My Favorite Star Trek Mistakes

Like any other show, Trek has made lots of film mistakes. Some are editing errors, others gaffes that slopped through post production. I’ve watched hours and hours…and hours of Trek and have seen some of these episodes a million times. Making the little mistakes that pop up even more fun. Especially when you didn’t see them until they were pointed out (thank you Nitpicker’s Guides!).

Now by mistakes, I don’t mean continuity flubs like forgetting that you can’t beam someone through shields or something. I mean honest filming errors you can see on screen, which were never caught or corrected.

Here are ten Trek mistakes that slipped past the creators and remain on film to this day (unless the BluRay version fixed them anyway).






Amok Time
One of my all time favorites. Watch this scene from Amok Time, and check out something interesting. During the scene, Spock is in “Plak Tow” or blood fever, and is supposed to be in a deep meditative state. So then why is it in the long shots we can see Leonard Nimoy casually leaning against the wall waiting for his next cue?

Symbiosis
This isn’t a mistake really. You see, this episode was filmed adter “Skin of Evil”, the episode where Tasha dies. However since it would air before “Skin of Evil”, Tasha was very much in it. So in the final scene as Picard and Crusher walk out of the cargo bay, Denise Crosby decided to give on last goodbye to her fans.

The Enemy Within
When evil Kirk is beamed aboard the Enterprise, he is missing the rank insignia. Just a cute little costume error, don’t worry he gets back in the next scene. There are actually a few flubs in this episode.

Charlie X
Oh continuity mistakes! Kirk is wearing his standard gold tunic when he is called to the bridge. However when he arrives, his shirt has changed to that green ugly thing he wore for a few episodes. Are there batpoles in that turbo lift?

Too Short a Season
What is up with this one? As Picard and Riker walk to the turbo-lift Stewart’s face contorts in a weird way. Was he having fun with someone off camera? We may never know.

Star Trek V
Oh we all know this one, right? They shoot up the turbo shaft and the decks are way out of order (and repeat). Not to  mention the fact that the deck’s are ridiculously numbered how big is this ship?

Mudd’s Women
I feel bad picking on the early days of TOS so much, since mistakes can be understandable this early in the series run. What we have here is the arrival of our titular women, and at first we see McCoy wearing his standard uniform. A close up shows him wearing a medical tunic. This was clearly a scene from later they stuck here for whatever reason.

Space Seed
Here’s one some magazine pointed out and I’ve seen it ever since. This is the tense moment when Kirk has to get Khan out of his sleep chamber (or whatever) in seconds. Shatner knocks the phaser off his holster, and you can see Deforest Kelley looking back and forth at it.

Star Trek Generations
I always seem to be making fun of this movie. Watch the scene where Crusher falls in the water and Worf tries to catch her. You can see red paint on his pants, no doubt from the boat his was climbing.

 




 
Unification
Oh yes here is a true gem. One which I wish I could say I noticed the first time around. After Sela is knocked out, out three heroes walk out of the room. As they do, a crewman is reflected in a reflective object right in the middle of the frame. Just glorious.

Lots more, I couldn’t find clips for a lot of them from obvious stunt doubles to wardrobe malfunctions, including a popular one from “Cost of Living”. One of my absolute favorites I could not find a clip of is Yesterday’s Enterprise, at the end we see regular Geordi wearing an alternate tine line uniform. How does that happen? And as you may have noticed I didn’t even touch DS9, Voyager or Enterprise but I only wanted ten examples.



You gotta love film flubs, and there are plenty more out there if I missed your favorite comment and let me know.