Doctor Who

The Time Warrior - S11-E1

Factual error: How did potatoes come to appear in a 12th century kitchen? The potato was unknown in England until Sir Walter Raleigh brought them from back from the Americas on one of his voyages in the late 16th century, at least 400 years after the period in which this story is set.

The Gunfighters - S3-E8

Factual error: Billy Claiborne, the only member of the Clanton gang to survive the O.K. Corrall shoot-out, is conspicuous by his total absence in this story. Maybe that's how he survived?

The Curse of Fenric - S26-E3

Factual error: During WW II there would not have been any road signs like the one in the story indicating the way to Maiden's Point: all such signposts were taken down during the war, to hinder the enemy in the event of an invasion.

The Masque of Mandragora - S14-E1

Factual error: Giuliano explains to Sarah that he thinks the world is round as though this were radical. But this was the common belief throughout the late Middle Ages. The argument was about how big the Earth was and the ignorance about the existence of a continent between Europe and Asia.

The Tomb of the Cybermen - S5-E1

Factual error: When the group divide up into parties, the leader says they need to be at the rocket at 1630, so meet here at 1625. He then goes on to say that will give them an hour to look for anyone that's missing. The other actors seem to notice his mistake because they either look puzzled or look off camera, probably seeing if anyone would shout "Cut."

Matty W

Pyramids of Mars - S13-E3

Factual error: The Doctor states that the radio waves take two minutes to get from Mars to Earth. The time interval can vary dramatically depending on where the two planets are in their orbit. But at absolute closest approach, Mars is just over three light minutes from Earth.

The Curse of Fenric - S26-E3

Factual error: When Kathleen's baby Audrey is revealed for the first time, the baby is clutching a "SuperTed" teddy bear (circa 1984). The story is supposed to be set in 1943...

The Masque of Mandragora - S14-E1

Factual error: Giuliano makes references to the invention of the telescope. Yet the invention of the telescope was at least a century after the events in the story and Galileo's experiments more than 50 years after that.

The Ice Warriors - S5-E3

Factual error: The Doctor postulates that ammonium sulphide will poison The Ice Warriors because the Martian atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen. However, it is the EARTH's atmosphere that is mainly nitrogen (78%) whereas Mars' atmosphere is 95.3% carbon dioxide.

Colony in Space - S8-E4

Factual error: The calendar which shows the date to be Monday, 2nd March, 2472, is two days out. 2nd March 2472 will be a Wednesday. And who made the calendar if the colonists left Earth over a year earlier?

The Curse of Fenric - S26-E3

Factual error: As Jean and Phyllis run into the water to go swimming, they seem to be wearing dark shoes or sandals. But in most of their appearances as Haemovores later in the story, they are wearing bright white (and suspiciously modern-looking) sneakers/trainers.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang - S14-E6

Factual error: When The Doctor questions the arrested Chinaman in the Police Station (in episode one), the Doctor claims to be able to speak several Chinese dialects. What the Doctor actually says to the Chinaman is "How Are You?" in Cantonese, but the rest of what the Doctor says is completely improvised gibberish that SOUNDS Chinese, but is, in fact, complete nonsense.

The Romans - S2-E4

Factual error: The geographical references in this story are somewhat suspect. Assissium is the modern town of Assissi, some 70 miles north of Rome and the same distance east from the sea. The Great Fire of Rome took place in July 64AD.

The Chase - S2-E8

Factual error: In episode one, Abraham Lincoln seems to have affected a southern accent and put on some weight.

Black Orchid - S19-E5

Factual error: In episode 2, the policemen from 1925 recognise the TARDIS as a police call box, even though TARDIS-style police boxes weren't introduced until four years later, in 1929.

The Tenth Planet - S4-E2

Factual error: In the first close-up view of Mondas, the planet is spinning rapidly so that we can see that its continents are identical to Earth's. But this would mean that Mondas is spinning on its axis once every few seconds - tens of thousand of times faster than Earth. This would be such a fast rotation that the planet would not be able to hold together under the centrifugal force.

The Curse of Fenric - S26-E3

Factual error: The Naval base that features in "The Curse of Fenric" is supposed to be on the coast of North East England. (A line of dialogue in the story refers to Maidens Bay - two miles from the base - as being in "Northumberland". Yet all the maps and charts on the walls are of the coast of South-East England (Sussex and Kent in particular) which is 250 miles from where the story is supposed to be set.

Planet of the Spiders - S11-E5

Plot hole: At the climax of episode 2, the Doctor is about to catch Lupton when the latter simply teleports to safety. So why didn't he do that in the first place, before engaging in a 15-minute chase?

More mistakes in Doctor Who

Terror of the Zygons - S13-E1

The Doctor: You can't rule the world in hiding. You've got to come out on the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle, if you pardon the expression.

More quotes from Doctor Who

The Chase - S2-E8

Trivia: Such was the popularity of Doctor Who in Britain in the mid-1960s that even the Beatles wanted to make an appearance in the show. So a scene was written into "The Chase" to allow them to appear. The idea had been devised of including a scene on the Time and Space Visualiser depicting a Beatles fiftieth-anniversary concert in 2015, with the Fab Four dressed up as old men. John, Paul, George, and Ringo themselves were interested in the proposition, but it was vetoed by their manager, Brian Epstein. It was then thought that an appearance by the Beatles on Top of the Pops might be used instead, but no such footage was available. Fortunately, the Beatles were scheduled to perform "Ticket to Ride" at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on April 10th, 1965, and that footage was used instead.

More trivia for Doctor Who

Show generally

Question: In which season and episode is Gallifrey destroyed, or is it just a shocking new plot development for the new series?

Answer: It was never destroyed on-screen; it was intact at the end of the TV movie, and destroyed by the start of the 2005 series. It was destroyed in the novel "The Ancestor Cell," but in a completely different manner to what happened in the series.

DaveJB

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