Concerned that his family is becoming overdependent on technology, Doc takes them on an unannounced time trip, drawing Clara's ire for failing to consult her. However, family drama quickly gets shoved to the back burner when the local lord kidnaps Clara. When their father gets captured trying to save her, Jules and Verne team up with Harold, Marty's ancestor, to reach their parents, while Clara plots a way to get herself and her family out of trouble.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Jules and Verne smack Tannen's guards with a fish as part of an entertainer's routine. Luckily, the guards pause one moment before laughing uproariously and waving them and Harold through.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: While Harold is posing as a traveling minstrel and puppeteer, Verne pops out of the wagon and smacks one of Tannen's guards with a fish. Jules chastises his brother for hitting the guard as he did...before clarifying the proper way to smack him with the fish.
- Damsel in Distress: Lord Biffingham kidnaps not only Clara but also Harold McFly's beloved, Jennivere, which leads the two groups to team up as they have a common enemy and goal.
- Damsel out of Distress: While Clara is unable to keep herself from being abducted, she manages to escape out the window of her tower using the silks Lord Biffingham used in an effort to woo her.
- Generation Xerox: As expected, the usual dynamic between members of Marty's and Biff's families remains. Harold, like his descendant, is also a musician and he looks so physically similar that Jules and Verne originally mistake him for Marty himself in medieval clothing.
- Lethal Chef: Marty's ancestor Harold is a lousy cook, to the point where Doc and the boys end up using some biscuits he baked to replace some gears on one of Doc's inventions.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The local Tannen tells Clara that women should be seen and not heard.
