Corrected entry: Doc could not have the copy of the pic of him and Marty at the clock of the tower, because Marty has it in the DeLorean when he comes back to 1985.
Greg Dwyer
25th Jul 2018
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Correction: It's certainly possible that they got more than one photograph taken.
Correction: There are several instances of duplicate (doppelganger) items and characters in the same timeline throughout the BTTF trilogy. For example, the DeLorean itself exists two and even three times within the same timeline. Doc and Marty and Jennifer and Biff all exist as doppelgangers within the same timeline. So, a duplicate photograph should be no problem in a storyline riddled with such inconsistencies.
This is incorrect... there is only 1 Marty, 1 Biff, 1 Doc, 1 Jennifer and 1 DeLorean. Yes, multiple versions may exist at the same time but in no instance is there a copy of the original person or car. For example, in BTTF II in 1955 there are 2 Marty's at the dance at the same time but the 2nd newer Marty is the same Marty from BTTF I. There should only be 1 copy of the picture, on the other hand, because it has not (to the best of our knowledge) been time traveling. The only explanations (for it to not be a mistake and these are still guesses) could be that they had a second picture taken even though it might be an expensive and time consuming process or Doc Brown could have gone into the future and taken it from Marty and, therefore, the picture could exist twice in 1 time period.
The photo time-travels at least twice in BTTF3: Once with Marty in the DeLorean on the explosive return trip, and again a few moments later when Doc arrives in the steam-powered locomotive time machine. We can reasonably assume that there was another, time-erased meeting between Marty and Doc (possibly in the future) wherein Marty explained how the photo was destroyed, prompting Doc to go back to the Old West and procure the photo again. Same exact photo X2, same scene, just as there were multiple characters and vehicles in the same timelines.
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Correction: The technology existed in 1885 to produce duplicate copies of the same photograph. The photographer who took it would certainly be able to do so there and then. Even if that wasn't the case it's not a stretch that someone of Doc's abilities could manage it so that he and Marty could each have their own copy.