Factual error: Jan Christiaan Smuts is referred to as the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa in this film when Gandhi is there. Smuts didn't gain the office until 1919, after the death of Prime Minister Louis Botha. Gandhi left South Africa in 1914 and never returned.
Factual error: Many palace scenes in the mini-series are set in the Forbidden City. This is incorrect, as the Forbidden City was built under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and not completed until about 1420, almost 100 years after Marco Polo's death.
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the film when Jessica Lange, playing Frances Farmer, runs away from her parents' home in Seattle, Washington and takes on the life of a vagrant. She is seen hitchhiking on a road, which is obviously adjacent to a desert and looks very much like southern California. When the police pick her up and drive her back home, in what seems like a short period of time, she is transported back to the Seattle landscape surrounding her parents' home.