My mother and I had just watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure together. I've personally enjoyed the movie, and I really enjoy the characters of Bill and Ted.

However, I got to thinking that maybe Doc Brown wouldn't enjoy the movie as much - simply because Bill and Ted have practically broken all the rules of time travel that Doc has laid out. I mean, they weren't especially inconspicuous about the fact that they were time travellers - and they were also interfering with important historical events (and dragging the historical figures into the future, no less). Don't get me wrong. I'm not criticizing the movie. I'm just saying that those are the problems that Doc might have with the movie.

The rules of time travel seem to work basically the same way in Time After Time, except that the machine appears not not come with you. So I'm not sure what would happen, if one tried to travel back to a time befoe the machine was invented. He did kind of boast about his time machine to all his buddies - but I think he quickly learned the dangers of that, when Jack the Ripper managed to show up in the future. That movie also seems to operate on the premise of a fixed timeline (a timeline that can't be changed).

Anyway, what are your thoughts about these movies - and how they compare to Back to the Future?

Of course, Time After Time and Bill and Ted make it a point to show you the process of travelling from one time to another - while Back to the Future basically cuts out the "middle man", so to speak, and has the time travel process be instantanious.