Doctor Who
Doctor Who mistake picture

The Fires of Pompeii - S4-E2

Continuity mistake: When the Doctor and Donna are talking to Caecilius, when they introduce themselves as "Spartacus" and Caecilius makes several guesses as to their relationship, wondering if they're married or siblings, in shots facing them, the Doctor and Donna are standing fairly close together. In shots facing Caecilius, however, the Doctor and Donna are standing much further apart. (00:11:05)

Doctor Who mistake picture

Voyage of the Damned - S3-E16

Continuity mistake: When the Doctor interrupts Mr. Copper's incredibly inaccurate description of Earth society to ask him where he got his information from, in a shot facing Mr. Copper, the Doctor's raised hand has only one finger extended. In the next shot, facing the Doctor, he has two fingers extended, with the other two only loosely curled. Shortly after this, the Doctor scratches his temple with that same hand, only for it to be absent in the next shot facing Mr. Copper. (00:11:40)

Doctor Who mistake picture

Gridlock - S3-E3

Continuity mistake: After Milo and Cheen abduct Martha, they put a sleep patch on her before entering their car. In the close-up where Cheen applies the patch, it's stuck on securely and neatly, with the top and bottom of the square pointing directly at Martha's head and chest respectively. In a wide shot immediately afterwards, the patch is stuck on quite loosely and has gone askew. (00:06:35)

Doctor Who mistake picture

Smith and Jones - S3-E1

Continuity mistake: When the Doctor and Martha open the doors to the balcony, in a shot facing them, Martha lets go of the handle of her door and it swings completely open. In the next shot, from behind, Martha is still holding the doorknob. (00:10:35)

Doctor Who mistake picture

Smith and Jones - S3-E1

Continuity mistake: When the Doctor is looking out the window while asking Martha if there's a balcony on the floor of the hospital they're on, in close-ups of him only his right hand is visible, resting on the sill between two windowpanes, and his left arm is by his side. In a wide shot from outside looking in, his left arm is stretched out with his left hand gripping the divider between two windowpanes, in a spot where it should have been visible in the preceding shot. (00:10:05)

Doctor Who mistake picture

Fear Her - S2-E14

Continuity mistake: When the Doctor takes a swipe out of a jar of jam in Trish's kitchen and sticks his finger in his mouth, he only has his index finger in his mouth. The scene cuts to Rose giving him a "WTF" look, and when it cuts back to the Doctor he suddenly has two fingers in his mouth. (00:21:15)

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Age of Steel (2) - S2-E9

Continuity mistake: When Jake turns on the light in the cabinet with the Cyberman on the zeppelin's bridge, he's holding his handgun in his left hand. The scene cuts away to Mickey briefly, and when it cuts back to Jake his gun has jumped to his right hand. (00:24:30)

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Girl in the Fireplace - S2-E7

Continuity mistake: For most of the scene where he's probing Reinette's mind to find out what the clockwork droids want with her, placing his hands on her temples, the Doctor's left hand is positioned with two fingers on either side of her ear. When he realises that she's seeing some of his memories, his ring finger has jumped to being in front of her ear, without him taking his hands from her head. (00:20:50)

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Long Game - S1-E7

Continuity mistake: When the Doctor is restrained by two of the Editor's corpse minions, and the Editor demands to know who he is, the hand of the one holding the Doctor's right arm moves between his chest and shoulder several times. (00:30:50)

Doctor Who mistake picture

Partners in Crime - S4-E1

Continuity mistake: When the Doctor is leaving Roger's house, a gadget in his pocket starts beeping. He pulls the device out with his left hand, but in a close-up of it immediately afterwards, it's in his right hand. (00:07:35)

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Family of Blood (2) - S3-E9

Continuity mistake: When Martha finishes listing off the bones of the hand to Joan, in order to prove that she's a medical student from the future, in a shot facing Joan, Martha's thumb is extended. In the next shot, facing Martha, her thumb is suddenly folded back, as if she was using her hand to display the number 4. (00:12:15)

Doctor Who mistake picture

Bad Wolf (1) - S1-E12

Revealing mistake: When the Gamestation's transmissions are cut off by solar flares, there is a close-up of a screen going over to static. In the upper right corner, a box with "Play" written in it is visible, revealing the image on the screen as a video. (00:34:50)

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Impossible Planet (1) - S2-E11

Continuity mistake: In shots of the base's Ood habitation area from above, the Ood are shown in four rows from left to right, with the Ood in the third row standing with their backs against the room's middle partition and the other rows sitting on benches. However, in a shot from inside the lower area when the Doctor and Rose first go to Ood habitation, the third row is shown sitting as well. Not until later in the episode, when Danny is ordering the Ood to remain in the room, is the third row shown standing again. (00:25:15)

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Runaway Bride - S3-E14

Continuity mistake: The episode repeats the closing scene of "Doomsday", when Donna unexpectedly appears in the TARDIS. However, several details are different. One, the console room is more brightly lit than in the previous episode. Two, the shirt belonging to Rose that Donna finds draped over a railing was not present. Three, the Doctor's coat (draped over a ceiling support) has shifted in place, despite not being touched. (00:01:15)

Doctor Who mistake picture

The Christmas Invasion - S2-E2

Revealing mistake: When Daniel Llewellyn is looking up U.N.I.T. staff records on the computer, at one point a control panel for a DVD playing program is visible onscreen, showing that the special U.N.I.T. user interface is a video. (00:26:25)

Doctor Who mistake picture

World War Three (2) - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: Partway through the episode, there's a wide shot of London, with an undamaged Big Ben visible. The inciting incident of the previous episode was a spaceship crashing into the clock tower, severely damaging it. (00:25:40)

Doctor Who mistake picture

New Earth - S2-E4

Continuity mistake: As the camera zooms out when Rose is captured and Cassandra is about to "go" into Rose, the psychograft disappears, but in the next shot of Rose it appears again. (00:11:45)

LizzieWD

More mistakes in Doctor Who
More quotes from Doctor Who
More trivia for Doctor Who

Season 1 generally

Question: 1. Why was Rose not allowed to touch her past self without creating a paradox and causing those creatures to appear and eat everyone, but Amy was allowed to touch her younger self without any repercussions? 2. Why was Rose able to have the time vortex in her head for a few minutes and it only knocked her unconscious whereas the Doctor had it inside him for about 30 seconds and it basically killed him and caused his regeneration?

strikeand

Chosen answer: 1) When Stephen Moffat took over he ignored a lot of what had been developed before (there is not in-universe answer). 2) It would have killed Rose, so the Doctor absorbed the energy. His body regenerated before the energy could do a significant amount of damage that would prevent regeneration.

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.