Doctor Who

The Doctor's Daughter - S4-E6

Continuity mistake: After the Doctor opens the secret door in the tunnel wall, he puts the sonic screwdriver into his inner jacket pocket. In the next shot he's in, as he says, "Now, what were you saying about running?", he does it again. (00:22:55)

The Unicorn and the Wasp - S4-E7

Continuity mistake: When Robina Redmond is announced, and Lady Eddison says, "She's the absolute hit of the social scene - a must," in the first shot, Lady Eddison is standing close enough to her wheelchair-bound husband to cast a shadow on him. In the second shot, the distance between them has suddenly increased. (00:05:10)

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Unicorn and the Wasp - S4-E7

Continuity mistake: After questioning the houseguests, the Doctor and Agatha are talking. She uses the phrase "little grey cells", and the Doctor responds, "Oh, yes, little grey cells. Good old Poirot." When he does this, he's holding a saucer in his left hand and rests a teacup he's holding in his right hand atop it, as he turns toward the chair that the suspects were sitting in. In the next shot, as he walks over and sits in the chair, he is suddenly holding the teacup and saucer in his right hand, with his left hand in his pocket. (00:13:55)

The Unicorn and the Wasp - S4-E7

Continuity mistake: After explaining that he's laced the soup with pepper, the Doctor, when he says, "Anyone got the shivers?", turns his head from looking to his left so he's looking in front of him. In the following wide shot, his head is turned to his left again. (00:26:10)

The Unicorn and the Wasp - S4-E7

Continuity mistake: At the lake, when the Doctor stands in front of Agatha and tells the Vespiform, "You're not meant to be like this! You've got the wrong template in your mind!", in the close-up shot he has his left arm raised, but in the Vespiform's POV shot he has his right arm raised. (00:39:45)

Silence in the Library (1) - S4-E8

Continuity mistake: After Miss Evangelista is killed, we see her communicator as her "ghost" slowly fades. In one shot we see from a slight distance the lights left lit tick down to 3, then a short while passes, we cut back and the lights are back to 4. They then tick down to 3 again.

Jon Sandys

Doctor Who mistake picture

Forest of the Dead (2) - S4-E9

Continuity mistake: After the Doctor tints Anita's visor, as he explains to River that he did it to try and trick the Vashta Nerada into thinking they're already inside Anita's suit, the position of his right hand, holding the sonic screwdriver, and the fingers of that hand change position between shots. (00:10:25)

skater49th

Forest of the Dead (2) - S4-E9

Continuity mistake: When the Doctor realises that the Vashta Nerada infesting the Library came from the books, he rubs the back of his head with his right hand, with his left hand in his trouser pocket. When Other Dave speaks, and the Doctor turns to him and discovers he's been eaten, he takes his left hand from the back of his head, with his right hand in his pocket. In the shot after that, his left hand is back in his pocket with his right hand in position as if he'd removed it from the back of his head. (00:18:30)

skater49th

Forest of the Dead (2) - S4-E9

Continuity mistake: Near the end of "Silence in the Library," a sweeping shot shows that they're standing between two freestanding bookshelves. But at the beginning of this one, when they're supposed to be in the same place, they're able to break through a wall into a separate room.

Turn Left - S4-E11

Continuity mistake: After the TV signal cuts out due to the crash of the Titanic, when Sylvia says "It's gone dead" while searching for a channel, she moves her arm with the remote forward the same as she did in the previous, wider shot. (00:18:57)

skater49th

Turn Left - S4-E11

Continuity mistake: The house that Donna and her family are shown living in in Series 4 is different from the house the Doctor dropped her off at at the end of her first appearance, "The Runaway Bride." You would assume they'd merely moved - except that in this episode, Donna and her family are shown living in their Series 4 house before the events of "The Runaway Bride", on the day Donna gets the job that leads to her meeting the Doctor in the first place.

The Stolen Earth (1) - S4-E12

Continuity mistake: When the TARDIS is breaking through the time limit to reach the stolen planets, the console room catches on fire from the strain. But after reaching its destination, the console room is abruptly back to normal. (00:35:05)

skater49th

The Stolen Earth (1) - S4-E12

Continuity mistake: In the scene toward the end where the Doctor is shot by the Dalek, when the camera is shooting from Rose's point of view, the Doctor is gasping and struggling for breath. However when the camera shows the Doctor from behind, he's lying completely still in Rose's arms. The camera cuts back to Rose's POV and he's struggling again, with no time in between for the change in his movements. (00:43:35)

More mistakes in Doctor Who
More quotes from Doctor Who

Season 2 generally

Trivia: "Torchwood" is an anagram for Doctor Who. Russell T Davies came up with it during the filming of Series 1 to label the tapes in order to prevent theft and potential leakage, and decided to use the name in the show proper.

More trivia for Doctor Who

Season 1 generally

Question: 1. Why was Rose not allowed to touch her past self without creating a paradox and causing those creatures to appear and eat everyone, but Amy was allowed to touch her younger self without any repercussions? 2. Why was Rose able to have the time vortex in her head for a few minutes and it only knocked her unconscious whereas the Doctor had it inside him for about 30 seconds and it basically killed him and caused his regeneration?

strikeand

Chosen answer: 1) When Stephen Moffat took over he ignored a lot of what had been developed before (there is not in-universe answer). 2) It would have killed Rose, so the Doctor absorbed the energy. His body regenerated before the energy could do a significant amount of damage that would prevent regeneration.

More questions & answers from Doctor Who

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.