Best sci-fi TV mistakes of all time

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The Invisible Man picture

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Plot hole: "Sight Unseen": Wells has the key to Lori's shackles. Weston, who knows this, knocks Wells out, but instead of taking his keys, uses a completely unnecessary (and considerably more difficult) set of bolt cutters to break the leg cuffs. (00:32:30)

Jean G

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Jericho picture

Heart of Winter - S1-E14

Continuity mistake: Just before the robbery, Jake throws some water bottles and a flashlight over a small mound into the bushes, to hide them from the thieves. But when Mimi later picks them up, they are much closer to the truck, and on the other side of the mound. In fact, the bottles and flashlight would have been in plain sight for the robbers where she picks them up.

Twotall

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The Outer Limits picture

The Human Factor - S1-E8

Continuity mistake: When the lab equipment shorts out after the earthquake, the unconscious Major Brothers is lying with his head propped up against the wall. But when Hamilton reaches him in the next shot, he's suddenly lying flat and is nowhere near the wall. (00:21:45)

Jean G

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Dark Angel picture

Flushed - S1-E4

Revealing mistake: When Logan goes looking for Max at Jam Pony, as he starts talking to Normal there is a woman in a blue jacket with a black-and-yellow bike helmet walking behind him. She travels past the group and can be seen heading for the lockers behind OC and Sketchy. After Normal says, "I can't help you," the same woman walks behind Logan again, going the same direction. (00:16:55)

Phoenix

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Continuity mistake: It is established that having matter from one universe in another causes it to deteriorate, but the parallel universe doorway closed, even though the photo of Ben and Buster is left in the alternate house. There was brief panic that the chaos wasn't over, when they thought Buster had brought a new collar from the alternate reality, but the photo was forgotten about and the worm-hole thing closed, despite the photo being on the wrong side.

Dan Moat

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The Sarah Jane Adventures picture

Sky: Part 1 - S5-E1

Continuity mistake: The baby carrier little Sky is in as the group heads towards the car changes between takes. When they are walking down the driveway, it is open, and Sarah Jane quickly closes it when Gita comes up. Gita opens the carrier, to discover the baby, and Sarah Jane closes it again. There is more dialogue and Gita goes back to cooing at the baby. When did the carrier open again? Then the car alarms go off and if you look closely, you can see it's closed again, which is confirmed when the baby is handed off to Clyde.

Trigger

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Dollhouse picture

Ghost - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the motorbike scene, Matt performs a wheely and overtakes Echo. In the following shot Echo is in front of him again.

THGhost

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Revolution picture

Dreamcatcher - S2-E15

Plot hole: Every time the nanos stop absorbing electricity (for whatever reason), street lights, radios, everything 'on the grid' immediately starts to come back on. No re-building infrastructure, no restarting turbines, etc., even 15 year old streetlights lying on the ground, in the middle of nowhere.

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

Suggested correction: Not entirely true; although they are rare and may no longer exist now, I've seen traffic lights that followed the red, yellow, green pattern as recently as the mid-1990s.

zendaddy621

Interesting. What state (s) did you see this in? I'm assuming going from red to yellow was to encourage cars to cautiously enter the intersection in case someone was running a red light?

Phaneron

Traffic lights in the UK do this - it's more to give you a second to get ready, in gear, etc., then as soon as the lights turn green you can go. Otherwise you get no warning of when the lights are about to change.

In Illinois; as I said, such traffic lights are rare, but they did exist at least as recently as the time this episode of the series aired, and they may still possibly exist in larger cities such as New York City.

zendaddy621

This traffic light set-up (red to yellow to green) still exists today in the UK. From what I understand, it is to alert the driver that the light will be turning green imminently and to prepare themselves to put their car in gear, as manual cars are still pretty common in Europe. I'd wager this light cycle was phased out of North America due to the abundance of automatic cars today. Could have been different in 1994 though.

critterbonus

It should be noted that traffic lights that go from red to yellow before going green keep the red light illuminated so that both red and yellow are lit up. However, that's not what happens in the scene. I've never seen a traffic light operate the way it's shown. And Massachusetts still has traffic lights that go from red to yellow, however, when red and yellow are lit up together, this allows for pedestrian crossing.

Bishop73

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Map of the Seven Knights - S5-E10

Factual error: The Czech crime database (which appears to be an official Czech database) is headed 'Czechoslovakia'. Czechoslovakia has not existed since the Czech Republic and Slovakia separated in 1993 and neither country uses the term any more.

Necrothesp

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The Incredible Hulk picture

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Continuity mistake: Whenever Banner changes into Hulk his clothes rips, only his pants stays on. But when Hulk changes back to Banner, he suddenly has all his clothes on, no rips or tears at all.

Budoshi

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Invasion picture

First Day - S1-E10

Continuity mistake: Invasion 2021 Season 1 Episode 10 While riding in a car with Hitomi's father, he recalls that she loved a compass she had. She would take it everywhere and loved to follow the red arrow north. But later, when Hitomi's girlfriend finds the compass among her things, the arrow is black with a white tip.

toroscan

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Eureka picture

In Too Deep - S5-E8

Plot hole: Carter is apparently just learning about Feynman's Day, which Allison explains as "Eureka's version of April Fool's Day." It's highly improbable that Carter could have lived in Eureka for five years and still be oblivious of this, especially given all of the hijinks that happen.

Knever

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Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons picture

Winged Assassin - S1-E2

Revealing mistake: As Delta Tango 19 takes off from the airport, there is a shot where it is actually landing. This can be seen from the fact that there is no runway behind them, as it is in front of them.

Jcamts

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Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog picture

Act II - S1-E2

Continuity mistake: During "Brand New Day", at one point, Dr. Horrible stabs a picture of Captain Hammer attached to a dartboard with a handful of darts, all right in the center of the picture. A few shots later as Dr. Horrible sits, suddenly the darts are far-more spread out. (It's in the background and can be hard to see, but it's noticeable.)

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Agent Carter picture

Now Is Not the End - S1-E1

Factual error: There is a periodic table shown in the background of the lab, showing an accurate periodic table as of now. During 1945, at least 21 elements had not been discovered. (00:17:40)

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