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back to the future - Why did Doc build the Time Train?


A thought just struck me that from Back to the Future II onwards, Doc was quite adamant of the need to destroy the DeLorean, not because it was a bad car or anything, but because the risk of time travel was too dangerous. Yet, at the end of Back to the Future III, we see Doc has created another time machine in the form of a train!


Why did Doc create another time machine after being set on destroying the DeLorean because of the dangers of time travel?



Answer




Although it's never really discussed in the movies, there's really one big event to convince him to destroy the DeLorean.


Namely, a bumbling aged idiot named Biff was able to figure out how to steal it and work it inside a day, destroying everything Doc had in the process. It's easy to use nature was it's danger - power like that never should have slipped out of Doc's hands.


I agree with comments and the answer from Charles that a quieter life and family gave him the distance and time to rethink it. He had really invented a wondrous thing - properly controlled, and kept safe in the right hands, it could be done right. My own thinking is that this led to his new design. It's a lot harder to steal a train, he had experience with that. We never see the inside of the thing, but I imagine a steampunkish design with physical locks that only he would know how to operate. It would be a far cry from a hop in and go vehicle that a car represents.


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