Continuity mistake: When Marty holds the temperature-meter and warns Doc to put the yellow log inside the firebox, his finger suddenly disappears between shots.
Continuity mistake: When Buford hangs Marty, he puts the rope around his neck once. In the close-up the rope goes around twice.
Continuity mistake: When Marty and Buford duel, Seamus' distance to the bartender keeps increasing / decreasing randomly between shots.
Continuity mistake: When the train hits 70 mph the chimney explodes to pieces. When the bar that Clara holds onto breaks the chimney reappears. (01:39:53)
Revealing mistake: When the train pushes the DeLorean and hits 70 mph Doc tries to grab Clara. In the wide shots (where we can't see his face) his coat whips, but in the close-ups where we do see his face the coat flutters, revealing that the train was going much faster with the stuntman.
Continuity mistake: After the festival, Marty wakes up and grabs the gun belt, which is missing a bullet. When he mimics in front of the mirror the bullet has magically appeared.
Continuity mistake: When Doc holds the telescope and tells Clara that he'll fix it, right when they date at the festival the position of the telescope changes between the front and back shots.
Continuity mistake: After Clara pulls the emergency pull cord she jumps out of the train with her gloves on. From the immediate opposite angle her hands are bare. (01:26:04)
Continuity mistake: When Marty is about to duel against Buford he is inside a house peeping through the window, pulling the curtain open. The position of his hand and the opening of the curtain differs between shots.
Continuity mistake: Buford spills the spittoon on his shirt, but when he lassos Marty his shirt is dry and clean.
Continuity mistake: When dueling, Marty's holster belt on the floor changes positions between shots.
Continuity mistake: After the bartender prepares the wake-up juice, the two men by the table behind, plus the smoke coming out of the ashtray, disappear. When Marty pours the liquid the men reappear. (01:19:43)
Revealing mistake: When Marty pours the wake-up juice through the funnel into Doc's mouth, in the close-up the funnel is straight, but we can't see Doc. From a different angle where we do see the funnel stuck in his mouth, check the right side of the screen: The funnel is actually skewed (and seemingly it must have a tap) and the liquid is falling out in large amounts to prevent the actor from drinking it. (01:20:04)
Continuity mistake: After Doc meets Clara he and Marty watch a tombstone. Doc grabs the picture and says "my name has vanished!" The way he holds the picture differs between the first and second shot.
Continuity mistake: When Buford duels Marty, the people behind him differ between shots. In the shot outside, there's a tall man with a blue shirt, a young guy and a man with a white shirt. From the angle shot inside the bar, the number of people behind the group has doubled, the man in white is gone and a woman has magically appeared standing next to the man with the blue shirt.
Continuity mistake: When Doc passes out after drinking whiskey, he falls face down against a table and his back gets wet. When the angle changes it's dry and covered with glass.
Continuity mistake: At the bar Doc says that in the future people run for fun. When the guys playing poker laugh at him, the bartender magically appears next to them between shots. (01:17:43)
Continuity mistake: When Marty arrives at the bar the bartender lays both hands on the counter, the right one next to a bottle. When the angle changes, his right arm is up and the bottle is half a meter away. This changes back and forth depending on the angle.
Continuity mistake: When Marty holds the baby, the gown covers his legs. In the close-up the gown is up and the legs are bare. (00:26:03)
Continuity mistake: Watch the guy at the back of Needles' car, the one holding a Pepsi can. The position of his right arm has no continuity in any shot.
Answer: He simply has an absurdly low tolerance for alcohol, and whiskey is not a wise choice if this is the case. It helps set up the joke when Marty asks the bartender, "How many has he had?", and he replies by telling Marty, "Just the one", as we are meant to think Doc has been in the bar all night drinking away his sorrows.
Jazetopher