A Fan Noticed A Critical Error In David Tennant’s Doctor Who, And It Had Nothing To Do With Rose Tyler

A Doctor Who fan pointed out some errors in the debut episode of Rose Tyler in the David Tennant’s series. Does it ruin the rather perfect debut? Let’s find out

It’s been about 15 years since the fans got to relive Doctor Who in 2005 after it stayed off-air for more than two decades. It couldn’t have been a more perfect revival. However, the perfect dream was just spoiled after a fan, while watching re-runs of the series, noticed a serious glitch in the season featuring Rose Tyler’s debut as David Tennant’s companion.

Highlights —

A critical issue with the debut of Rose in David Tennant’s Doctor Who.
What happened at the beginning of the first episode?
The Day and Night glitch in the first scene.

Doctor Who originally ran for over 26 seasons from 1963 to 1989. Though there was a failed attempt to revive the show in form of a 1996 TV film of the same name, the story found true revival by BBC in 2005.

Since then, we have seen five incarnations of The Doctor through 12 parts of the show. The incarnations are portrayed by Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor – 2005), David Tennant (Tenth Doctor – 2005 to 10), Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor – 2010 to 13), Peter Capaldi (Twelfth Doctor – 2014 to 17), and the present Thirteenth Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker.

A critical issue while Rose debuted.

Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) was the key to introduce the new generation fans to the Doctor Who universe in 2005 with David Tennant. She first came across the Ninth incarnation of The Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston. Soon, she became the companion of the Tenth incarnation, played by David. She stayed for two parts, and when they fell in love, they separated.

However, when a fan decided to revisit the season after 15 years, he noticed a critical continuity error at the very beginning of the first episode of the revival. The fact that it was the very first scene of a rather perfect show left fans bewildered.

What happened at the beginning of the first episode?

The opening shot of the first episode of Doctor Who showed us the earth from space. The angle was set on UK and US. Then, we were in the bedroom of our companion Rose, in London. Her alarm clock was beeping and she would wake-up and head to her departmental store.

As the episode proceeds, we find that the departmental store where Rose works has been conquered by an alien life form. After a terrifying chase, Rose was saved by The Doctor. By the end of the episode, Rose was on her way to be the companion of The Doctor, soon to be incarnated with the face of David.

The Day and Night glitch in the first scene.

Though fans were intrigued in the thoughts of Doctor Who’s revival during its first episode, one of them noticed a major mistake.

Commenting on the moviemistakes.com blogging platform, the fan highlighted the error in the position of the sun and the time on the earth.

He wrote: “It shows that it’s daylight over the UK – and over the USA. This is, of course, impossible.”

The fan explained further. “When it’s 7:30am in London, it is 2:30am in New York, as Eastern Time is 5 hours behind UK time. In New York at 2:30 am it is not daylight, because it is the middle of the night.”

The error in the day-night time continuum was only one thing. The fan also addressed the error in how the position of the sun doesn’t match with the time of the year in which the first few episodes are set.

He continued:

“In addition, later episodes make it clear this episode is set in March. The North Pole is fully sunlit, which it never is in March, due to the equinox that happens that month.”

Though it will make no difference to the show after 15 years now, it has to be noted how careful the creators need to be when they have such a dedicated fan base. Regardless of the error, the debut episode of Rose, which later introduced the Tenth Doctor played by David in Doctor Who, turned out to be a dramatic and engaging ride.

Did you notice this error in the premiere episode of Doctor Who? Maybe you’ll notice it now, try it.

Up Next

Clare Crawley’s The Bachelorette Sends 13 Men Home From The Original 32