SYNOPSIS: With Jennifer at her grandmother's, Doc decides
to get Marty's mind off of her by taking him back to 1957
Liverpool, England with him. While sightseeing the birthplace of
the Beatles, Marty runs into his future mother, Lorraine. She's
spending the summer there studying as an exchange student. She's
also there to get her mind off of George of whom she had a fight
with before leaving. Realizing that this is the time she's most
vulnerable, Marty runs to the nearest parish in which there's
been a jazz festival. Seeing some sheet music and a guitar, Marty
picks them up and starts performing. Then, Doc finds him and
takes him back to the future with him. But when they arrive, they
discover that rock-and-roll had long since died out. What was
worse, the war in Vietnam has still been going on. There was
more, negotiations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have
been far apart and are readying themselves for a full-scale
nuclear attack. Then, Doc discovers that an alternate reality
version of him is dying of radiation poisoning from his trip to
the year 2015-29 years after the world was destroyed by a nuclear
holocaust which is going to take place in a matter of hours.
After some research, Doc and Marty discover that the Beatles, the
band that revolutionized rock-and-roll and had an influence on
just about everything, had never existed. Marty recalls his trip
to 1957 and realized that he might've interferred with the
Beatles coming together. Just then, both sides had started
launching their nukes. Doc and Marty leave 1986 just in the nick
of time. Arriving back in 1957, Marty encounter John Lennon who
accuses him of stealing his act. Apparently, the music that Marty
was performing at the festival was his. Marty gets John to
perform with new songs using material written and performed by
the likes of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry. John gets the hang of
it and is ready to perform. However, he also decides to get drunk
and passes out. Knowing that earth's future depends on John
Lennon getting up there to perform, Doc and Marty take him back
to 1896 one day after Doc and his family left for the twentieth
century to live there. Hoping to get the formula of that wake-up
juice, Doc sips some whiskey and passes out. While the bartender
is brewing up the juice, Marty takes down notes for the formula.
Meanwhile, word has gotten out that Buford Tannen has escaped and
is in Hill Valley. He kidnaps John Lennon and threatens to kill
him unless Clint Eastwood arrives.
BACKGROUND: When I began liking Back to the Future™,
it was with the Beatles in mind. For those of you who had read
"Time Travel to a Hard Day's Night" last year, you knew
that it was originally called "Back to the Future™ pt
IV", or my version of it. Now, I had some criticism about
using the Beatles for that particular story or even suggesting
that they should be it. (Mainly because they were known as the
Fab Four and it would've been an honor to have them in BTTF IV
mainly because it's the fourth installment.) Some fellow BTTF
fans said that Back to the Future™ and the Beatles
don't mix. Well, that's bull. For one thing, Huey Lewis and the
News wouldn't have existed had it not for the Beatles. And the
same could be said for Journey, Aerosmith, AC-DC, and Led
Zeppelin. According the synopsis of this current story, the
Beatles did revolutionize rock-and-roll, just as Star Trek ™
revolutionized science fiction on television, Star Wars™
the same in the theatres and Back to the Future™
revolutionized time travel movies. When the Beatles made their
first appearance, rock-and-roll was on the decline. Elvis Presley
went into the army, Chuck Berry was arrested for violating the
Mann Act, Jerry Lee Lewis was involved in a scandal in which not
only that he married a 15-year-old girl who turned out to be his
cousin, but failed to divorce his previous wife, and three
pominent rock singers: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big
Bopper were killed in a plane crash. When the Beatles arrived in
America, the country was going through a sad time. John F.
Kennedy was assassinated over two months earlier and the nation
needed a pick-me-upper. The Beatles were just that. With their
style of rock-and-roll came the 60's. Their songs "She Loves
You", "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", "Can't Buy Me
Love", "Ticket to Ride", "Yellow
Submarine", "Strawberry Fields", "Sgt.
Peppers", "All You Need is Love", and "Hey
Jude" set the stage for what was to come.
