Doctor Who

The Web Planet - S2-E5

Deliberate mistake: In episode 3 of 'The Web Planet' (titled 'Escape To Danger') watch as one of the Zarbi operators, his vision impaired by the costume, runs right into the camera. So far behind schedule was the recording of this episode, however, that this mistake was retained in the finished episode, as there was no time left for a re-take.

The Green Death - S10-E5

Deliberate mistake: When the Doctor and Benton are throwing fungus at the maggots in episode six, a shot of a chunk of fungus rolling down a hill between two maggots is repeated.

The Ark in Space - S12-E2

Deliberate mistake: In episode three, the Doctor and Vira meet a half-changed Noah. He holds a gun on them, then drops it at Vira's feet and the door is suddenly closed. This is because the scene was originally longer and involved Noah begging Vira to kill him before the Doctor shuts the door. It was trimmed down to get it past BBC censors.

Doctor Who mistake picture

Genesis of the Daleks - S12-E4

Deliberate mistake: Chief of Security Nyder wears an iron cross on his uniform which mysteriously disappears in episode 3 - apparently the producers felt it was too close a reference to Nazism so it was removed from the show. (Source: DVD commentary).

Daz

Destiny of the Daleks - S17-E1

Deliberate mistake: The shot of the alien spacecraft flying in the sky is the same in episode 4 as in episode 1, only it's reversed. The taking off and landing are the same too, except smoke and rubble have been added.

Daz

Castrovalva - S19-E1

Deliberate mistake: The newly regenerated Fifth Doctor is wearing completely different shoes than the Fourth Doctor did in the previous story. This is deliberate. The boots worn by the Fourth Doctor were actually privately owned by actor Tom Baker. Still, a mistake but this is why.

Battlefield - S26-E1

Deliberate mistake: Look for the "creases" in the wall inside the TARDIS, which look as if the wall was just a sheet hung up behind the console. (In fact it actually WAS a sheet and not a "solid" wall - the TARDIS wall prop was apparently unusable due to water damage, due to poor storage between seasons. This also explains the lack of TARDIS interior scenes throughout the rest of season 26: it was not thought worth repairing the TARDIS set [or building a new one] when the show was in imminent danger of being cancelled after season 26).

The Curse of Fenric - S26-E3

Deliberate mistake: One major mishap occurred just prior to editing, when a videotape containing various close-up and insert shots was accidentally wiped. At that point, there was no way that the director (Nicholas Mallett) could go back and rerecord the material, and so he was forced to work without it. This meant using footage that would usually have been discarded or replaced. The 'give aways' that reveal that Mallet had to work around the problems of the missing footage are (a) the lack of any close-ups of any of the actors in the final 10 minutes of episode 4, and (b) the continuity error involving the flames in the laboratory for the same period...the flames go from low to high and back to low from shot to shot.

Planet of the Spiders - S11-E5

Plot hole: At the climax of episode 2, the Doctor is about to catch Lupton when the latter simply teleports to safety. So why didn't he do that in the first place, before engaging in a 15-minute chase?

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The Doctor: This is a situation that requires tact and finesse. Fortunately, I am blessed with both.

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The Chase - S2-E8

Trivia: Such was the popularity of Doctor Who in Britain in the mid-1960s that even the Beatles wanted to make an appearance in the show. So a scene was written into "The Chase" to allow them to appear. The idea had been devised of including a scene on the Time and Space Visualiser depicting a Beatles fiftieth-anniversary concert in 2015, with the Fab Four dressed up as old men. John, Paul, George, and Ringo themselves were interested in the proposition, but it was vetoed by their manager, Brian Epstein. It was then thought that an appearance by the Beatles on Top of the Pops might be used instead, but no such footage was available. Fortunately, the Beatles were scheduled to perform "Ticket to Ride" at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on April 10th, 1965, and that footage was used instead.

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Show generally

Question: In which season and episode is Gallifrey destroyed, or is it just a shocking new plot development for the new series?

Answer: It was never destroyed on-screen; it was intact at the end of the TV movie, and destroyed by the start of the 2005 series. It was destroyed in the novel "The Ancestor Cell," but in a completely different manner to what happened in the series.

DaveJB

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