Dr. Emmett Lathrop "Doc" Brown was the inventor of the DeLorean time machine. He was born in 1914, in Hill Valley, California to the German-born Judge Erhardt Brown (whose birth name was Erhardt Von Braun) and Sarah Lathrop. He usually had a pet dog – in 1955, his dog was named Copernicus after Nicolaus Copernicus, the third in a line of pets named after famous scientists, and by 1985 his dog was named Einstein after Albert Einstein. Doc's role models were scientists, as evidenced by the names of his dogs and the portraits of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein found in his laboratory (which were on his fireplace mantle in 1955).
Pre Universal Experiment HistoryEdit
On November 5, 1955, Doc came up with the idea of the flux capacitor (which is what made time travel possible) after slipping off his toilet while standing on it to hang a clock and hitting his head on the edge of the sink. Doc invented the brain-wave analyzer sometime before he created the flux capacitor, and tested it on Marty McFly the same day. The idea came to him in a vision he had after being knocked out. The time machine project suffered a setback on August 1, 1962 when Doc's mansion at 1640 Riverside Drive burnt down. After the fire, Doc moved into his former garage (which had been detached from the mansion and as such had survived the fire). There were rumors that he had deliberately burnt it down to claim the insurance money to fund the time machine. Whether or not that was the case, Doc still had to use up most of his family's fortune to fund the creation of his time machine. Doc moved to his garage and sold the rest of his estate to developers, but he was soon back on track. On May 23, 1983, he was commended and won an award for unspecified reasons.
When Marty was either 13 or 14, circa 1982, Emmett found that he had snuck into his laboratory. Seeing how Marty found him not to be the mad scientist that others were claiming, gave him a part-time job to look after the lab and feed his dog Einstein.
Doc finally finished installing his time machine into a DeLorean sports car in 1985, using plutonium to power it, and was killed by a group of Libyan terrorists who had given it to him. The Libyan deal was that they had wanted him to make them a nuclear bomb. Doc had made a fake (non-functioning) one out of used pinball machine parts and kept the plutonium for the time machine. Doc's overconfidence would prove to be his undoing as he said the Libyans were too dumb to discover they were duped. Presumably the Libyans attempted to detonate Doc's bomb for a terrorist act, and when it was a dud they realized the truth.
Fortunately, Marty, who had witnessed the first time travel experiment, was accidentally sent back to 1955, where he tried to warn the 1955 version of Doc about the terrorists. Over the course of the week, Doc posed at Marty's uncle and avoided any discussions with Marty about his own future. Just minutes before the Hill Valley Thunderstorm reached downtown on November 12, 1955, he came across the warning letter Marty had written him. Doc ripped it up just as lightning struck down a tree on top of the cable. Then Marty tried to shout it to Doc when he was on top of the tower but then the bell rang so Doc told him to get in the time machine. After a race to reconnect the cable, Doc successfully sent Marty back to the future by harnessing the energy from a bolt of lightning as it struck the Hill Valley Courthouse's clock tower at 10:04pm. Sometime after these events, Doc decided to take the risk, taped together Marty's warning letter and discovered the truth about that night in 1985. When 1985 rolled around again, Doc wore a bulletproof vest for protection.=
After dropping Marty home, Doc went 30 years into the future. While it is known that he visited October 21st, 2015, it is not known exactly how long or during which days he was there for.= While there, he got an "all natural overhaul" to his body which added 30 or 40 years to his life, and made him look younger. He also got the DeLorean hover-converted, and installed a "Mr. Fusion". The Mr. Fusion reactor eliminated the need for plutonium, and allowed the time machine to operate off of ordinary household garbage. Afterwards, Doc returned to 1985 to pick up Marty (and Jennifer, who happened to be there) to take them to 2015.
Changing the futureEdit
Doc had discovered that Marty's son, Marty Jr., was to go to jail for committing a crime by accompanying Griff Tannen, an event which would end up destroying the McFly family. Doc devised a plan for Marty to pose as Marty Jr (since the father-son resemblance was uncanny), as well as to prevent the crime from occurring. Unfortunately, Doc failed to realize that since he used the sleep inducer in Jennifer, there wasn't enough power to knock out Marty Jr. for a full hour, thus complicating the plan. Nonetheless, Marty is able to improvise, causing Griff and his gang to crash into the Hill Valley Courthouse. The changes to the timeline became apparent as the newspaper displaying tomorrow's article changed from Marty Jr.'s arrest to Griff's.
But as they prepared to go back to 1985, Doc then discovered that Marty had bought a sports almanac to take back to 1985 with him. Doc lectured Marty about abusing time travel for financial gain. But before he could adequately dispose the almanac, they spot two policewomen discovering an unconscious Jennifer. By analyzing her thumbprint, which doesn't change over the years, they simply assume her to be the Jennifer of 2015. Doc devises a plan to get Jennifer after she is dropped off at her future home. But he then feared that if she runs into her future self, then she'd either faint from shock or cause a paradox that would destroy the universe. Unknown to Doc or Marty, Biff Tannen overheard the conversation and later stole the DeLorean and the Almanac while Doc and Marty were rescuing the Jennifer from 1985 from the future McFly family house in Hilldale, an housing estate. As expected, when both Jennifers encountered each other, they both fainted of shock. As they carry the unconscious 1985 Jennifer back to the DeLorean, Doc declares that when they get back to 1985, he'll destroy the time machine, seeing as it's brought nothing but disaster and misfortune. That way, he can focus on the other mystery of the universe: women.
Doc, Marty, & Jennifer arrived back in 1985 only to discover that history had been altered. To make sense out of all the madness, Doc went to the local library, which was boarded up and shut down, and borrowed some newspapers. As he deduced, Biff had taken the time machine and given the sports almanac to his younger self somewhere in the past, who then became a millionaire by placing bets on the chronicled sporting events. As a result, Biff's wealth had led to a total alteration of Hill Valley to Biff's wishes and supposed alterations to the entire world's history (such as Richard Nixon still being in office and the Vietnam War still being fought in 1985). In this version of history, Doc has been committed to a psychiatric ward since 1983 (he was committed on the same day he won his award in the "proper" history). Assuming that this would also prevent Doc Brown from building the DeLorean Time Machine, this would also be an example of a Grandfather Paradox. Biff also married Marty's mother Lorraine in a sham marriage after Biff killed Marty's father George McFly, of which Biff was never convicted due to corruption in Hill Valley's police force (where Biff literally "owned" the police due to his wealth and/or powerful influence).
Doc perceived this alternate reality as proof how time travel can be abused and why the time machine had to be destroyed, after they corrected the timeline. Marty suggested that they go back to the future to stop 2015 Biff from stealing the time machine but Doc shot down that plan, for they'd only be going into the future of this reality. After Marty is able to discern that 2015 Biff went back to November 12, 1955, the same day he returned to 1985, Doc commented that date either has some cosmic significance for the whole time-space continuum or an amazing coincidence. Doc and Marty headed back to 1955 to correct the timeline, and while Marty tracked down Biff to get the almanac from him, Doc attempted to make repairs to the time circuits, which kept resetting the Destination Time setting to January 1, 1885. Doc also advised Marty to wait until old Biff gives his younger self the almanac so that he could go back to the future with the DeLorean. Unfortunately, Marty was locked in Biff's garage when Biff of 2015 gave 1955 Biff the almanac. Doc commandeered a bicycle to rescue him, only for Biff to leave for the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, with Marty still in the back of his car. While making his way back to the DeLorean, Doc came by his past self preparing for the past Marty's return to the future. He gave his younger self a few pointers before walking away to avoid being seen.=
Ultimately, Marty succeeded in retrieving the almanac. Doc then started the DeLorean to fly to his position. Marty called Doc over the walkie-talkie, stating that Biff's gang is about to jump his past self singing Johnny B. Goode. Doc advised Marty to covertly stop them otherwise his past self wouldn't make it to the clock tower, thereby resulting in a paradox. Marty successfully in protecting his younger self but lost the almanac to Biff as he was leaving the gym. Doc picked up Marty and stealthily tailed Biff as he was driving home. They are able to once again snatch the almanac before having Biff slammed into a manure truck for the second time. After that, Marty burned the almanac, setting history straight. However this success was quickly followed by Doc, in the DeLorean, being sent back to 1885 when a bolt of lightning struck the DeLorean. Once in 1885, Doc set himself up as a blacksmith while trying to fix the DeLorean, but had to give up as suitable parts to repair the DeLorean's destroyed microchip would not be invented until 1947 (this matches the real-life date of the invention of the transistor.)= He buried the DeLorean in the abandoned Delgado Mine on the outskirts of town and wrote a letter to Marty to be delivered just minutes after the DeLorean was struck by lightning. The letter was held by Western Union for the next 70 years, given to Marty in 1955.=
It also appears that Doc made other travels to different time periods before coming back for Marty in 1985 as he possessed a suitcase full of money for, as he called it, all monetary possibilities.
In the Old WestEdit
Marty received the letter and ran to 1955 Doc, who had just sent the younger Marty back to the future. Marty and Doc uncovered the DeLorean and repaired it, but Marty discovered that in 1885, Doc would be murdered by Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen, ancestor of Biff. Marty headed back to September 2, 1885, the day after Doc wrote the letter and five days before Doc's death, to save his friend (Doc, probably because of a slow ripple effect, is not aware of his impending death even when he had witnessed his own tombstone in a photograph in 1955). DocmartywestDoc and Marty in the Old West hear someone in trouble.
Marty located Doc, and once again Doc had to make repairs to the time machine after it ran out of gas (hard to come by in 1885)and accidentally blew out the DeLorean's fuel injector as a effect from using an unusually strong bottle of liquor from the Palace Saloon as a substitute for gas. While making a plan to use a train to push the DeLorean to 88 mph, Doc saved a woman, Clara Clayton, from falling over a ravine after a rattlesnake spooked her horses. They fell in love at first sight, much to the despair of Marty who saw Clara as a distraction. Doc and Clara danced at the town festival on September 5, where Marty managed to save Doc from being shot by Buford Tannen. Doc and Clara spent the rest of the night looking at the stars with her telescope and discovered that they both loved Jules Verne. They then had their first kiss that night.
Later, Doc realized he would have to leave Clara behind when he went back to the future with Marty on Monday. He said goodbye to her and told her the truth about where he came from. Naturally, she did not believe him and slapped him. Broken-hearted, Doc went to have a shot at the Palace Saloon, where Marty found him next morning (Monday) with the same shot. After drinking the shot, he immediately fell down drunk. Marty and Chester the bartender managed to revive Doc with an extremely spicy concoction called wake-up juice which included tabasco sauce, however it took until Buford Tannen arrived for his duel with Marty out in the streets.
Doc was taken hostage by Buford's gang after a failed plan to escape the saloon, however, Marty manages to save Doc from being killed just in time for the Marshal Strickland's deputy to arrest Buford and his gang, which caused the image on the photo of the tombstone to erase. Afterward, Doc and Marty hijacked ("borrowed", as Doc says) a train to use to push the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour. Clara reappeared, having seen everything and realized Doc was telling the truth, but nearly fell off the train. Doc managed to save her, with help from Marty's hoverboard (a piece of technology from 2015), but got left behind with Clara in 1885. Marty managed to get home, but the time machine was destroyed less than a minute after his arrival, meaning he could not go back to rescue Doc and Clara from the past.
Over the next 10 years, Doc and Clara married and had two sons, Jules and Verne, named after their favorite author. Doc also built a new time machine, this time using a steam locomotive. The Brown family took off to visit the future (to get the train hover converted) and then back to 1985 to visit Marty and Jennifer before heading off to times unknown. Doc's parting advice to them was "Your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one, both of you." Emmett Brown had come a long way from the time when he believed that "No man should know too much about his own destiny".