The X-Files

Our Town - S2-E24

Factual error: Mulder says that the events occur near I-10, however, I-10 is nearly 200 miles south of Arkansas's border in southern Louisiana.

The Amazing Maleeni - S7-E8

Factual error: Mulder calls the dust in Maleeni's van "lycopodium powder" that the Los Angeles Police Department used to collect fingerprints, but the real LAPD uses latent print powder not lycopodium. (00:06:35)

Roland - S1-E23

Factual error: At the crime scene where Roland killed one of the professors by dunking his head in liquid nitrogen and dropped him on the floor, someone has drawn an outline of the dead prof's body and all the bits his head broke into when Roland dropped him. This outline-drawing doesn't happen in life because it interferes with the crime scene, it's a popular myth.

The Host - S2-E2

Factual error: Scully reads to Mulder from a book all about flukes (Trematodes). However, the information she is quoting is wrong. She states that flukes or flatworms have a "scolex" with hooks and suckers. These are actually the distinguishing characteristic of cestodes (tapeworms). Trematodes have no scolex and definitely no hooks. (00:17:30)

Show generally

Factual error: A number of episodes show trolleybuses operating in American cities that do not use them (including Washington). Vancouver, where the series was filmed, however, does use them.

Necrothesp

Salvage - S8-E9

Factual error: Dogget says that "It would require something 4,300 times the density of steel to cause this damage." Steel is about 8 times denser than human flesh, so bearing in mind that density is proportional to mass at constant volume, it means that Ray would be 4,300 x 8 = 34,400 times heavier than if he were a regular human being. Assuming that he normally weighed about 80 kg, after the transformation he would weigh 80 kg x 34,400 = 2,752 tons. It means that hardly any ground would support his incredibly huge mass, let alone items such as a bed, chair, stairs, building structures, etc.

Chop Luftmysza

Lazarus - S1-E15

Factual error: When Mulder gives Scully the birthday card, she says that he is two months early. Given that Scully's birthday is on 23 February, the time of the episode should be sometime near Christmas. However, through the whole episode, there is no sign of Christmas time (not a single Christmas tree, no Christmas decorations, etc). (00:19:35)

Chop Luftmysza

Piper Maru (1) - S3-E15

Factual error: At The Beginning of the scene, XO Johanson is looking through the periscope. However, it is nonsense, because the submarine was in silent running, and the Japanese destroyer was circling it, so the sub must have cruised in deep submersion. The water depth there was approx. 270 meters, as the French salvage team claims at The Beginning of the episode. There is rarely any significant light beyond 200 meters. Looking through the periscope in these conditions would be completely useless. (00:32:25)

Chop Luftmysza

Ascension (2) - S2-E6

Factual error: It's quite strange that only after Mulder looks into the ashtray he realizes that the Smoking Man has been in the car. Mulder should smell the scent of cigarettes immediately after entering the car, especially if he is a non-smoker. (00:36:05)

Chop Luftmysza

Biogenesis (1) - S6-E22

Factual error: This episode begins with Scully doing a voice-over about the incredible nature of our universe. The scene is very impressive visually, and would have been from the aspect of her oral presentation had it not been for a major error in the script. She says (more than once) that the universe is made up of matter and gas. This should have been "matter and energy". Gas is a form of matter.

Leonard Betts - S4-E12

Factual error: When Scully is performing the autopsy on Leonard Betts' severed head, she states "As remains are incomplete, all observations refer to a decapitated head." This phrasing is redundant. The proper terminology would be "disembodied head." As a medical doctor, Scully should know this.

Phaneron

Unrequited - S4-E16

Factual error: By its uniforms, rank insignia (i.e. point-down chevrons), drill and instrumentation (e.g. tubas instead of sousaphones), the military band performing at the re-dedication ceremony at the Vietnam War memorial in Washington is a Commonwealth (probably Canadian) band and not an American band. Unlikely at a formal military ceremony in the United States.

Necrothesp

Space - S1-E9

Factual error: The local Pasadena station code is WXDL, however it should start with a K not a W. (00:00:05)

Nothing Important Happened Today II (2) - S9-E2

Factual error: After a short examination of Shannon McMahon with a stethoscope and blood pressure meter Scully definitely claims that physically Shannon is absolutely normal. However, this type of examination cannot reveal any of Shannon's supernatural abilities. In order to prove or disprove that Shannon is a supersoldier, Scully could only examine if she could breathe underwater. (00:19:55)

Chop Luftmysza

Space - S1-E9

Factual error: According to the NASA space shuttle launch countdown procedure, the close-out crew retreats to fallback area in the "T-3 hours and counting" phase. The members of the crew are the last persons who leave the launch pad at least 20 minutes before liftoff. However, during the close-up take of the main engines, when the ground control says "All systems go for APU start", we can see two members of the ground personnel in orange suits near the engines. (00:12:40)

Chop Luftmysza

Millennium - S7-E4

Factual error: When Mulder wants to shoot the third resurrected agent, it turns out that there is no ammunition left in the revolver. In fact, there should be one bullet left. When Frank Black takes the handgun from the necromancer, one can see that the cylinder is full with six bullet. Then, he fires three bullets into the first resurrected agent and two bullets are fired by Mulder into the second resurrected agent. (00:39:05)

Chop Luftmysza

The Sixth Extinction (2) - S7-E1

Factual error: When Mulder is visited by his mother, he definitely shows brain activity, because he is "talking" with her, however there are only flat lines on the monitor. In a similar situation in "The Sixth Extinction" episode, when Kritschgau and Skinner ask him questions and he anticipates them, the monitor shows intensive bursts. (00:01:15)

Chop Luftmysza

Apocrypha (2) - S3-E16

Factual error: At The Beginning of the "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man" episode Frohike says that the CSM appears when Trotsky was assassinated, i.e. 20 August 1940, but he does not claim that this is an exact date of birth. However, he further says that during the Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939-41) the CSM's father "kept NKVD informed on American plans to enter World War II" and for this reason he was executed before the CSM learned to walk. This means that his father could not have been executed earlier than in 1941. Assuming that babies learn to walk between a few months and 2 years, the CSM could not have been born earlier than in 1939. It means that in 1953 he should have been a young teenager, and not an adult man, as he is presented. (00:03:45)

Chop Luftmysza

Bad Blood - S5-E12

Visible crew/equipment: I don't know if this is visible in all formats, but on the newest UK release on DVD, watching in widescreen, it's amazingly obvious. When Mulder recovers from the vampire attack, he gets up from the floor and breaks up a chair to make a stake. There is a shot of his feet as he smashes the legs off and bends to pick up a piece. In the bottom left hand corner of the screen, you can see a crew member's hand carefully and quickly placing a piece of wood on top of the pile for Mulder to pick up.

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Chosen answer: Yes.

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