X

Quotes

Capt. Picard: Engage!

See more...

Mistakes

About two minutes into the episode, in a scene where Riker and Picard go to meet admiral Jameson in the transporter room, just as they are about to enter the turbolift Picard opens his mouth really wide as if making a funny face to someone inside the turbolift. Although it was filmed from the side it is quite easy to spot. See more...

Trivia

Data's performance of Henry V was based, in part, on the 1989 film by Kenneth Branagh. In 1980, Patrick Stewart appeared in the TV movie Hamlet, Prince of Denmark with Derek Jacobi, who in turn appeared with Branagh in Henry V. See more...

Picture

Movie Mistakes blog

Popular blog posts:

Top 15 biggest Harry Potter film mistakes

The 10 biggest mistakes in Iron Man 1 & 2

15 biggest mistakes in Titanic

30 Biggest mistakes in the Star Wars movies

The 20 biggest mistakes in Jurassic Park

Other great sites

Anything Hollywood

Bits & Pieces

Book mistakes

Bullz-Eye Movies

CanMag

Daily Stab

Defamer

Double Viking

EHOWA

Film Drunk

Foundry Music

Game mistakes

Geek Tyrant

Gone Hollywood

Hollyscoop

Hollywood Outbreak

I Am Bored

I Love Bacon

Joblo movie news

Movie Buzz

Movie spoilers

Movie timeline

Other crap

Rock Paper Everything

Screenjunkies

Sky movie reviews

Something Really Funny

Tengossip

Trailer Addict

Unreality Magazine

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) - 109 corrections

starring Brent Spiner, Denise Crosby, Gates McFadden, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Patrick Stewart, Wil Wheaton (add more)

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Where is Star Trek: The Next Generation ranked on the ultimate best to worst list? Cast your vote and find out!

Mistakes
Trivia
Pictures
Quotes
Corrections
Questions
Submit

Season: Whole show  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  All

Across whole show

Data's cat, Spot, is referred to as 'he' in the earlier series. However, in series seven the same cat has babies. [When Spot has her kittens Data says to someone. "She is not a he after all". Even Data makes mistakes.]
Edit
The Enterprise has an automatic fire extinguishing system, utilized in "Up the Long Ladder", but apparently is very selective when it want to put fires out. It never puts out fires in many other episodes, be it a fire from a candle (Firstborn), a bonfire (Masks), or an out of control fire (Masks), just to name a few. [If a person has a need or a desire to disable the fire suppression system they can do. The Candles feature alot in Klingon culture & as such Worf uses them alot, other people on the ship could also use them for their religious ceremonies & as the Federation is a great believer in all sorts of freedoms & personal expressions they let people celebrate things how they want as long as it doesn't endanger people. The fire suppression system (like other systems on the ship) is also prone to damage & invasion by other, older computer programes (remember "Contagion") which could stop it from operating]
Edit
Anytime the crew is faced with a person that claims to be a time traveller or a crew member acts different and claims it's from time displacement the rest of the crew's first response is skepticism. Why? On average, the Enterprise gang deals with time travel once or twice a month. One would think the logical response would be to say "OK, someone grab a tricorder and lets scan for time travel events." This is especially evident in the series finale. [Let's start with the time travellers and time displacements that happen on the ship, excluding the final episode. I can't think of a single example were the individual wasn't believed (with a little proof), outside of the episode dealing with Worf and quantum realities. But there, he wasn't traveling through time, but through different realities and he thought he was going crazy. Travellers and displacments off the ship: It isn't a simple tricoder scan that tells them about the time displacments. They need deep medical scans, something the tricoder is unable to provide. The series finale: Picard didn't reveal to the past Enterprise about his time shifts: He didn't want to pollute the time line. He informed the present Enterprise and they began to look for proof that it happened. He informed the future crew and they disbelieved because of his degenerative disease. His *** syndrome had effects on the brain including psycosis. The future believed that it was his disease taking full effect.]
Edit Corrected by Rlvlk
Throughout the Star Trek series, when there is a medical emergency or a security situation, why don't they use the site to site transporters to get people to where they need to be? Seconds matter in an emergency but they take the time to move injured people via the corridors. [Site-to-site transports require a great deal of power, so are only used in absolute emergencies. Generally speaking, if there are injuries on board, the Enterprise would almost certainly have taken damage and will probably be in an alert status, where power will be required for the primary systems like the shields, engines and weapons. As such, the necessary power to perform site-to-site transports would not be made available except in cases of the utmost urgency.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
Throughout the entire Star Trek series, space explosions, weapons fire, ship engines, etc. can be heard in many shots originating in space. However, in space there is no sound. These events should be silent. [True, but this mistake is true for virtually all sci-fi movies and tv shows, so producers need to be given creative license in this area for dramatic effect.]
Edit
Even though living matter, especially complex living matter, cannot be created and taken out of the holodeck, the ship's replicators can create food which includes meat, salad, etc. [That's because there is real food here (bland and tasteless, yet nutritious) that has only been disguised as another food which the consumer would enjoy more. The signals which disguise the foods' appearance also send impulses to your brain, which trick it into thinking that what you're eating not only looks; but also smells, feels, and tastes like meat or salad or whatever.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
In series 7, episode "The Pegasus" it is revealed that it has been 9 years since Riker served above the Pegasus. It is also stated that this was Riker's first position since leaving the academy. By this point in the series, Riker must have been the Enterprise's 1st officer for at least a few years (probably 7 as this is the 7th series, but let's say 4, as a timescale is rarely mentioned in the whole series). Furthermore he was already a 1st officer before he got the gig on the flagship, so let's say he was already a 1st officer for a year before TNG. So if he has been a 1st officer for 5 years, are we to assume that it only took 4 years after graduation for Riker to go from cadet to commander? Also, Riker was offered his own command in series three, meaning that it would have only taken him around 6 years to become captain. There's an episode where Data told Q that in order to be captain it takes years after leaving the academy - he definitely says one would have to spend 8-12 years in the lieutenant grades alone. Riker is good, but he's not that good. [There is not a formula for how fast someone get promoted, it's based on a lot of things, not just years of service, or years at a certain rank. Since we do not have all of the information, we do not know the reasons why he may have been promoted faster than the typical person.]
Edit Corrected by pross79
Stars, ships, etc. are visible behind the ship despite the fact that it's traveling faster than light. [The ship is, technically, *not* travelling faster than light. The warp engines bend space-time and shorten the distance the ship has to travel. Since this technology is entirely fictitious, how objects existing outside the ship's warp field [stars, planets, other ships, etc] appear is entirely up to the creators.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez

The Neutral Zone (series 1)

The model of the Enterprise in Raymond's quarters has the warp nacelles on backwards. [When in the episode is the model described as being of the Enterprise? Not an error.]
Edit Corrected by johnrosa

Conspiracy (series 1)

At the end of the scene where Admiral Quinn is first walking around the Enterprise with Picard and Riker, a male crew member can be seen wearing a female officer's dress uniform. [Not a mistake. That was a normal uniform variation at that point in the show. It wasn't seen a lot, but it was intentional- not a mistake.]
Edit Corrected by johnrosa

Skin of Evil (series 1)

In the episode "Skin of Evil", right after Commander Riker gets pulled into the sludge type black substance watch the left side of the screen. When the away team looks into it after Riker's face comes out of the sludge you will see something plop into the goo, that was Geordi's phaser falling out of his holster when he leaned over the pool of goo. [Not a mistake, as it is possible to lose things like this in real life. The mistake is, however, that the phaser reappears later, which is already listed on this site.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
Geordi's phaser falls out when the away team moves to help Riker and gets sand on it. After Picard beams down it's back in Geordi's holster, clean and shiny. [It was several minutes before Picard beamed down, more than enough time for Geordi to pick up his phaser and dust it off.]
Edit
When Armus engulfs Riker and then covers the shuttle, shouldn't there be a bulge to show the first officer's position? [We do not know the exact nature of Armus or his abilities, so we cannot say for sure if such a bulge should appear.]
Edit Corrected by wizard_of_gore
When Riker is dragged into the pool of goo, his head reappears for just a moment, then is pulled back into the pool. Note that his mouth is open and fills with goo, but his mouth is above the surface. Obviously this is a mask that is pulled under. [The pool of goo is a living, shape shifting entity called Armus. If Armus wanted to only partially fill Riker's mouth with some of himself, it surely would have been in his power.]
Edit Corrected by Rlvlk
When starting the warp-core the matter / antimatter is injected in the ratio 25:1. Four episodes earlier (S01-18, Coming of age) Wesley solves the trick question at the Starfleet entrance exam with the only solution : The ratio has to be 1:1. [Is this the proper ratio for a Galaxy class or a generic warp core? 1701-D is Starfleet's newest, most advanced vessel. It's possible that her core uses a different procedure for start up. Also, academies historically use older equipment for training purposes, since the state of the art is "on the front lines", making it even more likely that procedures on Enterprise are different from those in other vessels.]
Edit Corrected by Grumpy Scot Time
When the away team goes down to the planet, the oily blob blocks their path, like a moving moat, and Riker gets sucked into that. But later, the blob returns to covering the shuttle craft like it did before they arrived. But Riker is still inside it, he is released only later. So the moat is temporarily gone. Where is he supposed to be during the time that the black blob covers the shuttle? [The material and properties that comprise Armus (the oily blob) are unknown - since the tricorders cannot scan it. So we can only extrapolate from what we see and hear. When Riker is absorbed by the entity, he is essentially made part of the oily blob. in other words, he's liquefied. So Riker is still a part of Armus when it envelops the shuttle, he just doesn't have his physical form.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
In the very beginning shots of the Enterprise, the nacelles are not lit even though the ship is moving. [Picard clearly states in his log entry "Because engineering is involved in preventative maintenance of our dilithium crystals we are presently travelling on impulse power" the impulse engines are located at the stern of the saucer section.]
Edit

Heart of Glory (series 1)

The Klingon Korris makes reference to the Klingons' homeworld as "Kling." - "I refuse to let the traitors of Kling pick the meat from my bones." This is the first and only time the Klingon home planet is called "Kling" - it is later "officially" named Qo'noS in the sixth Star Trek movie. [They actually say "Kli", not "Kling". It's like "Earth" and "Terra" - two names for the same planet. But if you analyse the word klingon, the litteral translation to english is "inhabitant of Kli". With this same rule, humans (terrans) are called "terrangans" in the klingan english dictionary.]
Edit

Coming of Age (series 1)

Jake Kurland is described as a skilled shuttle operator, yet he still manages to unbalance the shuttle's engines. [Licensed surgeons (whom we can assume are 'skilled' based on their schooling and licensing) have been known to leave surgical instruments inside patients. Pobody is nerfect. Not a 'mistake' or 'plot hole'.]
Edit Corrected by johnrosa
After Captain Picard guides Jake Kurland safely through his encounter with a planet's gravity, Picard instructs Kurland to report to Mister Riker. Riker is a Commander and the Executive Officer (XO); Mister is a title used as a rank honorific for someone holding a lower rank and not for the XO. [He is the captain of the ship. He has the privilege to call lower-ranked officers "Mister".]
Edit Corrected by LorgSkyegon

1 2 3 4 5 6 • Next page • Show all