History OutOfCharacterAlert / LiveActionTV

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E18Allegiance Allegiance]]", Picard is replaced by a double who has his memories but doesn't act like him very well--basically doing the kinds of things Picard would do if he weren't an incredibly reserved man. (One of the weird things the doppelganger Picard does is go into [[GoodGuyBar Ten Forward]], order drinks all around, and start singing.) When the real Picard asks Riker what the giveaway was, he is told: "Well, sir, I find it hard to believe that [[TakeThat you're that good a singer]]." The aliens who abducted Picard reveal that this was really part of their experiment to study the concept of hierarchy, which was alien to them because they were a HiveMind. In Picard's case, they wanted to test how far the crew's respect for the Captain's authority would go with his increasingly erratic behavior. The bridge crew draw the line only when the duplicate gives a suicidal order for no reason.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E8FutureImperfect Future Imperfect]]", Riker figures out he's trapped in a simulation, and asks the crew questions they can't answer so that whoever is running the simulation will stop trying to fool him. Geordi can't justify running a level 1 diagnostic for over a day, which is in fact a HandWave for the simulation's imperfections (Riker explicitly notes that La Forge is "incapable of that level of incompetence"); Worf can't recall where he got a scar; Data can't make anywhere near trillions of calculations per second, and, like Lore, uses contractions.

*** "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho1DAS4E1ReturnToSkaro Return to Skaro]]": While this is only his chronologically second encounter with the Daleks, the mere idea of peaceful Daleks is enough to concern the First Doctor.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' has an example that refers back to a ChekhovsLecture during the ColdOpen. Namely, Watson complaining she can't read Holmes' texts because he uses too many weird abbreviations. [[spoiler:After the Killer of the Week kidnaps Holmes, she sends a text to Watson from his phone so she won't worry. Watson recognizes it as fake because it didn't read "like a teenager on a sugar high."]] After [[spoiler:Holmes is rescued, he tries to take credit by claiming he deliberately provoked the killer to text Watson]].

** When Jack's smart house takes him hostage (along with several other characters), he responds to his deputy's concern with, "Sorry, false alarm. But thanks for coming down, ''Josephina.''" Since this is the only time he or anyone else has called her anything but "Jo", she realizes pretty quickly that something's out of the ordinary.

* On ''Series/FamilyMatters'', Urkel was being threatened by a criminal, causing him to be placed in witness protection, guarded day and night by, among others, Carl. At the end of Carl's shift guarding Urkel, Carl's partner shows up, holding a large handkerchief in front of his face, telling Carl he has a cold. Carl's suspicions aren't raised until he says "see you later" and the criminal replies "yeah, see you" instead of the actual partner's trademark "not if I see you first". Carl then mentions some money he owes him, slides it under the door, then kicks the door in when the criminal bends down to pick it up.
* On ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', episode "I Shrink, Therefore I Am". Crichton is returning to [[LivingShip Moya]], which unbeknown to him has been hijacked. He messages the ship; after hanging up Crichton says "something's wrong".

%%* In one episode of ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'', Parker was held hostage by an ex-cop who had tried to join SRU but failed the psych test, causing his life to spiral down. The ex-cop told Parker to misled his team to a certain room, which Parker complied but added "stay frosty" alerting his team that he was under duress. However, the ex-cop realized it was a distress code when he was watching the security cameras and noticed the team wasn't heading towards the given room.

* ''Series/TheGoodPlace'': Jason, of all people, spots that [[spoiler: "Janet" is actually an impostor Bad Janet]] when [[spoiler: he says "I got you, girl" and she doesn't respond "Not a girl."]]

* ''Series/TheGreatBritishBakeOff'': The contestants can act considerably different when the stress gets to them.
** Constantly chill Selasi often admits he's making it up as he goes along, plays with his ingredients and spends a lot of time joking with fellow competitors. In the series 7 semi-final he paces around frowning and actually admits he's worried.

* In the ''Series/{{Haven}},'' episode "The New Girl," the Troubled of the week has done a GrandTheftMe with Duke's body, and immediately picks up on the romantic tension between Duke and Jennifer. He assumes they're together, which they aren't, but it isn't until he calls her "babe" that she realizes that Duke is NotHimself. Which is leagues better than his own brother, who [[FailedASpotCheck doesn't notice at all]] until he's given the Trouble person the idea to ''kill'' his original body to stay in Duke's forever.

* On ''Series/{{Justified}}'' Boyd Crowder calls up his new business partner, Hot-Rod Dunham to finalize the details of a major drug deal. At the end of the conversation, the Hot-Rod tells Boyd that he hopes everything goes as smoothly as the last time he, Boyd and Dickie Bennett did a drug deal together. Boyd instantly realizes that Hot-Rod is under duress and the drug deal is a trap. The last time Hot-Rod bought drugs from Dickie Bennett, things went far from "smooth" because Boyd ambushed them and stole Dickie's money. This was followed by a MobWar that saw many people die.

** Rather terrifyingly {{inverted}} once. The setup is that [[BitchInSheepsClothing Morgana]] has convinced [[WellIntentionedExtremist King Uther]] that his son Arthur has been enchanted by Guinevere. Convinced that Arthur is under a spell Uther orders Guinevere to be burnt at the stake, at which point a panicking Arthur tells his father that he'd be willing to renounce his claim on the throne if only Guinevere is spared. Unfortunately, Uther takes this as "final proof" that Arthur is under a spell, claiming that it's something that he would never say. Except of course, he ''does''.

* ''Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries'': In "Death at the Grand", Aunt Prudence is held hostage and forced to call Phryne to lure her into a trap. Aunt Prudence says that she has decided to stay for lunch because Mr Butler is making shepherd's pie and Phryne knows how much she loves it. Phryne immediately realises something is wrong as Aunt Prudence hates shepherd's pie.

** In another episode, Monk realizes that a woman has been replaced by her identical twin sister when pronounces "aunt" a different way than before.

*** Kate attempts this when she brings a box of evidence down to the autopsy room on Abby's request only to find that Ducky has locked down the room and won't let anyone in. She pretends to be Abby, providing Ducky with the opportunity to confirm that something is amiss by playing along. Unfortunately the terrorist holding Ducky hostage realizes what they're doing, and Kate ends up a hostage as well.
*** Also in the episode when Ducky orders Abby to bring him the evidence ending with "stat!" "Stat!" is medical slang for needing something quickly but only used in hospitals with living patients. It isn't something a coroner should use. Realizing this alerts Gibbs that there is trouble and a possible hostage situation in autopsy.

** In "The Insider", Loretta is being held hostage by a gunman. When Pride asks her about the victim on her slab, she says that he died from "Larrabee's syndrome". Pride recognises this as a QuietCryForHelp because Captain Larrabee was an officer who was killed working a hostage situation with Pride years before.

* ''Series/OddSquad'': In "The Briefcase", Olive and Otto manage to retrieve the titular briefcase, but become sidetracked when Otto asks what's inside of it. After Olive delivers an {{Aesop}} about weight measurement, Oprah, the briefcase's owner, suddenly appears at the playground and takes it off of the agents' hands. Olive is quick to grow suspicious when she sees Oprah being uncharacteristically sweet and kind to her and her partner, being more maternal than the MeanBoss she was at the time. Sure enough, the real Oprah calls Olive and angrily asks about her briefcase, which confirms the agent's suspicions and allows her to expose the fake Oprah as the Shapeshifter, a villainess with VoluntaryShapeshifting abilities.

** Andy and Antonio have gone to New York for a romantic weekend, unaware that they are being stalked by a hitman who's pretended to befriend them. When Andy figures out what's going on, she quickly reminds Antonio that he needs to call his sister so that they can have an excuse to get away without arousing the hitman's suspicions. Antonio doesn't have a sister. Unfortunately, his brief moment of confusion before he realizes what Andy's trying to do tips the gunman off to the fact that they're on to him.
** When Todd terrorized a blind Nora at the beach house where she and Bo were spending Christmas, Bo showed up. Todd ordered her to get rid of him while he hid. Nora did so, but told Bo not to "''Film/WaitUntilDark''" to return. After driving away, Bo suddenly remembered that he and Nora had been discussing the movie shortly before he left the house to run errands, and recalled the plot -- a blind woman being terrorized by an assailant. At that, Bo realized that Nora had been trying to tell him that Todd was there in the house.

** Occurs in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E7ConversationsWithDeadPeople Conversations with Dead People]]". [[TheSmartGuy Willow]] sees a vision of [[WaifProphet Cassie]], a girl who had died earlier in the season. "Cassie" explains that she's been sent by Willow's dead girlfriend [[KilledOffForReal Tara]], who can't come herself because Willow's being punished for her RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Tara's murderer. At the end of the conversation, "Cassie" suggests that Willow [[DrivenToSuicide kill herself]] so that she and Tara can be together again. Willow instantly realizes that Tara wouldn't send anyone who would suggest that, and the illusion, sensing its mistake, drops any pretense and reveals itself as the season's BigBad, [[spoiler:[[UltimateEvil the First Evil]]]].

** There's another one in "Whom the Gods Destroy," when the villain tries to bluff his way out of failing a TrustPassword test by telling Scotty that he was just testing to make sure that he wouldn't let anyone beam up without the password. Given how long Kirk and Scotty have known one another, and how much they trust one another, Scotty immediately figures out that the "just testing you" story is bogus.
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E14WhomGodsDestroy Whom Gods Destroy]]", Kirk is [[StarfishCharacter split into his good and evil sides]] by a transporter accident, which leaves several of the ''Enterprise'' crew stranded on a hostile planet. Spock feels a bad vibe when the evil Kirk, passing himself as the good one, walks onto the bridge. Then he declares that the men can't be saved and orders the ship to leave orbit, at which point Spock ''knows'' it's not the real one -- since when would [[AFatherToHisMen James T. Kirk]] leave his crew to die?

** Subverted in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E13ArmageddonGame Armageddon Game]]": an alien government has faked the deaths of O'Brien and Bashir (while trying to hunt down and actually kill them) in an attempt to destroy all knowledge of a dangerous bio-weapon. They send a recording of a faked lab accident to Deep Space Nine, using security footage from earlier on. But O'Brien's wife notices him drinking coffee, which he would NEVER do in the afternoon, and her suspicions along with the shady explanation of the accident itself is enough to get Sisko and the others to investigate further. At the end of the episode, O'Brien is recovering at home and asks for a cup of coffee after lunch, explaining to his shocked wife that sure, he drinks coffee in the afternoon sometimes...

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]]: Zigzagged. The Doctor inquires if "Martha" (actually a Sontaran clone) called her family about the current crisis, only to be met with a flippant "Why would I?" - knowing how protective of her family she became after the "Year That Never Was", the Doctor [[SpotTheImposter starts purposely saying Out-Of-Character things]], such as that he sent his current companion, Donna, home since she's "not a soldier, like you." (the Doctor despises soldiers, something the real Martha knows damn well), and saying "Avanti!" instead of his usual "Allons-y!", leading to no response. A few times during the episode he can be seen eyeing her as a result of this.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]]: Inverted when the 10th Doctor tells clone!Martha that he sent his current companion, Donna, home since she's "not a solider, like you." - the Doctor despises soliders, something the real Martha knows damn well. Following this, the Doctor spouts phrases against clone Martha, (such as "Avanti!" instead of his usual "Allons-y!"), leading to no response. A few times during the episode he can be seen eyeing her as a result of this.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E14HeartOfStone Heart of Stone]]", Odo spends a lot of time with Changeling!Major Kira. He only realizes it is a double when "she" says "I love you".
** Subverted in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E13ArmageddonGame Armageddon Game]]": an alien government has faked the deaths of O'Brien and Bashir (while trying to hunt down and actually kill them) in an attempt to destroy all knowledge of a dangerous bio-weapon. They send a recording of a faked lab accident to Deep Space Nine, using security footage from earlier on. But O'Brien's wife notices him drinking coffee, which he would NEVER do in the afternoon, and her suspicions along with the shady explanation of the accident itself is enough to get Sisko and the others to investigate further. At the end of the episode, O'Brien is recovering at home and asks for a cup of coffee after lunch, explaining to his shocked wife that sure, he drinks coffee in the afternoon sometimes...

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E12Datalore Datalore]]", an android physically identical to Data named Lore incapacitates Data and impersonates him, but slips up in subtle ways. He gives himself away to Wesley by using a contraction, something that Data never does.[[note]]This one is fairly absurd if you're watching the show in order, since he'd used them frequently in earlier episodes and even drops one after Lore's defeat in this one.[[/note]]
** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E6TheSchizoidMan The Schizoid Man]]" has another Data impersonator, a dying scientist named Ira Graves who uploads his consciousness into Data. Graves is egotistical and contemptuous of authority, and the ''Enterprise'' crew knows something is wrong almost immediately when "Data" starts displaying those qualities, but just not exactly what. He tells Picard he's "as strong as a Rigellian ox", which Picard doesn't pick up on because he wasn't there when Graves said it earlier, but looking back, he realizes pretty much ''everything'' Graves said should have been a dead giveaway.
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E8FutureImperfect Future Imperfect]]", Riker figures out he's trapped in a simulation, and asks the crew questions they can't answer so that whoever is running the simulation will stop trying to fool him. Geordi can't justify running a level 1 diagnostic for over a day, which is in fact a HandWave for the simulation's imperfections; Worf can't recall where he got a scar; Data can't make anywhere near trillions of calculations per second, and, like Lore, uses contractions.

** A plot point in season six, when [[NiceGuy Sam]] has been behaving [[JerkAss a little]] [[TheUnfettered out of character]]. Turns out [[SoullessShell his body had no soul in it]]. Played with because it took Dean a third of a season to notice, so this trope was invoked for viewers as much as characters. What caused Dean to realize something was up was Sam letting Dean get turned into a vampire, as Dean saw that Sam didn't seem bothered by it and was actually smiling rather than trying to save him.

* In a first-season episode of ''Series/{{Jericho}}'', Johnston uses this technique to flush out a group of desperate con-artists posing as Marines, by mixing Marine and Army mottos to see if they'd recognize the wrong ones.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E18Allegiance Allegiance]]", Picard is replaced by a double who has his memories but doesn't act like him very well--basically doing the kinds of things Picard would do if he weren't an incredibly reserved man (one of the weird things the doppelganger Picard does is go into [[GoodGuyBar Ten Forward]], order drinks all around, and start singing). When the real Picard asks Riker what the giveaway was, he is told: "Well, sir, I find it hard to believe that [[TakeThat you're that good a singer]]." The aliens who abducted Picard reveal that this was really part of their experiment to study the concept of hierarchy, which was alien to them because they were a HiveMind. In Picard's case, they wanted to test how far the crew's respect for the Captain's authority would go with his increasingly erratic behavior. The bridge crew draw the line only when the duplicate gives a suicidal order for no reason.

** Still later, Shawn is in the hospital and being held at gunpoint while FaceTime-ing with Gus, Juliet, and Lassiter. Shawn gives them a false lead at the insistence of the bad guy. Gus realizes that something is up since Shawn didn't make any obscure analogies or use over-the-top theatrics as he normally does.

* In the ''Series/MyBabysittersAVampire'' episode "Guys and Dolls", Jane brings her favourite doll, Debbie Dazzle (a parody of Music/KatyPerry, to life with Benny's spellbook. Ethan then dresses up as Debbie Dazzle's male counterpart, Dazzle Dan (a parody of Barbie and Ken), to distract her so that Jane can turn her back into a doll. Unfortunately, he accidentally gives himself away when he asks her to take a ride on his speedboat, which Dazzle Dan doesn't have.

-->'''"Josephine"''': I'm proud of you, [[SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay Murphy.]]
-->'''Murphy''': ...Just so you know...Josephine always called me "John."

* On ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', in River's backstory, she sends Simon and his family several odd notes referencing events that never happened, which actually contain a complex code intended to alert them to her mistreatment at the hands of the Alliance. Unfortunately Simon is the only one who can understand it.

* ''Series/TwentyFour'':
** Played twice in the first six hours: Kim said "I love you" over the phone to her mother Teri after being kidnapped, and Teri said the same to Jack under similar circumstances. (Amusingly, Teri catches on immediately, while her counter-terrorism-trained husband [[GenreBlindness doesn't notice]].)
** In season 5 of the series, Jack is held hostage by a group of terrorists, and (rather unsubtly) relays a code he knew when he was employed by CTU ("I'm in a FLANK! TWO! POSITION!") to indicate he is transmitting under duress. This enables the strike teams to overtake the terrorists and save Jack... But only after [=McGill=] [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap figures out the outdated code]].

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E5ThePoisonSky "The Poison Sky"]]: Inverted when the 10th Doctor spouts phrases against clone Martha, (such as "Avanti!" instead of his usual "Allons-y!"), leading to no response. A few times during the episode he can be seen eyeing her as a result of this.

** And of course, "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E4MirrorMirror Mirror Mirror]]". Neither Kirk can keep up the charade of being the other for long. Fortunately, they're both dealing with Spock.

* Two enemy agents have a machine which will enable them to switch personalities with Steed and Mrs. Peel in ''Series/TheAvengers''. After the man has switched with Steed, he goes to Mrs. Peel's to lure her into the trap. As they are leaving, he addresses her as "Emma", something Steed never did. She notices, but shrugs it off.

* In ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'', John is kidnapped and forced to fool Sherlock into thinking he's Moriarty. There are many, many indications that something is obviously not right, such as John blinking SOS at Sherlock, speaking in an unusual monotone, and wearing a thick jacket (with a bomb-strapped vest underneath) that he was a) not wearing when he left Baker Street and b) according to Mrs. Hudson, would never wear anyway. There is no indication that Sherlock picks up on any of these hints, which is a pretty big Out-of-Character Alert in its own right, showing how deeply shaken he is at the prospect of John's friendship being a lie.

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS3E14HeartOfStone Heart of Stone]]", Odo spends a lot of time with Changeling!Major Kira. He only realizes it is a double when "she" says "I love you".
** Subverted in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS2E13ArmageddonGame Armageddon Game]]": an alien government has faked the deaths of O'Brien and Bashir (while trying to hunt down and actually kill them) in an attempt to destroy all knowledge of a dangerous bio-weapon. They send a recording of a faked lab accident to Deep Space Nine, using security footage from earlier on. But O'Brien's wife notices him drinking coffee, which he would NEVER do in the afternoon, and her suspicions along with the shady explanation of the accident itself is enough to get Sisko and the others to investigate further. At the end of the episode, O'Brien is recovering at home and asks for a cup of coffee after lunch, explaining to his shocked wife that sure, he drinks coffee in the afternoon sometimes...