🕒 Back to the Future 40 Years
As we approach Back to the Future Day in the year 2025, we ask the age-old question — what if we could stop time, or go back? Perhaps what we’re really doing is using our imagination, just as I did as a teenager watching the movie 40 years ago in 1985.
The Beginning of a Lifelong Fascination
My love of movies began back in the 1970s. I was fascinated by the voices, the characters, and the stories that could transport me for two hours at a time. Around that same period, a TV comedy called Taxi caught my attention — particularly an actor named Christopher Lloyd.
Lloyd influenced me like few others. His portrayal of Jim Ignatowski in Taxi sparked something in me. Acting — and especially voice acting — became a dream when I was around 12 years old. Maybe it was because I missed a lot of school due to kidney problems that began two years earlier. Or maybe I was just wired differently. Either way, I knew that performing was something I wanted to do. (And I’ll admit — having a crush on Marilu Henner helped keep me tune in!)
The Role That Changed Everything
Of course, Christopher Lloyd would go on to play Doc Brown in Back to the Future. What you might not know is that he was one of several actors considered for the role.
According to a casting sheet dated August 21st, 1984, names like Jeff Goldblum, John Cleese, James Woods, and Gene Hackman were also ticked for “The Scientist” — the character that would later become Dr. Emmett L. Brown.
My Own Second Chance at Time
Ten years after the movie’s release, I had my own “second chance.”
In 1994, I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. My childhood health problems had returned, just as one of my doctors — Professor John Walls — had predicted. He once told me that kidney failure could strike by age 28. It happened two years earlier, and I began dialysis on my 27th birthday.
Fast forward to December 5th, 1995 — the day I received the call every kidney patient hopes for. My transplant had come through, and it couldn’t have arrived at a better time. During recovery, my local Blockbuster became a second home. One of the first tapes I rented? Back to the Future, of course — 10 years after seeing it on the big screen.
Time Flies — and So Does 2015
The year 2015 — the future from Back to the Future Part II — came and went. For me, it marked 20 years since my transplant. I’d always treated my kidney with respect, mindful of the gift from my donor. Now, as I approach 30 years post-transplant, I realise just how lucky I’ve been.
The Time Circuits Are Reborn
So, how could I mark this milestone in my own way?
The answer came through my lifelong impression of Doc Brown — a voice I’ve been doing for nearly 40 years. That voice has now found a home in my new project: Doc Smith’s Time Circuits, a talking time display plugin. It’s my fun tribute to Doc Brown, but with my real surname — Smith — woven in.
The plugin tells the time — precisely on schedule, of course — and lets you set any date you want. It’s a simple concept that invites creativity and imagination.
As a quote often (wrongly) attributed to Albert Einstein says:
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
Whether that’s true or not, I like to think it captures something important — that being creative or different doesn’t need a label. Maybe it’s time to just accept that we’re all unique, in our own timelines.
Have a great day — and I’ll see you in the future.
Thanks for reading about my past.
— Stuart Smudge
