For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky - S3-E8
Continuity mistake: Kirk orders Sulu to match speed with the asteroid, but in the next external shot the asteroid is closing in on the ship.
The Return of the Archons - S1-E22
Continuity mistake: The U.S.S. Archon wasn't violating the prime directive, the prime directive was formed in 2253.
Mudd's Women - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: Kirk's says that it is Stardate 1329.8 in his opening log entry when the ship is in pursuit of Mudd's vessel. But after Mudd and the women have been brought aboard, Kirk's next log entry says that it is Stardate 1329.1.
Continuity mistake: At the end when the entity left the Enterprise, it came out of the secondary hull, however it left from the engineering dept. The Engineering dept. is located in the back of the primary hull.
Continuity mistake: In the opening scenes, Sulu's retractable viewer isn't there when the Klingon ship approaches on the view screen. But a moment later in a closer shot, the viewer is suddenly in front of him, fully extended. (00:01:05)
Continuity mistake: When Spock orders the phasers to fire, they shoot outward from the ship at an angle from each other, but when they hit the asteroid they converge at a single point. (00:24:00)
Who Mourns for Adonais? - S2-E2
Continuity mistake: Apollo's lightning bolt throws Scotty across the table and dislodges a big bunch of green grapes from the fruit bowl. They fall onto the table. But when Kirk's crew later assemble at the table, the green grapes aren't there, or in the bowl, or anywhere in the temple. They magically reappear in the bowl just after Spock gets through to Kirk on the communicator. (00:18:55 - 00:41:10)
Continuity mistake: When Losira appears to D'Amato, he looks up from his tricorder, startled. The shot then changes angles, and D'Amato looks up at her all over again. (00:11:55)
Continuity mistake: When Scott orders Sulu to fire phasers to punch through the force field, the two phaser beams are diverging when they leave the ship, but converging somehow (space mirrors?) when they strike the planet. (00:41:20)
Continuity mistake: When Kirk is being beamed aboard near the end, the crewman operating the transporter has a single lieutenant's stripe. But in the close-up of his hands on the controls, the stripe changes into the braid of a lieutenant commander. (00:46:40)
The Alternative Factor - S1-E28
Continuity mistake: Mad Lazarus has just put a black-and-white hatch cover over the stolen dilithium crystal in his time ship. It's in place when Kirk arrives to confront him. But a moment later, when Kirk leans in and is accidentally transported to the negative universe, the cover has disappeared. It's still missing when Kirk returns to push Lazarus through the portal. (00:39:20)
The Alternative Factor - S1-E28
Continuity mistake: Kirk keeps referring to Masters as "Lieutenant", even though she has no braid on her sleeve - all Enterprise lieutenants have a single gold braid on each sleeve.
Continuity mistake: The landing party beams down in daylight, but the window inside Mendez's office shows that it's night outside. In the next exterior shot, it's day again. Next shot back in the office: night. (00:00:30 - 00:05:20)
The Corbomite Maneuver - S1-E11
Continuity mistake: After they've blasted the cube, Kirk and Spock are discussing repairs on the bridge. Spock's earpiece is in place one minute, but vanishes the next when the camera angle changes. (00:13:30)
Continuity mistake: When Kirk splits up the landing party, he asks McCoy to further inspect the vegetation. In the two shot, McCoy isn't wearing his tricorder, but in close-up, it's there, strapped over his left shoulder. Cut back to the two shot, though, and it's gone again. (00:10:20)
The Trouble With Tribbles - S2-E15
Continuity mistake: When Kirk is standing in the huge pile of tribbles, he's cradling two large tribbles in his arms in full shots, but only one, and in a different position, in close-ups. (00:40:00)
Continuity mistake: Kirk's arrow strikes the Klingon in the knee. But a few shots later, the shaft is protruding from his thigh, several inches above its original position. Still later, he's holding one hand to his calf just below the knee, which isn't where the arrow was either time. (00:43:40)
The Trouble With Tribbles - S2-E15
Continuity mistake: During the scene when the Klingon agent is exposed by the Tribbles, Kirk first holds the two furballs as if they had a handle on the underside (probably for the parts to make them wriggle). As he turns to Spock (the wide-angle shot), he holds the Tribbles cupped in his hands, his thumbs supporting their flanks. But as Kirk approaches Spock (close-up), he has them 'by the handle' again.
Operation -- Annihilate! - S1-E30
Continuity mistake: When Uhura tells Kirk that she's made contact with his private transmitter she's seated at the communications console, with the two overhead screens above her station, beside the turbo lift alcove. Yet after the contact's been broken, when she tells Kirk, "It's impossible at the moment because they stopped broadcasting," in this unusual shot facing Uhura the turbo lift alcove is not behind her - Uhura is actually seated much closer to Spock's station, note the upper section with overhead screens. Then she's properly seated at her station once again.
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