Best sci-fi TV mistakes of all time

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The Sarah Jane Adventures picture

Sky: Part 1 - S5-E1

Continuity mistake: The baby carrier little Sky is in as the group heads towards the car changes between takes. When they are walking down the driveway, it is open, and Sarah Jane quickly closes it when Gita comes up. Gita opens the carrier, to discover the baby, and Sarah Jane closes it again. There is more dialogue and Gita goes back to cooing at the baby. When did the carrier open again? Then the car alarms go off and if you look closely, you can see it's closed again, which is confirmed when the baby is handed off to Clyde.

Trigger

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Dollhouse picture

Ghost - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the motorbike scene, Matt performs a wheely and overtakes Echo. In the following shot Echo is in front of him again.

THGhost

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Agent Carter picture

Now Is Not the End - S1-E1

Factual error: There is a periodic table shown in the background of the lab, showing an accurate periodic table as of now. During 1945, at least 21 elements had not been discovered. (00:17:40)

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The Dead Zone picture

Here There Be Monsters - S1-E10

Plot hole: The female police officer has a theory that Johnny was the Strangler in the case the papers claimed he helped solve but this hardly makes sense. If she was researching him as was seen in the episode, surely it would have said something about Johnny being in a coma during the bulk of the murders since the story was about Johnny.

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The Invisible Man picture

Exposed - S2-E17

Continuity mistake: The establishing shot of the Agency's headquarters building zooms in on 3 tall, narrow windows recessed into a brick wall. We then cut to an interior view - of several wide, continuous windows without any recesses. They don't match the exterior windows at all. (00:07:30)

Jean G

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Highlander picture

Eyewitness - S1-E12

Continuity mistake: When the immortal who's trying to kill Tessa snipes at her in Duncan's car, his shot shatters the passenger-side window. When Duncan tails Tessa and her police escort to the safehouse, the passenger-side window is intact. (00:30:05 - 00:35:50)

Captain Defenestrator

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Time Trax picture

Show generally

Plot hole: "Showdown": Darien's lost hat and jacket reappear without explanation after Kane finds him wandering in the desert. Also unexplained is how Kane conveniently happens to be leading an extra, unnecessary horse - unnecessary, at least, until he stumbles across the stranded Darien. (00:15:00)

Jean G

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Threshold picture

Shock - S1-E5

Factual error: Molly and Ramsey find out that the van they are looking for was ticketed in Baltimore City at "the corner of Pennington and Fifth," and they are looking at a computerized map of the area. However, the map can be easily matched up to the actual Mapquest map of the area around the corner of Fifth St. and Patapsco Ave., except that the latter has been relabeled as Pennington. There is a Pennington Ave. in Baltimore City, but it runs parallel to Fifth, about a mile east of it.

DavidK93

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Power Rangers Wild Force picture

Forever Red - S1-E34

Plot hole: Tommy states that he and the other Zeo Rangers destroyed the Machine Empire's leaders and ultimately destroyed the Machine Empire except for the Generals who escaped. This is not true - Lord Zedd and Rita destroyed the Machine Empire leaders at the end of series 4, and the Space Rangers destroyed them again in Countdown to Destruction in series 6. The Zeo Rangers never destroyed the Machine Empire.

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Suggested correction: How would Tommy know that? He didn't watch the show or know the ins and outs of what happened in space. This is what he believed based on his experiences on Earth. Everything you described is factually correct, but Tommy did not witness this. So, to his knowledge, he destroyed the Machine Empire.

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy picture

Episode 3 - S1-E3

Revealing mistake: At the point where someone gets a small bruise on the upper arm, the crew are all in a pile and thrashing about on the floor. There are 5 pairs of legs instead of 4. Arthur is in his pajamas, Zaphod is in orange trousers, Trillion is lying on top of Ford and Ford is too far away for them to be his legs. [The fifth pair of legs belong to the person playing zaphod's third arm - doesn't mean it's not a mistake, but that's where they come from.]

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Power Rangers Megaforce picture

Show generally

Other mistake: If you look closely at the army of Rangers in the opening credits, you can see four versions of Tommy Oliver: Green Ranger, White Ranger, Zeo Ranger Red, Black Dino Ranger. Even though he had a single clone made, he can't be four variations at the same time.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds picture

Strange New Worlds - S1-E1

Character mistake: The Enterprise is targeted by projectiles from the planet. Spock identifies them as "plasma torpedoes", and Captain Pike reacts with surprise; "Plasma torpedoes? That's 21st century tech" and from that they all establish that the civilization they contacted is not yet capable of warp drive. Plasma torpedoes are the main weaponry of the Romulans centuries later, and Earth itself did acquire warp drive in the 21st century, so this claim and deduction don't seem to add up. (00:22:15)

Sammo

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The Six Million Dollar Man picture

Show generally

Factual error: There is no physical way that Steve Austin could perform most of his superhuman feats of strength in the ABC television series, due to the fact that they simply replaced his arm and legs, but didn't rebuild or reinforce the rest of his skeleton and muscles to handle the physical loads. Interestingly, author Martin Caidin (creator of Steve Austin in his novel, "Cyborg") actually did describe an incredibly complex whole-body rebuild that included vertebral reinforcement and ribcage and pelvis replacement, which was far more scientifically-accurate than the subsequent ABC television interpretation. ABC only accepted the series on the condition that it was less technical for their audience.

Charles Miller

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The Handmaid's Tale picture

Show generally

Factual error: In several different episodes characters are escaping on foot to Canada, as evidenced by Ontario license plates. But the show is set in New England, and the only way to get to Ontario through the Eastern United States is by crossing a major body of water: The St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, The Niagara River, or Lake Erie. You can't walk there.

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