at a party where you don’t know anyone. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey. There’s not much else to add. The design of Christmas jumpers to have a lot of lines of various patterns lends itself very well to platform gaming, so you have to go to the master: Mario. And of course, where would we be if we didn’t have a Back to the Future jumper?

So, you know that feeling when you’ve loved the soundtrack to a movie for years and years, and then you start listening to more albums and catch up with one that you probably should have already known about, that quickly becomes one of your top ten, and then you realise that one of the artists actually sings on that original soundtrack, one of your favourite songs? Happens to us all, right?

The second memoir from Michael J Fox focuses on his post-acting career and his efforts to create and sustain a foundation hunting for a cure for the Parkinson’s disease that afflicts him. I found this book marginally less interesting than the first, because politics and political wranglings are not my cup of tea, but it was still fascinating to read just how much work goes into something like running your own foundation.

A super quick read, this is aimed at graduates and students as they embark on the world after leaving education. Fox is keen to reiterate he’s not giving advice but rather telling the brief story of his life to illustrate that things will probably work out okay, as long as you work hard.

You know, of course, that I’m an insane Back to the Future fan. However, it wasn’t until we watched the incredible Back in Time documentary that I realised I’d missed out on an important part of BTTF fandom - Michael J Fox’s books. I picked up Lucky Man, his memoir chronicling his career and his Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis, and how the two had to fit in his life side by side, and eventually together.

I’m not one that particularly wants a Back to the Future sequel, even though I’m a huge fan of the trilogy. However, anything else we can get that allows us to spend time in Hill Valley is fine by me. I hugely enjoyed the Telltale Games episodic game series that thrust us straight back into the world of time travel and all its many consequences. I drooled over the BTTF lego set, and loved reading the movie line by line in that slightly odd Twitter project.

We were watching the recent Back to the Future documentary when it suddenly occurred to me that I’m a huge fan of the films and of Michael J, but I haven’t yet read his books. It was easy to put that right, and very hard to put this one down. Fox has such an easy way of writing, making you comfortable with his style and grace, despite some of the difficult subjects at hand - dealing with fame, that awful diagnosis, and how illness can change you for the better.

TV and film does very well on Twitter. Besides live tweeting essential events and posting instant reviews to films you’ve just seen, there are also the endless accounts packed with quotes (I follow some Friends and some Simpsons ones), and those that go a little beyond that. In the past, I’ve seen a few “recreation lists” whereby someone sets up a few accounts to do the back and forth that a play or some dialogue requires.

There’s a new Lego box about to be released, August 1st I think, and I suspect I might buy it. If I only managed to get my hands on the Flux Capacitor I would be happy, but oh how much fun to build a time machine. I really do think there should be more characters though. Biff, Lorraine, George and perhaps the dog, and we could do an actual re-enactment.

Mr C showed me this Tumblr site a good few weeks ago now, and I was instantly in love. In a nutshell, the Movie Barcodes are all the frames of a movie squidged up to make a colourful (or not so colourful) barcode style image. In some cases, they’re offered as prints, and I am sorely tempted to snap some up. Some of them are better than others, naturally, and I find some of those that have been created with fewer images make my brain go a little fuzzy, but the really good ones are so impressive.

I’ve been catching up on some RSS feeds recently (where I am getting down to a reasonable number of unlistened podcasts, my unread items has been creeping up), and I spotted this crazy little item earlier in the month. A DeLorean that is also a boat. It’s cool, and fun, but I took umbridge with the concept almost immediately simply because of this, in the Engadget story where I saw it:

Mmm, Back to the Future. I love to browse the branded t-shirts, but I never really buy them because once I start, I think I would become bankrupt quite quickly. However, I was looking at BTTF related t-shirts recently, I forget why, and these are my favourite five that I stumbled across. Dr. E. Brown Enterprises I like the ones that aren’t supremely obvious, so whilst all Back to the Future fans should get it from the front, it would probably take the back to really make it clear what the t-shirt was all about. A big ol’ flux capacitor is hard to miss. I like that it also looks like a lot of music or band t-shirts you can get. “24 Hour Science Services.” I wonder what kind of services you might need in the dead of night.

Oh, how I have so loved having Back to the Future back in my life. Not that it ever went anywhere, but fresh material, and most importantly good fresh material has been brilliant. I have already blogged every episode of the TellTale Game revival, and whilst I do not have much more to add now I have completed episode five, it seemed only fair to have a farewell post to complete the set.

Lukeh alerted me to the breaking news that Michael J Fox will be making a cameo voiceover appearance in the final part of this five-part game series, and that made me realise that I hadn’t checked for new episodes on the iPad for a while. Imagine my surprise, then, to find out that both 3 and 4 had arrived without me noticing. I got right on and started playing - I’ve got no major spoilers in here, but don’t read on if you’re saving yourself.

Last time I discussed the Back to the Future game, I was only mildly impressed and mostly happy that they hadn’t ruined everything. I wrote that first post after playing the game for about twenty minutes, and I may have judged it a bit harshly. After the post went up, I picked up the game again and played it right through to the end. I loved it! I couldn’t wait for the second episode to appear.

I remember watching some Back to the Future extra features where a guy was going around the set finding answers to viewer questions. The final question was from a little kid who went: “Is there ever going to be a Back to the Future 4?” And the guy said no, but Back to the Future would live on in the ride at Universal studios. I was always very disappointed at that answer.

Last night, there was a Celebrity Mastermind episode in which one of the contestants chose the Back to the Future trilogy as their specialist subject. Thanks to Alex for pointing this out to me, these questions could have been made for me! As is becoming a bit of a tradition when there’s a subject we know about on Mastermind, I thought I’d gather the questions for others to see how they got on.

There are no arguments that this is the weakest of the three movies by a long way, but the little inside jokes and repetitions from so much time travelling are really good. There are lots of little things that you need to be aware of and will make you chuckle if you’re paying attention. It’s just a shame the DeLorean was smashed to smithereens at the end.

If I was faced with all three movies and was only allowed to pick one, this would be my favourite choice. I like that it has both the future and the past in it, and all the coincidences and repeat sequences from the first are brilliant. I can also say a lot of the lines along with it, which is annoying for anyone watching with me, but great fun for me!

It looks so good in HD. When you compare it with the terrible trailer, the difference is stunning. If only you could buy movies in HD from iTunes, I would snap up all three of them. I love that I am watching this film for about the fiftieth time, and I am still noticing things. Like the ice cold car, and the pink bits on Doc’s radiation suit. LOVE IT.

Here’s a video that my dad found mentioned in one of those computer magazines. It’s always difficult to listen to someone moan about the trials and tribulations of being famous, but if it’s got to be done, you’d want it done this way. I have to say, if I saw Biff and summoned the nerve to speak, I’m pretty sure my first question wouldn’t be: Was it real manure? I’m not sure it would be any of my questions, actually. It’s never even crossed my mind!

I recently uncovered a site called 11 Points which compiles top ten lists, but with eleven items. Some of the lists are rubbish, and the site is very garish to behold, but there are some gems to be found. I have always liked top ten lists and similar. The first podcast I subscribed to was Top of the Pods, which is sadly no longer broadcasting. The idea was a simple weekly chat between two guys, counting down random lists, some submitted by listeners. There’s something about the list format that appeals to me, and I miss that show.

It occurred to me recently that there are a few TV programmes I would like to go back and watch as if new. There are plenty of shows that I need to catch up on, but that’s a different matter. These are episodes I have watched, but would do anything to wipe my mind clean so I can enjoy them all over again. Jonathan Creek. I had the biggest crush on the lovable magician’s assistant when he first appeared on our screens, and I watched the first few series several times over. The problem is that a whodunit with a twist isn’t particularly engaging once you already know how it’s going to end. There were only a couple of episodes where I guessed what was going on, and I’d like to rewatch now and see if I am any smarter. (I am not.) Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My overriding memory of this show is my friend telling me to watch a late night repeat of an episode I had missed - the one where Buffy’s mother dies. I watched and didn’t cry and that’s when I realised that I have a heart of stone. Therefore, now I have come to terms with that, I would like to go back and watch, and enjoy the series without feeling guilty that it doesn’t make me sad. Hornblower. Ahh, I am partial to watching a little bit of Ioan Gruffudd on screen, even if he is dressed up to the nine’s in dodgy 18th century sailor outfits. I remember being particularly dismayed when Mr Hornblower had his first on-screen kiss. Not allowed. Anyway, the stiff-upper-lipped-ness of the show appealed, but makes it hard to enjoy over and again. I’d love to go back and watch as new, though. Doctor Who. I hold my hands up and say I am one of those annoying people who has only watched the new series with the ninth and tenth doctor and still considers herself a fan. The problem is that the show is repeated endlessly on the iPlayer, and I get annoyed at seeing it. With only four new episodes this year, I’d love to go back and have the prospect of an entire brand new series to enjoy. Thunderbirds. Although any episode of Thunderbirds is easy to watch repeatedly (you know that the crisis will be averted in the end), my introduction to the puppets came when I lived with my parents. They were debuting on BBC2 for the first time in a long time. I was older than the target demographic, but watched them with my dad, and those were good times. As an aside, the film I would want to watch as new is Back to the Future 3. I may have mentioned previously how I saw the first and third films before the second one, so it made no sense. Having the benefit of watching the second film many, many times now, it would be good to go back and fix that.

From Dan Meth: I love this. I don’t watch films extensively, but I have seen quite a few of the above. I think Back to the Future should be all blue, Jurassic Park should start higher, but The Matrix is dead on. What do you reckon?