Continuity mistake: The Organians cause all the weapons to overheat, and everyone drops them to the floor. When Kor moves to the desk to call his ship, though, he's wearing his disruptor. It's gone again when he returns. (00:41:45)
Continuity mistake: Sulu's hooded viewer is up as he reports that the Defiant is starting to drift. In the next shot, a reverse angle showing the screen, the viewer disappears. This recurs throughout the episode. (00:06:10)
A Piece of the Action - S2-E17
Continuity mistake: In the very first scene after the intro, when Bela's goons hold the landing party at gunpoint, Spock's position on the sidewalk shifts back and forth from standing on the other side of a wooden bench to standing alongside Kirk and McCoy with no bench in between. In fact, in the latter shots, the bench has moved all the way across the street. (00:04:50)
Continuity mistake: At the end, when Kirk and Garrovick are beamed up seconds before the explosion, Kirk is holding his communicator up to his mouth with both hands. But when they finally materialize on the Enterprise, Kirk's hands are down at his sides: no communicator in sight. (00:47:00 - 00:48:10)
Continuity mistake: The aging Kirk's hairline has receded considerably. When he ages still more and goes completely gray, however, the receding process inexplicably reverses itself, and he suddenly has much more hair on his forehead than before. (00:34:35 - 00:43:55)
Continuity mistake: During the attack on the outpost, as Spock arrives in his foxhole, Kirk puts down the box of ammunition and positions the grenade launcher. We cut to a higher angle as Spock scrambles around to the Captain's left, and Kirk is putting the box down and positioning the launcher all over again. As the action was supposedly continuous, there wasn't time for Kirk to pick the items up and set them down a second time. (00:08:40)
The Return of the Archons - S1-E22
Continuity mistake: The lawgivers' robes that Kirk and Spock take off and drop on the floor just inside the doorway disappear after they phaser the wall to reveal Landru. The robes reappear a few minutes later, but have now migrated several feet to one side, bunched up against the wall where they are no longer in tripping range of the actors about to enter the scene. (00:42:25 - 00:45:00)
Continuity mistake: When Kirk orders the crew to fire phasers; the exterior shots show the ship firing torpedoes, and torpedo explosions flashing out in space.
The Trouble With Tribbles - S2-E15
Continuity mistake: Kirk is holding three large tribbles while talking to Uhura on the bridge. After McCoy enters, the tribbles keep changing positions in Kirk's hands as the shots cut back and forth. (One on top and two underneath, then two on top, etc.). (00:31:45)
Shore Leave - S1-E16
Continuity mistake: Finnegan flips Kirk over his shoulder near the end of their fight. When Kirk lands, his uniform is still completely intact, but when we cut to a close-up, his shirt is suddenly shredded. (00:38:30)
Continuity mistake: Lincoln asks Kirk if they measure time in minutes and Kirk replies "We can convert it." In every previous episode they've always used minutes - their ship chronometers are still set to minutes.
Continuity mistake: The leather strap with which the Troglytes lasso Spock disappears and reappears repeatedly from around his waist and shoulders during the scuffle at the mine entrance. (00:04:30)
The Empath - S3-E12
Continuity mistake: After partially healing him, Gem falls away from McCoy and lands, unconscious, perpendicular to the dais he's lying on. When Kirk and Spock rush over, however, she's suddenly moved several feet away and is now lying parallel to the dais. (00:44:50 - 00:45:35)
A Piece of the Action - S2-E17
Continuity mistake: While Kirk and McCoy attack the other two henchmen, Spock shoulder-pinches the card-playing gangster. In the very next shot, Spock's position has jumped from behind the now-unconscious man to several feet away, where he is bending over to retrieve the guns from the floor. (00:16:30)
The Gamesters of Triskelion - S2-E16
Continuity mistake: At the end, the freed thralls, including Kirk, Chekov and Uhura, remove their collars and throw them onto the game platform. But when Kirk and his crew beam away, the collars have all disappeared. (00:48:40)
Continuity mistake: McCoy uses a "masking device" to block out the bridge personnel's heartbeats. When McCoy masks Spock's heartbeat, he holds the microphone, err, masking device over the wrong part of Spock's anatomy. We'd already established that Spock's heart wasn't in the same place as a human.
Continuity mistake: When Miramanee and her companion first see Kirk at the obelisk, the two women are standing, holding their fruit baskets, just inches from each other. In the very next, reverse angle shot, they're suddenly several feet apart. (00:09:10)
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky - S3-E8
Continuity mistake: Natira orders the landing party to kneel before the oracle. Spock does so about a foot-and-a-half to McCoy's left. As the shots change, Spock "jumps" to McCoy's immediate side, then back to his original position, etc. (00:10:35)
The City on the Edge of Forever - S1-E29
Continuity mistake: While he and Kirk discuss the history tapes in their room, Spock's shirt collar is turned up on the left side in close-ups, but straightened out in the full shots. (00:32:55)
Chosen answer: If they're in orbit, they're being pulled along by the planet's gravity well, therefore, impulse engines would only be used for minor corrections and would be "on standby" while in orbit, but not active. (Like keeping your car idling without revving the engine and creating plumes of exhaust).
Captain Defenestrator
Thank you for the info.
Movie Nut