Aliens of London / World War Three: | ||
 | ep 1 – | As the TARDIS arrives for the first time, look through the bottom opening of the building behind the TARDIS to see a running person suddenly appear out of thin air! |
| ep 1 – | Rose must be blind not to have spotted all the "missing" posters with her picture hanging on the walls outside her front door. We clearly see them later when the Doctor hands her the TARDIS key — so they were obviously there when she returned home at the start of the episode! |
| ep 1 – | As the ship passes over London, the "ship's-eye view" shows it flying North-East, from roughly overhead London Bridge towards Tower Bridge with Shad Thames just beyond to the east. We then cut immediately to the ship flying North-West from over Shad Thames towards Tower Bridge, i.e. coming from almost completely the opposite direction. |
| ep 1 – | When the alien craft is about to crash, we see a shot of it flying very low in front of Tower Bridge. The very next shot (from the ship's perspective) puts it much higher, far above any other buildings. |
| ep 1 – | The missing posters say Rose vanished in March 2005, and this is a year later, so this episode must be set in March 2006. But when the alien ship flies down Whitehall, it passes the Trafalgar Studios theatre showing a poster for Sweeney Todd, which ran there from July to October 2004. |
| ep 1 – | When Big Ben gets smashed, in the effects shots you see only one tail-wing-thingy smashing into the clock. However other shots establish that the spaceship has two wings on each side. |
| ep 1 – | During the Big Ben close-up, look carefully to spot that the face on the clock and the text beneath it are both backwards — for some reason, the director must have decided to reverse the shot during editing. This also makes it look as if the clock is still running after the crash, since it appears to be 10 o'clock during the crash but later shows 2 o'clock when we see the ruin on BBC News 24 — really though, it was 2 o'clock during the crash and only looked like 10 o'clock because the shot was reversed. |
| ep 1 – | Not to harp on about what is a bloody brilliant effects shot, but there's one final problem with the Big Ben demolition — after the spaceship impacts and the tiles fall off, you can see what appears to be MDF that the clock is made from, and also some of the blobs of glue that were holding the tiles on. |
| ep 1 – | The BBC reporter tells us that the 'alien' body has been taken to (fictional) Albion Hospital as it's the nearest hospital to the crash site. In reality St. Thomas' Hospital is only a couple of hundred yards away, just beyond Westminster Bridge.
[If there's another hospital nearer to the scene than that, it's no wonder the NHS complains of being under-funded!] |
| ep 1 – | How did the reporter got from Big Ben to the morgue so quickly? The body was being driven away with the reporter standing in the foreground — then as the body is being taken out of the van at the morgue, the same reporter is already there! How would the BBC crew have time to load all their equipment into a van, drive across (gridlocked) London, and get to the morgue and set up... all before the van (which would have had a police escort) could arrive? |
| ep 1 – | The TARDIS does that "wind blowing" effect (as well as its usual wheezing and groaning) when it arrives or departs. So how did a small room of soldiers not notice when it arrived in an even smaller room next to them? |
| ep 1 – | Also, when the TARDIS appears in the hospital, notice that the "BAD WOLF" graffiti is clearly missing from the side panels. Also, look closer and you'll see that the right hand side of the "Police Public Call Box" sign over the door is missing.
[Chameleon circuit acting up again?] |
| ep 1 – | The Slitheen seem to be using common-or-garden zips to hold their skin-suits shut, so how exactly did they cobble the general's skin together so quickly? Shouldn't there be a scene where they break out the sewing kit? |
| ep 1 – | As the Doctor, Rose and Mickey leave the TARDIS (before heading to No 10) and are surrounded by the military, as Mickey steps out and closes the door, it looks as if the "Police Telephone" notice on the door comes unstuck and slips downwards. |
| ep 1 – | When Rose and the Doctor arrive at Number 10, we see a quick montage of four photographers snapping. For whatever reason, the shot of the fourth one has been flipped mirror-image — notice the Nikon logo on the camera is backwards.
[This director loves his backwards shots, eh?] |
| ep 1 – | When the door to No. 10 opens as the Doctor and Rose arrive, you can clearly see a lighting rig (or possibly a reflector) on the stairs. |
| ep 1-2 – | Why does the policeman's head have a visible zip on it, but none of the other Slitheen's heads do? Also, the zip disappears from the policeman's head by the time he shows up again in episode 2. |
| ep 1 – | When the Slitheen are revealing themselves to the Doctor and the room full of experts, it seems they have the ability to dim the room's lights while emitting their blue glow — then the lights in the room then fade back up once they're fully revealed.
[Perhaps they've got someone whose job it is to stand by the light switch and dim the lights on all their invasions?] |
| ep 1-2 – | The doors on the conference room close at very different speeds at different times: When the Slitheen realise that the Doctor has tricked them with the alcohol nonsense, the Doctor presses a button which causes the huge metal doors to slam shut, instantly blocking every window and doorway. However, when the Doctor and the others are talking to the Slitheen later, the doors seem to close at a much slower speed.
[Perhaps they "know" to close faster when there's a load of aliens charging the door!] |
| ep 1-2 – | During the various Slitheen electrocution scenes (in Jackie's kitchen, in the Cabinet room, etc.) we see large Slitheen shadows thrown onto the walls. But since the source of the illumination is meant to be the aliens themselves, how could they cast a shadow? |
| ep 2 – | At one point when the Doc gets the sonic screwdriver out, something detaches from it (or possibly comes out of his pocket) and falls to the floor. |
| ep 2 – | When Mickey snaps the picture of the Slitheen, the resulting image on his phone shows the Slitheen looking towards the phone — but it was actually sideways-on when the picture was taken. |
| ep 2 – | After General Asquith and Mr. Acting-Prime-Minister tell the guards to shoot the Doctor on sight and go into the lift, you can see a boom mike reflected in the head guard's goggles.
[Or else 10 Downing Street has some very odd-looking hall lamps.] |
| ep 2 – | So the Doctor has studied huge lists of what types of life-form lives on which planet, right down to how they name themselves, but he hasn't bothered to look at any pictures of them? |
| ep 2 – | How does Rose know what the Slitheen's farts smell like? None of them fart when she's around.
[They may be psychotic warmongering aliens, but at least they know how to behave in front of a lady.] |
| ep 2 – | In the wide panoramic shot of London just before the BBC News 24 reporter appears, you can see that Big Ben has been miraculously repaired. |
| ep 2 – | When the Doctor drags the body of Indra Ganesh into the Cabinet Rooms cupboard, the Prime Minister's body is sprawled partly face down. When he exits a mere second later, we can see the PM's body propped up in a half-sitting position. |
| ep 2 – | Later on, the Doctor et al take refuge in the same cupboard, but the bodies of the Prime Minister and Indra Ganesh have completely vanished! |
| ep 2 – | In some scenes where you can see the feet of the Slitheen, you can also see the shoes of the people wearing the costumes. |
| ep 2 – | Why does the Slitheen policeman visit Jackie Tyler to kill her in the first place, and then go out of its way to pursue her to Mickey's flat? She was hardly going to jeopardise the U.N. handing the missile codes over, was she?
[Not that any of us would need an excuse to kill Jackie.] |
| ep 2 – | Rose says that the vinegar is "in the cupboard by the sink, middle shelf". The cupboard Jackie gets it from only has two shelves. |
| ep 2 – | When Jackie and Mickey "explode" the Slitheen, both end up covered in alien goo. Towards the end of the episode, when she sees the missile, Jackie is completely clean. How did she find time for a shower and change? |
| ep 2 – | If the Slitheen family's plan was to flog the Earth as radioactive spaceship fuel, then why bother with their elaborate plan? Why not simply nuke the planet from space? If they have the technology to manufacture spaceships, augment pigs, and impersonate lardy humans, then surely a few nukes aren't any bother for them? Furthermore, why on Earth (pun intended) would they pick an inhabited planet, with all the extra hassle that entails? Why not nuke one of the millions of lifeless rock-planets in the universe? |
| ep 2 – | How come UNIT's Web site had picked up the Slitheen's 'advert' but no one had done anything about it? |
| ep 2 – | How is it the nation's missiles can be controlled from one easily hacked Web site? |
| ep 2 – | Presumably the family Slitheen would have needed to scarper back to their ship to avoid nuclear fallout — they're hardly going to instigate a full-scale nuclear attack with nowhere to escape to, right? So why didn't the Doctor have Mickey target their ship instead of 10 Downing Street? |
| ep 2 – | Since the Doctor was locked in a room, how did he know that a) all the Slitheen were gathered in Number 10, and b) that all the humans would evacuate in time? Or did he just not really care if they died? And while we're at it, since when does the Doctor resort to using a missile to solve his problems? |
| ep 2 – | When Mickey is hacking, it's painfully clear that the Royal Navy website author can't spell "override". |
| ep 2 – | When Mickey launched the missile, he didn't actually give the missile a target, it just automatically headed for Number 10! Are the Navy in the habit of targetting missile strikes at the Prime Minister?
[They must all be Tories.] |
| ep 2 – | And how does Mickey miraculously neutralise all the intercepting firepower (presumably including scrambled fighter pilots, etc.) without any help from the Doctor, by typing madly on the keyboard while the map is still displayed on his monitor? Not only can't he see what he's typing, but he isn't typing it into any window or field on screen! |
| ep 2 – | The Navy used the wrong type of missile to destroy Number 10: the Harpoon is primarily an anti-ship missile. Although it can be used against land-based targets, it can't dodge buildings as shown on screen, and has a range of only 60 nautical miles — judging from the map, London looked further away than that when it was launched. The Tomahawk (a cruise missile) would have been a more appropriate choice. |
| ep 2 – | Right before the missile hits, we clearly see that it's daytime. Yet, when the trooper sounds the fire alarm, and the troops run outside just before the missile hits, it looks as though it could be the middle of the night. |
| ep 2 – | Before the missile explosion, the door to Number 10 is wide open when the policeman tells everyone to run, but when we see the actual explosion, the door has closed itself.
[Granted, it gives the explosion a nicer effect with the door closed.] |
| ep 2 – | When the Doctor, Rose & Harriet emerge from the wreckage of Downing Street, they don't have so much as a hair out of place: no soot or debris on them anywhere. |
| ep 2 – | Watch out for street traffic and busses in the background following the destruction of Downing Street, when London is supposedly "empty". |
| ep 2 – | Anyway, regardless of how relatively "empty" London is, surely when Downing Street is destroyed by a missile you'd see at least someone coming to have a look? How come Harriet has to walk half a mile to find anyone? |
| ep 2 – | After the Doctor gets the kid to clean off the Bad Wolf graffiti, we see two long shots of Mickey sitting down with his feet apart, interspersed with two medium shots showing his feet much closer together. |