Doctor Who (2005) - 70 mistakes in entire show

Deliberate "mistake": The final Auton attack in this episode is supposed to take place in a busy London street, but it is a pedestrianised area, and several shots reveal this. For example, there are no road markings visible, no apparent distinction between pavement and road, and a bus stop appears to sit in the middle of the 'road'.

Factual error: In the opening shot of this episode, we see the Earth from space. The camera then zooms into Western Europe, the UK, London, then into Rose Tyler's flat, where a jump cut to an alarm clock shows its 7:30am. But look again at the start of that sequence: it shows that it's daylight over the UK - and over the USA. This is of course impossible. When it is 7:30am in London, it is 2:30am in New York, as Eastern Time is 5 hours behind UK time. Usually, in New York, at 2:30am it is not daylight because it is the middle of the night.

Revealing: The Doctor and Rose locate the "metal" hatch that leads down into the "Plastic's Leader" blob. Watch carefully after the Doctor removes the "metal" hatch and moves it aside. The entire hatch "pops-up" a second later. This is because it is plastic and it was suctioned to the floor.

Continuity: Rose Tyler's hairstyle changes from shot to shot when she is discussing being 'the last human' with Cassandra. Rose's hair is in one style for the long shots, and another style for the close-ups.

Continuity: As the room that Rose is in gets scorched by the blazing sun, the level of burning is above her head in close up shots, but at Rose's shoulder level on wide shots.

Factual error: When Rose is locked in the room and the bodies come toward her, you can see a modern-day electric light-switch to the side of the door she's trying to get through. As the Doctor runs down the hall toward her, you can see a central heating radiator. Both are wildly anachronistic for the time period.

Factual error: Dickens uses the phrase "On with the motley." which is anachronistically incorrect. The phrase translates from "vesti la giubba", a line of dialogue from the opera 'I Pagliacci'. The opera wasn't written until 1892, and wasn't translated into English until 1902 (by Enrico Caruso).

Other: At the end, The Doctor and Rose treat Charles Dickens by making the TARDIS dematerialise in front of him. The engines begin to grind but the twin engine pumps do not move.

Revealing: When the Alien spacecraft crashes into Big Ben, it is obvious that the shot has been reversed/flipped around. Look at the Roman numerals on Big Bens's clock face: They should read (clockwise from the top) XII, I, II, III, and so. Instead they read IIX, IX, X, etc.

Factual error: The reference to the UK needing special "secret launch codes" from the UN is a compete fiction. The UK could launch a nuclear strike without needing permission from the UN. The UK would, however, need permission from the United STATES (not United NATIONS) to launch a nuclear strike, as the Polaris missiles are leased from the US Government (although the UK owns the warheads).

Revealing: Dalek is escaping and enters the large room with the soldiers. He starts the sprinklers so he can kill them faster. When they show the dead soldiers they show some casings which were ejected from the soldiers' guns. The casings still have projectiles in them. If used, they would have been in magazines (clips) and would never fall out like they are shown.

Plot hole: In "Aliens of London" it is established on a 'missing person' poster that Rose Tyler is approximately 19 years of age in March 2005 (The poster says 'missing since 6 March 2005'). This means that she must have been born prior to March 1986. However, in 'Father's Day', which is dated 7 November 1987, Rose is still a baby in her mother's arms - but she should be a toddler aged approx two.

Plot hole: Nancy seems to have the unique ability to whistle with her fingers in her mouth - even though she's wearing gloves.

Continuity: When The Doctor takes to the Nightclub stage to ask if anything has fallen from the sky, he has his right hand and arm up and gesticulating. But in several other shots of him from behind, it is his LEFT arm that is up and moving.

Factual error: Written on the side of the German bomb Jack is sitting on are the words "Schlechter Wolf". which is a mistranslation of the English "Bad Wolf". It should have been "Böser Wolf". Böse = bad, as in evil. Schlecht = bad, as in rotten, as in 'the milk has gone bad'. You are unlikely to say that the milk has 'gone evil'.

Deliberate "mistake": During the scene where Jack is scanning the gas mask people, he has a scanner on his right wrist. However, when he shows Rose and The Doctor his image of the Tula warship, the scanner is on his left wrist. The makers flipped the stretch of film, according to the commentary, to make the shot work.

Factual error: Magnetic tape recorders weren't available outside of Germany during World War II. True the tape recorder could have been captured from the Germans, but, as it was "cutting edge" technology for 1941, it would hardy likely to have ended up in a hospital office.

Factual error: Look closely at some of the freight wagons at 'Limehouse Green' railway station: several of them appear to have 'British Rail Freightliner' livery. This episode is set in 1941, but British Rail did not exist until 1948, and the Freightliner Division did not exist until the 1980s.

Revealing: The 'earthquake' that takes place in this episode results in CGI-created cracks in the pavement that are very unconvincing. They do not appear to displace anything and - in a related continuity error - the cracks disappear in shots taken from ground level (the cracks are only visible in high-level 'looking down' shots.

Factual error: Emergency Service vehicles in Cardiff (indeed, throughout Wales) have their signs in bilingual English/Welsh. So the Police cars and Ambulances seen in this episode should have 'Heddlu'/'Police' and 'Ambwlance'/'Ambulance' bilingual logos. However all the Police Cars and Ambulances seen in this episode have their logos in English only.