Thunderbirds (1964) - 57 mistakes in entire show

Revealing: Throughout the film, whenever part of a wheeled vehicle lifts off the ground, the wheels stop moving instantly. In real life, the wheels would continue to turn at much the same rate, showing that these are unpowered models being pulled along.

Continuity: When Thunderbird 1 prepares for take-off, it moves down a ramp and the launch site is seen at the end. It then cuts to a shot of it moving down the ramp, and then of it arriving at the site. The Thunderbird has suddenly rotated 90 degrees between shots.

Factual error: Whenever we see all the pods moving underneath Thunderbird 2 as Virgil (or whoever) selects the appropriate one for the mission, there's not enough space between them to allow Thunderbird 2 (with its wings) to descend on the selected pod.

Other: Every time Thunderbird 3 is used during a mission, members of the Tracy family enter it by being lowered on the settee onto a mini rail system, which takes them to Thunderbird 3's hangar before a pole raises the settee into the ship. However, during the initial descent, there is usually an empty settee that passes behind the descending one carrying the impending Thunderbird 3 crew, to fill in the resulting hole in the floor. If the ascending one passes behind the descending one then there is no way that it could fill that hole as it would be too far back.

Revealing: When the dummy plane is shot out of the sky by the fighter pilot, a piece of the plane shoots off into the top left of the screen and bounces off the sky background.

Continuity: Near the end of the episode, Jeff activates Operation Cover-Up to change the wall-mounted pictures of the International Rescue members from the usual pictures of them in their uniforms to ones of them in casual clothing before a doctor who has just examined Kyrano enters the room. However, while he and Jeff are talking, a couple of shots of Scott and Gordon contain enough of the pictures to show that they have reverted back the ones of them in uniform.

Visible crew/equipment: At the start of the episode when there are close-ups of Colonel Sweeney's face, studio lights can be seen in the reflection of his sunglasses.

Continuity: Once Frank has started talking for the first time in the episode, he has taken his hat off. Once the Sidewinder has started moving again his hat has reappeared back on his head. The moment it tips on its side his hat is once again off.

Revealing: When Scott has retrieved Virgil from the Pit using The Mole, when it reverses back onto its chassis above ground, you can see dust flying upwards from the ground. It is therefore obvious that this is footage played backwards.

Continuity: When the shaft that Virgil slides down connects to Thunderbird 2, we can see Pod 3 to the right of Thunderbird 2. Seconds after Virgil's chair has locked into place, we see the pods slide across from left to right, including Pod 3. I thought that was to the right of TB2? It couldn't have been quickly moved to the left, as we see that Pod transportation is very slow. It couldn't of been a spare, as there is no sign of it when we see Pod 1, etc, roll to the right.

Continuity: Although the Sidewinder fell on its back, the crew is always seen standing the right way in the control room.

Audio problem: When the Tower Controller says, "How are those fire tenders coming", it is said by Ray Barrett instead of Matt Zimmerman.

Factual error: Although the Thompson Tower is situated in the United States, a sign on the wall of the Control Centre uses the British spelling of 'Centre' instead of the American 'Center'.

Continuity: When Thunderbird 2 leaves the hangar on Tracy Island, it appears that Pod 3 has been selected (Pod 2 is visible to the right of Thunderbird 2), yet when Virgil and Brains arrive at Mount Arkan, the Transmitter Truck emerges from Pod 6. (The same continuity error also occurs in the episodes 'Vault Of Death', 'Move - And You're Dead', 'Martian Invasion', 'The Perils Of Penelope' and 'Day Of Disaster', probably due to the same footage being re-used for those episodes).

Continuity: When Virgil radios to Jeff that he is about to land on Mount Arkon, Jeff asks him what the weather's like, to which Virgil replies: "Pretty stormy, Father. Pretty stormy." Then we cut to an exterior of the airborne Thunderbird 2, which is absolutely covered in snow. Just moments later we get a long shot and suddenly Thunderbird 2 is no longer covered in snow. We then get a close-up of the cockpit view, where we see Virgil and Brains, and Thunderbird 2 is covered in snow again. We soon get another couple of shots where it alternates between Thunderbird 2 not snow-covered and then being covered in snow again.

Continuity: When Alan, Tin-Tin and Scott are lowered while on the settee to enter Thunderbird 3, looking head-on at them we have the three of them sat in that order from left to right as they descend the shaft. However, when it cuts to the long shot, Alan and Scott have magically swapped places. When they are fully raised into Thunderbird 3, Alan and Scott are back in their original positions on the settee.

Visible crew/equipment: When Tin-Tin responds to news of Scott's disappearance, a floor puppeteer's hand (with dirty fingernails) can be seen in the bottom of the screen lifting Tin-Tin from her seat.

Continuity: In the pyramid, we see a closeup of Scott's hand grabbing the gun. The color of his uniform changes for a lighter blue in that shot.

Factual error: An edition of the 'Melbourne Herald' newspaper can be seen in this episode, and appears to be dated Friday, December 24, 1964. Yet 'Thunderbirds' is supposed to be set in the 21st Century (2026 or 2065, depending on who you believe). This date is also seen on newspapers which appear in the episodes 'Edge Of Impact', 'The Impostors' and 'Cry Wolf'. Also, to compound the error, December 24th, 1964 was actually a Thursday, not a Friday.

Plot hole: The Mighty Atom is only supposed to take pictures of human faces yet we see it taking photos of the machinery in the Saharan Plant when no one is in the room.