Continuity mistake: When Marty walks around the old town and watches the manure guy work, a huge shadow covers the whole place. An instant cut later, it's all sunny, revealing it was shot at a different time of day.
Continuity mistake: After Marty gets to 1885, a bunch of Indians are running to him and the cavalry behind them, but in the open view one second before, the cavalry was not there.
Continuity mistake: In 1955 while the Doc is recording some stuff, while Marty behind him is sleeping on the couch, his head moves from side to side between shots.
Continuity mistake: After visiting Seamus, Marty walks to the Hill Valley train station where a man is by the ticket window. In the next shot the man has disappeared. (00:26:35)
Other mistake: After Mad Dog tries to kill Marty at the bar, a man says "you better run, squirrel." Marty is crouched, 4 meters away from the counter, but in half a second he has managed to stand up, run to the counter, jump on it and run towards Buford.
Deliberate mistake: When Marty drives towards the screen to go back to 1885, he passes by the same 5 speakers over and over again. It's obvious that the road was very short and they repeated the shots from many different angles to add-up for tension.
Continuity mistake: When Marty and Doc are jumping on the logs on the train, the sun changes between shots.
Factual error: After Doc and Marty hijack the train, there are shots of them in the cab of the locomotive. Look closely behind them, there is a clip to hold a microphone for a 2-way radio or CB attached to the window post, which shouldn't be there in 1885.
Factual error: When Marty arrives in 1885, he's heading towards the Indians at over 70mph with only a matter of meters between them. In the next shot, Marty has stopped the car and is reversing. Even on asphalt, Marty would need the length of two Olympic swimming pools to stop the DeLorean from 70mph. It would be impossible for him to come to a complete stop given the distance he had.
Continuity mistake: When Doc realises that his name has disappeared from the tombstone, the date on the tombstone remains, but in the next shot, it disappears. (01:07:47)
Continuity mistake: When Marty is about to race against needles, the camera zooms in towards his car. Notice a big rectangular black object reflected on the car. From opposite angles it disappears and there's just green fields. The black object was most surely a structure to hide the camera equipment.
Factual error: When the Indians are running from the cavalry they cross over a set of tire tracks. They are too far from where Marty started so cannot be his, and the lines can't be wagon tracks because the lines are too wide and the width is uniform. (00:19:30)
Continuity mistake: While Marty is fighting Tannen the sun changes between shots.
Continuity mistake: In the end scene where Doc's train comes back to 1985, Marty and Jennifer are literally blown away by the re-emergence of the train. While they are flying in mid-air, the front of the train is passing them by and gets just about to the cab (where the ELB is). However in the next cut, Marty and Jennifer are on the ground watching as the train just starts passing them again, and the train comes to rest at a point before the previous "blown away" cut scene.
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