Continuity mistake: When "good" Kirk beams up from the planet, the insignia on his shirt is not there. Then it appears when he's walking with Scotty. (00:03:00 - 00:05:25)
Factual error: In the opening scene on the bridge, when Spock states the planet's properties, the circumference is given in US miles; the mass is given in metric tons; the density is given in metric grams per cubic centimeter; and the atmosphere is given as oxygen/nitrogen. No scientist of Spock’s standing would mix US and metric unit systems. The atmosphere composition should also be stated reversed as “nitrogen/oxygen” with the most abundant gas first. (00:42:00 - 00:59:00)
Suggested correction: That might only true in today's standards. But we have no idea what future generations will choose to make standard.
This is such a trivial criticism that it should be removed to be fair. Whatever measurement standard is used in the future, it will be uniform without mixing of different unit systems.
But that's an assumption based on what you think the future would be like. The British and Americans currently use a mix of different unit systems. While many US students use miles and pounds, they still calculate density as g/cm3.
No scientific or engineering facility on Earth uses imperial measures nowadays, including NASA. That is not going to change.
Revealing mistake: A straight and level seam connecting the top and bottom halves of the tunnel Spock is crawling through is visible.
Suggested correction: Views of the tunnels made before the creature was wounded by Kirk and Spock appear almost perfectly smooth. It is explained that the creature exudes a powerful acid to dissolve the rock. This tunnel was made after the creature was wounded, so it is logical that the wounded portion of the creature would secrete less acid thus leaving an imperfection as the creature tunnels. This could be a case of incredible attention to detail by the set designer rather than an error revealed.
This correction is too much of a stretch to explain a perfect seam by the wounded Horta. Plus, if the Horta was secreting less corrosive substance, then that area would be less eroded, not more. If attention to detail was paid, then the area would have an outward seam, not an inward one.
Is There in Truth No Beauty? - S3-E5
Continuity mistake: At the dinner for Miranda, Kirk drains his glass. No one refills it, but it's nearly full again a few shots later. (00:08:25 - 00:10:35)
Suggested correction: Kirk's glass is not empty at 8:25, it is the top of the decanter in front of his chest that looks like an empty glass in the shot. Later Kirk empties his glass during toasts and refills his own glass as he watches Marvik leave the room.
Shore Leave - S1-E16
Revealing mistake: There is a wooden or straw hut - some kind of man-made structure - visible in the lower-left of the frame behind Kirk and Bones as they walk. (00:12:30)
Suggested correction: They're on a planet where their every thought can be almost instantly created in physical form. Within the context of the episode it wouldn't be unusual to see literally anything in the background. Perhaps one of them was thinking about something involving that structure and it was being constructed for them.
Character mistake: Kirk informs Spock via communicator the Horta is ten feet from him, and Spock insists Kirk kill it. First, both know they cannot kill it with their phasers, and second, Spock's demand for Kirk to kill the Horta runs counter to the Vulcan philosophy of respect for all life. Spock would never want to harm, let alone kill, another life form.
Suggested correction: At this point they don't have any proof that they can't kill it, and since Kirk is in danger, it's logical to try. Also, Spock is half human and he's concerned about his best friend being killed. Logical or not, he'll want Kirk to protect himself at all costs. Other episodes have shown where Spock doesn't always behave logically when his friends are at risk and he lets his emotions come out.
The City on the Edge of Forever - S1-E29
Continuity mistake: At the end, Kirk says "Let's get the hell out of here." Captain Kirk and 6 others were beamed up at the same time, but the Enterprise transporter only has 6 pads; presumably a red-uniformed crew member was lost in space.
Suggested correction: Short version is, the Enterprise has more than one transporter room. The Animated Series references at least four on the Enterprise from this era. There are also cargo transporters, which aren't normally calibrated for personnel, but can be, albeit at reduced capacity and increased energy usage. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Transporter_room.
Continuity mistake: When the "evil" Kirk appears, the Enterprise emblem is missing from his shirt. Then later, when he gets the brandy, the insignia is there. (00:04:45 - 00:06:20)
Suggested correction: When Kirk and Sulu are on the planet, they're shown not wearing the insignia. When "good" Kirk beams up, he too doesn't have the insignia. We just don't know where it came from, it could have been in their pocket.
The insignia is not removable, it's permanently attached. They wouldn't be able to remove it. The idea of a removable insignia wasn't introduced until STTNG.
While it might have been sewn on for production purposes, I saw this episode as indicating it was removable given the fact that they weren't wearing one on the planet. Plus, there have been other officers whose insignia is not sewn on in TOS.
Continuity mistake: In a wide shot of the Capellons and the Klingon walking down the hill, the Klingon trips and falls to the ground and picks himself up. Next shot, tight group with Klingon, he is suddenly brushing off his pants.
Suggested correction: After Kras falls, the next shot you see him still on the ground and starting to stand up, although Maab blocks the view of him. The shot cuts to the rocks and then when it cuts back, you see Kras walk up and stand next to Maab, then he starts to dust himself off.
Suggested correction: Why would he not be doing that in the next shot? There is no continuity issue.
Other mistake: The action is shifting back and forth from the bridge where the alien ship is attacking and sickbay where McCoy is operating on Sarek. In two separate takes when the scene shifts to sickbay McCoy is standing at the operating table. I noticed a wisp of smoke rising from McCoy's right side (left side of screen). It appears to be from a cigarette in an ash tray below camera level either beside McCoy or near the head of Spock's bed.
Suggested correction: This was an intended physical effect to simulate the cryogenic surgery that McCoy was performing on Sarek.
Continuity mistake: When Scotty thwarts Garth, disguised as Kirk, attempts to beam to the Enterprise using the Queen-to-Queen level three code, Kirk throws a tantrum and accidentally loosens one of his controls during his rant right before he turns back to Garth.
Suggested correction: How is that a mistake?
Stupidity: When Gary 7 learns that agents 201 and 347 were killed in an automobile accident, he must take over the mission and save the earth from nuclear war. However, their technology allows them to transport anywhere they want through the vault device. It makes no sense for both agents to drive to McKinley Rocket Base when they could have easily transported there.
Suggested correction: Good point, but it seems more likely that 201 and 347 were executing a careful plan that depended on their cover as normal humans acting normally. Using transporter technology risks discovery. Gary Seven only used the vault transporter as an emergency measure, missed being observed materializing by mere seconds, and was detected by a guard moments later. Same for Kirk and Spock.
Trivia: Although James Doohan's voice is heard over a communicator, he is never actually seen in the episode.
Suggested correction: Stating the obvious is hardly trivia. This is also not the only episode where members of the crew are seen but not heard.
I never knew that! While obvious if you watch the episode itself, bear in mind lots of this is just read by people browsing, reading for background info, not necessarily people watching the show, or who've seen the episode in question.
The Immunity Syndrome - S2-E18
Other mistake: When the probe emits a loud high-pitched tone, everyone is in pain, with the exception of Mr. Spock, who is supposed to have super sensitive hearing.
Suggested correction: Spock has also been shown to be able to control his own pain.
This Side of Paradise - S1-E25
Continuity mistake: As Kirk sits on the deserted bridge, there is nothing out of the ordinary with him. After he sits at the helm position, the camera looks at him over the console, and there's suddenly a spore spewing plant to shoot him.
Suggested correction: The plant did not suddenly appear, it was there from earlier in the episode.
Factual error: Kirk, McCoy, and Spock are chained to the dungeon wall, with McCoy noticing he is next to a skeleton, also chained. This is incorrect, as a skeleton's bones are held together by cartilage, which would rot over time. Therefore, the skeleton would not be hanging intact, but would be a pile of bones on the floor.
Suggested correction: As we learn in the episode, the 2 aliens created the entire castle only recently to appeal to the human's primal fears and superstitions. A pile of bones on the floor would not have the frightening impact of a hanging skeleton.
Other mistake: The time that Kirk winds up in doesn't look anything like the what he was viewing on the disk.
Suggested correction: The entire planet isn't going to look exactly like what he saw on the disk. The disk will show random scenes to give the viewer an idea, but we can't expect the whole planet to match that image.
Plot hole: Commodore Decker takes over command of the enterprise but Spock says if McCoy can certify him incompetent (which he obviously is) he can be relieved of command. McCoy says he will certify him now, so why doesn't he? In other episodes it has been stated that McCoy can order anybody regardless of rank to an examination to see if they are physically or mentally fit.
Requiem for Methuselah - S3-E19
Factual error: Spock plays a piece on a harpsichord that he says is by Brahms, but Brahms was a late romantic composer and the piece is a simple baroque dance piece. Also by the time of Brahms the harpsichord was already obsolete, a composition like this wouldn't be sitting on a harpsichord.
Suggested correction: The first sentence is logical; if Spock is able to recognize the style as Brahms, then it should not possess the style and structure of Baroque music. The second sentence is not necessarily true because some romantic composers did write for the harpsichord. For instance, the late romantic composer Richard Strauss composed, "Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra after Keyboard Pieces by Couperin", which is scored with a harpsichord part.
Deliberate mistake: At the very end, the Talosians send a final visual transmission of Vina and Christopher Pike, now whole and happy and reunited after 13 years, holding hands as they enter the Talosian elevator in the hillside. However, in this last shot, the elevator is still half-disintegrated, exactly as it was 13 years earlier when the Enterprise crew destroyed the hillside with a laser cannon. Within the context of "The Menagerie" storyline, this suggests that the Talosians never attempted to repair the elevator for 13 years (even though they continued using it). This incongruity is due to Gene Roddenberry cannibalizing his Star Trek pilot "The Cage," which contained zero footage of Jeffrey Hunter and Susan Oliver entering the intact elevator together (only the destroyed elevator). So, Roddenberry deliberately tried to "slip one by" the audience in this brief shot.
Suggested correction: There are reasons why the elevator would appear damaged. As the Talosians were in control of everything shown on the ship's viewer, the entire scene could be an illusion, or at least the elevator's condition may have been, with the Talosians choosing to allow the viewers to see the elevator in the same condition they last saw it. Just as likely, however, is that the Talosians truly never did reconstruct the elevator, as the whole point of their having a menagerie of other beings was an attempt to breed a race that could physically serve them, for their concentration on their mental powers had led to a complete inability and unwillingness to perform physical tasks (like repairing an elevator).
Still, as long as the Talosians are creating the illusion of Christopher Pike and Vina in their "restored" bodies, why not create an illusion of the elevator and hillside restored, as well? One big illusion of restoration, rather than a composite of dismal reality and happy-ending illusion? Again, to the point of my original post, the obvious incongruity is due to Roddenberry using the only happy-ending footage he possessed, that of Pike and Vina entering the half-obliterated elevator as they did at the end of "The Cage." Certainly, if Roddenberry only had the foresight to shoot Jeffrey Hunter and Susan Oliver entering the intact elevator, he would have used that footage instead. Any attempt to explain away the 13-year incongruity is mere wishful thinking.
This would qualify as a question, not a mistake. It is entirely plausible that the Talosians wouldn't bother to repair the elevator. It's also possible, as the previous correction points out, that the entire scene is an illusion. Remember, Captain Kirk sees Vina and Pike together on the planet literally moments after Spock wheels Pike out of the room. It's unlikely Pike had already been beamed down.
Suggested correction: This wasn't a continuous shot though, we just don't know where they get the insignia, it could have been in his pocket. Both Kirk and Sulu are on the planet's surface without their insignia. And when "evil" Kirk beams up, he too doesn't have it on, even though later he does.
Bishop73
What possible reason could there be for the Enterprise Insignia, which is stitched to every uniform, to be in 'Evil' Kirk's pocket? No character has done this in any episode of Star Trek. They don't get them from anywhere, they are a part of their uniforms.