Best sci-fi TV factual errors of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

More Crossing Lines factual errors
Foundation picture

In Seldon's Shadow - S2-E1

Factual error: Season 2, Episode 1: Two women are diving and need to open an electrical panel. The mother drops the knife she is using to twist off the screws. Her daughter picks up the blade – by the blade and not the handle – and then proceeds to twist the access screws. The screws are on the panel at each front corner. When the panel is removed, there are no front-facing screw holes. All the screws seen are on the inside of the panel to the sides.

toroscan

More Foundation factual errors
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)

More The Man in the High Castle factual errors
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

More The Mandalorian factual errors
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.

More Lost in Space factual errors
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

More Lovecraft Country factual errors
Samurai Jack picture

Show generally

Factual error: Even though the show is called "Samurai Jack", Jack isn't really a samurai. The correct title for him would be a Ronin as a Ronin loses their master if their master dies or loses favor with their master and also has no home anywhere. Jack has these attributes. He has no master and no home.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Nor is his name really Jack. "Jack", and thus "Samurai Jack", is just an alias that the prince takes. It's not meant to be his title or rank. Just like Cowboy Jack wasn't actually a cowboy.

Bishop73

More Samurai Jack factual errors
Terra Nova picture

Vs. - S1-E9

Factual error: The frequency which is used to attract the dragon fly is said to be "sub-sonic" and therefore can't be heard by humans, but the exact frequency is stated to be 38.2 Hz. This is well above 20 Hz, the lowest frequency an average human can hear.

More Terra Nova factual errors
More Fireball XL5 factual errors
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

More Journey to the Center of the Earth factual errors
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters picture

Beyond Logic - S1-E10

Factual error: Season 1, Episode 10: Lee is trying to get out of the underworld on his capsule with the rescued others. They all get in, and he closes the top hatch by turning the hatch wheel clockwise. Trying to take off, a wire becomes disconnected outside, and Lee has to go out again. He turns the hatch wheel clockwise, and this time it opens instead of closing. If it was clockwise for close, it should be counterclockwise to open.

toroscan

More Monarch: Legacy of Monsters factual errors
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

More Wolverine and the X-Men factual errors
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

More Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons factual errors
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

More Dirk Gently factual errors
The Invaders picture

The Leeches - S1-E4

Factual error: When David Vincent lands at the airport, a sign there says, "Welcome to San Diego." When Vincent exits the airport, it says, "Maricopa Airport." There is a Maricopa in California, but the episode takes place in Arizona, as indicated by the license plates on the cars and mentioning the city of Tucson close to the town the episode takes place in.

Scott215

More The Invaders factual errors
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

More Next factual errors
More Space: 1999 factual errors
Intelligence picture

Delta Force - S1-E8

Factual error: Chip-augmented federal agent Gabriel Vaughn is chasing a former Delta Force comrade, now suspected of being a hired assassin in Bolivia. He catches up to the man, telling him to freeze because he's standing in a minefield. Vaughn says the field was planted by "Pinochet," which is wrong, since the episode takes place in Bolivia, and General Augusto Pinochet was the military dictator of Chile. Earlier in the episode, Vaughn is asked what happened between him and his former close friend, and he refers to an incident in Fallujah. But flashbacks of the incident show the two men in Afghanistan in 2006. Fallujah is in Iraq. (00:37:00)

Nightguy

More Intelligence factual errors
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)

More The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance factual errors
Heroes Reborn picture

Company Woman - S1-E12

Factual error: As Ren enters Renautas and meets Emily, the word "Welcome" keeps scrolling in various languages on the screens in the background. Although hardly seen, the Hebrew is wrong, as it is reversed (text from left-to-right, as opposed to right-to-left).

IDFS33140

More Heroes Reborn factual errors

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.