Wait a minute, I've got all the time in the world
10 minutes should do it!
shareWell, for entertainment purposes
shareYeah, they did that a lot. Which doesn't mean we can't discuss it.
In part II, they could've easily get the almanac any other day, it didn't have to be the same day he received it. Which brings me to one more thing, it would make more sense for the old Biff to bring him the almanac on or around his 18th birthday, so he could use it immediately. This way it was in danger of getting lost or stolen until he was old enough to gamble.
I tend to think it's better that they got the almanac off of Biff as soon after he received it as possible.
If they went back to, say, a week after he received it he might have found some safe place to stash it. Especially as Old Biff told him to get a safe. Why risk it?
Also, going back to the day he received it minimises the potential changes. Biff could've memorised some of the scores, or made copies. Okay, Biff didn't strike me as the brightest of people, so deciding to make copies of the results for safe keeping may have been a bit out of character. But you never know. 1985 Biff did let on to Marty that he had been warned that one day, somebody might come looking for that book.
Good points.
shareWhy not go back to a place to prevent him from getting it in the first place? Rather than trying to take back from him after he already has it?
shareThey had to make Old Biff believe he had succeeded, so he would go Back To The Future. They couldn't just attack Old Biff and take it.
shareI'm talking about before old Biff had possession or was even aware of it.
It's fiction, so the ways this can be done is only limited by the imagination, but Doc could confront Marty as he's exiting the store and compel him to go back in and return it for a refund. Or he could intercept Marty before going into the store and warn him then.
Not sure if that would be successful. If you distract Biff from his original actions, he still exists somewhere, and Old Biff just has to track him down like he was already planning to do. If you do something extreme like kidnap Young Biff, then I think you'd be risking Original Marty's day and plan to get to 1985 as it doesn't play out like it did.
shareI'm talking about before old Biff had possession or was even aware of it.
shareAccording to Doc, they can't return to 2015 to fix anything as Marty even suggests that.... it would now be the alternate 2015.
shareIt's been a while since I've seen it. Good observation.
shareIt's messy, but in my opinion, that opens up the question on how come Old Biff was able to return🤷♂️
share
Seems like there's only one timeline, and changes to it take a while to propagate depending on how unlikely the old timeline becomes.
In other words, Old Biff returned to the same future while it was in the process of changing (and he was in the process of disappearing, in the deleted scene).
As Doc says, the present will change "around" Jennifer and Einstein if they fix the past
Bingo
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They went to that day because it was their best bet to get the almanac before young Biff hid it, or worse, took notes and kept those separate (admittedly not a Biff thing to do)
If they track the actual transfer, they can get the almanac from young Biff with as little change as possible to the timeline
As for old Biff choosing THAT day, Doc thinks it could be a date of cosmic significance or just an incredible coincidence. But I personally think it was the day everything went all wrong in Biff's life, the day George McFly knocked him out and humiliated him in front of the school. That would explain why, with all the dates old Biff could've chosen, he picked THAT particular date.