# worst continuity error ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404 "2003-06-08T04:45:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/141 "2003-06-17T02:23:38Z")
> [@](#): > > And on a quasi-related side note, there is a theory going around that much like M, Q and Miss Moneypenny, 007 is just a code name for whatever agent holds that position at any given time. Thus, an explanation for the multiple actors playing Bond (and a nod to George Lazenby’s quip in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: “That never happened to the other fellow.”). And one of the requirements for being made 007 is that your name happens to be “James Bond,” and you were recruited from the British Navy, and you were married once, but your wife was killed by Ernst Blofeld and some ugly hag after only a few minutes of marriage? :dubious: When you’re dealing with a long-running franchise, changing actors is just something you have to accept. Don’t forget that they _did_ change M’s; the current M is not the same person that Bond worked for before. (BTW, have they replaced Q?) About Data’s cat: even if the cat _is_ neutered, you can tell male from female quite easily. Just look under its tail: if you see two orifices, it’s female; only one, it’s male. (Growing up, we had a total of four cats, all spayed or neutered, so I had plenty of opportunity to notice the difference. Just so you don’t think that I’m some kind of major pervert 😃 ) Of course, on Star Trek they could probably find out just by waving a tricorder at the cat. You can easily create an explanation that the first (male) Spot died, and was replaced by a female cat that Data also named “Spot,” but that fact remains that it’s a continuity error. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/142 "2003-06-17T02:30:44Z")
> [@](#): > > BTW, have they replaced Q? IMDb indicates that John Cleese’s character, introduced in the last movie (as ‘R’) was Q in _Die Another Day_. I don’t know for sure, but I guess it’s not supposed to be the same person. I think it would’ve gone over poorly considering how long Desmond Llewelyn played Q. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/143 "2003-06-17T02:33:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Miskatonic \* > **The entire time continuity of \*\* O Brother Where Art Thou** is screwed up. The whole thing is supposed to take place within a handful of days (the pressure on George Clooney to interfere before his wife remarries). Yet in that time they produce a record, print it, and it hits the distribution channel so hard that copies are sold out and selling like wildfire. This is with 1930’s deep south distributions \*\* This is not an error, because they weren’t selling records – they made a recording at a radio station. The song was played in the ensuing days on the radio and became really popular (i.e., it was requested a lot). Nowhere IIRC does the movie talk about them selling recordings of their hit song. ---
**Author:** ![Quack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e99b99/32.png) [@Quack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quack)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/144 "2003-06-17T04:33:07Z")
I think in the Bond films, the title M or Q or Moneypenny is just given to the agent occupying the position. For instance, in GoldenEye, Valentin Zukovsky says to James Bond: “I hear the new M is a lady” I think this clearly indicates the relationship of person to title. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/145 "2003-06-17T04:52:14Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by bifar \* > \*\* > In FOTR, when Boromir is dying, the shots go back and forth from him and Aragorn. The only problem is, in the shots focusing on Sean Bean, he’s got his hand on Viggos’ shoulder. And when the camera goes back to Viggo, no hand! Apparently they shot the two different POVs at two different times (before and after lunch) and the actors must’ve forgotten that hand thing. Highly irritating, though._\* Dammit. I hate it when I read through a whole big long thread with a post in mind, only to find that someone beat me to it near the end. I spotted that one the first time through, and it bugged me. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/146 "2003-06-17T04:53:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > **While daytime soaps stand alone in terms of continuity errors, DAYS OF OUR LIVES (which I watched as a kid, then sporadically in college, and now over Christmas when I visit my mother) must set a record even by their standards. One of the stranger things they’ve done is bring back the actor Josh Taylor, who played the character Chris for ten years in the 1970s/1980s (until getting the job on the everchanging primetime show VALERIE/VALERIE’S FAMILY/HOGAN FAMILY), as the character Roman in the 1990s. The two characters were not supposed to be related and no mention was made of the “resemblance”, plus the character of Roman had been contemporary with the character of Chris.** Tom Fontana does this, too. The shows OZ, Homicide, The Beat, Law & Order, etc. all take place within the same fictional universe. Apparently in this universe just about everyone looks like Lee Tergesen, Christopher Meloni, J.K. Simmons, and Dean Winters. I’m still waiting for Fontana to pull an “identical cousins” deus ex machina out of his @ss. \*\* > [@](#): > > Another great thing about DOOL: the matriarch Alice, played by an actress who is probably around 90 and has been with the show since it’s inception, has adult great-great-great grandchildren due to the fact that they age in 2-4-6-12-16 dog year fashion. They all call her “Grandma” and mention that she has more generations of descendants than Lazarus Long isn’t made since their intervening ancestors were written off when their boobs sagged long ago. \*\* Heehee. One of my college roomies was obsessed with soaps and so I was subjected to them. One of the funniest things wasn’t just the aging in dog years, but how some people aged faster than others! An example would be: let’s say Person A and Person B have a son named Bob. The next season, Person C and Person D have a daughter named Alice. Alice and Bob both get to be toddlers when Alice is sent away to a boarding school in Switzerland. She returns a season later as an angst-ridden teenager, but Bob (who was chronologically born first!) is still in diapers. Amazing! In the X-Men comics, the writers strive to keep the characters “hip” by rendering them eternally eighteen. This isn’t that big of a problem, usually, but it bugs me in one case. Magneto. Magneto is a mutant who as a young boy was imprisoned in Auschwitz by Nazis. Today, in 2003, he’d be, what, in his 70s? Supposing he were born in 1930 at the latest? But he has children who are at most thirty. This wouldn’t be such a problem if their MOTHER hadn’t also been in Auschwitz with Magneto! She would’ve had to have given birth to them in in the early 70s at the latest. Right now this isn’t a huge hurdle but in a couple of decades Magneto’s seemingly ageless twins are going to seem rather odd. I mean, female fertility has its limits. In most of the other cases, Marvel has rewritten the earlier stories to fit in with the character’s apparent age. So Tony Stark didn’t fight in the Vietnam War, it was changed to an unnamed southeastern asian country. Storm’s parents were supposed to have been killed in the 1956 Suez Crisis, but that obviously doesn’t work for a twentysomething mutant, so after an update it could be a terrorist attack during the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict. I can buy these. But they better not make Magneto a Bosnian! .:Nichol:. ---
**Author:** ![FairyDust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ccd318/32.png) [@FairyDust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyDust)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/147 "2003-06-17T04:53:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolf\_meister \* > \*\*This might hold the record for greatest continuity error. > One season ended with Darrin being played by Dick York. > The next season began with Dick Sargent as Darrin. > No explanation was given - no one noticed - Samantha didn’t notice - Larry Tate didn’t notice - even Dr Bombay didn’t notice !!! \*\* That’s not surprising. Why didn’t Abner Kravitz or anyone else notice or explain why two different actresses played Gladys Kravitz? And was Larry Tate so involved in his work kissing up to the clients that he never noticed two different actresses playing his wife Louise? And I guess Darrin’s mother Phyllis was so preoccupied with her sick headaches (“Frank, I have a sick headache!”) that she never noticed her husband was played by two different actors. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/148 "2003-06-17T19:54:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*…The biggest Star Trek continuity error for me was one that became a major plot point, first in the movie _First Contact_ and then later in subsequent episodes of Voyager. When the Borg were first introduced as a species, they were called the perfect hive-mind, with no inividuality and no hierarchy. Each element of the Borg served no purpose but to serve the whole, with no thought for their individual “selves.” This was a scary concpet, and in a way went against most of what the Federation was all about. > > Then, we have the Borg “Queen” – this was, for me, the point when the Borg officially “jumped the shark.” The introduction of individual thought and will into the group mind of the Borg made them less frightening, less powerful, and more able to be defeated. Not only that, but it’s a pretty major continuity error. \*\* Let’s not forget the whole hive-mind concept was supposedly destroyed in STNG - there was that episode with “Hugh”, where the Enterprise crew infected him with some sort of virus that caused the Borg to become individuals. And a later episode used that as a plot element. But the individuality concept was totally trashed both in First Contact and in the Voyager series, where everyone (everyone but the Queen, anyway) was back to hive-mindedness. I guess the Borg just weren’t interesting enough as individuals. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/149 "2003-06-17T20:40:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diceman \* > **And one of the requirements for being made 007 is that your name happens to be “James Bond,” and you were recruited from the British Navy, and you were married once, but your wife was killed by Ernst Blofeld and some ugly hag after only a few minutes of marriage? :dubious:** Why don’t we just say James Bond is related to the Time Lords and be done with it? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/150 "2003-06-17T21:10:46Z")
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned this one. Lawrence of Arabia In the original release, one of the reels had it’s negetive switched so left/right was reversed for 20 mins of the film. There was no writing but earlier Lawrence had traveled right to left across the screen going away from Cairo and so during the bad reel when he traveld back there he should have go right to left across the screen but didn’t. Star Trek Nemesis The word Lore is not spoken in the film. Data’s cat What? The medical tricorder couldn’t tell what sex the cat is?! Trouble with Tribbles Only episode with money (credits) \* They don’t use money in the future. TNG There was an episode where the phasers fired out of the photon torpedo tube. \*OK Gamester of Triskillion(sp) had money but the Trek people weren’t using it. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/151 "2003-06-17T22:26:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \* > \*\*Not really a continuity thing, but a famous mistake: > > John Wayne admiring the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean from the shores of Viet Nam in _The Green Berets_. \*\* I haven’t seen the movie, but if he was in the [Mekong Delta](http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/south_east_asia/vietnam/vietnam.htm) he could have been looking out over the Gulf of Thailand. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/152 "2003-06-18T00:22:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dewey Cheatem Undhow \* > \*\*This is not an error, because they weren’t selling records – they made a recording at a radio station. The song was played in the ensuing days on the radio and became really popular (i.e., it was requested a lot). Nowhere IIRC does the movie talk about them selling recordings of their hit song. \*\* Yes there was. There was a scene when a lady goes into a store looking for a copy of the record and is told by the storekeeper that he couldn’t keep them in stock. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/153 "2003-06-18T02:34:29Z")
> [@](#): > > IMDb indicates that John Cleese’s character, introduced in the last movie (as ‘R’) was Q in Die Another Day. I don’t know for sure, but I guess it’s not supposed to be the same person. I think it would’ve gone over poorly considering how long Desmond Llewelyn played Q. John Cleese is the new gadget guy? I’ve gotta rent _Die Another Day_ just to see that. The letter-names (M, Q, etc.) do appear to come with the job; the chief of the 00-operatives is “M,” the head of the equipment department is “Q,” and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/154 "2003-06-18T02:36:42Z")
BTW, Desmond Llewelyn’s character’s real name is Major Boothroyd. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/155 "2003-06-18T07:17:35Z")
> [@](#): > > In Friends, the first time we see Rachel in the coffee shop, she doesn’t recognize Monica. It’s not just because Monica has lost a large amount of weight, but because they were never close in High School. Rachel was the rich, stuck up, popular girl who basically didn’t even acknowledge Monica’s existence when they were younger. However, later on in the series we have flashbacks of them getting ready at Monica’s house for a double date for the prom when they were teenagers. > Also, Chandler was shocked to see pictures of Monica when she was extremely overweight as a youth; however it was later written into the storyline that he knew Ross in college and had come over to his (Ross’s) house and met his family (including the “fat” Monica) during a holiday. OK, not quite true. In the first episode, Rachel enters the coffee shop looking for Monica, and, true, doesn’t immediately see her. But as she later says in the coffee shop, Rachel acknowledges that they have “drifted apart” in the last few years (i.e = best friends in high school, drifted apart by college graduation). So the prom video was accurate. Chandler was not suprised to see the pixs of Fat Monica; IIRC, it was Joey and Phoebe, who did not know Monica during those years. However, Chandler got off a classic line: MONICA: [after a snarky comment about her weight from Joey] Shut up! The camera puts on ten pounds. CHANDLER: So, how many cameras are on you? 😃 * * * On a different note…_Buffy_: on at least two occasions, they have stated that Spike was “sired” by Angelus (AKA Angel). However, the flashback episode “Fool for Love” shows the young poet William (Spike) being sired by Drusilla. Also, an early episode gave _two_ different birthdays for Buffy, and neither one of them are in the sign of “Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius” (as she told Riley Finn). ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/156 "2003-06-18T08:09:37Z")
“Q” is the designation for the person who heads Q branch of MI6. In _Dr. No_, Peter Burton plays Major Boothroyd (identified by name) in the famous scene in which Bond gets his new Walther PPK. Desmond Lewellyn took over the role for _From Russia With Love_, and is referred to as “The head of Q branch”. He isn’t directly referred to as Q until _Goldfinger_, and from then on out both M and Bond call him Q as if that were his name. Q is referred to as “Major Boothroyd” exactly once later on in the series, by XXX, establishing that the characters in Dr. No and later entries were one and the same. He appears in every movie except _Live and Let Die_, up until _The World Is Not Enough_ in which he retires at the beginning, handing the reins over to John Cleese, whom Bond refers to as “R”. In “Die Another Day”, Cleese is called “Q”, his proper title as head of Q branch, but is clearly the same character as in TWINE, not a new actor in the same role as Lewellyn. Although played by different actors, I believe all of the male M’s were intended, like Bond, to be the same character. Miss Moneypenny is likewise intended to be a single person, not a title shared by many. In any case, different actors playing the same role, even within the same series, isn’t a continuity error, because it doesn’t create an internal inconsistency in the plot. An error in the timing of historical events or references to things in a historical picture which haven’t yet occurred is an anachronism. Regarding _Frasier_, not only was his father dead on _Cheers_, his mother was alive, an elderly society woman who threatens Diane with death if she marries Frasier, Diane being a commoner not good enough for her precious society page son. On _Frasier_, she’s been dead for quite some time, died sometime in middle age, was a research scientist, and was married to exactly the kind of person she seemed to have no respect for in her _Cheers_ apperance. Frasier also seems to have gotten several years younger in his move to Seattle. On MASH, one mid-season episode focuses on a canvas bathtub Hawkeye and BJ get mail order in the middle of a heatwave. In the end they forced to trade it by Col. Potter. The next season, Hawkeye uses the same bathtub to lower a patient’s temperature by filling it with ice. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/157 "2003-06-18T08:09:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diceman \* > \*\*John Cleese is the new gadget guy? I’ve gotta rent _Die Another Day_ just to see that. > > The letter-names (M, Q, etc.) do appear to come with the job; the chief of the 00-operatives is “M,” the head of the equipment department is “Q,” and so on. \*\* Specifically, Q is the head of Q Division. In both cases, Q stands for “Quartermaster”. HTH. As far as Cleese goes; Desmond Llewellyn had been saying that he’d done his last Bond film on each of the three Brosnan movies. He had been coaxed out for each one because he did love doing it and they paid him befitting his iconic status for the two days work, but they knew he wouldn’t last forever and so introduced Cleese as an assistant Q was grooming to succeed him. Unfortunately, Llewellyn’s tragic accident prevented them filming the handover scene. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/158 "2003-06-18T08:19:09Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by CaptMurdock \* > \*\* > On a different note…Buffy: on at least two occasions, they have stated that Spike was “sired” by Angelus (AKA Angel). However, the flashback episode “Fool for Love” shows the young poet William (Spike) being sired by Drusilla._\* Spike’s own quote in School Hard is probably down to Angel having instructed and raised Spike in the way of the vampire because Drusilla was too crazy to do it; Spike would thus have formed that bond with Angel. The other is from the same Watcher’s record that said Spike was 200 when he was only 125, and got his nickname in a different way; it’s all crap that Spike himself has put about. Note also that Spike was never originally meant to be more than a one-episode character - he was meant to be staked in School Hard. They therefore didn’t think too much about continuity when they wrote the ep. \*\* > [@](#): > > Also, an early episode gave _two_ different birthdays for Buffy, and neither one of them are in the sign of “Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius” (as she told Riley Finn). \*\* Not a continuity flaw. Both birthdays appeared in computer files that were being corrupted by a demon. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/159 "2003-06-18T12:03:15Z")
It’s another case of “movie to television” conversion, but a BIG aspect of **The Crow** was twisted when it transfered over. (can’t really discuss without spoiling, so no box, just a warning: Spoilers!) In the movie (and pretty much every story), one is brought back to seek vengence. Eric kills all those responsible for his death, goes back to the graveyard, “dies” a final death, and is reunited with his girlfriend. In the television series, after killing all those responsible, Eric’s told he’s slipped up, was brought back for “Justice, not vengence” and therefore has to stick around and fight evil till he can make up for what he’s done. He then spends a few seasons hanging out with his little friend Sarah, who apparently forgot all those fun little adventures by the time she grew up to the age she was in the movie’s horrible sequel, **City of Angels**. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404/160 "2003-06-18T13:32:14Z")
Oh yeah, R2 can fly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-continuity-error-ever/180404.md?page=9)