Back to the Future

Back to the Future was a popular 1980s film trilogy about time travel. A novelisation was made from the first film.

After being sent back to the 1st century BC, Ibrahim Hadmani said that the only things that he knew about time travel, he learned from Back to the Future and The Terminator. (PROSE: The Last Pharaoh)

In 1599, the first Back to the Future film was mentioned by the Tenth Doctor to help explain the mechanics of time travel to companion Martha Jones. Martha didn't see any threat from the Carrionites because she knew that the world didn't end in 1599. However, the Tenth Doctor referenced this movie when he told her about how Marty McFly, after he travelled back in time, did something that almost erased him from existence in the present. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)

When Cristián Alvarez contacted the Seventh Doctor by leaving a letter with UNIT to be passed on to him, Bernice Summerfield noted that it was just like in Back to the Future. (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird)

In 1983, Joel Mintz (who was from the year 1993) compared himself to Marty McFly in that all new TV shows were reruns to him. (PROSE: Return of the Living Dad)

D.I. Patricia Menzies had seen the film prior to 2008, which allowed her to grasp the fundamentals of time travel. (AUDIO: The Raincloud Man)

While the Eleventh Doctor was explaining his plan to return Mark Whitaker to 2011, he told Mark that he was here "to take you back... to the future!" He then added that he had "always wanted to say that." (PROSE: Touched by an Angel)

Paul was a fan of the film. (PROSE: The Sooner the Better)

In the 25th century, Stewart Ransom became a fan of Western films, particularly Back to the Future Part III, which influenced his decision to establish the technological limits of the Independent Earth Colony on Axista Four to the Western period as part of his dedication to the 'Back to Basics' program. The Second Doctor claimed that the second film in the trilogy, Back to the Future Part II, was better. (PROSE: The Colony of Lies)

Possible allusions

 * In Blink, there was an allusion to Back to the Future Part II, as someone was told to give a letter to Sally Sparrow at a specific date and time, no earlier, no later. This relates to how Doc Brown sent Marty a letter at the conclusion of Back to the Future Part II.
 * Peri Brown and Erimem use the same method to get letters to the Fifth Doctor in The Kingmaker. Peri notes that she got the idea from a film. If she is referring to Back to the Future Part II, she must have seen the film during her travels with the Doctor as it was not released until five years after her native time.
 * The TARDIS drawing room has numerous clocks similar to the garage of Emmett Brown at the beginning of Back to the Future. (GAME: TARDIS)
 * The Scorpion King mentions that the Doctor's TARDIS has a flux capacitor. (AUDIO: The Boy That Time Forgot)
 * In Face the Raven, there is a poster on a wall in the trap street which displays something closely resembling a flux capacitor. There is writing next to it in Aurebesh, the alphabet prominently used in the Star Wars franchise, which spells out "Delorean" - the model of car central to the plot of Back to the Future.
 * In Back to the Future: Part III, Doc Brown breaks his own rules of interfering with fixed points in time, to save the life of the woman who would become his best friend and love, the schoolteacher Clara Clayton. This storyline is in many respects similar to the Twelfth Doctor's rescue of Clara Oswald. (TV: Hell Bent)

Invalid sources
The website whoisdoctorwho.co.uk had a list of sightings of the Doctor from which people had ostensibly been submitting to Clive Finch, a conspiracy theorist character from Rose. In actuality, the submissions were from visitors to the website; one such submission, credited to "Marty McFly," simply reads: "I know that man, he stole my DeLorean!!!" The 2015 cross over game Lego Dimensions included Doc Brown and Marty McFly as playable characters in a Back to the Future Lego world. In advertisements for the game, shots of Doctor Who and Back to the Future elements intertwined were highly emphasised.

Other matters

 * The trilogy provided the name for the band McFly, which had a cameo in The Sound of Drums.
 * Karen Gillan has professed her fandom for Back to the Future Part II and her desire for a hoverboard.