Best sci-fi TV plot holes of all time

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds picture

The Serene Squall - S1-E7

Plot hole: In Episode 1-7: The Serene Squall, the Enterprise is at the edge of Federation space, and it is stated that it would take two days for a message to be received by Starfleet. Later in the episode, they have no problem establishing a real-time connection to Vulcan, which, according to canon, is only 16.5 light years away from Earth.

wizard_of_gore

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Batman: The Brave and the Bold picture

Triumvirate of Terror! - S3-E8

Plot hole: After Superman thwarts Lex's plan and knocks the Kryptonite into the sewers, Lex yells in frustration, splits his power suit off and flies away on a jet pack. Superman just lets him go. Wouldn't Superman chase him and catch him, especially seeing as how weak Lex would be like that? (00:07:35)

Quantom X

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Fantastic Four: The Animated Series picture

When Calls Galactus - S2-E8

Plot hole: When Frankie tries to get Johnny to chase her out into space, he tells her he can't follow and warns her to turn back due to the thin atmosphere not being able to keep their flame powers active, and indeed her flames die out, and she begins falling back to Earth. However, several minutes later in the episode, both of them are just outside of the Earth when Terrax arrives, and again at the end after she becomes the new herald of Galactus, Johnny follows her into space well beyond Earth before his flames die out. (00:03:15 - 00:06:03)

Phaneron

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Mobile Suit Gundam picture

Escape from Luna II - S1-E4

Plot hole: White Base and the interior of Luna II withstand without a scratch the explosion of the thermonuclear reactor from the Magellan from just a few meters, while the blast literally vaporizes the Zaku far away from the entrance and threatens to damage the Musai, hundreds of meters away.

Sammo

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The Originals picture

Show generally

Plot hole: Lucien, Trustan and Aurora are somehow compelled to believe they are Mikaelsons, when no-one knew how to compel until Elijah compelled Aurora by mistake when they fled. So when did this supposed compelling happen? Did Elijah go back and do it later on? The siblings all had knowledge of him compelling them, so I'm confused exactly when they all learned of their ability.

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Martian Successor Nadesico picture

'Unmei no sentaku' mitaina - S1-E6

Plot hole: Akito's attack is point blank, on a ship part of a fleet with Distortion Field activated (basically, they have shields, like the good guys' robots). The explosion he causes is according to Ruri's damage report big enough that it managed to vaporize 80% of the ships they were facing, but his Aestivalis and the other 3 right floating nearby make out of it literally without a scratch. (00:05:10)

Sammo

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Batwoman picture

Down Down Down - S1-E3

Plot hole: Kate in the Batcave says with absolute certainty "Alice doesn't know that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Whoever stole the gun, knew that Bruce had to have the suit to test it on." Both statements are leaps in logic with no foundation. Alice knows that Kate is Batwoman, and that Bruce's office is her center of operation (she even shines a bat-signal there!). It would be perfectly logical to assume that she made the connection. The testing bit is simply a non-sequitur; plenty of weapons can be made and tested on armor which fits the specifications, real or inferred, of a particular target, without being in possession of the item as a whole. (00:16:00)

Sammo

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Legends of Tomorrow picture

Left Behind - S1-E9

Plot hole: It's revealed that Chronos is Mick from the future after he was abandoned by Snart. However, in the episode White Knights (episode 4) the earlier version was able to sneak up on Chronos and surprise him with an attack from behind. If that was a future version of Mick then surely he would have remembered the attack coming and could not have been so easily caught off guard.

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Roswell picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Plot hole: In the lab when Liz makes the slides of her cheek cells and the cells from Max's pencil, the first time she doesn't add stain and the second time she does. If she's going to be a molecular biologist she really ought to learn to apply techniques consistently. (00:07:30)

Phoenix

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The 100 picture

Unity Day - S1-E9

Plot hole: The grounder's leader Anya states that the missiles (flares) burned a village to the ground. If this were true, the flares couldn't have flown very far, otherwise that village would have been too far away for the grounders to know about. In a previous episode, when you saw the flares from space, it was obvious the flares traveled hundreds if not thousands of miles away. (00:31:30)

Mike Walker

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X-Men: Evolution picture

Grim Reminder - S1-E11

Plot hole: In the end of the episode, Wolverine is seen recuperating after surgery removes the microchip in his brain, and his head is bandaged. Performing invasive surgery on Wolverine's brain isn't possible, since that would require going through his adamantium-infused skull and no conventional material is capable of that. Only a less invasive technique (such as going through the cranial sutres or cranial foramen) would have been effective and that most likely would not have required Wolverine's head to be bandaged (especially with his rapid healing mutant ability).

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Haven picture

Over My Head - S3-E4

Plot hole: Daphne was able to hurt Duke because his name appears on her cell when he called, but names only show up on a cell phone if the person's number and name are programed into the phone, and Duke has already said he doesn't know her.

brianjr0412

More Haven plot holes
The Twilight Zone picture

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street - S1-E22

Plot hole: The street sign in the beginning is all wrong: it faces the camera rather than the street where the story takes place. In a typical American city, street signs are almost always placed in the direction of the street they are indicating, so drivers on the other street in the intersection know what they are turning onto or passing. In other words, the story is not set on Maple Street! Maple Street is the intersecting street at the end of the road the story is set on.

mirtom

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Night Gallery picture

The Messiah on Mott Street - S2-E38

Plot hole: No one in Goldman's house finds it at all strange that a mailman arrives at the door with a letter after midnight on Christmas Eve. Nor, a short time later, does the doctor or anyone else passing by at this very odd hour wonder why the same mailman is collecting mail from a street box at dawn on Christmas Day.

Jean G

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Dark Angel picture

Pilot (2) - S1-E2

Plot hole: In the hoverdrone footage, Peter goes down suddenly during the gunfight, apparently from a wound to either the head or torso. However, there is no wound or blood on him and even his bulletproof vest has no marks except for the normal studs. If he had been hit in an extremity he would not have limply collapsed instantly. Sonrisa's goons are using automatic weapons that should have no trouble hitting him many times from that range of only a few meters. (00:54:00)

Phoenix

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Nowhere Man picture

Doppelganger - S1-E19

Plot hole: Tom discovers Claire's body in the wardrobe of his motel room. He leaves the room, and within a minute returns to the room, accompanied by the police. The body has vanished from the wardrobe, but given how little time Tom was away from the room, it is impossible for someone to have moved it, particularly given the weight of a corpse.

swordfish

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The Wild Wild West picture

The Night of the Raven - S2-E3

Plot hole: Antoinette is making miniature clothes for the soon-to-be shrunken West, but when West drinks the antidote to make him normal-sized, he is wearing the same clothes which would have been shredded as he grew back to normal size.

Scott215

More The Wild Wild West plot holes
Lexx picture

I Worship His Shadow - S1-E1

Plot hole: As the first prisoner is being pulled towards the organ cutter, you see on the wall the exact shape of the body organs for the brain, lungs, heart, liver, stomach, kidneys and testicles/ovaries that serve as guides and a track for tiny saw blades to come out and cut into the person's body to harvest these organs. The problem is these are in a fixed position, which might work for some people. However people are different sizes, shapes, and heights and most wouldn't match up to these blade guides. So a good majority of the people they cut apart to harvest organs out of wouldn't even give them good ones as the blades would cut into the organs and ruin them. (00:25:20)

Quantom X

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