Best sci-fi TV mistakes of all time

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

More Battletech mistakes
The Invisible Man picture

Show generally

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

More The Invisible Man mistakes
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

More Jericho mistakes
More The Originals mistakes
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

More The Outer Limits mistakes
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

More Dark Angel mistakes

Show generally

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

More Powers mistakes
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)

More Agent Carter mistakes
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog picture

Act II - S1-E2

Revealing mistake: During "Brand New Day", watch the background as Dr. Horrible appears as a giant and stomps down the city-street. As he takes his first step, a piece of concrete from building to his right falls off and hits the ground. However, if you look closely, it's obviously a quickly-made computer effect. As the piece of concrete hits the ground, it simply vanishes, and is replaced by a rather odd-looking animated "poof" of dust. The issue is the concrete piece was much bigger than the cloud of dust, so it's clear that the piece simply disappears right as the dust-poof appears.

More Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog mistakes
Eureka picture

Phased and Confused - S3-E6

Other mistake: Captain Eureka losing his finger makes absolutely no sense. He doesn't cry out in pain, there's no blood, and where the finger ended up is completely illogical. The finger didn't just sever on its own; it's shown that severing only occurs when passing through objects. Captain Eureka goes through a wall that is a good fifteen feet away from where the finger is discovered, and it is implausible to think it could have rolled there on its own.

Knever

More Eureka mistakes
FlashForward picture

137 Sekunden - S1-E3

Factual error: When browsing for information about the crow deaths in the Ganwar Region of Somalia, the computer indicates that the CDC requested additional funding from DHS. The only problem with that is, DHS was formed in 2002, 11 years after the incident in Ganwar. (00:40:05)

klaser

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

Suggested correction: Although the Department of Homeland Security - commonly abbreviated as DHS - was not formed until 2002, in the later episode "Revelation Zero" it is indicated that DHS stands for an agency called Demographic and Health Services.

More FlashForward mistakes
More My Favorite Martian mistakes
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

More The Sarah Jane Adventures mistakes
More Grimm mistakes
Revolution picture

Memorial Day - S2-E21

Factual error: When the presidents are coming together, there are pictures being taken with flash photography, which would not be possible in a world without electricity. (00:34:15)

Mike Walker

More Revolution mistakes
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

More Dollhouse mistakes
More The Strain mistakes
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

More Spider-Man mistakes
The Incredible Hulk picture

Show generally

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

More The Incredible Hulk mistakes
More The Twilight Zone mistakes

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.