#i have no confidence that tumblr has fixed that bug yet (it's been MONTHS helppp)

[knickynoo]

Back to the Future: The Animated Series, s02ep02 “Put On Your Thinking Caps, Kids! It's Time For Mr. Wisdom!” Review and Commentary

Previous episodes linked here.

In this episode: Old college rivals, volcanoes, and game-show host Marty

Doc's transmission to us in this episode begins at the "Hill Valley Space Center and Air Sickness Clinic," where he's about to take a trip into outer space. The local cable company has recruited him to overhaul their communication satellite. Fancy job!

Doc is especially excited because the cable company has promised him free cable plus premium channels. He goes on to tell us that it isn't his first experience with broadcasting and leads us into the cartoon with, "It all started when Marty was studying for his astronomy class."

Let's see what wacky chain of events happened all because of Marty trying to study, shall we?

We open the cartoon with Marty riding his hoverboard to Doc's house. As usual, he isn't paying any attention to where he's going—on account of he's trying to study while he rides. He glances up just in time to realize that he's about to crash straight into Doc's garage door, which elicits this expression...

After flying into the garage, Doc shows him his new invention: M.A.R.I.E (Memory Archive Recall Indexer and Enhancer). It's a machine that helps the user to recall any memory.

Doc demonstrates, putting on a helmet and proceeding to look like he's being electrocuted. There's lots of zapping and flashing and thrashing, which happens so quickly that you can't really fully appreciate all the faces Doc makes unless you continuously go back through the scene and pause it. Which is what I did. Here are some highlights.

Ridiculous.

Marty needs help studying for his science test. Doc won't give him any answers, but he does tell Marty he's free to use the library in the house. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that Marty will end up using this new machine to enhance his memory. Hmm...

We go check in on Verne then, who is tuning in for his favorite show, Mr. Wisdom. Jules, who is also in the room, voices his disapproval of both Verne sitting so close to the TV and Mr. Wisdom, who he says is a "phony." Verne doesn't care, though, and becomes overjoyed when he learns that Mr. Wisdom is traveling around on his bus and will be visiting Hill Valley the following day. Marty says he wants to go too since he'd rather ask Mr. Wisdom his science questions instead of actually looking through books for the answers.

Doc enters the room and freaks out at seeing Mr. Wisdom on the screen, but we don't get a reason as to why.

The next day, Marty and Verne venture over to Lone Pine Mall to meet Mr. Wisdom. Marty is less than impressed when Mr. Wisdom appears on stage for all of 10 seconds before directing the audience full of children to the gift shop and then literally vanishing in a flash of smoke and light??

We soon learn that Mr. Wisdom isn't the fun, goofy show host that he appears to be. Back on his bus, he's calculating how much money he's gotten out of "those little twerps." A small child finds his way onto the bus to ask for an autograph, and Mr. Wisdom opens A TRAP DOOR that the kid falls into. He is not a nice guy. This is him, btw. (in his Mr. Wisdom form, at least. It's revealed that this is a mask he puts on)

Yeah, that looks like a guy who would use trapdoors to make children disappear.

Verne talks Marty into going onto the bus to meet Mr. Wisdom, where the man soon learns who Verne's father is. "Emmett Lathrop Brown?!" he exclaims, to which Marty reacts with amusement at learning Doc's middle name. (do you really expect me to believe that Marty wouldn't have known this already??)

Anyway, if there are two good things the animated series gave us, it's Doc and Marty's middle names. This also makes me think of that strange little "theory" that's been floating around since forever that claims Doc's first and middle names read backward is "time portal." Ttemme Porhtal. I mean. Lathrop could for sure be read as "portal" but it's a stretch with Emmett. Though, "time" spelled backward can be read as "emit."

I digress...

Mr. Wisdom says that Emmett is his dearest old friend and suggests he go home with the boys to surprise him. Let's see how that goes.

After being left alone in the garage, Mr. Wisdom does some snooping around and takes a look at some of Doc's inventions. He's particularly intrigued when he finds the DeLorean, saying, "Could it be? His old college dream? Oh, not a flux capacitor!" And I take issue with this line because didn't Doc only come up with the flux capacitor that night he hit his head? This cartoon just does whatever it wants, though, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Doc isn't happy in the slightest to find his old college acquaintance in his house and runs him right out. When Marty and Verne question what the problem is, Doc tells them the story involves a long flashback, which we then go into. It all starts at the college Doc attended.

What a great name for a college.

Doc and Mr. Wisdom, whose real name is Walter, were roommates and frat brothers apparently. Here they are in happier times:

They're preparing for a science convention, and it becomes clear right away that Walter is jealous of Doc's inventions and his intelligence. When the day of the award ceremony comes, Walter wins after having stolen Doc's invention—the perpetual motion hula hoop. From there, Walter went on to sign a deal with a toy company, became wealthy, and was given his own science show. Doc finishes telling his tale with tears in his eyes (he's cutting onions while he tells it, lol).

Later that night, Walter Wisdom sneaks into Doc's lab to steal some of his inventions. Doc, Jules, and Verne wake up just in time to see the DeLorean speed off, and they manage to get a look at the date and location on the time circuits by using a specialized camera. His destination is ancient Egypt. Doc gathers the boys (including Marty, who had still been at the house trying to study) and they take off after Walter. Their excursion to Egypt lasts all of 30 seconds, though, as Walter changes course and programs the car to go to Krakatoa in 1883. Doc shoots out a rope and plunger-type device from the train that connects to the DeLorean, so they get pulled right along to the next time period. Once there, Walter flies the car over a volcano and cuts the rope, sending the train hurtling toward doom.

The train is immediately swallowed by lava. Goodbye Doc, Marty, Jules, and Verne. It's been real.

Meanwhile, back in the present day, Clara has woken up and is wondering where everyone is. She catches a broadcast that Mr. Wisdom is doing where he's advertising his new invention: a DeLorean time machine. Thankfully, his evil plans are crushed before anything can come of his little late-night commercial when Doc and the gang walk onto his stage. Yes, they're alive! And they look like this!

Doc just happened to have several of his "full-body oven mitts" on board the train, which protected them all from the lava. (I would very much like to know why Doc didn't just invent. Like. Regular looking suits that protect against fire. In what world is this a practical design? But it is very funny.)

Things continue to get even wackier when—after Walter and Doc argue for a bit over who's the "real" inventor—Marty proposes they settle it via an impromptu game show. ???? I guess to prove to the audience watching at home that Walter is a liar and thief?

So. Yeah, they throw together a whole elaborate game show with lights and flashing signs and such. They bring out each of the inventions Walter has stolen and challenge him to explain them, and when he can't, the points go to Doc. Marty's the host. It's all extremely silly.

I do like that Doc and his sons have matching pajamas. (But I must point out that only Doc was wearing them when they embarked on their journey in the train a few scenes prior. Jules had on a beige colored night-shirt, and Verne was wearing red pjs. So...this seems like an error. Which is par for the course for this show; there are SO many mistakes that I catch.)

The game show shenanigans come to an end when Walter attempts to use M.A.R.I.E. and fails to use the correct settings, causing him to have his memory wiped. Doc and the boys head home, and all is well.

We end the episode with Doc in outer space, where he's busy fixing the satellite. There isn't much interesting there, though. And that's it! Not a fan of this episode, to be honest. It was VERY disjointed, and all the action was rushed. It felt more like this should have been a two-parter, and they just squeezed everything into a single episode where the end chase scene and weird game show was made to fit into like...3 minutes total toward the end. We don't even get to see the volcano stuff. We just see the car fly into it, then it's a swift cut to the Mr. Wisdom TV segment, where Doc and the boys appear a few seconds later wearing the oven mitts. This might have had the potential to be an interesting episode if it had been split in two, and we got to see more chaos unfold.

After the last episode where Doc was put into that tiny jar, I just don't think anything else this show does will satisfy me.

Join me next time to meet Biff's son, Jennifer's grandparents, and. I dunno. The Futurepedia summary for it is long and convoluted, and I don't want to read it, lol.