Best sci-fi TV character mistakes of all time

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Suggested correction: When Diggle is walking away from Felicity, he is still talking to her but it looks like he is talking to Nyssa.

Stephen Edmonds 1

People have already tried to correct this mistake. It is valid. In the scenes prior, Nyssa says Oliver will do what it takes to kill her and Oliver says "tonight, Nyssa Al Ghul faces justice." Nyssa is there to bring the team the news that Oliver is going to try to kill her. Felicity says "Oliver wouldn't", meaning Oliver wouldn't try to kill Nyssa. Diggle says "I think what she's [she being Felicity] trying to say to say is that Oliver would never do anything to hurt you" [you being Nyssa whom Oliver is going to try to kill]. He is meant to say "Nyssa." Otherwise the entire line means Nyssa or Laurel are there to convince Felicity that Oliver would never do anything to hurt Felicity.

Bishop73

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Daredevil picture

Penny and Dime - S2-E4

Character mistake: When Matt is talking to his priest Father Lantom, he says "it was a nice sermon" instead of "it was a nice homily." In the Catholic church "homily" is the correct word; sermons are Protestant. (00:11:30)

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Star Trek: Enterprise picture

Zero Hour - S3-E24

Character mistake: Previous episodes have established this story arc to be occurring in the year 2154. Yet here, when T'Pol records her log, she cites the date as 2152. (00:32:00)

Jean G

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Star Trek: The Next Generation picture

Datalore - S1-E13

Character mistake: At the end of the episode, after Lore has been defeated, Picard asks Data if he is O.K. Data replies, "I'm fine." One of the plot points of this episode is that Data cannot use contractions.

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Suggested correction: That characteristic was not added to the character until season two. In the first season, Data uses contractions on a number of occasions.

It's still a possible mistake, even if it wasn't part of season 1 scripting. Just because we only learn later that Data doesn't use contractions, doesn't make this mistake invalid. We learn Data was specifically constructed that way and hadn't been able to use contraction since being created, which means all of season 1 he shouldn't be using contractions. Although it would probably be best to submit it as a mistake in season 2 when it's mentioned that it contradicts what was established.

Bishop73

It would only be a mistake if he used the contraction after the trait was established for the character.

Possibly, but that's not how mistakes on this site work seem to work. It could still be a valid mistake in the context of the entire show since the character trait had in fact been established. It's the same way for when shows do something like establish a character's birth-date in later seasons, but when episodes from earlier season have the character at the wrong age. Although it would probably be best to submit it as a mistake in season 2 when it's mentioned that it contradicts what was established.

Bishop73

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Doctor Who picture

100,000 BC - S1-E1

Character mistake: When Ian is trying to escape from the TARDIS in episode 1, he says, "He closed the door from over there, I saw him." It was in fact Susan who closed the door.

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Star Trek: Voyager picture

Gravity - S5-E13

Character mistake: Captain Janeway states the temporal differential ratio is .4744 seconds per minute (meaning for every minute on the surface, only .4744 seconds pass on Voyager). Tuvok calculates that 30 minutes on Voyager would be 2 days 11 hours and 47 seconds. However, at that ratio, 30 minutes would be 2 days 15 hours 14 minutes and 15.9 seconds. Later Tom (who was on the surface) says the last two months for them was only 2 days for B'Elanna (who was on Voyager). But with the temporal differential, 2 months on the surface would be less than 12 hours on Voyager. 2 days on Voyager would be almost 253 days (almost 8.5 months) on the surface.

Bishop73

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Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Character mistake: In the first scene with Cameron after she walks away from John next to the lockers, there's a poster on a wall to the left. It contains the word "guidance" misspelled as "guidence".

THGhost

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The Last Ship picture

SOS - S1-E7

Character mistake: The Captain yells to Tex to man the "Fifty cal" but Tex goes to a mounted M240 7.62mm weapon.

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Red Dwarf picture

Lemons - S10-E3

Character mistake: Upon hearing that Lister, Kryten, Cat and Rimmer have travelled from Albion - England - to India the woman in the market expresses surprise that they have travelled "halfway across the known world" just to buy lemons. In 23AD travelling from England to India was all the way across the known world. The Americas, Australasia and China were completely unknown at the time.

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Star Trek picture

The Naked Time - S1-E5

Character mistake: Lt. Joey said to Lt. Sulu "You don't outrank me and you don't have pointed ears" but Joey is a junior grade lieutenant so Sulu would outrank him.

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Falling Skies picture

Live and Learn - S1-E1

Character mistake: Tom Mason makes references to smaller armies defeating larger ones, of which history is rife with examples. He cites the Scottish defeating 'the British' at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. 'The British' did not exist at that time. The Scots administered a beating against the English in the Scottish War of Independence, against the Earl of Surrey, under Edward I. Someone with his level of knowledge would know that.

Stephen_A

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Tru Calling picture

Brother's Keeper - S1-E3

Character mistake: At the end of the episode, after Sarah has been tricked into revealing her plan and is rather obviously going to go to jail, Tru tells her that she "should have taken half," meaning that she should have settled for half of Andrew's money in a divorce instead of trying to get all of it by having him murdered. But Tru seems to be forgetting that Sarah has been trying to divorce Andrew all along, and it's Andrew who has stood in the way of that. Sarah would evidently have been perfectly happy with half, but Andrew prevented it from even being on the table for her, so Tru's comment doesn't make any sense.

DavidK93

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Stargate SG-1 picture

Touchstone - S2-E14

Character mistake: The team are finding out who could have stolen the weather device from Madrona and find an energy spike at the same time SG2 are on a mission. "But SG2's mission is galaxies away from Madrona" Says Teal'c. At this time the only missions the teams could go on was in our own galaxy and couldn't be galaxies away.

Cybermoose

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ALF (1986)

ALF picture

For Your Eyes Only - S1-E6

Character mistake: During the radio show, the radio host gives the radio station's phone number as 555-4455, Alf then softly repeats the number back before he gets to the phone. He then picks up the headset and dials a number, but the numbers he presses on the phone don't match up to the number given by the radio station. (00:04:10)

Justin Davis

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