Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Dauphin - S2-E10

Corrected entry: After viewing the clash between the governess and her protector, the camera shows Wesley. His communicator badge is completely silver, instead of the standard gold and silver. (00:34:55)

Correction: This is not a mistake. Wesley's entire combadge was silver (arrowhead AND oval) from the beginning of Season 2, when he received the provisional officer's uniform. He did not receive a gold-oval combadge until his full promotion to Ensign, which also brought a standard uniform.

Correction: Simple matter and objects can leave the holodeck. They are created using the same technology as the replicators. There are numerous cases where matter (paper, water, food) has left the holodeck, and this is accepted as part of the technology. Complex matter (i.e. people, animals, etc.) cannot leave the holodeck. The computer might have made the lipstick transferrable for a sense of realism - no reason not to.

Encounter at Farpoint (1) - S1-E1

Corrected entry: After the crew has separated the saucer section from the main section, we see the senior staff waiting on the bridge for the encounter with Q. Yet, on all the Enterprise blueprints and schematics, the main bridge is on the top of the saucer section. How can the crew let the saucer section go, wait on the war segment, and still be on the main bridge awaiting Q.

Correction: They are not on the main bridge anymore, they are on The Battle bridge in the lower section.

pross79

Correction: Not a mistake. That was a normal uniform variation at that point in the show. It wasn't seen a lot, but it was intentional- not a mistake.

johnrosa

Correction: Way too vague. We're supposed to look at each episode to wonder which ones you're talking about?

K.C. Sierra

The Most Toys - S3-E22

Corrected entry: When Geordi, Picard, and Riker are discussing Data's shuttle accident in Picard's ready room, Picard addresses Geordi as "Lieutenant." In the American navy (which Starfleet is adapted from), a Lieutenant Commander like Geordi is addressed as "Commander", as it is higher in rank than a regular Lieutenant.

Cubs Fan

Correction: This "mistake" occurs several times in the series and can be easily explained by the fact that Starfleet is not the current, modern military. The series takes place hundreds of years in the future in a completely different organization than any military currently on Earth. Apparently in Starfleet it is acceptable to use either Commander or Lieutenant when referring to a Lieutenant Commander.

BaconIsMyBFF

Correction: This "mistake" occurs several times in the series and can be easily explained by the fact that Starfleet is not the current, modern military. The series takes place hundreds of years in the future in a completely different organization than any military currently on Earth. Apparently in Starfleet it is acceptable to use either Commander or Lieutenant when referring to a Lieutenant Commander.

BaconIsMyBFF

Correction: This "mistake" occurs several times in the series and can be easily explained by the fact that Starfleet is not the current, modern military. The series takes place hundreds of years in the future in a completely different organization than any military currently on Earth. Apparently in Starfleet it is acceptable to use either Commander or Lieutenant when referring to a Lieutenant Commander.

BaconIsMyBFF

Where Silence Has Lease - S2-E2

Corrected entry: Deanna is originally sitting on the bridge when they approach the zone of darkness, but after Picard tells Wesley to take them in, in the next wide shot Deanna disappears entirely and doesn't reappear throughout the rest of the scene - she only reappears much later when Riker and Worf return.

Correction: Wesley also says it will take 12 minutes to intercept the "hole." When Picard says let's launch a probe, Deanna is already gone. Picard then says this is close enough, indicating they've intercepted it. So almost 12 minutes have passed, plenty of time for Deanna to leave the bridge for a number of reasons that are simply not addressed on screen.

Bishop73

The Big Goodbye - S1-E12

Corrected entry: At the end of the episode after delivering his complex greeting to the Jarada, Picard and Riker head for the Turbo lift. Just as they are about to enter, Picard opens his mouth really wide as if making a funny face to someone inside the turbolift or maybe quietly celebrating a 'successful take' given the bizarre nature of the greeting! Although it was filmed from the side it is quite easy to spot.

Correction: Picard doesn't do anything close to that in this episode. He does however do something exactly as described in the later episode "Too Short a Season", an entry for which already exists.

Correction: This must be from an outtake or alternate scene, and since it's not included in the actual show isn't "eligible" for a mistake entry (not that there's anything wrong with Picard smiling). In the episode as it was aired, at the end of the episode, after the greeting, Picard and Riker do not go to the turbolift, they sit down. However, we do see Picard smirk when he turns to the side, but also everyone on the bridge claps for him and when he turns, he's still smiling.

Bishop73

Timescape - S6-E25

Corrected entry: If time is suspended on both of the ships, the communication signal would also be suspended between the ships and the runabout, meaning they shouldn't be able to talk to each other.

Correction: Geordie explains that the communication runs through the subspace-relays which prevents the away team from getting frozen in time too.

Correction: The "damage" he looks at was an incision made when he was drugged where they implanted the device, so he wouldn't have noticed it after it was done.

Bishop73

Correction: It is well established in multiple episodes that Data has body hair. He was created to look as human as possible.

Time's Arrow (2) - S6-E1

Corrected entry: An aged, white haired Samuel Clemens angrily accuses Data and Guinan of introducing future technology that will corrupt the late 19th Century, and he threatens to expose them to the authorities. The elderly Clemens is thus portrayed as extremely paranoid of future technology. In reality, even before his old age, Samuel Clemens LOVED new technology, the more exotic, the better. In real life, Sam Clemens owned one of the very first telephones and the first typewriters, and he appeared in a Thomas Edison film when moving pictures were still in their infancy. In real life, Clemens was also a personal friend of Nikola Tesla, and he was known to visit the inventor's laboratory to marvel at all the truly futuristic technological wonders.

Correction: Worried about future tech being revealed doesn't make Clemens paranoid of future tech. He's just worried that Data & Giunan could change history by revealing it. These are 2 different aspects of his personality and one doesn't have anything to do with the other.

envisaged0ne

Timescape - S6-E25

Corrected entry: Didn't Geordi die? When he goes into neural shock and Troi removes his arm-band, he becomes part of the frozen time. What happens when that time moves in reverse? Also, I don't think they ever talk about getting him some medical assistance before the Romulan ship disappears? But he's back in the next episode.

Correction: Geordi doesn't die. He is alive when his arm band is removed, which would place him in the other timeframe. Very soon after Data "fixes" time, Picard tells Riker to continue the evacuation. He then says "you will find Geordi on the Romulan ship, beam him directly to sick bay." At that point, it is safe to assume that he was in fact beamed to sick bay, and that Beverly did her job as a doctor.

Correction: Picard enters the door to the right of his ready room. This is a rarely used (on screen, at least) turbolift.

Timescape - S6-E25

Corrected entry: In the scene with the rotting fruit, it would be impossible for the fruit to age as shown. The problem is, in order for the fruit to rot, oxygen would have to supply the needed nutrients to microrganisms in the fruit that cause it to rot at the accelerated rate. Since the life support generator is in normal time, being away from the bowl of fruit, there is no way the fruit could have rotted like that - the generator is only supplying a normal-time-continuum's worth of oxygen. There is no evidence of any wind or vortex so the air cannot be entering the time bubble at a greater rate than it is being created.

Rlvlk

Correction: Microorganisms have extremely low oxygen consumption (relative to the amount used by an organism the size of a human). It would not take a particularly large area within the accelerated time-space for there to be enough oxygen to supply microorganisms long enough to cause the decay observed. Additionally there are microorganisms which can contribute to the processes of decay which do not require oxygen (anaerobes).

Yesterday's Enterprise - S3-E15

Corrected entry: When Tasha Yar and company first exit Ten Forward in the alternate timeline, watch through the doors as they open. An extra can be seen stood still in midstride in the passageway, before nervously noticing that the doors have already opened and that she has missed her cue to begin walking past. She then begins purposefully marching down the passage.

Correction: I just watched this scene like 20 times and watched the entire episode to make sure it wasn't a similar scene. This doesn't happen.

Up The Long Ladder - S2-E18

Corrected entry: When the head Bringloidi starts a fire in the hold, Lt. Worf informs him that a force field will cover the fire until it is extinguished. But in many later episodes you see fires burning, and nothing happens. At most, they will let the air out of the room, but no force fields.

Richard Welty

Correction: The fire suppression systems are known to fail when a ship has taken a lot of damage. There has even been an occurrence of an officer stating, "Fire suppression systems are not functioning."

Identity Crisis - S4-E18

Corrected entry: Near the beginning of the episode, when Geordi and Suzanna are in Ten-Forward, Geordi's rank insignia switches from the two-and-a-half pips of a Lieutenant-Commander to the three pips of a Commander. Geordi is then called to the bridge, and when he gets there he is wearing Lieutenant-Commander's pips again.

Correction: The light reflecting off the third pip makes it seem like it's gold in color.

More mistakes in Star Trek: The Next Generation

Deja Q - S3-E13

Picard: Return that moon to its orbit.
Q: I have no powers! Q, the ordinary!
Picard: Q, the liar! Q, the misanthrope!
Q: Q, the miserable! Q, the desperate! What must I do to convince you people?
Worf: Die.

More quotes from Star Trek: The Next Generation

Loud as a Whisper - S2-E5

Trivia: Guest star Marnie Mosiman, who plays a member of Riva's chorus, is married to John de Lancie, who had a recurring role as the omnipotent mischief-maker Q.

Cubs Fan

More trivia for Star Trek: The Next Generation

Answer: He brought the Borg to the Alpha Quadrant and showed them that it was full of worlds waiting to be assimilated. Guinan's homeworld was their first stop, and they assimilated everyone and took over the planet, leaving The Survivors of her race without a home. Q is ultimately responsible for that.

Captain Defenestrator

By the time Q takes the Enterprise to meet the Borg, Guinan already knew who they were and they had already destroyed her world. Therefore the above answer can not be right. I believe Guinan is much more than she appears, and her people have had encounters with the Q in the past. It is these interactions, that obviously were not pleasant, that fuels her distrust.

oldbaldyone

That's what the above answer is saying. Q brought the Borg to the Alpha Quadrant (not Earth) and the Borg destroyed Guinan's home world in the late 2200's, which is why she hates Q. Although she met Q in 2160 and they both saw each other as enemies right away.

Bishop73

More questions & answers from Star Trek: The Next Generation

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.