135a. Back to the Past

It's pretty interesting and weird that this episode is longer than 11 minutes. It is actually 15 minutes, strange. This episode was actually pretty funny. It's cool to see younger Mermaid Man and Barnicle Boy, but this episode can be on the boring side and I feel like it drags on just a bit. 6.5/10

EDIT: Wow, I was a bit harsh on this episode. This episode was actually pretty funny like the Tartar sauce gag and an interesting plot. I'm gonna change my rating to a 7.5/10
 
Saw this episode today and loved it! It felt really suspenseful for a Spongebob episode and the ending was hysterical. It could have had a bit more jokes though and Patrick got on my nerves, I a way.

9.5/10
 
Season: 7

Episode: Back to the Past

This episode was pretty good. The plot was creative. Patrick was sometimes annoying, but it didn't bother me that much. I kinda felt the episode repeated some jokes. Still, there were some funny jokes. 8/10
 
Definitely the best season 7 episode. Good to see 15 minute episodes again too, I thought that worked pretty well for Shanghaied.
 
SB_DW_Fan said:
This episode was just awesome. It's definetly one of my favorite season 7 episodes. I always enjoy watching time travel episodes of my favorites shows like Roswell That Ends Well and The Late Philip J. Fry episodes of Futurama; Back to the Pilot and The Big Bang Theory episodes of Family guy and The Time Traveler's Pig episode of Gravity Falls. This episode was vell-writen and very funny. The funny parts are the running gag with Patrick eating tarter sauce, Patrick mistaking the time machine for a vending machine, Squilliam saying "Man Ray is Great", Patrick saying "I'm out of Man Ray dolars?" and there are more. the only problem was the ending because It was very confusing just like many Stewie and Brian traveling back to the 1999 in "Back to the Pilot" episode of Family Guy but It was actually funny and I can ignore that flaw. Just like Trophy said, It's a gem of season 7. I recommend this episode. 10/10
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I was about to say, ending felt like a rip off of back to the pilot (which I'm sure is a ripoff of something else)

My bad, turns out back to the pilot came out afterwards. I just didn't see it until years after it came out.

(By it I mean back to the past)
 
Pieguyrulez put this episode as the second worst season 7 episode :eek:
 
Seriously? This episode is the worst episode I've ever seen...It's the most boring episode...I really really HATE this episode...Even the plot is MESSED UP....I can't even understand why they made this episode....No, I don't like it...and I know many of you guys are going to respond but I just can't understand how can a person like this episode.....Even the plot is ridiculous....And the ending is really annoying....it's an earrache... Lol, and it's also REALLY REALLY boring...I have only seen this episode 1 time....I am never watching it ever ever again...it's so stupid...0/10 .. -∞/10... I hate this episode with all my soul
 
I really like this episode, the plot is very interesting and fun. I love the visuals and where the story goes. Patrick's a bit annoying but otherwise this is a solid gem in season 7.

8/10
 
Personally, this is one of the best S7 episodes. The plot was pretty interesting and fairly deep, but at the same time it was silly/crazy, ESPECIALLY that ending. I am a fan of time travel episodes myself, because that idea makes for a REALLY good episode if you do it the right way. Patrick wasn't too unlikeable here, but I can understand why some members hate the episode. Overall, 10/10 :)
 
While nothing crazy good, I do enjoy this episode and consider it one of season 7's better episodes. Patrick can be annoying in scenes, but I never thought it got too bad and I overall enjoyed it.

8/10
 
Hey, look, I saw another new episode today.

The good stuff:

The time travel sequences were pretty nice to look at.

This is an idea that for some reason hasn't been done before in a MM&BB episode, and I liked how it played out. It worked logically as well.

I think there may have been an "Easter egg" referencing when Patrick's head got blown off leaving a bone in its place ("I don't get it.")? When Mermaidman falls in the corner in the restaurant kitchen, he reminded me of that Patrick moment.

The Squilliam appearance was funny and unexpected, yet seems to never be talked about.

The ending was...entertaining, but not for the characters I'm sure. Unexpected, yet it works.

The bad stuff:

Gee, Patrick not listening and touching the time machine and constantly eating the tartar sauce several times around, spoiling all the plans? So original. Can't Patrick do anything else besides randomly ruining everything for no reason?

They missed an opportunity to put in Squidward reveling in Squilliam's misery. I would have liked to see him put in some sort of appearance.


It's a pretty good episode minus some predictable character annoyances, but I don't get why Pieguyrulz hates it so much (since I often agree with his opinions). Oh well. 8/10


Also, am I the only one not seeing title cards appear on the screen for some reason? Is this a recent development?
 
I'm not the first one to say this episode is terrible, but I despise this episode. And it's my least favourite episode of the entire series. NO EXCEPTION! OK, but let me review this episode very calmly to tell you why I hate this episode more than One Coarse Meal, A Pal for Gary, or The Splinter:

The Plot:
Back to the Past tried to be very different, and it is, but the pacing just went from way too slow to way too fast very quickly. So it starts off with SpongeBob & Patrick going to Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's house. They show them their time machine, which Patrick mistakes for a vending machine, so he gets it working. OK then, less than 2 minutes in and I already have a problem with the plot. So far, the pacing has moved way too slow, and I knew what was going to happen anyway.

After that meh introduction, we get to the main part of the episode, the past. This bit plays out like your typical time-travel thing, but it doesn't do it like that, instead, it plays out like just a boring fight, then Patrick comes in, and eats the tutor sauce. REALLY? So far, Patrick is annoying-stupid instead of funny-stupid to me. Oh, but it gets worse, Patrick leaves Old Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy & New Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, because they where helping the elderly.

Then, we get to the ruined present. First, we see a cameo from Squilliam Fancyson. This could've literally be any other character, and I don't know why the picked him. After that, they finally see what happend to the present, what PATRICK did. Then we go to The Not Krusty Krab, where Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy are working there. Wait what, if Man Ray was the king of Bikini Bottom, wouldn't he just kill these two? Or, at least banish them? Because we don't get an explanation for any of this.

Now we go to the title of the episode. BACK TO THE PAST. And this is the worst part of this episode. So far, the writing has been inconsistant, controlled by one character, made no sense, and wasted a cameo, but none of those things would make this episode my least favourite, it would certainly be a bad episode, sure, but now, we get to the 'climax'. This basically just goes way too fast, as we get the final fight. The problem here is that the pacing went from too slow to too fast WAY TOO quickly. Patrick eats the tutor sauce AGAIN, so I guess they go back in time again? But we never get to see that, and then we get lodes of time duplicates which freak out Man Ray and defeat him. What?

Then we get to the ending. Which is everybody's favourite part, but for some reason, this ending made me put this episode at my least favourite. The ending is just time duplicates of SpongeBob & Patrick, some containing multiple versions, and some not even being on the scene. How many of these are they? Also, may I point out that all these time duplicates appeared AFTER Patrick had ate the tutor sauce. Most people love this ending, but this just made me ANGRY. ANGRY, it's like they don't care about what they're writing anymore.

So, overall, it doesn't keep track on it's plot, but it actually focuses on
The Humour:

Here we go, the humour seems to be the reason everyone loves this episode, but I disagree. All I see is either Patrick being stupid humour, or this world is nonsense humour, nowhere here did I see a joke that made me laugh. Most people say the ending made them laugh, but as I said it just didn't.

Now, here comes, in my opinion, the worst part of this episode
The Characters:

SpongeBob=Kind of close to his original personality, but is mostly just thrown away, I mean, he's the same character, but not as annoying as normal.

Patrick=OK then, I've talked about Patrick in my plot review, I don't think this is Patrick's worst appearance, but I still think this is the worst episode. I hate him in this episode for the same reasons PieGuyRulz hates him.

Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy=Not as comicbooky as usual, They're just elderlies in this episode.

Young Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy=OK then, they got celebrities for this episode, but they also got some celebrities for Truth or Square, and you know how that turned out.

Man Ray=Just really bland. I don't see any personality in this villain at all. It would be better if we saw him in the present, but we just didn't.

Squilliam=Just a stupid cameo.

OK then, the reason I consider this the worst is for 3 reasons:

1. Time travel. I'm very fond of time-travel stories, and most of them make no sense anyway, but this is one of the few exceptions. I love time travel, it has a lot of possibilities, and SpongeBob did a perfectly fine time travel episode in Season 1's SB-129, which is number 13 on my list, but it just made me even more angry, because this is a time-travel story I hate.

2. The amount of praise. The amount of praise this episode gets just makes me hate it more, I never got why anyone even liked this episode. The main argument I here is the ending. I have seen other people say they hate it, but in this topic, oh my god, how many people love it.

3. Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episodes are one of my favourite genres of SpongeBob episodes, and I do love it when they're there, with exceptions like Shuffleboarding, I can at least see good stuff in there. This episode, I noticed, had nothing I liked, while yes, SpongeBob was in character, I didn't necessarily like it.

OK then, this long long reply, I wasn't trying to make you hate this episode, I just want to share my opinion on my worst episode of the show.
 
Patrick B! said:
2. The amount of praise. The amount of praise this episode gets just makes me hate it more, I never got why anyone even liked this episode. The main argument I here is the ending. I have seen other people say they hate it, but in this topic, oh my god, how many people love it.
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I'm tired of people thinking this is a valid reason to hate something. This isn't just referring to this episode but I'm sick of people listing fanbases as their only reason for disliking something.
 
Honest Slug said:
I'm tired of people thinking this is a valid reason to hate something. This isn't just referring to this episode but I'm sick of people listing fanbases as their only reason for disliking something.
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No, I'm saying this makes me hate it more, because nobody agrees with me, and nearly everybody agrees with A Pal for Gary & One Coarse Meal, It was just making me hate it more, not just the main reason.
 
How is this terrible episode so liked in the SBM and SBC circle? Patrick is terrible in it and is responsible for everything bad that happens, the story and plot are severely flawed, the ending is stupid, everything just plain SUCKS! Even if the time-travel aspect is what makes this episode so appealing for some, it was done FAR better in SB-129. And no, my hatred for this episode is not because of Pieguy. It's simply got a terrible plot and an annoying Patrick. Oh, and was also tremendously unfunny.

2/10 (I'm being nice with this score TBH. Not quite sure if this episode would crack my bottom 50, but it is certainly up there).
 
It seems as if I'm in the minority here. I didn't like this one all that much. It's definitely not this season's worst but it's not good because of Patrick's stupidity, and the amount of times Patrick ate the tartar sauce made me angry. And the ending makes no sense. If you want to see a better time-travel episode go check out SB-129.

Ranking so far:
1. The Inside Job (A+)
2. Squidward in Clarinetland (A)
3. Growth Spout (B)
4. The Curse of Bikini Bottom (B)
5. Greasy Buffoons (B)
6. I Heart Dancing (B)
7. SpongeBob's Last Stand (B)
8. Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful (B)
9. Kracked Krabs (C)
10. Model Sponge (C)
11. Back to the Past (D)
12. Tentacle-Vision (D)
13. Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy (F)
14. Stuck in the Wringer (F)
15. Yours, Mine and Mine (F-)
16. A Pal for Gary (F-)
 
I know I just started another review with this but…when will Squilliam return from war? This is the LAST APPEARANCE of Squilliam. And it’s very minor. And it’s very sad. Because I need him back y’all don’t understand. I need to see this guy in HD. Clearly Dee Bradley Baker still has the voice down, if y’all have seen those Perch Perkins videos on YouTube. So what’s the big idea? Anyway, this has hardly anything to do with the actual episode. This episode is also part of a fun little Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy two-episode special, as I’m gonna call it. See, this episode is actually 16 minutes long (well, 15.5 but I round), and its sister is, of course, just 8. I actually did not remember this episode being longer or its sister being shorter, but that makes a lot of sense the more I think about it. “Back to the Past” is, in general, a pretty fun episode that I enjoy quite a bit. Y’all remember that online game Legends of Bikini Bottom? There was a mini game in that game based on this episode…ah, good times.

The imagery of the invisible boatmobile is always so delightfully silly, and it starts this episode off pretty well. I also can appreciate when an episode gets right to it like this one does. The locker of memorabilia is pretty cool, and so very comic book gimmicky. I like how at the beginning of this episode, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy seem to be pretty friendly with SpongeBob and Patrick (I mean it seems like they possibly don’t know them, but I’m choosing to believe that they’re nearly friends by this point…it feels deserved). This episode also reminds me that the last time we even touched time travel in this show (up to this point) was “SB-129” (I think, and hope because I hate being wrong). So it’s been a while. I love the visuals of the time travel in this episode, and I think it’s inherently hilarious that it’s just this storage crate is the time machine.

One thing that…not necessarily bothers me, but I question, is why didn’t Barnacle Boy and Mermaid Man just take them straight back to the present? Why have them get out and explore at all if y’all were so worried ‘bout changing history? I know it’s so we could have a plot, but they could’ve just stuck in a “the time machine needs to cool down” or even a good ‘ol “we need time machine fuel” excuse in there. And while we’re here, the one other thing that bothers me about this episode is how unhelpful Patrick is here. I mean he's the reason the future ends up being changed, and unlike SpongeBob he doesn't really do anything to try and fix it either, he just goes along for the ride and messes it all up again! It's a bit frustrating.

I appreciate this episode’s inclusion of Man Ray, because I love me some Man Ray. I also love that Adam West and Burt Ward voice MM and BB in this episode, I thought that was super cool and shows that this show has some real pull in its guest stars. And also it’s simply brilliant lol. The parodies meet the originals…I love it!

The way Patrick completely leaves Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy in the dust is a little bit funny lol, like I thought those were your heroes? But anyway, his actions allow us to see this pretty neat alternate timeline where Man Ray wins. And I really love the vibes here. SpongeBob and Patrick’s obliviousness is also pretty funny. That sign over the Krusty Krab reminds me of Mojo Jojo from The Powerpuff Girls. I also love how Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy end up aging the exact same way too lol. I also really liked how SpongeBob tried to go the “meaningful writing” route by saying that Mermaid Man had trauma from his defeat, when Mermaid Man is like “no I literally have a collar on my neck”. I feel like this was making fun of comics…I don’t know how but I feel like it was.

From here is where the episode starts going into time travel insanity. See, I suppose this episode does not work on multiverse theory LMAO. But having all of these copies of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy is really fun! Especially once it gets super chaotic. I love how especially in the beginning you can kind of guess where each SpongeBob and Patrick (or MM and BB) came from, before it gets completely unintelligible.

I feel like the ending of “Back to the Past” is its best part. And that’s not a knock on it at all! I just think the ending makes me think so much more positively on this episode as a whole since I like it so much, and that’s the goal for any ending, because that means this episode stuck the landing incredibly. Like I said before, this is a really fun episode that really hams it up with the comic book parody. While this may not be my favorite element of this show, these episodes are wholly necessary, and so I will always appreciate them (especially as we near the last appearances of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy).

Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.8/10
 
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