Was shown at SkyScape attraction at London's Millenium Dome eight times a day for the whole of 2000.
In the opening credits, there is a photo of Blackadder in Indian attire. This is a homage to Rowan Atkinson's wife Sunetra Sastry, who was makeup on Black-Adder II (1986) and is of Indian descent.
At the dinner party at the beginning, a portrait of Captain Blackadder from Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) is positioned on the wall behind the present Blackadder.
At one point, the time machine materialises in a Star Wars-style space battle, which may take place in the "Grand Admiral Blackadder" subplot of Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988).
"Blackadder Back & Forth" takes place on 31 December 1999, 82 years after Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) which took place in 1917.
The budget for this mini-movie allowed for far more elaborate sets than had been seen since the first The Black Adder (1982). In particular, the set for "Queenie" Elizabeth's court - a small room, barely capable of holding 10 people in Black-Adder II (1986) - is a large, richly-decorated space in this film, filled with dozens of courtiers. Queenie's costume is also far more elaborate in this film.
This film includes extensive location shooting, a rarity for a "Blackadder" production. Although the first series (The Black Adder (1982)) did quite a bit of location shooting, the high cost nearly led to the cancellation of further series. After extensive cost-cutting, Black-Adder II (1986) includes the only location shooting in later series/specials: a courting scene in Black-Adder II: Bells (1986), and the end credit sequences, all filmed in a single day at Wilton House, Wiltshire.
This special extensively spoofs Doctor Who (1963), as does Rowan Atkinson's other parody Comic Relief: Doctor Who - The Curse of Fatal Death (1999) in the same year. These two spoofs are likely to have re-ignited interest in the BBC actively later re-starting the official Doctor Who (2005) TV series in wide screen.
Brian Blessed, Elspet Gray and Robert East were originally going to reprise their roles from The Black Adder (1982). The scene would have been Blackadder and Baldrick arriving at Bosworth field and killing Henry Tudor with the time machine, however the scene was later changed to the battle of Waterloo as Blessed was unable to reprise his role of Richard IV.
Although not correct to the period, black extras can be seen in the Robin Hood and Elizabethan scenes. This is because of a long-running joke between comedians Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry who apparently always complains that he could have been the extra instead.
Blackadder says he didn't like Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996). Simon Russell Beale played bit parts in both that film and this short.
Rik Mayall's Robin Hood character is closely modeled on his previous Blackadder role, Lord Flashheart, including his trademark "Woof!"
Baldrick's line about how "there's always a Blackadder and there's always a Baldrick" is a reference to the fact that those are the only two characters who have appeared in every single incarnation of Blackadder.
Cameo
Jennie Bond: the voice of the Royal Reporter in the ending scene was the BBC Royal correspondent from 1985 to 2003.
Colin Firth: as William Shakespeare. His casting is likely an allusion to his role as Lord Wessex in Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Spoilers
Regarding Blackadder's cunning plan to become king, Baldrick asks if it is as 'cunning as a fox what used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University, but has moved on and is now working for the UN at the high commission of International Cunning planning?'. This is building on a line delivered by a previous Blackadder to his Baldrick in Blackadder Goes Forth: Goodbyeee (1989), involving a plan 'as cunning as fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University'
This is the second Blackadder to have made it as King of England. His ancestor from The Black Adder (1982) made it as King in the finale The Black Adder: The Black Seal (1983) (though for less than a minute), while his Black-Adder II (1986) and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) characters ended up dead and his Black Adder the Third (1987) lived out his life as a Regent.
Blackadder comes back with Shakespeare's autograph. This is likely an in-joke regarding the lack of any known William Shakespeare autographs in reality, which have led some to speculate that Shakespeare was illiterate and wrote through dictation - a notion dismissed by the more intense scholars of his life.
