This is my least favorite episode in the trilogy. This plot is incredibly more complex than the ones in the other two films. We bounce around to three different time periods, plus we land into an additional one that offers a dark alternative reality. Yikes! A lot happens here. Pay attention.

You have homework. You DO have to watch the first episode before this one. You have to understand Doc Brown's time travel technology. You have to see Marty McFly go back to 1955 and then successfully return to 1985. You have to know his parents' backstory, before you move on to this episode. Here, for the most part, the producers, the writer and the director all assume we are smart enough to remember scenes from the first movie and can recognize the import of what's going on. They give us visual reminders, as needed. The whole production is almost like a reoccurring dream for us. Maybe it feels this way for the characters, too.

Before we look at the story, let's first consider the two major cast changes. Both are rather bothersome for viewers who like and expect consistency. First, Elisabeth Shue plays Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, instead of Claudia Wells. They have somewhat similar hairstyles, but still, we can immediately tell the difference. The greater loss is that Crispin Glover no longer serves in the role of Marty's father, George McFly. Off camera, he was engaged in a salary dispute with the company and was not hired back. To compensate for the loss, the film includes glimpses of him from footage of the previous film. And when George McFly appears in a new scene, in 2015, he is played by Jeffrey Weissman and is shown at such an odd angle that folks might temporarily assume it's Crispin. But the voice gives away the truth.

The story begins in the year 1985, as it mirrors the last scene of Back to the Future. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd) returns from the year 2015 in his Delorean time machine and insists that Marty (Michael J. Fox) and Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) join him in a trip back to the future. Their kids are in trouble, he says, and they have to help prevent something bad from happening. Off they go! And yet, of course, solving one problem leads to affecting other situations. After all, we have to protect the sanctity of the space-time continuum. The characters bounce among the years 2015, 1985 and 1955. At one point, once something is resolved, they go back to what they THINK is 1985 ... but it's a dark and scary version. Something has happened to turn 1985 into an alternate reality. And the change is all because of that continuous and annoying bully, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson). Can Doc and Marty untangle this terrible mess and set everything right? Can Marty yet again return to his adolescent life in Hill Valley in 1985?

The main cast members are called upon to play their own characters, across multiple timelines. Lea Thompson, for instance, is Lorraine Baines in 1955, Lorraine McFly in 1985 and 2015, and someone else entirely in the alternate version of 1985. Fox has to additionally portray Marty's son and daughter in the future. Wilson also plays Biff's future grandson, Griff.

Ironically, some of the futuristic items shown for 2015 have indeed come to fruition. The Weather Channel is one of them. Certain baseball teams and championships have been nearly well predicted, too. Other expectations fall flat. Revelations that were funny to us as an audience in 1989, may be all too true or too unrealistic in 2026. We react differently to them now.

Doc does a great job of diagramming a blackboard explanation of the appearance of the alternate reality. It immediately came to my mind in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The parallels are remarkable. The biggest bully in town gains power, and the whole place goes to hell in a hand basket, resulting in a dark time of lies, crime and corruption. I kept wondering: Who came back from the future to 2016 to cause this calamity (and its successive ones) to happen? How can we remedy the situation? Where is our Doc Brown, who can figure out the point of contact and can devise a plan to adjust the outcome? Where is our Marty McFly, who can race back to 2016 to interact with and disable the culprit, to save us from this dark path? The 2024 election has made the situation even worse. It turns out that we are the ones who can save ourselves. Maybe I resist watching this episode because the "alternate" reality is too close to our actual one.

Screenwriter Bob Gale DID tell an interviewer from The Guardian in 2015 that the character of Biff was based on Donald Trump. And he made the statement before the guy took office. Art resembles life, and life resembles art.

The final scene of Part II leaves us hanging even more than the first part did. Previews from Part III are included, before the closing credits show up. The filmmakers want to keep you engaged by showing you how much fun and action-packed the third episode will be. Was THIS one fun? Hmm. "Fun" is not the first word that comes to my mind.

If you want the full Back to the Future experience, you can watch all three episodes, back to back. If you merely want good and solid entertainment, choose either the first part or the third part, or both. You really have to pay close attention to this second one. And believing that the projected year of 2015 is in the future, when you're watching from the year 2026, really commands a stretch of imagination. This second episode could have been done differently.