Best sci-fi TV factual errors of all time

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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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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

More Roswell factual errors
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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

More Firefly factual errors
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Superman: The Animated Series picture

Double Dose - S2-E10

Factual error: Season 2 episode 10 "Double Dose": When Superman snatches Parasite's escape boat and hauls it back to Stryker's, Parasite attempts to blast him with a shotgun found aboard. But somehow the animators appeared unable to decide whether the gun should be a double-barrel or a pump-action type; and building a double-barrel pump gun would be impractical due to additional weight and bulk.

Daniel4646

More Superman: The Animated Series factual errors
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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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

More The Invisible Man factual errors
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

More Daredevil factual errors
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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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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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters picture

Beyond Logic - S1-E10

Factual error: Season 1, Episode 10: Lee is trying to get out of the underworld on his capsule with the rescued others. They all get in, and he closes the top hatch by turning the hatch wheel clockwise. Trying to take off, a wire becomes disconnected outside, and Lee has to go out again. He turns the hatch wheel clockwise, and this time it opens instead of closing. If it was clockwise for close, it should be counterclockwise to open.

toroscan

More Monarch: Legacy of Monsters factual errors
Wolverine and the X-Men picture

Overflow - S1-E4

Factual error: When the X-Men are surfacing after crashing their jet into the dam, Shadowcat is shown phasing through the jet and pulling Wolverine and Beast through with her. Since Wolverine's bones are coated with a heavy metal, he wouldn't be able to float to the surface. He would sink instead. (00:14:57)

Phaneron

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Continuum picture

Family Time - S1-E9

Factual error: In the barn, one of the kids shoots Cameron, then drops the gun and flees. Cameron picks up the gun and checks how many rounds are in the magazine and then puts the magazine back in. However, after that, she pulls the slide back to chamber a round. But the semi-automatic pistol would already have a round in the chamber since it was just fired, and her action should have ejected an unspent round, which it doesn't.

Bishop73

More Continuum factual errors
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons picture

Manhunt - S1-E4

Factual error: When we see the SPV escaping from the Culver Atomic Centre, it is night time. However, when we see Number 3 Tracking Vehicle, it has changed back to daytime.

Jcamts

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Dirk Gently picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Factual error: When Susan is sorting Ruth's things, she finds Gordon's iPhone wrapped in a newspaper from 1994 with her voice-mail to him and realizes he went back in time, where Ruth killed him and took the phone from his corpse. Even if the phone had been turned off, after 16 years idle, the battery would have died long ago, but we see the phone is on with her message waiting. (00:55:50 - 00:56:45)

Captain Defenestrator

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The Hot Zone picture

Arrival - S1-E1

Factual error: Season 1 Episode 1 Arrival - Doctor Jaax is a Lt. Col. in the US Army. Her BDU blouse has a US flag on the right sleeve. The time period of the show is 1988, as there is a doctor wearing a Dukakis T-shirt. The US Army didn't have a US flag on the BDU uniform until 2005. (00:11:20)

Snag.1

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The Invaders picture

The Leeches - S1-E4

Factual error: When David Vincent lands at the airport, a sign there says, "Welcome to San Diego." When Vincent exits the airport, it says, "Maricopa Airport." There is a Maricopa in California, but the episode takes place in Arizona, as indicated by the license plates on the cars and mentioning the city of Tucson close to the town the episode takes place in.

Scott215

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Next picture

FILE #1 - S1-E1

Factual error: Paul tells Shea that he has a condition called Sporadic Fatal Insomnia. Later, Shea finds a fork in a bag labelled Abby. Paul explains that Abby is his daughter, and he wants to test her DNA, because she has a 50-50 chance of contracting the disease. This is false. Sporadic Fatal Insomnia is not hereditary. Fatal Familial Insomnia is genetic and is the inherited form.

toroscan

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Surface picture

Episode #1.13 - S1-E13

Factual error: When Rich and Laura are searching for drug information from the 1960s, they visit the US Patent Office website; under the heading "SSRIs", is displayed "Selecttive Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors" - with the double-t spelling error. (00:15:25)

David R Turner

More Surface factual errors
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