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At the end of Back to the Future (part I) Doc appears on the time machine right near the Marty's house and tells Marty to go with him rescue his kids. They also took Jennifer with them. However when Doc uses sleep inducer on Jennifer in Back to the Future Part II Marty asks what they brought her for. Doc answers that she saw the time machine and he could not leave her with that information.

Does it make sense for Doc to appear at the front of Marty's house at all? How did he know that specifically at that moment there would be nobody on the street apart from Marty? What if there were Marty's parents, siblings, Biff or even dozens of neighbors to witness the flying DeLorean? Doc could have appeared at the lake where there are likely less people.

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    Unfortunately, I doubt you're not going to find an in-universe answer to this one. Bob Gale has specifically mentioned that they never intended to continue the saga after the first movie, and that it was just a fun, silly way to end the movie. Even the "...to be continued" title that we all remember at the end was only added for the home video release (and removed from the DVD release)
    – Quasi_Stomach
    May 23, 2017 at 20:17
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    Obviously Doc was in too much of a rush to think of that. They barely had enough time to stop that thing that happened thirty years in the future.
    – DaaaahWhoosh
    May 23, 2017 at 20:23
  • Where to rush? He had a time machine and could choose any destination time he wanted. Even after Marty's kids were arrested Doc could take his time and plan everything without hurry knowing that the history can be easily changed.
    – user2513149
    May 23, 2017 at 20:27
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    @user2513149 I think DaaaahWhoosh's response was meant as a joke.
    – Quasi_Stomach
    May 23, 2017 at 21:04
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    Doc was suffering from the side effect of his rejuvenation therapy which includes bad decision making (they changed his blood for young blood full of youth hormones)
    – revenant
    May 24, 2017 at 4:55

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From a common sense perspective, Doc was never one who set out to make any significant changes to the timeline. If he were to appear in the sky over Marty's house and fly around and land in Marty's driveway, or was driving around 1985 in a Delorian that looked like a time machine... he would have brought a lot of attention to himself. So he does what he feels is the most inconspicuous way to go and get Marty. Starting in 2015, he drives down Marty's street accelerating to 88mph and then swerves into his driveway after appearing in 1985. Yes he had no way of knowing if anyone was standing right there and would see him, but the odds were pretty good that they wouldn't.

After he retrieves Marty (and Jennifer because she saw him), he takes a quick look around and doesn't see "dozens of neighbors to witness the flying Delorean" so he decides to fly back to the future. Unfortunately, Biff was in the garage and saw them fly away.

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  • But in Back To The Future Part 3, 1955 Doc takes Marty and the DeLorean out of town to a drive-in movie theatre in case, on arriving in 1885, Marty crashed into a tree or something. Driving along Marty's street when travelling from 2015 to 1985 was risky in case another car was coming up the street at that moment and Doc crashed into it. From that point of view, it would have been safer to make the time jump in the sky where he wouldn't risk hitting anything apart from maybe a passing bird.
    – Wallnut
    Jun 27, 2018 at 9:37

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