Doctor Who

Correction: When Martha blows the single candle's flame out and it goes black, it's not their whole room going black, it's the screen that does a "cut to black" to effectively terminate the shot. This instantaneous dramatic transition punctuates Martha's extreme annoyance with the Doctor.

Super Grover

The Lie of the Land - S10-E9

Corrected entry: When Bill asks the Doctor to tell her if his cooperation with the Monks is a trick or an illusion while holding him at gunpoint, she's holding the pistol in a two-handed grip. When the camera cuts to the Doctor as he lies that it isn't a trick, and then back to Bill, she's suddenly holding the gun with one hand. (00:18:15)

skater49th

Correction: The problem is this doesn't occur in consecutive shots. After the first closeup of Bill there's a shot facing the Doctor as he says, "It's not a trick. It's not a plan. I have joined the Monks," and in that moment Bill has ample time to simply lower her arm/hand. No continuity issue in this sequence of shots.

Super Grover

If you look really carefully at the shot immediately after the first one, facing the Doctor, Bill's hand, holding the gun, is visible - and she's only holding it in one hand in that shot as well.

skater49th

I've got it playing now as I'm typing. I understand what you're saying, but compare this shot to the prior shot from a similar angle, right after Bill has taken the gun, just as the Doctor says, "Bill, put...put the gun down," then she replies, "I'm serious, Doctor." Here we can see Bill's right hand high on the gun's grip, with her left support hand quite a bit lower, and it's at the same height as her right sleeve at the wrist. Now if we look at the specific shot we're talking about, we really can only see Bill's right hand because the shot cuts off at the bottom of the screen, so we can't even see that sleeve or her left hand. It's offscreen.

Super Grover

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Unquiet Dead - S1-E3

Factual error: When Rose is locked in the room and the bodies come toward her, you can see a modern-day electric light-switch to the side of the door she's trying to get through. When the Doctor hears her screaming for help and runs for her, you can see a central heating radiator. In fact, the undertaker's house has at least two radiators in different hallways. Both are wildly anachronistic for the time period. (00:16:30 - 00:17:08)

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

Suggested correction: While the light switch is ahead of its time, the heating radiator was invented by Franz San Galli in 1855 and was immediately popular. It's possible that by 1869, when the episode takes place, that Mr. Sneed would have one.

Correction: There are other clocks of a very similar design, which have been available for years.

The Pilot - S10-E2

Corrected entry: Bill grabs an umbrella as a makeshift weapon before entering the bathroom of her flat. After she enters and finds the bathtub wet, the umbrella has vanished. (00:24:20)

skater49th

Correction: We see the umbrella leaning against the towel rack at the wall beside the bathtub. Bill placed it there while offscreen at the start of the closeup of the tub drain, before her hand appears.

Super Grover

Rewatched the scene and spotted the reclusive brolly - you are, indeed, correct.

skater49th

Correction: Ada Lovelace was born "Ada Gordon."

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

Suggested correction: In that era of Doctor Who the Earth was being invaded by aliens on a regular basis. Since the story is set in the 'future' year of 2012, anything may have happened to wipe that part of Michigan off the map.

I'm from Michigan and when I noticed the UP missing, I jokingly said to a friend "looks like Canada stole that finally"

The Pilot - S10-E2

Corrected entry: When Bill bursts into the toilets at the Sydney restaurant, the door is shown swinging inwards, and during her and the Doctor's subsequent conversation, the hinges are shown to make the door swing in. When Heather arrives and the two flee the toilets, as the Doctor yells for the restaurant patrons to get out, the door suddenly swings outward. (00:35:55)

Correction: Some doors swing both ways. It is common in restaurants.

Not only is this the door to a toilet, the hinges are visible on screen, and they are normal, one-way hinges, not the kind you'd find on restaurant doors.

skater49th

The mistake is indeed wrong. The door hinge we see may appear like a normal hinge with knuckles and pin, but it's actually a double acting spring hinge that allows the door to swing in both directions. Also, there is no door knob hardware, only a swinging door push plate on the door. I've personally seen women's restrooms which have an outer swinging door with fully enclosed floor-to-ceiling inner cubicles (we see their "reflection" in the mirror) such as the ones shown.

Super Grover

Sorry, forgot to include the link: http://www.projectgalleryla.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Cafe-Door-Pivot-Hinges-Home-Depot.jpg.

Super Grover

Looking at the scene again, that would explain why the side of the hinge is visible in the shot where Heather bursts out of the bathroom. It's still a) not very clear on camera, and b) really weird to have that kind of door on a bathroom.

skater49th

That's right, it's exactly the reason why we're able to see the barrel of this type of hinge when Heather opens the door outward. And I agree, I also think it's really weird to have that kind of a door on a bathroom. Go figure why some establishments have done that.

Super Grover

42 - S3-E7

Character mistake: The question to unlock one of the doors asks for the next number in the sequence 313, 331, 367. The Doctor gives the answer as 379 with a convoluted (albeit correct) explanation of happy primes, but there are much simpler solutions. The difference between the first and second numbers is 18 and the difference between the second and third is 36 (which is 2 x 18), suggesting that the difference between the third number and the next could be either 54 (= 3 x 18), giving 421 as the next number, or 72 (= 2 x 36), giving 439. It's likely that the Doctor would see that the answer is ambiguous, and yet he confidently states that the most complicated answer is correct. (00:08:45 - 00:09:15)

paolog

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

Suggested correction: If you know what a happy prime is, like the Doctor does, it might be simpler than your idea because you gave 2 options - 421 and 439. The idea of a pattern is there should be only one answer that fits, which would be the case if they're all happy primes.

Good point, except as I have mentioned, there are other answers that fit.

paolog

But the sequence of happy primes is recognized. Using your logic, what would be the preceding numbers?

Bishop73

The Day of the Doctor - S7-E16

Continuity mistake: In this episode, I. M. Foreman's scrapyard is at the end of the alley next to Coal Hill School. In "An Unearthly Child", the scrapyard was far enough away from the school that Barbara and Ian take Ian's car to get there. Barbara also describes it to Ian as "there's a big wall on one side, houses on the other." If it was right next to the school, she would have mentioned "that scrapyard next to the school." (00:00:15)

Captain Defenestrator

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

Suggested correction: The evidence to this is merely a sign directing people to the scrapyard. This does not indicate whether or not the scrapyard in question is actually at the end of that road.

skater49th

That still seems to be a point to bring up. Or better yet, "Her address is the same as the scrapyard on that sign outside the school."

Captain Defenestrator

Correction: He meant that whatever substance the void sphere was made of did not have a determinable atomic mass.

Utopia (1) - S3-E11

Corrected entry: When Jack fires his gun in the air to frighten the Futurekind, his arm is straight, raised above him. The camera cuts away, and then cuts back to a shot with Jack in it, where his arm is now suddenly bent. (00:09:50)

Correction: There's a shot facing the Futurekind mob inserted between the two shots with Jack, and in that moment Jack has ample time to merely lower his arm. No problem with continuity.

Super Grover

Correction: Jack, in this episode, has a black button-down shirt, which he initially wears over the white T-shirt. The alleged "black T-shirt" is merely this shirt, which Jack took off before he went in the red room, and has just put back on.

The Sound of Drums (2) - S3-E12

Continuity mistake: When the Master stands up on the Valiant to announce that he is the Toclafane's "Master", President Winters is visible in the background, only the Toclafane aren't there. In the next shot, they return, buzzing around Winters' head.

LizzieWD

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

Suggested correction: This seems to be caused by angles - the Toclafane are floating fairly high up, around the level of Winters' shoulders and above, but the Master is lower down. Hence, why they're not visible in the shot.

The Day of the Doctor - S7-E16

Deliberate mistake: Looking closely at the floor of Eleven's console room reveals that the part of the floor around the console facing the door has been discreetly raised up, which it isn't in any other appearance of this console room, so that Clara can ride her motorcyle inside it without going down two steps. This wasn't in any previous episode and is gone in the next one.

skater49th

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

Suggested correction: The Tardis has constantly shown it can change its internal structure to fit its needs or desires.

Bishop73

Doctor Who mistake picture

Midnight - S4-E10

Revealing mistake: In the opening scene the Doctor and Donna are speaking over the phone. The purple phone Donna is holding shows the slot where a cable should be plugged in, but there is none. (00:00:25)

ItsDesm

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

Suggested correction: This shouldn't be considered a mistake. While it's true in real life this phone has a slot for a cable, they're on an alien planet and this is unknown technology. In-universe there's no way of knowing what that slot is for, and there's no reason to think the phone needs to be plugged into anything.

Bishop73

Rise of the Cybermen (1) - S2-E8

Other mistake: Alternate Jackie is said to be turning 40. According to a newspaper Mickey finds early in the episode, the parallel universe is in the same year as the main universe. When Jackie's age (she claims to be only turning 39) is announced at the party, Rose does not in any way react as though that's different from the age of main-universe Jackie. The problem is that, given that Rose was 19 when she met the Doctor, and it has been, for main Jackie and Mickey, likely at least two years since the events of "Rose" (remember Rose's one-year accidental disappearance), this means Jackie would have had to have gotten married, and had Rose, before she turned twenty, and been a widow by the time she was twenty. Given that Jackie is from the UK, a first-world country, and that she seems to be in her twenties in "Father's Day", this is highly unlikely.

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

Suggested correction: "Highly unlikely" is not impossible, there are many cases of this sort of thing happening even in the age of contraceptives. The episode is also set during the 80's, so it's possible that Pete and Jackie were misinformed. There are other TV shows such as Raising Hope or Bump that use this as a major plot point - hell, the very next episode after Fathers Day features an approximately 12-year-old mother in the form of Nancy, the 17-year old mother of antagonist Jamie.

Kill the Moon - S8-E7

Factual error: Near the end of the episode, the full moon is shown in the daytime sky, well above the horizon. This is impossible, as any celestial body lit by the Sun has its full phase only when it is directly opposite the Sun; thus, a full Moon rises at sunset and sits high in the sky only during the night. For the Moon to be in the sky during the day as shown, it would have to be visibly of a phase other than full.

DavidK93

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

Suggested correction: The moon is not actually completely full. It's in a gibbous phase (opposite of a crescent), which can indeed be seen in the daytime.

Correction: Rewatching the episode, not actually the case.

skater49th

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

Suggested correction: The close-up shot of the Dalek just as Rory pushes it is positioned such that the ear lights, and the place where they're mounted, isn't visible anyway.

skater49th

More mistakes in Doctor Who

The Satan Pit (2) - S2-E12

Doctor: So, that's the trap. Or the test or the final judgment, I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill her. Except that implies, in this big grand scheme of Gods and Devils, that she's just a victim. But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demi-gods and would-be gods - out of all that - out of that whole pantheon - if I believe in one thing... Just one thing... I believe in her.

More quotes from Doctor Who

Season 2 generally

Trivia: "Torchwood" is an anagram for Doctor Who. Russell T Davies came up with it during the filming of Series 1 to label the tapes in order to prevent theft and potential leakage, and decided to use the name in the show proper.

More trivia for Doctor Who

Midnight - S4-E10

Question: Is there any information on the entity shown in "Midnight?" It seems interesting enough to have some depth to it. It seemed to be bad in nature. It also seems to have been exactly what the woman that was possessed was afraid of.

Knever

Chosen answer: No, no information is avalible for the identity of the entity.

Repo_Man

More questions & answers from Doctor Who

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.