Star Trek: The Original Series, or simply Star Trek, was a popular sci-fi show that ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969. The series ran for a total of 3 seasons and 79 episodes, not including the pilot "The Cage". The series starred William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. The show quickly gathered a large fan base known as Trekkies, which continued to grow even after NBC canceled the show. It didn’t take long for the series to return as an animated form and eventually into several movies starring Shatner and Nimoy.
The series has also spawned several spinoff shows and movies, with the franchise going strong to this day. Even with the high volume of Star Trek content that has come out in recent years, the original Star Trek television series is often Trekkies’ favorite entry to the Star Trek franchise. The first two seasons of the show are highly regarded by fans, and even with the third season's budget being cut, the final season is still beloved by fans as well.
Even though the series may be loved by Trekkies, there are tons of continuity and production errors in the show that even they didn’t notice.
Here are the 30 Mistakes In The Original Star Trek Even Trekkies Completely Missed.
McCoy’s Uniform
Besides William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, who played the character Dr. Leonard McCoy, was a recurring actor on the original Star Trek. The character was introduced in the first episode of the show and played a big role for the rest of the series.
That being said, in season 1 episode 6, McCoy was at the center of a continuity error. In the episode “Mudd’s Women”, as the women are being beamed onto the spacecraft, McCoy is wearing a blue tunic, but his shirt then mysteriously changes into a medical smock.
Kirk Gets Assaulted
In season 3 episode 12 of Star Trek, Kirk and Spock get into a bit of a situation as they are tortured by an alien species named The Vians. The episode received a lot of controversy, and was even banned in the UK for a while due to its content and depiction of torture.
In the episode, Kirk’s arms are chained up, only they are in different positions from different angles. When the camera is filming from his back, his arms are stretched upwards and his arms are wide apart. From the front, however, his arms are closer together and are bent at the elbows.
Sulu’s Meal
Another recurring character from the original Star Trek was George Takei’s Sulu. This character was introduced in the first episode of the series, but was also at the middle of a continuity error. In season 1 episode 1, Rand brings Sulu a tray of odd foods. One of the items is a bowl of colored cubes, well, that is in the wide shots.
When the tray is first delivered to Sulu, the colored cubes are in a bowl, but when it goes to a closeup shot of the tray, the cubes are now on a plate. When the scene goes back to showing Sulu, the food is again in a silver bowl.
Script Spelling Error
It is always an awkward situation when a movie or TV show spells something wrong in the credits. This can be problematic if an actor’s name is spelled wrong, but as for Star Trek, the word “script” was spelled incorrectly for 13 episodes of season 1.
When giving the crew member George A. Rutter his title, the credits credit him as a “Scpipt” Supervisor. This mistake was eventually fixed on the show, but in the ‘60s, it likely would have cost a lot of money to redo the credits to fix one spelling error.
Dr. Van Gelder’s Tape Markers
For almost all movies and TV shows, tape markers will be used at some point to show the actors where they are supposed to start or finish a scene on the set. Most of these times, the markers won’t make it into the finished product, but that wasn’t the case for Star Trek.
In season 1 episode 9, when the character Dr. Van Gelder demands that Kirk not take him back to Tantalus, the actor’s tape marker can be seen on the floor. This wasn’t the only episode this happened in however, as it occurred a lot during the show’s three seasons.
Yeoman Smith Is A Ghost
During filming for a movie or TV show, it is always important to have all of the actors stay in their positions during the shoot in order to avoid continuity errors, but that didn’t always happen on the set of Star Trek. In season 1 episode 3, Captain Kirk is seen sitting in the Captain’s chair without anybody standing behind him.
When the camera films Kirk’s front side, however, the character Yeoman Smith is now standing directly behind Kirk and appears out of nowhere. Some may say that she just walked up to him, but the shot changes so fast that this is unlikely the case.
Unfinished Set
Since the budget for Star Trek went down during season 3 of the show, it makes sense why the third season might have its fair share of continuity errors. With that in mind, this mistake comes from season 1 episode 26, so somebody just forgot to finish their job.
In the episode, Kirk orders the Enterprise to maintain their firing range and Spock can be seen standing on the deck of the ship. If fans look at Spock’s feet, it's clear that somebody forgot to finish painting the wooden plank of the set.
Nurse Chapel’s Hair
One of the nurses on the USS Enterprise was named Christine Chapel and was played by Majel Barrett. Nurse Chapel goes through a few different hairstyles during the show’s three seasons, which causes a continuity error in season 3 episode 20.
Chapel’s hair is different in season 3, but since a scene from an older episode was reused for the episode titled “The Way to Eden", her hair changes back to her old hairstyle when her character falls unconscious. The sound waves are really what makes her pass out, but maybe it was actually this glaring continuity mistake.
What A Comfy Prison
Kirk and Spock are at the center of many unfortunate situations during Star Trek: The Original Series, but in season 1 episode 26, the characters are thrown in a jail cell. Sure, the characters have endured worse, but being thrown onto the floor of a jail cell certainly would have hurt, except for Kirk and Spock’s cell.
When Kirk is thrown into the cell with Spock, a crash mat is clearly visible on the set’s floor. These mats are often used to break actor’s falls, but usually, the set will try to hide them a bit better than this.
Spock’s Ear
One of the most recognizable things about Star Trek, and Spock specifically, is the character’s ears. Since Spock is of the Vulcan species, he has pointy ears almost like an elf. Obviously, Leonard Nimoy’s ear wasn’t actually like this in real life, so the special effects department attached a prosthetic ear extension to his actual ear, and then covered it with makeup.
There are several scenes where Spock’s ears are clearly fake, but in season 2 episode 21, the seam between his real ear and the fake one can be clearly seen.
Metamorphosis
Spock was one of the main characters during the duration of the original Star Trek and was even included in the pilot episode, but this means that he is also at the center of a lot of continuity errors.
In season 2 episode 9 titled “Metamorphosis”, Spock’s left hand is on top of a machine. In the very next shot, however, his right hand is shown to be on top of the machine. To make matters even worse, Kirk randomly appears to be sitting across from Spock when the camera goes to a wide shot.
Magically Appearing Eve
In Star Trek season 1 episode 6, the crew of the USS Enterprise picks up a person named Henry Mudd, who is accompanied by three women. One of these women is named Eve McHuron, played by actress Karen Steele.
When Kirk is holding a hearing for Mudd and says the hearing is closed, the chair to the right of Mudd appears to be empty, but Eve appears in the following shot. In a later shot, it is revealed that Eve is sitting right next to Hudd, which creates a continuity error for this episode.
Where Does Scotty Work?
An important member of the crew on the USS Enterprise was named Montgomery Scott, typically referred to as Scotty. The character was born in Scotland in the year 2222 and was affiliated with Federation Starfleet. The character was also the Chief Engineer of the engineering team, except for in season 3 episode 18.
In this episode, it looks like the wardrobe department gave actor James Doohan the wrong costume, as Scotty is wearing a science patch rather than an engineering one for the duration of the episode.
Visible Equipment
While Star Trek is supposed to captivate viewers and suck them into an epic space adventure, that is sometimes hard to do in the Original Series when camera equipment is clearly visible. This can make people remember that they are just watching a TV show, and just that happens with season 1 episode 3.
During the episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, Mitchell and Kelso are talking at their stations, and wires and wheels from what appears to be a camera mount can clearly be seen in front of their console.
Flipped Shot
When a movie or TV show goes to post-production, an editor sometimes has to flip certain shots in a different direction if an actor accidentally looked the wrong way while delivering a line. In season 1 episode 7 titled “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, a closeup shot of Kirk clearly got flipped in post-production.
The closeup shot of Kirk shows the green side of his shirt to be on the left side of the screen, but when it zooms out, the green side is now on the right side instead.
Boom Mic’s Shadow
Anybody who has a clue about filmmaking knows that the mics in cameras often don’t pick up good enough audio to use for a movie or TV show. This causes the sound department to use a boom mic, which is angled towards the character speaking.
Often times this is above the actor’s heads, which means that the mic will occasionally drop into the scene by accident. In season 1 episode 3, the mic can’t be seen in the shot, but the shadow certainly can. When Spock is talking with Kirk, a shadow from the boom mic can clearly be seen above his head.
Rand’s Slippers
Actress Grace Lee Whitney may have not been on Star Trek for very long, since she was only in eight episodes in season 1, but she did play the character Yeoman Janice Rand. Despite her short time on the show, her character still caused a continuity error.
In season 1 episode 2, Rand can be seen in the background of the shot wearing fluffy white slippers, but in the next shot she is barefoot with the slippers nowhere to be found. The mistake is a blink and you miss it moment, but it can be hard to unsee after you notice it.
A Moving Corpse
Often times when a movie or TV show has a character that passes away, they will just have the actor pretend to be no longer living. Since the actor behind the character hasn’t really passed away, the breathing or movements stick out if they happen to get picked up on camera.
In season 3 episode 20 titled “The Way to Eden”, Spock finds Adam’s corpse underneath a fruit tree. The only problem is that the actor playing Adam is moving his fingers during part of the scene, which obviously isn’t supposed to be happening.
Fallout Shelter In The 1930s?
Season 1 episode 28 of Star Trek did a time jump back to the 1930s. The episode partly takes place during the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 into the late ‘30s. After Dr. McCoy jumps through a time portal and alters time, the USS Enterprise disappears.
Even though the episode takes place during the Great Depression, a sign for a nuclear fallout shelter can be seen during a few scenes of the episode. The only issue is that these fallout signs wouldn’t have been put up until around 1961.
Charlie Gives Rand A Present
Charlie Evans was a unique character who was human, but experienced superhuman powers thanks to an alien race called the Thasians. The character was played by actor Robert Walker Jr., and was only on the show for one episode in season 1 called “Charlie X”.
In the episode, Charlie falls in love with Yeoman Rand and offers her perfume as a present. When Charlie gives Rand her gift, however, a boom mic can unfortunately be seen moving back and forth near the floor by the actors’ legs as the characters talk.