Forum: Author Hangout

Do time errors in Back-in-Time stories bother you?

Switch Blayde 🚫

Are you a nitpicker? (saying it in a jesting tone)

When you read a Back-in-Time story, do time errors bother you? If so, you may want to hear what Michael J. Fox says in his memoir about one that he still gets complaints about in the movie "Back to the Future."

The error is in the iconic scene in which Fox's time-traveling teenager Marty McFly fills in for the injured guitarist in a 1955 prom band and launches into rocking renditions of "Earth Angel" and "Johnny B. Goode."

To play "Johnny B. Goode," Marty borrowed Chuck Berry's cousin's (Marvin Berry) Gibson ES-345, a guitar first introduced in 1958 - three years after the 1955 scene in the movie. Fox explains, calling the goof "a temporal inconsistency that guitar aficionados and Back to the Future fans have pointed out again and again."

Guitar heads and Future devotees alike have taken note of the production flub, even pointing out that like the ES-345, Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" wouldn't be released until 1958. It would track that Marty knows the tune, coming from 1985, but how would his 1955 backing band know to accompany him on a song that wasn't yet written?

So do those time errors in the movie make the scene less great? Something to think about when reading a Back-in-Time story.

Replies: jimq2 TheDarkKnight AmigaClone Mushroom irvmull upper Cheshire_Writer richardshagrin

jimq2 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Or how about the "Lawrence of Arabia" film that came out in the 60's, where a contemporary airliner made it past editing to appear in a scene supposedly pre-1920.

Replies: Pixy

Pixy 🚫

@jimq2

Or in pretty much all the harbour scenes in Dunkirk, where modern hydraulic quayside cranes can be seen...

TheDarkKnight 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Unless it creates a plot hole, I don't worry about it. Kinda fun to spot them though.

AmigaClone 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

So do those time errors in the movie make the scene less great? Something to think about when reading a Back-in-Time story.

If I notice any 'time errors' my first thought is - 'This is not set in our universe'.

The only time I might have an issue would be if there are internal inconsistencies or plot holes.

Mushroom 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Mostly it bothers me when anachronisms appear in them.

Like using words and phrases that did not exist then, or even worse technologies. Little things like a continuity goof (wristwatch in "Gladiator") really do not bother me as much.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Mushroom

(wristwatch in "Gladiator")

There was a wristwatch in "Gladiator"? I usually catch those things to the point my wife finds it annoying (she says, "Just watch the movie"), but I never caught that one.

irvmull 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

Would Sherlock and Dr. Watson calling for a Uber bother a reader?

If not, that reader is severely lacking in education.

Replies: Diamond Porter AmigaClone

Diamond Porter 🚫

@irvmull

I can imagine a spoof where they are walking around Victorian London, and Holmes occasionally says things like, "Watson, please phone for an Uber," or "please Google strychnine," and Watson has to keep pulling out a mobile phone to do so. One or two glaring anachronisms per minute.

I am fond of the idea of having horse-drawn carriages blocked by a Tesla cybertruck with a dead battery and the nearest place to recharge more than 100 years in the future.

Replies: Switch Blayde Grey Wolf

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Diamond Porter

I can imagine a spoof

How about passengers of a stagecoach in the Old West screaming at the guy riding shotgun when they realize there's no driver. The guy responds, "Don't worry, these horses are trained. This is a self-driving stagecoach."

Replies: irvmull

irvmull 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

Hey, there's more than one story on SOL about a cowboy's horse or mule taking him home on "autopilot".

Due to aforesaid cowperson being shot, or having taken too many shots of Ye Olde Rotgut.

Replies: Switch Blayde

Switch Blayde 🚫

@irvmull

Hey, there's more than one story on SOL about a cowboy's horse or mule taking him home on "autopilot".

I think in my novel "The Breeder" the MC gets onto his horse drunk and the horse takes him to his girlfriend's cabin. He slips off the horse and she finds him sleeping on the ground the next morning.

Grey Wolf 🚫

@Diamond Porter

This sent me on a tangent - a Sherlock Holmes story set in modern times but with the original dialog. Possible? Who knows?

I'm using Baz Luhrmann's R+J as the template. Romeo and Juliet set in the modern world, using the original dialog, but sometimes with clever switches (for instance, a visual showing you that they are referring to pistols as 'swords').

AmigaClone 🚫

@irvmull

Would Sherlock and Dr. Watson calling for a Uber bother a reader?

If not, that reader is severely lacking in education.

That might be the case - unless the story was set in the 22nd Century (See Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century).

Replies: jimq2

jimq2 🚫

@AmigaClone

Or the one that was set in contemporary NYC, "Elementary," with Lucy Liu.

upper 🚫
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@Switch Blayde

For me, it depends on the level of detail. If the author goes out of their way to include details, then the details need to be right. But if they gloss over things, implicitly saying "don't look at this too closely", I'll go with the flow. That's true for just about any factual issue, not just anachronisms.

It might be harder in film, where Fox has to have a specific guitar in his hands on the set. In text, you can have "an electric guitar" with no further description.

(BTW, the other musicians don't know the song. IIRC Marty gives them a short description of what he wants, and they improvise from there. IMO, some musicians could probably pull it off.)

Replies: Dominions Son Cheshire_Writer

Dominions Son 🚫

@upper

For me, it depends on the level of detail. If the author goes out of their way to include details, then the details need to be right.

For me it will also depend on the nature of the story. If it's a straight real world period piece, details given need to be right. But if it's explicitly and alternate history or something like that, as long as the details are internally consistent in the story I will give the author more leeway.

Cheshire_Writer 🚫

@upper

with how song structure goes, and the fact there is a guy on youtube selling a class to learn to play over 400 songs simply by learning a specific sequence of 4 chords played continously.... yeah its more then doable.

Replies: irvmull

irvmull 🚫

@Cheshire_Writer

"12-bar blues in B-flat" is enough for a musician to pick up and run with.

Cheshire_Writer 🚫

@Switch Blayde

The problem exists in more then back in time stories.

Was recently reading a spy story on here, it been around a few years, the 3rd part is in progress, the story spans from reagans 2nd year off office onwards.

However in the 1st one, set in 1985, the main character is comparing the computer voice of an answering machine to the voice of his Alexa device...

Lots of other things like that, sure the story is obviously AI generated. Netflix was talked about I think in the 1989 portion.

richardshagrin 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Bomber numbers

THERE Are at least two numbers I do not expect ever to see. B4 looks too much like 'before" and B9 could be "benign".

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Forum: Author Hangout

Do time errors in Back-in-Time stories bother you?

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