Blackadder Back & Forth (1999)

At a New Millennium Eve party, Blackadder and Baldrick test their new time machine and ping pong through history encountering famous characters and changing events rather alarmingly.

Director:

Paul Weiland

Writers:

Richard Curtis, Ben Elton

Stars:

Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Stephen Fry

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Rowan Atkinson	...	All Blackadders
Tony Robinson	...	All Baldricks
Stephen Fry	...	All Melchetts
Hugh Laurie	...	Viscount George Bufton-Tufton / Georgius
Tim McInnerny	...	All Darlings
Miranda Richardson	...	All Elizabeths
Tyrannosaurus Rex	...	Dinosaur
Patsy Byrne	...	Nursie
Colin Firth	...	William Shakespeare
Rik Mayall	...	Robin Hood
Kate Moss	...	Maid Marian
Crispin Harris	...	Friar Tuck
Simon Russell Beale	...	Napoleon (as Simon Russell-Beale)
Hordes of Scots	...	Scottish Hordes
Jennie Bond	...	Royal Reporter (as Jenny Bond)

Storyline

It's Millennium Eve and Blackadder is hosting a dinner party for a few select friends, Lady Elizabeth, Viscount George, Archbishop Melchett and Archbishop Darling. Baldrick devises yet another of his infamous cunning plans to help his ever greedy master Edmund Blackadder con money from his gullible friends. The pair build a "time machine" from empty cereal packets and place bets with their friends as to when in history they will travel, retrieving various artifacts from their travels as proof, items which Blackadder already owns! However, in a strange twist of fate the time machine actually works and the pair are thrown back in history initially to the Jurassic period. Gradually the pair start to return to their own time stopping off at various famous times in history such as Sherwood Forest and the Battle of Waterloo but will they make it home?

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Plot Keywords:

time machine | black adder | time travel comedy | time travel | friend | 

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Taglines:

The final episode in the saga of the Blackadder family, who have forever been at the very center of British history and society.

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Genres:

Short | Comedy | History | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 December 1999 (UK)

Also Known As:

Untitled Blackadder Millennium Project

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

GBP3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Millennium Experience Company, Sky, Tiger Aspect Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

33 min

Sound Mix:

DTS 70 mm (as dts Digital Sound)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jennie Bond: the voice of the Royal Reporter in the ending scene was the BBC Royal correspondent from 1985 to 2003.

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Goofs

The Roman Age characters talk in English. Although this might be for audience reasons, general Melchicus compliments them literally on practicing their English. The English language did not exist during the Roman Age. The Ancient Britons spoke Celtic languages, while the lingual ancestors of English arrived with the Anglosaxons.

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Quotes

[first lines]
George: Well isn't this splendid and absolutely tufty? New years eve 1999. A new century and a new millennium. Let's drink a great big slurpy toast to peace and understanding around the globe.
Melchett: Bravo! After all, if history teaches us anything, its that in in the words of St. Burt, what the world needs now is love, sweet love.
Blackadder: Total codswallop. If history teaches us anything, it's that the story of man is one long round of death and torture. And burning people as witches just because they've...

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Crazy Credits

There is a statement at the end of the closing credits: "Blackadder Back and Forth 2... Coming Summer 3000!"

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Connections

References The Time Machine (1960)

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Soundtracks

Robin Hood
Written by Carl Sigman (as Carl Stigman)
Published by Memory Lane Music Ltd.

User Reviews

OK – but a shadow of the series in terms of humour

Blackadder and his faithful servant Baldrick build a fake time machine from original plans in order to fool their friends into thinking that they went back in time and collected artifacts, thus winning a big bet. However they travel back in time and accidentally change history – wiping out the very characters they claimed to have met.

This special was made for show in the millennium dome, however it was also shown on BBC recently. This is no way classic Blackadder – the story is a mix of Blackadder trademark sarcasm and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. The time traveling element is amusing and is also an excuse for some very funny scenes (Robin Hood, Jurassic Park moment) but other bits don't work as well (the current-time dinner party is weak given the cast, and the Blackadder II bit isn't very funny and just shows how good the series was). The dialogue lacks the sharp, cruel sarcasm that the other 4 series had – it tries to do it but it isn't as fresh as it once was…I guess that's the real effect of time!

Atkinson is good as Blackadder – but he never seems comfortable with this incarnation as he did with previous ones…perhaps because it is an one-off creation. Robinson is good as Baldrick because his character never changes. Of the rest of the talented cast only Rik Mayall is really funny – the rest (Fry, Laurie, Richardson etc) are all weak and never as good as they were in their roles in the 4 series. However nice cameos from Colin Firth and Kate Moss make it interesting.

Overall it's worth a watch – but don't expect to be anywhere near the height of the original 4 Blackadder series.