Best sci-fi TV factual errors of all time

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Westworld picture

Trace Decay - S1-E8

Factual error: When the armed party comes into town to steal the safe in the bar, the leader points a repeating rifle at a victim on the ground and shoots. When he fires a used cartridge flies from the gun. Repeating rifles do not eject cartridges when they are fired. Automatic weapons eject a spent cartridge when fired. Repeating rifles only eject the cartridge when the lever is wrenched. (00:32:20)

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V (2009)

V picture

A Bright New Day - S1-E3

Factual error: Early in the episode, it is mentioned that Mrs. Faulkner's husband flew an F-16 fighter. Later, during Mrs. Faulkner's speech after her meeting with Anna, a picture of her husband is shown. He is wearing a Navy Dress Blue uniform. The Navy does not fly F-16s. In the US military, they are used exclusively by the Air Force.

Guy

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Roswell picture

Max to the Max - S1-E20

Factual error: When Nasedo kidnaps Liz, he stops in a gas station to leave the FBI another clue. As he is pulling into the station, the sign above the gas pumps misspells the word "brakes" as "breaks."

zanijoey

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Suggested correction: From a different perspective it's not a factual error. Because Jane shot multiple bullets. It means the gun still can be shot after the space suit case got pierced from the first bullet. So it's a possibility that the characters thought wrong (even though it's a bit silly for space travellers to not know this fact but doesn't mean it won't happen).

Terry Tim

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Primeval picture

Series 5, Episode 2 - S5-E2

Factual error: Many of the Royal Navy details are completely wrong. The submarine captain's cap badge is not that of the Royal Navy. "Midshipman" Leonard wears the insignia of a chief petty officer. "Officer" (not a naval rank) Neal wears the insignia of a petty officer. "Officer" Shaw wears the insignia of an able rating. The Flag Office Submarines is depicted as a full admiral, whereas in fact he was a rear-admiral and the position no longer exists.

Necrothesp

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Under the Dome picture

Alaska - S3-E5

Factual error: When Jim is watching the guy about to be blown up, the reflection in the binocular lens is the same as we just saw, when it should be a reversed image.

Bishop73

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The Invisible Man picture

Bad Chi - S2-E9

Factual error: Darien sets up a tripod and videotapes himself leaving a message for the Agency. When the tape is played back later, the camera can be seen to have both zoomed in and panned to follow his movements, even though no one was there to make those adjustments. (00:30:30)

Jean G

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Daredevil picture

Into the Ring - S1-E1

Factual error: At an eating area, a collector shows a man a computer screen with his daughter in real time and has her call him. She then speaks in the phone and you can see her lips and actions lining up perfectly with the words he is hearing. It would not be this perfectly in sink even in the most optimal of conditions. There is a slight delay between the video from the camera and sending that to the computer being shown. And then there is also a slight delay of the phone single traveling through one phone to the other. These would not line up right and so the father would not see the lips moving exactly with what he hears his daughter saying over the phone.

Quantom X

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Alphas picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Factual error: The show is supposed to be taking place in NYC, however its clear by the shooting locations that its shot in Toronto. This can also be seen very by the various signs throughout the city that are not found in the US and are very Canadian in nature, such as the Do Not Enter and One Way.

jerimiah

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Intelligence picture

Delta Force - S1-E8

Factual error: Chip-augmented federal agent Gabriel Vaughn is chasing a former Delta Force comrade, now suspected of being a hired assassin in Bolivia. He catches up to the man, telling him to freeze because he's standing in a minefield. Vaughn says the field was planted by "Pinochet," which is wrong, since the episode takes place in Bolivia, and General Augusto Pinochet was the military dictator of Chile. Earlier in the episode, Vaughn is asked what happened between him and his former close friend, and he refers to an incident in Fallujah. But flashbacks of the incident show the two men in Afghanistan in 2006. Fallujah is in Iraq. (00:37:00)

Nightguy

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The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance picture

The Crystal Calls - S1-E9

Factual error: At the end when Skeksis enters the crystal chamber, in the overhead shot you can see 22 arcane symbols around the crystal when there should only be 18, one for each exiled skeksis. (00:45:53)

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Heroes Reborn picture

Company Woman - S1-E12

Factual error: As Ren enters Renautas and meets Emily, the word "Welcome" keeps scrolling in various languages on the screens in the background. Although hardly seen, the Hebrew is wrong, as it is reversed (text from left-to-right, as opposed to right-to-left).

IDFS33140

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Samurai Jack picture

Show generally

Factual error: Even though the show is called "Samurai Jack", Jack isn't really a samurai. The correct title for him would be a Ronin as a Ronin loses their master if their master dies or loses favor with their master and also has no home anywhere. Jack has these attributes. He has no master and no home.

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Suggested correction: Nor is his name really Jack. "Jack", and thus "Samurai Jack", is just an alias that the prince takes. It's not meant to be his title or rank. Just like Cowboy Jack wasn't actually a cowboy.

Bishop73

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Nowhere Man picture

Absolute Zero (Pilot) - S1-E1

Factual error: When Tom is locked up in an institution for the mentally ill, he is given a bed on a mixed gender ward/wing (both men and women). Wings and wards in mental institutions have not been mixed gender for more than 100 years - it is inconceivable that this practice would be existing in the 1990s in a large city in the USA.

swordfish

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Out of the Unknown picture

Sucker Bait - S1-E7

Factual error: It is quite true that atoms that do not occur naturally are bad for humans. However, in a space age as this story's, that would apply to most or even all planets. It would be a well known risk that didn't require an abnormal specialist to diagnose. (This fact rarely figures in other SF, because it would severely limit most stories).

Spiny Norman

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The Incredible Hulk picture

The Waterfront Story - S1-E12

Factual error: The story takes place in Galveston, Texas. The geographical area is flat, but if you look closely near the last hulk out, there are mountains in the background.

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Lexx picture

I Worship His Shadow - S1-E1

Factual error: When His Divine Shadow lays on the table to have his brain removed, the machine cuts his skull open and simply reaches in with a three pronged hand and tugs on the brain pulling it out. It would not have worked this way... The brain is about the same consistency as gravy and the prongs on the hand/claw putting pressure on it to pull would have caused them to sink into the brain's tissue destroying it. Also it pulls the brain out without cutting or separating it from the spinal column and merely just pulls it out from the top. This would have caused his brain to be torn into pieces as it was tried to be pulled off the spinal column, not come out perfectly in one piece as shown. (01:09:00)

Quantom X

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The Mandalorian picture

Chapter 14: The Tragedy - S2-E6

Factual error: Boba Fett proves to Din that the armor belongs to him by showing him his chain code encoded into the armor. He then shows his father's chain code also encoded into it. Chain Codes are implemented by the new Empire in 19BBY. The second episode of "The Bad Batch" is about obtaining some of these new chain codes. Why does Jango Fett have a chain code when he died three years before they were a thing?

Captain Defenestrator

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