SAMUEL SMITH STRICKLAND, B. S. Ed. (James Tokan), in the Back to the Future franchise, is the Principal of Hill Valley High School, Hill Valley, California. He is the grandson of James Strickland, United States Marshal, who was the city marshal of Hill Valley in 1885.In the wild diversions of the timestream that result from the activities (never known to him) of Marty McFly and Emmett L. Doc Brown, his role changes little. With one major exception: in the Hell Valley timeline, Hill Valley High School is no more. It burned down in 1979, the year Biff Tannen's tacky and imposing Pleasure Palace opened. Sam Strickland has defended himself and his home with a shotgun ever since., But in all the other timelines, Sam Strickland is Principal of Hill Valley High, a post he holds for decades.The timelines split in 1955, during which George McFly is a slacker, who won't even pay attention when someone pastes a sign on his back that reads Kick Me. In that same timeline, Marty McFly is a slacker, too, and Emmett Brown is nothing more than the town eccentric.But in the timeline that sees a strange boy named Calvin Klein (actually Marty McFly under an assumed name), George McFly finally stands up for himself against not one but two bullies, including Biff Tannen, for whom Strickland never had an ounce of respect. With the result that he stops being a slacker and becomes the first McFly in Hill Valley history to amount to more than a row of beans. That, Strickland will find ironic. Most seniors slack off in their second semester-- senioritis : they call it, though the word should be seniorosis --something about being a senior, not being inflamed. George McFly reversed the process and went on to become a successful novelist. (Except that in the Hell Valley timeline, George McFly was murdered in 1973, and six years later the school burned down.)In the Hell Valley timeline, Strickland confiscates a pornographic magazine from Biff Tannen. A magazine encased in a rather strange dust jacket: Gray's Sports Almanac 1950-2000. Strickland takes it to his office, flips through the pages, and then throws the whole thing into the wastebasket. In the timeline that sees Hill Valley become Hell Valley, Strickland might--possibly--remember that dust jacket--but would also dismiss as absurd the notion that some person or persons unknown actually gave Biff Tannen some information about future events! But in the timeline that actually survives, Strickland will never think about that dust jacket again. Because when the janitor empties the trash, that dust jacket will not be in it. And no one in Hill Valley will ever see it again.And in that surviving timeline, George McFly's son Marty McFly goes through school applying himself and not ever being the slacker his father had been before the second semester of his senior year. But the timeline splits again on October 26, 1985. In one version, Marty gets involved in a drag race with another habitual slacker, Douglas J. Needles He gets involved in a lawsuit that breaks his spirit. But in another, Strickland sees Marty McFly go on to a successful career in popular music. Much as he hates to admit it, Marty McFly becomes Hill Valley's favorite son, even if Strickland never could approve entirely of his kind of music.Eventually, as even old school administrators do, Sam Strickland retired. When he did, the Class of 2006 wanted to give him a rousing send-off. And who should, out of the blue, offer to provide the live entertainment for the event, as a benefit, but Marty McFly and the PInheads? The then-incumbent Principal of Hill Valley High, and for that matter the Chairman of the Board of Education, wondered what Strickland would think. He surprised them both when, barely able to contain his tears, he told them he could think of no tribute he would be happier to accept. Nor did Marty disappoint. He and his band played quite an eclectic selection of popular music, including Earth Angel from 1955, Johnny B. Goode, The Power of Love from 1985, and even an original song that sounded as if it might have come from the saloon that stood when his grandfather James was serving as town marshal! It was, in short, a celebration of music that had played in that school, and that town, for generations.It was the perfect note for an old administrator to end a career on. He would remember that until the day he died. As would millions of Marty McFly's fans--for the Pinheads cut a record from that selection. It went Platinum inside of a month, and even won the Record of the Year Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.What became of Doc Brown? Samuel S. Strickland never knows. On or about October 26, 1985, Emmett Brown vanishes without a trace. No one in Hill Valley, least of all Strickland, will ever see or hear from him again. Except that at his memorable retirement dinner, a man, a woman, and their two very well-behaved sons show up. They even give their names as Emmett L. Brown, his wife Clara, and sons Jules and Vern. Could that actually be the Doc Brown whom Strickland remembered with such disdain? Nonsense! Absurd!Or is it...? Show less «