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Back to the Past

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Revision as of 22:48, 14 June 2025 by >SmuckAmuck (→General)

Template:Reference-needed

If you were looking for the article about the Japanese DVD, then see Back to the Past (DVD).

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Characters

Synopsis

File:Time Machine (device).png
The time travel machine.

In the beginning of the episode, SpongeBob and Patrick are strolling through Bikini Bottom and see Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy in the invisible boatmobile, without gas. Offscreen, SpongeBob and Patrick push the boat over several hills. As a reward, Barnacle Boy invites them into their warehouse full of memorabilia from their T.V. show so long as they don't touch anything. Barnacle Boy shows them a time machine that they have never used and warns them not to use it because they could mess up the timeline.

Almost immediately Patrick mistakes it for a vending machine, and all of them are transported to 1954 when Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy were young. The heroes scold Patrick for his actions and travel the area, due to his stupidity. They see Man Ray tormenting old Bikini Bottom. Past Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are unsuccessful at foiling Man Ray due to Patrick eating the tartar sauce of his dumbness they were originally going to trap him in.

SpongeBob and Patrick escape old Bikini Bottom, leaving their Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy behind. When SpongeBob and Patrick return to Bikini Bottom, it is no longer called Bikini Bottom, but Man-Ray-opolis. They go to the Krusty Krab which is now called "The Designated Area Where You Are Permitted by Man Ray, Your Ruler, to Obtain Sandwiches Using Man Ray Dollars."

File:Back to the Past 148.png
The designated area where you are permitted by Man Ray, your ruler, to obtain sandwiches using Man Ray dollars.

The superheroes from their time are now dead and buried inside the restaurant while the past superheroes now work there. Mermaid Man is the fry cook, SpongeBob's position, and Barnacle Boy is the cashier, Template:Data:Links's position. Realizing that they created an alternate timeline by preventing Man Ray's defeat, they go back to stop Patrick from eating the tartar sauce, but the heroes who were sent by accident believe they are impostors. The Mermaid Men fight which creates the perfect distraction for Man Ray. The young Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy attempt to foil Man Ray with the tartar sauce, but the two Patricks end up eating it. Another warehouse appears.

SpongeBob and Patrick from a different time period emerge from the warehouse screaming "Patrick, don't eat the tartar sauce!" Another warehouse appears above Man Ray and outfall SpongeBob and Patrick. Yet another one appears with SpongeBob saying to Patrick "I told you we had to go back further!"

Another one pops to Man Ray's left with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy leaping out of it exclaiming, "Up, up and away!". They both fall headfirst into the ground. Another one appears above the previous warehouse with the superheroes. SpongeBob and Patrick appear and throw a batch of tartar sauce over the fallen superheroes from the previous warehouse.

File:Back to the Past 300.png
It's a world of warehouses!

Another one appears next to the pair of warehouses. Man Ray flies out of it, destroys it, says, "I took care of your blasted time machine!" and leaves. All of the warehouses appearing in random locations confuses Man Ray. Man Ray sits down on a log and thinks about what is happening, but gets arrested by the superheroes. Then all of a sudden, many warehouses appear all over the planet, all of them containing multiple copies of SpongeBob and Patrick revisiting the day that evil was defeated for good.

Production

This episode was added to the US Copyright Office on December 30, 2009,[1] along with its sister episode "The Bad Guy Club for Villains."

Episode outline

  • Posted by and outline doodles by Vincent Waller on his "Incoherent-Thought" blog, outlined by Dani Micheli.[2]

Art

Model sheets

Music

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Release

Distribution

Trivia

General

  • This and "The Bad Guy Club for Villains" are the first episodes to use the 2009 Nickelodeon logo in the end credits.
  • The title card of this episode is similar to those of "Nasty Patty" and "Patty Caper."
  • In this episode, Barnacle Boy refers to the Invisible Boatmobile as "The Invisiboat."
  • This episode uses the Butterfly effect concept. A theory where changing one or more things in the past changes the present in a big way.
  • Just like "Shanghaied," "Feral Friends," "Squirrel Jelly," "Swamp Mates," "Handemonium," "Krusty Koncessionaires," "Squidferatu," and "Dopey Dick," this episode is longer than 11 minutes but shorter than 22 minutes.
    • Because of this, the sister episode is eight minutes long.
    • This is the first episode since "Shanghaied" to be a 15-minute extended standard episode.
  • When tons of objects fall down on Mermaid Man, Man Ray's head is visible and can be seen falling down on Mermaid Man's.
  • This episode's credits can be seen near the end of its sister episode on the TV screen.
  • In New Zealand, this episode was advertised as "Out of Time."[citation needed]
  • SpongeBob mentions the episode title when he says: "Back to the past, gents!"
  • This is the third episode to have time traveling. The first is "SB-129," and the second is "Dunces and Dragons."
  • This episode heavily uses the butterfly effect during the time-traveling scenes since changing one thing from the past affects the outcome of the present.
  • This is the only episode to feature Squilliam without Squidward and overall his last appearance in general, not counting his cameo in "Code Yellow" in season 10 (as that was just his head appearing as a nose and not the character himself).
  • During the Mermaid Man-a-Thon, this episode paired up with "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture."
  • In 2012, Jay Lender was asked in a Reddit AMA what he thought of the newer seasons of SpongeBob, saying that he hadn't seen much of the new episodes, but saw this episode one day and said it "had [him] ROLLING," being jealous.[3]

Dub facts

Episode references

  • The original past when Man Ray is brought to justice via tartar sauce is a reference to "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III," where Man Ray is shown to be entombed in frozen tartar sauce.

Cultural references

  • The title of this episode is a reference to the 1985 franchise film, Back to the Future.
    • Another reference to Back to the Future is that SpongeBob and Patrick time travel to 1954, while Marty McFly traveled to 1955.
  • The scene where SpongeBob and Patrick are walking pass by a poster of Man Ray that reads "I am watching you" is a reference to the phrase from George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel, 1984, "Big Brother is watching you."
  • Young Mermaid Man and young Barnacle Boy are voiced by Adam West and Burt Ward, respectively. This is a reference to the two actors playing Batman and Robin in the 1966 live-action Batman series.

Errors

File:Back to the Past 122.png
The clocks are going backwards.
  • When SpongeBob and Patrick are traveling back to the present, the clocks are moving backwards instead of forwards.
  • Near the end, SpongeBob's body color is a lot darker than normal.


Videos

Names in other languages

Language Name Meaning
French Retour dans le passé Back to the Past
German Früher war Früher früher In the Past, was in the Past
Italian Ritorno al passato Return to the Past
Russian Назад в прошлое
Nazad v proshloye		 Back to the Past
Spanish (American) Regreso al pasado Return to the Past
Spanish (European) Vuelta al pasado Back to the Past

References

  1. ↑ Spongebob Squarepants : 135, Back to the Past; The Bad Guy Club for Villains. - United States Copyright Office
  2. ↑ Premise Outline - Welcome to Incoherent-Thought
  3. ↑ Jay Lender on Reddit - "I haven't seen much of the new..."

Template:Mermaid Man es:Regreso al Pasado pl:Podróż w czasie pt-br:De Volta ao Passado ru:Назад в прошлое zh:时空大乱

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