Best sci-fi TV factual errors of all time

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The Man in the High Castle picture

Kindness - S1-E9

Factual error: In the transition shot showing Hobart Building in San Fransisco, items not belonging to the scene are visible and have not been edited out. These items include; modern phone numbers, web addresses for several companies and educational institutions, satellite dishes and American flags. (00:24:10)

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The Mandalorian picture

Chapter 10: The Passenger - S2-E2

Factual error: The premise of the episode is that Mando needs to travel at sublight speed or else the fragile eggs will die. They need to travel to a nearby star system, though, not just a planet. Stars can't be too close together, so Mando is in for a trip that would take him literally years, which is not reflected at all by what is shown in the episode. (00:08:00)

Sammo

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Lovecraft Country picture

Show generally

Factual error: In Massachusetts, Atticus, Leti and George are attacked by the local sheriff and his deputies, who are patrolling the county roads. In Massachusetts, sheriffs run the county jails, but they do not (and did not) handle routine policing, which is the responsibility only of municipal police departments.

Necrothesp

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3rd Rock from the Sun picture

Y2dicK - S4-E17

Factual error: Mary gives Dick directions to press Command-Q to close something. As Dick is using a Compaq computer which would be running Windows, he would not have a Command key and would instead have a Control key (which he actually is pressing) as the Command key exists only on Apple Macintosh computers. Ctrl+Q on a Windows machine doesn't do anything. (00:09:10)

Douglasac

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X-Men: Evolution picture

Adrift - S2-E6

Factual error: The map of the western United States shown during the weather report at the start of the episode shows some states drawn incorrectly. Idaho's entire western border is a straight line, whereas in real life, Oregon has a horn-shaped indentation on its northeastern border that it shares with Idaho. Idaho also looks like a crude staircase, with the southwestern border of Montana going down to central Wyoming, whereas that area in real life is around the northwestern part of Wyoming.

Phaneron

More X-Men: Evolution factual errors
The Andromeda Strain picture

Show generally

Factual error: When the doctors are testing the contagiousness of Andromeda on the rats and monkey, in a highly secure, bio-sealed environment, the robotic arm that does the work simply pushes the containers together - no seals, no suction or vacuum. There would be absolutely no chance whatsoever of a real bio-research lab doing this so casually.

DavidRTurner

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Taken picture

Show generally

Factual error: In the opening sequences of the show, B-17s are over the Ruhr in August 1944, and yet they're being attacked by nothing but yellow-nosed BF-109E's. The yellow nose was discontinued at about the end of the Battle of Britain, and the "E" model was discontinued even before that.

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Journey to the Center of the Earth picture

Show generally

Factual error: The group finds an underground sea and there is a flock of pterosaurs flying overhead. The professor identifies the pterosaurs as the missing link between pterodactyls and archaeopteryx. This is not true as archaeopteryx (and other birds) did not descend from pterosaurs but from a branch of theropod dinosaurs.

Noman

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Foundation picture

In Seldon's Shadow - S2-E1

Factual error: Season 2, Episode 1: Cleon is fighting some "ninja" warriors. One of them slices part of an android's head clean off, below the right eye. When the android is next seen - with part of its head cut off - the slice is above the right eye. The right eye is fine.

toroscan

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Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons picture

Manhunt - S1-E4

Factual error: When we see the SPV escaping from the Culver Atomic Centre, it is night time. However, when we see Number 3 Tracking Vehicle, it has changed back to daytime.

Jcamts

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Wolverine and the X-Men picture

Overflow - S1-E4

Factual error: When the X-Men are surfacing after crashing their jet into the dam, Shadowcat is shown phasing through the jet and pulling Wolverine and Beast through with her. Since Wolverine's bones are coated with a heavy metal, he wouldn't be able to float to the surface. He would sink instead. (00:14:57)

Phaneron

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Terra Nova picture

Show generally

Factual error: Carnotaurus and Brachiosaurus didn't exist at the same time. (Brachiosaurus 157-145 million years ago and Carnotaurus 72-69 million years ago). The show talks about taking place 85 million years ago, and Carnotaurus lived in what's now South America. Brachiosaurus lived in North America and Africa.

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Dirk Gently picture

Pilot - S1-E1

Factual error: When Susan is sorting Ruth's things, she finds Gordon's iPhone wrapped in a newspaper from 1994 with her voice-mail to him and realizes he went back in time, where Ruth killed him and took the phone from his corpse. Even if the phone had been turned off, after 16 years idle, the battery would have died long ago, but we see the phone is on with her message waiting. (00:55:50 - 00:56:45)

Captain Defenestrator

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The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance picture

The Crystal Calls - S1-E9

Factual error: At the end when Skeksis enters the crystal chamber, in the overhead shot you can see 22 arcane symbols around the crystal when there should only be 18, one for each exiled skeksis. (00:45:53)

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Next picture

FILE #1 - S1-E1

Factual error: Paul tells Shea that he has a condition called Sporadic Fatal Insomnia. Later, Shea finds a fork in a bag labelled Abby. Paul explains that Abby is his daughter, and he wants to test her DNA, because she has a 50-50 chance of contracting the disease. This is false. Sporadic Fatal Insomnia is not hereditary. Fatal Familial Insomnia is genetic and is the inherited form.

toroscan

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Doom Patrol picture

Puppet Patrol - S1-E3

Factual error: When Jane is putting up the lost poster, the number to call is 1-800-saw-him. However, this is only a 6-digit phone number when it needs to be 7-digits (not including the 1-800 part).

Bishop73

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Lost in Space picture

Show generally

Factual error: The Robinsons exceeded the speed of light due to impurities in chemical rocket fuel. No chemical rocket fuel comes remotely close to the energy content needed to even approach the speed of light. That would require exotic fuels like antimatter. By Einstein's theory of Special Relativity it is impossible to exceed the speed of light with any form of rocket propulsion. Faster than light travel and time travel might be possible with the warped spacetime of Einstein's general theory of relativity and phenomena such as wormholes. For plausibility the opening scene should have been an encounter with a wormhole.

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