Doctor Who

The Christmas Invasion - S2-E2

Factual error: The episode kicks off with a reuse of the zoom-in from orbit first seen in "Rose." As the sunny North Pole indicates, the Earth is depicted as if it is the height of Northern Hemisphere summer, even though as the title of the episode indicates, it begins on Christmas Eve, three days after the northern Winter Solstice when the Pole is in darkness. (00:00:05)

The Eleventh Hour - S5-E1

Factual error: When the TARDIS is flying over London at the beginning, the London Eye is visible. It's supposed to be 1996, and the Eye was built later than that, for the new millennium celebrations. (00:00:30)

The Runaway Bride - S3-E14

Factual error: The opening shot of the episode reuses the zoom-in from orbit originally used in "Rose." The North Pole is sunlit, as it would be at the height of summer. "The Runaway Bride" takes place on Christmas Eve, four days after the Northern Hemisphere's Winter Solstice, when the Pole would be facing away from the Sun, in darkness. In fact, this was the second Christmas special in a row to make this mistake, after "The Christmas Invasion." (00:00:05)

The Next Doctor - S4-E14

Factual error: During the climax, the Moon is visible in the background, and is depicted as full. On December 24, 1851 in real life, the Moon was at first quarter phase.

Hide - S7-E11

Factual error: The Doctor says that the Earth is six billion years old, which is one and a half billion years over - it's only 4.5 billion years old. (00:21:25)

The Poison Sky (2) - S4-E5

Factual error: The Doctor sets the atmosphere on fire, but only the upper part burns. The atmosphere extends from the Earth's surface (where it is densest) upwards, and so the flames would come right down to the ground, burning everyone to death. Of course that wouldn't work with the plot, so artistic licence has been applied.

paolog

Flesh and Stone (2) - S5-E5

Factual error: The all important date of 26/06/2010 and it ticks over on Amy's alarm clock right at the end of the episode. However it shows 11.59 AM and flicks over to midday (12.00PM) the next day. The date should've stayed on 25/6 or, as I suspect was the intention, the clock should've read 11.59 PM and then ticked over to 12.00 AM thus changing the date correctly. (00:41:00)

The Poison Sky (2) - S4-E5

Factual error: Colonel Mace says the Sontaran ship is orbiting 5,000 miles (8,050 km) above the Earth. However, in shots of and from the ship in both this episode and "The Sontaran Stratagem", the Earth appears far too small for the ship to be that close, with the ship's true distance appearing to be well over double that. (00:08:34)

skater49th

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 Zygon Invasion - S9-E8

Factual error: By halfway through the episode, the plot is alternating between following Clara and Jac in London, the Doctor in the fictional Central Asian country of "Turmezistan", and Kate in New Mexico. Despite the three locations being scattered all around the world, only in London is it depicted to be nighttime at any point in the episode. Central Asia and the southwestern USA are both shown to be daytime, despite the two locations being over halfway around the world from each other, and the events all taking place at roughly the same time.

The Unicorn and the Wasp - S4-E7

Factual error: In real life, Agatha Christie's famous disappearance occurred in December 1926. This episode is quite plainly not set in winter, what with the outdoor garden party and lush green foliage.

Last of the Time Lords (3) - S3-E13

Factual error: When time is seen rewinding after the destruction of the Paradox Machine, the Earth and Moon are seen rotating and orbiting backwards. The Moon is depicted far closer to Earth than it actually is. (00:37:40)

The End of Time: Part Two - S4-E18

Factual error: The Vinvocci ship is said to be orbiting 100,000 miles above Earth, later refined to 105,000 miles. That's one-third of the distance to the Moon, and the Earth's apparent size from the windows of the ship is far too large for them to be that distance, or even 100,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface. Judging by the Earth's apparent size, the spaceship is actually orbiting 6,000-7,000 kilometres above the planet's surface.

Smith and Jones - S3-E1

Factual error: When the Royal Hope Hospital is transported to the Moon, the area it is in is dark, indicating they are on the side of the Moon not currently facing the Sun. However, in a wide shot of the hospital on the Moon, something that looks like the Sun is visible, something that the illumination of the landscape and the Earth shows cannot be visible. (00:07:40)

Kill the Moon - S8-E7

Factual error: When Clara is watching the Earth through binoculars in order to see whether people left their lights on or off, the planet is rotating at an impossibly high speed. (00:36:15)

Kill the Moon - S8-E7

Factual error: In this episode, it is stated that the Moon's sudden increase in mass caused a devastating global high tide. The amount of the increase in mass is given as 1.3 billion tonnes. But the Moon has a mass of over 70,000,000,000 billion tonnes, or over 50 billion times the supposed increase. Such a negligible increase in mass, less than 0.000000002%, would have almost no effect on Earth's tides, let alone be devastating. (00:20:46)

More mistakes in Doctor Who
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

Chosen answer: The Master knows that deep down, he deserves death for the crimes that he's committed throughout his life, and since he regards The Doctor as his arch-foe, he expects it to be at his hands. The fact that The Doctor is still willing to forgive him for all of his crimes hurts him more deeply than death would.

Captain Defenestrator

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.