“You look human!”
“NO, you look Timelord: we were first”
Oh, but watching OldWho or Trek TOS gives us much enjoyment looking at things and saying “what a budget! What. A. Budget!!!” Especially OldWho. Here’s a five bob note and whatever’s in the BBC backlot awaiting being taken out as rubbish. Come up with an alien civilization.
(Bolding mine)
Heh, for a couple seconds I was thinking “who is this heroic badass from Michigan to whom AI128 refers?”. Then I realized you meant Mission Impossible 
A post of its own could be made about past sci-fi shows and movies set in the ‘future’ that get the technology wrong; or get it almost, but not quite right, as in this example.
A couple years ago I was rewatching a well-regarded sci-fi movie from the 80s (Bladerunner?) which was set in my present day, or maybe still a bit more in the future. In one scene, the protagonist had to make a phone call, so he just used one of the ubiquitous public phone kiosks. I thought that was a little amusing. The movie makers did this amazing feat of futuristic world-building, but didn’t imagine that everybody would have personal phones by then. It was a video phone, though-- next to flying cars, probably the most commonly imagined futuristic object from my childhood.
I might have told this story in another thread a couple of years ago but anyway…I interviewed Wim Wenders over email in 2004. One of my fave films of his is Until The End Of The World, which was filmed in 1990 or so and set in 1999/2000. He consulted with a bunch of futurists on the script throughout the 80s, and while there’s a rudimentary, cartoonish “search” program portrayed onscreen, anything approaching “the internet” as we knew it by 1999, hell, 1995, was totally absent. When I mentioned this, and how it was a bit jarring watching it after the fact, he said (paraphrasing) he and his consultants had been admittedly caught off guard and he was embarrassed that they’d missed something so huge coming down the pike.
On the other hand, he worked closely with NHK on the dream sequences (the McGuffin in the film is a machine that can record and play back memories and, later, dreams) and the work they did pushed HD technology in general substantially forward.
Has there ever been a science fiction movie set in the future in which all doors don’t slide open automatically, like elevator doors? Not spaceship doors, those are usually round and open like camera shutters. It bothers me in that it makes me want those kinds of doors for my apartment.
That’s just the lingering effects of The Email Wars of the late 2200s. Every email had the risk of a massive virus taking over everything, so they decided to isolate every message on physically separated systems, and completely wipe them when done with the message.
There’s at least one ordinary door in the 2009 Star Trek, when Kirk and Spock Prime meet Scotty. Scene here
\I’m pretty sure I’ve seen several movies set in the future where they don’t have “Starship Enterprise” doors. Zardoz, for instance, is set in a low-tech (for the most part) 2293, and they use a lot of ordinary doors. So does the 1936 movie Things to Come, if I’m not mistaken, even in the parts set in 2036.
A couple of months ago I visited a science fiction/comic book store that had a sensor attached to the entrance that made the “Whoosh” sound of a Star Trek door opening any time anyone entered.
https://www.amazon.com/ThinkGeek-Star-Trek-Electronic-Chime/dp/B007QSYPE6
How many times in the original Star Trek would it have made zero difference to the plot if they’d shown the landing party having to wear breathing masks?
Shatner never would have stood for it. You….can’t…emote…through a mask.
I blame it on the nifty looking ray gun designs that disdain such mundane features as sights.
Specifically it’s “The Outlaw Jose Wales” in outer space: noble hero was on the losing side of a civil war/bid for independence. Now he gets by as best he can living on the fringe and avoiding the forces of authority.
But you can through the Dollar Store Spacesuits they used in, for example The Tholian Web
I never cared about the lack of sights. The lack of trigger guards, however, bothered me a lot. Star Trek phasers were as hazardous to their users as the Star Wars bridges with no guardrails.
Butt-dialing a phaser could get messy.
I watched a B-movie once where the lead character had a Ph.D in Advanced Sciences.
It was about a prehistoric snake in an Antarctic prison.
What was he in for?
Mail fraud.
Since superheroes were mentioned, I’ll add my favorite thing that bothers me: Spider-man’s webbing. It just doesn’t work, and can’t be made to work. How could he extrude it out at such pressure that it could travel a city block? And how does a gossamer thin line, presumably almost weightless, fly through turbulent cityscape air to stick to his target, which would probably be grimy? Also, S-M’s wall climbing ability. It can’t be the hairs on his fingertips if he wears gloves. His feet also stick to walls through his boots. These things are unfanwankable.
Lots of ray guns had sights.In particular, one of the ones that started it al – The Buck Rogers XZ-31 Rocket Pistol – had a sight. Some of the toy Buck Rogers guns were actually BB guns made by Daisy, so you really wanted a sight on it in order to be able to aim it.
Lots of other ray guns on magazine covers and in literature had prominent sights
I’m reminded of District 9 - the South Africans can understand the aliens’ language and vice versa, even though they’re physically incapable of speaking the other’s language. How do you learn to understand a language you lack the mouthparts to vocalize?