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* Irony: Jamie stealing Mr Dickie's ''Titanic'' ticket likely saved the latter's life, given the [[MenAreTheExpendableGender poor survival prospects of third class males]].
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Changed line(s) 151,152 (click to see context) from:
* ShownTheirWork: One of the few things they actually got right is ''Titanic'' splitting in two, making this technically the first film to accurately depict the sinking. Of course, the film barely shows the ship splitting apart.
** Despite the many inaccuracies mentioned above, the miniseries does reference a number of obscure events about the sinking. There was a lifeboat drill scheduled for Sunday morning, which was cancelled for unknown reasons (suggested here because Captain Smith "didn't want to interrupt the Sunday services"). Also, wireless operators Phillips and Bride did fight with a stoker who attempted to steal their lifebelts just as they were about to leave for the boat deck.
** Despite the many inaccuracies mentioned above, the miniseries does reference a number of obscure events about the sinking. There was a lifeboat drill scheduled for Sunday morning, which was cancelled for unknown reasons (suggested here because Captain Smith "didn't want to interrupt the Sunday services"). Also, wireless operators Phillips and Bride did fight with a stoker who attempted to steal their lifebelts just as they were about to leave for the boat deck.
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* ShownTheirWork: ShownTheirWork:
** One of the few things they actually got right is ''Titanic'' splitting in two, making this technically the first film to accurately depict the sinking. Of course, the film barely shows the ship splitting apart.
** Despite the many inaccuracies mentioned above, the miniseries does reference a number of obscure events about the sinking. There was a lifeboat drill scheduled for Sunday morning, which was cancelled for unknown reasons (suggested here because Captain Smith "didn't want to interrupt the Sunday services").Also, wireless Wireless operators Phillips and Bride did fight with a stoker who attempted to steal their lifebelts just as they were about to leave for the boat deck.deck. It is also one of the few ''Titanic'' adaptations to include the Allisons, albeit it botches their story horribly.
** One of the few things they actually got right is ''Titanic'' splitting in two, making this technically the first film to accurately depict the sinking. Of course, the film barely shows the ship splitting apart.
** Despite the many inaccuracies mentioned above, the miniseries does reference a number of obscure events about the sinking. There was a lifeboat drill scheduled for Sunday morning, which was cancelled for unknown reasons (suggested here because Captain Smith "didn't want to interrupt the Sunday services").
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* HollywoodHistory: Way too much of it.
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* TheEndIsNigh: A homeless woman appears as people are boarding the ''Titanic'' in Southampton, saying that doom awaits the ship and tells the passengers to "repent their wickedness."
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** The weapons that are removed from the ship's safe are a Smith & Wesson and two Iver Johnson revolvers. However, the guns that the officers had on board were Webley revolvers (accurately used in Jim Cameron's film).
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** The weapons that are removed from the ship's safe are a Smith & Wesson and two Iver Johnson revolvers. However, the guns guns that the officers had on board were Webley British Webley .455 revolvers (accurately used in Jim Cameron's film).
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** First Officer Murdoch shoots a passenger attempting to force his way onto a lifeboat, and then shoots himself. There is no evidence for the former, and while some accounts from survivors suggest an officer committed suicide late in the sinking, it is unclear if this was Murdoch, or indeed if it happened at all.
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** First Officer Murdoch shoots a passenger attempting to force his way onto a lifeboat, and then shoots himself. There is no evidence for the former, and while some accounts from survivors suggest an officer committed suicide late in the sinking, it is unclear if this was almost certainly ''not'' Murdoch, or indeed if it even happened at all.all.
*** During the real sinking, Second Officer Lightoller bluffed a panicking crowd back into order with a revolver he hadn't loaded yet (an oversight he immediately corrected), while Fourth Officer Boxhall fired several warning shots with his Webley (the only time a weapon was discharged aboard ''Titanic'') when a crowd rushed one of the boats. Murdoch himself was last seen on the roof of the Officers' Quarters trying to deploy a collapsible boat (a 12-man job) by himself, and was most likely crushed when the forward funnel collapsed moments later. There is no evidence that Murdoch ever drew, much less fired, his own pistol.
*** During the real sinking, Second Officer Lightoller bluffed a panicking crowd back into order with a revolver he hadn't loaded yet (an oversight he immediately corrected), while Fourth Officer Boxhall fired several warning shots with his Webley (the only time a weapon was discharged aboard ''Titanic'') when a crowd rushed one of the boats. Murdoch himself was last seen on the roof of the Officers' Quarters trying to deploy a collapsible boat (a 12-man job) by himself, and was most likely crushed when the forward funnel collapsed moments later. There is no evidence that Murdoch ever drew, much less fired, his own pistol.
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*** When asked if he's had any accidents or wrecks in his career, Captain Smith brushes off a few "winter squalls, storms, and fog" as the most noteworthy of his "adventures," seemingly forgetting the collision between RMS ''Olympic'' and the cruiser HMS ''Hawke'', which happened under Smith's command barely six months prior to the ''Titanic'' setting sail.[[note]]In fairness to Smith, the ''Olympic'' was under compulsory pilotage in the Solent when the ''Hawke'' collision occurred, and the pilot was officially blamed for it.[[/note]]
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*** When asked if he's had any accidents or wrecks in his career, Captain Smith brushes off a few "winter squalls, storms, and fog" as the most noteworthy of his "adventures," seemingly forgetting the collision between RMS ''Olympic'' and the Royal Navy light cruiser HMS ''Hawke'', which happened under Smith's command barely six months prior to the ''Titanic'' setting sail.[[note]]In fairness to Smith, the ''Olympic'' was under compulsory pilotage in the Solent when the ''Hawke'' collision occurred, and the pilot was officially blamed for it.[[/note]]
Changed line(s) 36 (click to see context) from:
** Despite the more ominous and foreboding tone with the departure, the film omits the near-collision with the SS ''City of New York'', which came undone from its moorings due to ''Titanic'''s massive wake and delayed the departure by nearly an hour.
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** Despite the more ominous and foreboding tone with the departure, the film omits the near-collision with the SS ''City of New York'', which came undone from its moorings due to ''Titanic'''s massive wake and delayed the departure by nearly an hour.
Changed line(s) 38,39 (click to see context) from:
** John Jacob Astor is described as "the richest man in the world." Though very wealthy, he was not even the richest man in America.[[note]]That honor belonged to tycoons such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, the latter of whom gave away $350 million just before his death. That's four times as much as Astor was worth at the time of his death.[[/note]] Astor was the richest man aboard the Titanic, however.
** It is stated that there was only one pair of binoculars on the bridge for the officers to share around, so Murdoch therefore confiscates the pair from the crow's nest. In fact, Second Officer Lightoller testified that each senior officer had his own set of binoculars. It was only the ''lookouts''' binoculars which were misplaced. Shortly before the ship set sail, Captain Smith brought on Chief Wilde as Chief Officer, which meant Murdoch and Lightoller were each demoted a rank, and Second Officer David Blair was removed from the command roster altogether. When he left the ship, Blair accidentally took with him the keys to the locker in which the binoculars were kept (in other versions, he actually took the binoculars with him or they were left in his cabin). Furthermore, lookouts were trained to keep watch with the naked eye, since binoculars greatly limit the field of vision. Binoculars would only be used to inspect an object once it had been sighted. Given the state of optics in 1912, and that there was no moon and a flat calm sea, it is unlikely binoculars would have made a significant improvement.
** It is stated that there was only one pair of binoculars on the bridge for the officers to share around, so Murdoch therefore confiscates the pair from the crow's nest. In fact, Second Officer Lightoller testified that each senior officer had his own set of binoculars. It was only the ''lookouts''' binoculars which were misplaced. Shortly before the ship set sail, Captain Smith brought on Chief Wilde as Chief Officer, which meant Murdoch and Lightoller were each demoted a rank, and Second Officer David Blair was removed from the command roster altogether. When he left the ship, Blair accidentally took with him the keys to the locker in which the binoculars were kept (in other versions, he actually took the binoculars with him or they were left in his cabin). Furthermore, lookouts were trained to keep watch with the naked eye, since binoculars greatly limit the field of vision. Binoculars would only be used to inspect an object once it had been sighted. Given the state of optics in 1912, and that there was no moon and a flat calm sea, it is unlikely binoculars would have made a significant improvement.
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** John Jacob Astor is described as "the richest man in the world." Though very wealthy, he was not even the richest man in America.[[note]]That honor belonged to tycoons such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, the latter of whom gave away $350 million just before his death. That's four times as much as Astor was worth at the time of his death.[[/note]] Astor was ''was'' the richest man aboard the Titanic, ''Titanic'', however.
** It is stated that there was only one pair of binoculars on the bridge for the officers to share around, so Murdoch therefore confiscates the pair from the crow's nest. In fact, Second Officer Lightoller testified that each senior officer had his own set of binoculars. It was only the ''lookouts''' binoculars which were misplaced. Shortly before the ship set sail, Captain Smith brought onChief Henry Wilde as Chief Officer, which meant Murdoch and Lightoller were each demoted a rank, and Second Officer David Blair was removed from the command roster altogether. When he left the ship, Blair accidentally took with him the keys to the locker in which the binoculars were kept (in other versions, he actually took the binoculars with him or they were left in his cabin). Furthermore, lookouts were trained to keep watch with the naked eye, since binoculars greatly limit the field of vision. Binoculars would only be used to inspect an object once it had been sighted. Given the state of optics in 1912, and that there was no moon and a flat calm sea, it is unlikely binoculars would have made a significant improvement.
** It is stated that there was only one pair of binoculars on the bridge for the officers to share around, so Murdoch therefore confiscates the pair from the crow's nest. In fact, Second Officer Lightoller testified that each senior officer had his own set of binoculars. It was only the ''lookouts''' binoculars which were misplaced. Shortly before the ship set sail, Captain Smith brought on
Changed line(s) 41 (click to see context) from:
** As in many versions of the story, Bruce Ismay is shown to be desperate for the ''Titanic'' to break a speed record when he would have known that the White Star Line's ships could not match the Cunard's liners the ''Lusitania'' and the ''Mauretania'' for speed. Instead, the White Star Line aimed to beat Cunard by offering more comfort and luxury. Furthermore, arriving in New York a day early would not have earned him plaudits but the wrath of passengers whose hotel and travel arrangements were for the following day, not to mention irritating New York customs.
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** As in many versions of the story, Bruce Ismay is shown to be desperate for the ''Titanic'' to break a speed record when he would have known that the White Star Line's ships could not match the Cunard's liners the Cunard's ''Lusitania'' and the ''Mauretania'' for speed. Instead, the White Star Line aimed to beat Cunard by offering more comfort and luxury. Furthermore, arriving in New York a day early would not have earned him plaudits but the wrath of passengers whose hotel and travel arrangements were for the following day, not to mention irritating US Customs officials in New York customs.York, both of which would be very bad for business.
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Very much a case of TheyJustDidntCare, the production was rushed to capitalize on the hype for the upcoming Cameron movie, and is littered with inaccuracies. It also features one of the most random [[RapeAsDrama rape scenes]] in television history.
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Changed line(s) 80 (click to see context) from:
* CaliforniaDoubling: Filmed in {{Vancouver}} [[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/17/movies/the-city-that-can-sub-for-all-of-america.html for cost-cutting measures]] (despite the Titanic having sunk in the Atlantic, not the Pacific).
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* CaliforniaDoubling: Filmed in {{Vancouver}} UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} [[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/17/movies/the-city-that-can-sub-for-all-of-america.html for cost-cutting measures]] (despite the Titanic having sunk in the Atlantic, not the Pacific).
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Changed line(s) 50 (click to see context) from:
** Near the end, Captain Smith makes a sanctimonious speech about how the Titans in Greek mythology challenged the gods and were cast down for it. In fact, they ''were'' gods, and were overthrown by the Olympians.[[note]]The fate of the defeated Titans had a spookier parallel with ''Titanic'''s; they were condemned to spend an eternity in Tartarus, a dark and damp abyss in the lowest depths of the world.[[/note]]
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** Near the end, Captain Smith makes a sanctimonious speech about how the Titans in Greek mythology challenged the gods and were cast down for it. In fact, they ''were'' gods, and were overthrown by the Olympians.[[note]]The fate of the defeated Titans had a spookier more apt parallel with ''Titanic'''s; they were condemned to spend an eternity in Tartarus, a dark and damp abyss in the lowest depths of the world.[[/note]]
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** Quartermaster Hichens rolls the ship's wheel to the starboard side when ordered "hard-a starboard." In this era, British vessels still used tiller commands, which were reversed: the ship's wheel would need to be swung in the direction the ship was turning while the tiller (which controlled the rudder) was turned to the side that was ordered. Ergo, a hard-a starboard order would mean to turn the wheel fully to port.
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** Quartermaster Hichens rolls the ship's wheel to the starboard side when ordered "hard-a starboard." In this era, British vessels still used tiller commands, which were reversed: referred to the direction the tiller would be moved in, ''not'' the wheel: the ship's wheel would need to be swung in the direction the ship was turning while the tiller (which controlled the rudder) was turned to the side that was ordered. Ergo, a hard-a starboard order would mean to turn the wheel fully to port.
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Changed line(s) 146 (click to see context) from:
* {{Retirony}}: Captain Smith.
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* {{Retirony}}: Captain Smith. It's even suggested that he's retiring the moment the ship reaches New York.
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Changed line(s) 51 (click to see context) from:
** First Officer Murdoch is portrayed as shooting himself late in the sinking, even though there is little evidence to support this.
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** First Officer Murdoch shoots a passenger attempting to force his way onto a lifeboat, and then shoots himself. There is portrayed as shooting himself no evidence for the former, and while some accounts from survivors suggest an officer committed suicide late in the sinking, even though there it is little evidence to support this.unclear if this was Murdoch, or indeed if it happened at all.
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Changed line(s) 135 (click to see context) from:
** Mrs Foley serves the same purpose, pointing out notable First Class passengers and their back stories.
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** Mrs Foley serves the same purpose, pointing out notable First Class passengers and their back stories.backstories.
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* GratuitousRape: Poor naive Aase is violently raped and beaten by Simon Doonan while taking a shower.
Changed line(s) 142 (click to see context) from:
* RacistGrandma: Mrs. Foley mentions that the Strauss are Jewish in a hushed voice, demonstrating mild antisemitism.
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* RacistGrandma: Mrs. Foley mentions that the Strauss Strauses are Jewish in a hushed voice, demonstrating mild antisemitism.Anti-Semitism.
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Changed line(s) 79 (click to see context) from:
* BittersweetEnding: Of the 700 who survive the sinking, almost all have lost loved ones in the disaster, and many are also burdened with SurvivorGuilt.
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* BittersweetEnding: Of the Over 700 who people survive the sinking, but almost all of them have lost loved ones in the disaster, and many several are also burdened with SurvivorGuilt.
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** Also TruthInTelevision with Benjamin Guggenheim, who was traveling with his French mistress.
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** Despite the more ominous and foreboding tone with the departure, the film omits the near-collision with the SS ''City of New York'', which came undone from its moorings due to ''Titanic'''s massive wake and delayed the departure by nearly an hour.
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Changed line(s) 29 (click to see context) from:
** Thomas Andrews is completely absent from the events of the sinking, and his role is merged with Captain Smith. Chief Officer Henry Wilde, Third Officer Herbert Pitman and Sixth Officer James Moody are also omitted. Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall is shown dying during the sinking when he actually survived (and was on the first boat picked up by ''Carpathia''). First Officer Murdoch, a [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Scotsman]], here has an upper-class English accent and his uniform has three stripes, the markings of a Chief Officer. In addition, Chief Engineer Joseph Bell has a distinct Scottish accent, whereas he was from Cumbria in Northwestern England.
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** Thomas Andrews is completely absent from the events of the sinking, and his role is merged with Captain Smith. Chief Officer Henry Wilde, Third Officer Herbert Pitman and Sixth Officer James Moody are also omitted. Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall is shown [[DeathByAdaptation dying during the sinking when he actually survived survived]] (and was on the first boat picked up by ''Carpathia''). First Officer Murdoch, a [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Scotsman]], here has an upper-class English accent and his uniform has three stripes, the markings of a Chief Officer. In addition, Chief Engineer Joseph Bell has a distinct Scottish accent, whereas he was from Cumbria in Northwestern England.
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* BittersweetEnding: Of the 700 who survive the sinking, almost all have lost loved ones in the disaster, and many are also burdened with SurvivorGuilt.
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Changed line(s) 27 (click to see context) from:
* AnyoneCanDie: Even people who didn't actually die that night, it seems.
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* AnyoneCanDie: Even people TruthInTelevision and a well known RealLife example, although in this version it even includes individuals who didn't actually die that night, it seems.night.
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Changed line(s) 2,3 (click to see context) from:
[[caption-width-right:340:All the effort put into the cast, and not into historical accuracy.[[labelnote:*]]No, the ''Titanic'' did not have flames coming out of her smokestacks during the sinking.[[/labelnote]]]]
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Changed line(s) 12,13 (click to see context) from:
Very much in the TheyJustDidntCare category, the production was rushed to capitalize on the hype for the upcoming Cameron movie, and is littered with inaccuracies. It also features one of the most random [[RapeAsDrama rape scenes]] in television history.
to:
Very much in the TheyJustDidntCare category, a case of TheyJustDidntCare, the production was rushed to capitalize on the hype for the upcoming Cameron movie, and is littered with inaccuracies. It also features one of the most random [[RapeAsDrama rape scenes]] in television history.
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Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
** It is stated that there was only one pair of binoculars on the bridge for the officers to share around, so Murdoch therefore confiscates the pair from the crow's nest. In fact, Second Officer Lightoller testified that each senior officer had his own set of binoculars. It was only the ''lookouts''' binoculars which were misplaced. Shortly before the ship set sail, Captain Smith brought on Chief Wilde as Chief Officer, which meant Murdoch and Lightoller were each demoted a rank, and Second Officer David Blair was removed from the command roster altogether. When he left the ship, Blair accidentally took with him the keys to the locker in which the binoculars were kept (in other versions, he actually took the binoculars with him or they were left in his cabin). Given the state of optics in 1912, and that there was no moon and a flat calm sea, it is unlikely binoculars would have made a significant improvement.
to:
** It is stated that there was only one pair of binoculars on the bridge for the officers to share around, so Murdoch therefore confiscates the pair from the crow's nest. In fact, Second Officer Lightoller testified that each senior officer had his own set of binoculars. It was only the ''lookouts''' binoculars which were misplaced. Shortly before the ship set sail, Captain Smith brought on Chief Wilde as Chief Officer, which meant Murdoch and Lightoller were each demoted a rank, and Second Officer David Blair was removed from the command roster altogether. When he left the ship, Blair accidentally took with him the keys to the locker in which the binoculars were kept (in other versions, he actually took the binoculars with him or they were left in his cabin). Furthermore, lookouts were trained to keep watch with the naked eye, since binoculars greatly limit the field of vision. Binoculars would only be used to inspect an object once it had been sighted. Given the state of optics in 1912, and that there was no moon and a flat calm sea, it is unlikely binoculars would have made a significant improvement.
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Changed line(s) 44 (click to see context) from:
** Quartermaster Hitchens rolls the ship's wheel to the starboard side when ordered "hard-a starboard." In this era, British vessels still used tiller commands, which were reversed: the ship's wheel would need to be swung in the direction the ship was turning while the tiller (which controlled the rudder) was turned to the side that was ordered. Ergo, a hard-a starboard order would mean to turn the wheel fully to port.
to:
** Quartermaster Hitchens Hichens rolls the ship's wheel to the starboard side when ordered "hard-a starboard." In this era, British vessels still used tiller commands, which were reversed: the ship's wheel would need to be swung in the direction the ship was turning while the tiller (which controlled the rudder) was turned to the side that was ordered. Ergo, a hard-a starboard order would mean to turn the wheel fully to port.
Changed line(s) 58 (click to see context) from:
** Quartermaster Robert Hitchens takes the ship out of Southampton, when actually this was the job of the ship's pilot (who disembarked when the ship departed from Ireland).
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** Quartermaster Robert Hitchens Hichens takes the ship out of Southampton, when actually this was the job of the ship's pilot (who disembarked when the ship departed from Ireland).
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Changed line(s) 37 (click to see context) from:
** John Jacob Astor is described as "the richest man in the world." Though very wealthy, he was not even the richest man in America.[[note]]That honor belonged to tycoons such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, the latter of whom gave away $350 million just before his death. That's four times as much as Astor was worth at the time of his death.[[/note]]
to:
** John Jacob Astor is described as "the richest man in the world." Though very wealthy, he was not even the richest man in America.[[note]]That honor belonged to tycoons such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, the latter of whom gave away $350 million just before his death. That's four times as much as Astor was worth at the time of his death.[[/note]][[/note]] Astor was the richest man aboard the Titanic, however.
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Changed line(s) 37 (click to see context) from:
** John Jacob Astor is mentioned to be "the richest man in the world." However, he was the richest man on board; though still wealthy, he wasn't even the richest man in America.[[note]]That honor belongs to tycoons such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, the latter of whom gave away $350 million just before his death. That's four times as much as Astor was worth at the time of his death.[[/note]]
to:
** John Jacob Astor is mentioned to be described as "the richest man in the world." However, he was the richest man on board; though still Though very wealthy, he wasn't was not even the richest man in America.[[note]]That honor belongs belonged to tycoons such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, the latter of whom gave away $350 million just before his death. That's four times as much as Astor was worth at the time of his death.[[/note]]
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Changed line(s) 117 (click to see context) from:
** The morning after the sinking, Mrs Foley complains about ''her'' losses, such as her wardrobe.
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** The morning after the sinking, Mrs Foley complains about ''her'' losses, such [[SkewedPriorities as her wardrobe.wardrobe]].
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Changed line(s) 115 (click to see context) from:
* ItsAllAboutMe: Molly Brown yells at the officers who effectively force her into a lifeboat, saying she's going to have a word with Captain Smith about this.
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* ItsAllAboutMe: ItsAllAboutMe:
** Molly Brown yells at the officers who effectively force her into a lifeboat, saying she's going to have a word with Captain Smith aboutthis.this.
** The morning after the sinking, Mrs Foley complains about ''her'' losses, such as her wardrobe.
** Molly Brown yells at the officers who effectively force her into a lifeboat, saying she's going to have a word with Captain Smith about
** The morning after the sinking, Mrs Foley complains about ''her'' losses, such as her wardrobe.
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Changed line(s) 16,17 (click to see context) from:
For other works by this name, [[{{Titanic}} go here]].
to:
For other works by this name, [[{{Titanic}} go here]].
to the disambiguation]].
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* CompositeCharacter: Captain Smith takes up the roles of Thomas Andrews and Chief Henry Wilde, both of whom are absent from the events of the sinking.
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Moved to proper disambiguated work title.
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[[quoteright:340:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/8a909c8a9ba11a7020d4895a90500d08.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:340:All the effort put into the cast, and not into historical accuracy.[[labelnote:*]]No, the ''Titanic'' did not have flames coming out of her smokestacks during the sinking.[[/labelnote]]]]
A full year before Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}'' broke box office records, Robert Lieberman directed a TV miniseries about the [[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic ill-fated liner]]. Boasting an AllStarCast which included Creator/CatherineZetaJones, Peter Gallagher, Creator/TimCurry, and Creator/GeorgeCScott, the film was aired in two parts on CBS in November 1996.
The film follows three plots:
# Isabella is returning to America after attending her aunt's funeral. On the trip, she meets Wynn, her ex-lover, who begins to rekindle their romance.
# The Allison family and their new nurse, Alice Cleaver. Unlike the other two plots, this is based on real-life passengers, but only loosely, as here Alice is portrayed as a mentally disturbed child killer.
# Jamie, a down-on-his-luck pickpocket, sneaks aboard the ''Titanic'' after lifting a ticket from an immigrant. He meets a missionary family, and a crewman who is planning on robbing the First Class.
Very much in the TheyJustDidntCare category, the production was rushed to capitalize on the hype for the upcoming Cameron movie, and is littered with inaccuracies. It also features one of the most random [[RapeAsDrama rape scenes]] in television history.
Despite being released a year before the Cameron film, there are numerous similarities between the two. In particular, the lead character is a young man from Third Class with the initial "J", who boards with a ticket that didn't originally belong to him,[[note]]Jamie steals his ticket from a passenger whereas Jack won his at poker.[[/note]] falls in love with another passenger and uses someone else's tuxedo to mingle in First Class, where he meets John Jacob Astor.
For other works by this name, [[{{Titanic}} go here]].
See also ''Series/HitlerTheRiseOfEvil'', another Canadian miniseries that aired on CBS which was rife with historical inaccuracies.
----
!! Tropes featured include:
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The plain, dumpy Molly Brown is played by glamorous Marilu Henner.
* AnachronismStew:
** Jamie describes to Aase a "moving picture" he saw once, though by 1912 moving pictures were nothing new.
** Third Class had baths, not showers - rare in the UK at the time.
** While talking to Astor about "moving pictures," Jamie says he'll invest in the up-and-coming Keystone Studios, which was founded three months ''after'' the ''Titanic'' sank.
** First class passengers are seen dancing the tango when in fact there was no dancing for first class passengers on ''Titanic'' and the tango was not even embraced by the upper classes until a few years later.
* AnyoneCanDie: Even people who didn't actually die that night, it seems.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The number of historical mistakes here makes any in Cameron's film moot. [[labelnote:A note on maritime terminology...]]Before we get started, we'll be mentioning "port" and "starboard" quite a bit. To those who don't know or get confused, when looking forward to the bow (front) of a ship, starboard is the ''right'' side and port is the ''left'' side.[[/labelnote]]
** Thomas Andrews is completely absent from the events of the sinking, and his role is merged with Captain Smith. Chief Officer Henry Wilde, Third Officer Herbert Pitman and Sixth Officer James Moody are also omitted. Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall is shown dying during the sinking when he actually survived (and was on the first boat picked up by ''Carpathia''). First Officer Murdoch, a [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Scotsman]], here has an upper-class English accent and his uniform has three stripes, the markings of a Chief Officer. In addition, Chief Engineer Joseph Bell has a distinct Scottish accent, whereas he was from Cumbria in Northwestern England.
** Isabella asks to switch rooms, but is told the ship is completely booked. Only half the rooms of First and Second Class were occupied.
** The ship is shown to be docked on its starboard side in Southampton, when ''Titanic'' was actually docked on the port side.
** J. Bruce Ismay says that his father founded the White Star Line. Actually, Thomas Ismay founded the parent company Oceanic Steam Navigation, and purchased the house flag and trade name of White Star after the line had originally gone bankrupt in 1868.
** There was no press conference on board before the voyage. In addition, Smith's comment about "shipbuilding becoming such an art that any ship foundering is impossible" was made five years prior on the ''Adriatic''.
*** When asked if he's had any accidents or wrecks in his career, Captain Smith brushes off a few "winter squalls, storms, and fog" as the most noteworthy of his "adventures," seemingly forgetting the collision between RMS ''Olympic'' and the cruiser HMS ''Hawke'', which happened under Smith's command barely six months prior to the ''Titanic'' setting sail.[[note]]In fairness to Smith, the ''Olympic'' was under compulsory pilotage in the Solent when the ''Hawke'' collision occurred, and the pilot was officially blamed for it.[[/note]]
** As in most re-tellings of the story, it is stated that Smith planned to retire after the maiden ''Titanic'' voyage. There is actually very little contemporary evidence to support this. He certainly never confirmed it to any newspaper reporters.
** Benjamin Guggenheim and Molly Brown did not board the ship at Southampton, and instead boarded in France. Because of that, they were not able to attend dinner on the first night out.
** John Jacob Astor is mentioned to be "the richest man in the world." However, he was the richest man on board; though still wealthy, he wasn't even the richest man in America.[[note]]That honor belongs to tycoons such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, the latter of whom gave away $350 million just before his death. That's four times as much as Astor was worth at the time of his death.[[/note]]
** It is stated that there was only one pair of binoculars on the bridge for the officers to share around, so Murdoch therefore confiscates the pair from the crow's nest. In fact, Second Officer Lightoller testified that each senior officer had his own set of binoculars. It was only the ''lookouts''' binoculars which were misplaced. Shortly before the ship set sail, Captain Smith brought on Chief Wilde as Chief Officer, which meant Murdoch and Lightoller were each demoted a rank, and Second Officer David Blair was removed from the command roster altogether. When he left the ship, Blair accidentally took with him the keys to the locker in which the binoculars were kept (in other versions, he actually took the binoculars with him or they were left in his cabin). Given the state of optics in 1912, and that there was no moon and a flat calm sea, it is unlikely binoculars would have made a significant improvement.
** It is implied that the Allisons' nanny is Alice Cleaver, the child killer. In fact she was a different woman.
** As in many versions of the story, Bruce Ismay is shown to be desperate for the ''Titanic'' to break a speed record when he would have known that the White Star Line's ships could not match the Cunard's liners the ''Lusitania'' and the ''Mauretania'' for speed. Instead, the White Star Line aimed to beat Cunard by offering more comfort and luxury. Furthermore, arriving in New York a day early would not have earned him plaudits but the wrath of passengers whose hotel and travel arrangements were for the following day, not to mention irritating New York customs.
** Margaret Brown is inaccurately portrayed as a loud [[CigarChomper cigar chomping]], poker playing, oversexed hillbilly. She is seen in the smoking room, which would have been a male only domain in 1912. She was also never referred to as Molly in her lifetime.
** Frederick Fleet notes a haze on the horizon and then immediately sees the iceberg. Both he and Reginald Lee actually noted a haze about ten minutes before seeing the iceberg, but didn't report it.
** Fourth Officer Boxhall answers the bridge telephone and relays Fleet's sighting of the iceberg, even though it was Sixth Officer Moody who did this.
** Quartermaster Hitchens rolls the ship's wheel to the starboard side when ordered "hard-a starboard." In this era, British vessels still used tiller commands, which were reversed: the ship's wheel would need to be swung in the direction the ship was turning while the tiller (which controlled the rudder) was turned to the side that was ordered. Ergo, a hard-a starboard order would mean to turn the wheel fully to port.
** Captain Smith chastises Ismay by telling him that they have "precisely the number of lifeboats required by the British Board of Trade." In actuality, ''Titanic'' carried four more boats than the law required for a ship of her size.
** The officers see the ''Californian'' directly ahead and attempt to signal her from the bridge. The "mystery ship," believed to be the ''Californian'', was actually sighted off the starboard side.
** As in the Jim Cameron film, this perpetuates the myth that steerage passengers were deliberately locked below decks during the sinking. The gates were meant to ensure that steerage passengers did not gain access to First or Second Class areas, preventing the spread of diseases so that only steerage had to go through health inspections and immigration processing at Ellis Island. Even when locked, they did not bar access to the boat deck. However, whereas the Cameron film demonstrates a sense of confusion, which likely did happen since the crew did not have any idea what the evacuation procedures were for steerage (whether they had their own boats, were allowed to come up, etc.), here they're locked because "lifeboats are for First Class only."
** The weapons that are removed from the ship's safe are a Smith & Wesson and two Iver Johnson revolvers. However, the guns that the officers had on board were Webley revolvers (accurately used in Jim Cameron's film).
** Near the end, Captain Smith makes a sanctimonious speech about how the Titans in Greek mythology challenged the gods and were cast down for it. In fact, they ''were'' gods, and were overthrown by the Olympians.[[note]]The fate of the defeated Titans had a spookier parallel with ''Titanic'''s; they were condemned to spend an eternity in Tartarus, a dark and damp abyss in the lowest depths of the world.[[/note]]
** First Officer Murdoch is portrayed as shooting himself late in the sinking, even though there is little evidence to support this.
** Bruce Ismay escaped in Collapsible C, which was launched from the starboard side of the bridge. However, here, he gets away in a lifeboat on the port side. In addition, there are more lifeboats shown to be readied after his boat is launched, even though Collapsible C was the second-to-last boat to be launched.[[note]]The final two collapsibles, B and A, were stored on top of the officers' quarters. By the time they were moved to position, the water had reached the boat deck and both were washed off.[[/note]]
** Wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride are shown jumping off the ship together. However, they separated once they left their cabin, with Bride heading for the overturned Collapsible B and Phillips heading aft.
** Fifth Officer Lowe reports to Captain Rostron of ''Carpathia'' that the ship sank at 2:40am. It was actually 2:20, after sinking in ''two hours and forty minutes''. It was also Fourth Officer Boxhall (who inexplicably dies during this movie), not Lowe, who was the first officer picked up by ''Carpathia'' and he relayed this information to Rostron.
** On the ''Californian'', Captain Lord and wireless operator Cyril Evans are shown to be much older than they were in 1912; Lord was 39 (and beardless), while Evans was 20. Third Officer Groves was not on the bridge when the ''Titanic's'' rockets were sighted, it was Second Officer Stone and the apprentice Gibson. Groves thought the ship in the distance was a passenger liner, but here he changes his mind and agrees with Lord that it is a small freighter or fishing boat.
** The epilogue mentions "All attempts to raise the ''Titanic'' have failed." No such attempt has or ever will be made. Yes, there was the section of the hull they raised in 1996, but a tiny section is ''not'' the entire ship.
*** While there were plans to raise or salvage the ship since she sank, none of these passed the conceptual stage, mostly because there was no way to reach or find the wreck. Once the wreck was discovered, it became clear it could never be raised.
* ArtisticLicenseShips:
** Quartermaster Robert Hitchens takes the ship out of Southampton, when actually this was the job of the ship's pilot (who disembarked when the ship departed from Ireland).
** Captain Smith is seen at the ship's wheel, when this task would be the duty of a lower ranking sailor, such as a quartermaster. Furthermore, he allows a passenger to take the wheel, which would never be permitted in reality. Indeed, under White Star Line rules, passengers were not even allowed on the Bridge.
** Many officers are depicted observing military protocol (saluting, saying "Captain on deck," etc.). This is an aversion, as it was common for sailors and officers in Britain to switch between military duty and merchant marine service. Indeed, the officers of ''Titanic'' were members of the Royal Navy Reserve.
** Smith complains that distress rockets should be red. In fact, there was no specified colour for distress rockets, and white would have been acceptable.
** On the bridge, Lightoller casually informs Smith that the ship has increased speed on Ismay's orders. The notion that an unqualified civilian could give navigation orders to the engineers and officers on any vessel without even the captain's knowledge or consent is absurd.
** When Captain Smith decides to retire to his quarters, he tells Lightoller he's "going below." However, the captain's quarters were right behind the bridge. The proper term would be "going off deck."
** As for the ship itself, the miniseries goes wrong wherever Cameron went right:
*** While the CGI model is pretty good, the exterior sets have no resemblance to the actual layout of the ship. For instance, the bridge set is missing the wings on its port and starboard sides.
*** Attendants are shown placing chairs and decorations the day before departure. However, the ship had already been fitted out in Belfast prior to her arrival in Southampton.
*** The bridge seems to consist of a single room, with an engine telegram at the front, the ship's wheel, and a map table in the back. The actual bridge was a fairly extensive complex. The forward section had the engine telegrams at the front in what was the ''navigation bridge''. The main steering wheel (which controlled the ship's tiller) was enclosed in the wheelhouse in the rear section. The chart room was adjacent to the bridge through the wheelhouse.
*** ''Titanic'' did not have a two story tea room with revolving doors and huge windows. There would not have been enough room on the ship for such a structure.[[note]]The closest equivalent would be the palm court restaurant on A Deck, which did have revolving doors but was not two stories.[[/note]]
*** The glass dome over the grand staircase is absent, and replaced with a chandelier.
*** The First Class smoking room did not have a bar; drinks were served by waiters.
*** The wireless room did not have a service window for the passengers. Messages were sent and delivered via stewards.
*** ''Titanic'' did not have a brig or prison of any kind.[[note]]Indeed, the term "brig" is only for naval, as in military, ships. ''Titanic'' was a passenger, i.e. civilian, liner.[[/note]]
*** The engineering sections, which took up three-quarters of the watertight compartments, seem to only consist of one room with boilers on one side and valve controls on the other. In addition, a modern klaxon blares throughout the engine room, which the ship did not have. Chief Engineer Bell is in an area that shows flooding, whereas he likely remained in the turbine area with the generators (which did not flood until the ship broke in half).
*** When Simon and Jamie leave to loot First Class, Simon closes the gate and sees that the lifeboats are being loaded. They appear to be walking down the First Class Promenade, which was right underneath the boat deck and thus the lifeboats wouldn't be visible.
*** Speaking of lifeboats, in several scenes they are obviously modern metallic ones instead of wooden.
* BeardOfEvil: Simon, as if being played by Creator/TimCurry wasn't indication enough.
* BigNo: Jamie screams "NOOO!!!" when he accidentally falls into a lifeboat, as he promised the Jack family he would come back for them.
* CaliforniaDoubling: Filmed in {{Vancouver}} [[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/17/movies/the-city-that-can-sub-for-all-of-america.html for cost-cutting measures]] (despite the Titanic having sunk in the Atlantic, not the Pacific).
* CheerfulChild: Loraine Alison, who has boundless excitement for going into a lifeboat.
* CheshireCatGrin: Simon gives one to Jamie. No surprise, as Simon is played by Tim Curry.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Beyond most adaptations, J. Bruce Ismay is portrayed as casually undermining Captain Smith's authority, even going behind his back to order more boilers lit and the ship's speed to be increased.
* CrazyPrepared: Simon changes his plan to loot First Class very quickly, even bringing a sheet along so he can be disguised as a woman and sneak into the lifeboats.
* DeadlyDeferredConversation:
** Shortly before the collision with the iceberg, Astor's maid comes to him to say that the Allison's maid is actually a child killer. As it's late at night, Astor says that he'll talk to Mr. Allison about it in the morning. Neither Astor nor Allison survives.
** On the night of the sinking, Smith promises to deal with Ismay and his orders to increase ''Titanic'''s speed in the morning.
* DespairEventHorizon: Aase goes over one after getting raped by Simon.
* DisasterMovie
* DisguisedInDrag: How Simon gets into a lifeboat, though it's more HidingInAHijab.
* DolledUpInstallment: Some foreign video distributors marketed this miniseries as a sequel to Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}''.
* DramaticShattering: Part One of the movie ends shortly after the collision with a unattended glass sliding out of the frame and onto the deck.
* DrivenToSuicide: Just like the Jim Cameron film, this features First Officer Murdoch shooting himself after killing someone trying to get into a boat. However, this is far more malicious as it depicts him coldly shooting a stoker without any provocation.
* DullSurprise: The default setting of anyone who's not excessively panicking at the mere sight of water in the ship.
* DutchAngle: The sinking is done in near-total Dutch angles, trying to show the sinking without moving the sets. It gets a bit comical when actors are trying to be off-balance when they're on level ground, not to mention it's used soon after the collision (when the tilt was not apparent yet), with along with varying between scenes and even giving the impression that the ship is heavily listing (beyond what was reported).
* TheEdwardianEra: Big hats, tailcoats, and everything in between.
* EvilBrit: Tim Curry.
* FaceDeathWithDignity:
** Captain Smith
** The Band
** The gentlemen in the First Class Smoking Room
* FatalFamilyPhoto: Even if you did not know that Captain Smith doesn't survive, this makes it more obvious by showing Smith keeping a picture of his wife and daughter.
* ForegoneConclusion: [[CaptainObvious The ship sinks]].
* GallowsHumor: Harold Bride calls the band playing "music to drown by." Interestingly, this line popped up in the Jim Cameron film.
** The bartender in the First Class Smoking Room says that all drinks are on the house. To this, Astor replies "I'd ask for ice, but this is ridiculous."
* GorgeousPeriodDress: Like most of its counterparts, pretty much anyone in first class.
* HeavenSeeker: The Jack family and their saved Scandinavian, Aase. Aase is so into God, she does not care about the "incredible new" moving pictures.
* HeroicBSOD: Surprisingly, averted. Captain Smith, who by many accounts became distant and indecisive upon realizing the gravity of the situation, is remarkably coherent. He criticizes Murdoch on his handling of avoiding the iceberg like someone a century later would.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line who was savaged by the press for merely surviving the disaster is here portrayed to be a deranged speed obsessed lunatic, undermining the crew at every turn and even going as far as heading down into the boiler room (something that could never happen in reality) and screaming at the stokers to light more boilers. Once ''Titanic'' hits the iceberg, Ismay is shown to be a sniveling, panicking idiot who snakes his way into one of the last lifeboats.
** He also gets a small HistoricalHeroUpgrade. One scene has him berating officers for lowering boats half-full and demands that they be filled, even though this was something that Thomas Andrews did.
* HopeSpot: This depicts the ''Titanic'' and ''Californian'' seeing each other and attempting to signal via morse lamp. However, the ''Californian'' crew is either too stupid or too tired to think about turning the wireless back on to communicate directly.
* HystericalWoman: Alice is this, due to her nightmares/premonitions about the sinking. Bess Allison also becomes this when Alice takes Trevor, essentially screaming "MY BABY! WHERE'S MY BABY?!!"
* IdiotBall: The ''Californian'' crew are portrayed as having this, seeing rockets and attempting to signal by Morse lamp, yet just shrugging it off.
** The Allison family also have this, as they literally wait until all the boats are gone to get their daughter into a lifeboat.
* InformedAttractiveness: For the ship itself. Several characters comment on the beauty of ''Titanic'', though the number of inaccuracies about the ship makes these rather laughable.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Molly Brown yells at the officers who effectively force her into a lifeboat, saying she's going to have a word with Captain Smith about this.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Inverted. Wynn says that soon people will be flying across the Atlantic in airplanes, a full fifteen years before this first happened, in a year when airplanes were still being fine-tuned.
** Played straight when Jamie chats with Astor about investing in the up-and-coming "moving picture" business, which the latter is skeptical about.
* {{Jerkass}}: The crew is even more snobbish and disrespectful towards steerage than they are in the Jim Cameron film. Late in the sinking, one of them just walks past a locked gate and snickers at the steerage passengers trapped there, saying the lifeboats are for First Class only.[[note]]Despite the profit from First Class, the ''real'' moneymakers in the transatlantic passenger business were steerage, as there were far more of them emigrating from Europe to America than the wealthy elite going back and forth. White Star prided itself on the luxury and comfort it provided to all its passengers, especially steerage. Accommodations for steerage on White Star ships were far better than those on other ships, making it doubtful that the company would tolerate looking down at Third Class passengers.[[/note]]
* JitterCam: The first half of the miniseries uses this to simulate the ship rolling while at sea, even though the voyage was remarkably smooth and calm. Naturally, none of the actors try to compensate for walking on a rolling deck.
* JustifiedCriminal: Jamie, who plans to rob the ship with Tim Curry, but has a change of heart and decided to help save the other steerage passengers instead.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Tim Curry's character rapes Aase, loots the First Class staterooms during the sinking, and then gets into a lifeboat disguised as a woman. After a scuffle on the lifeboat following the sinking, he is hit by an oar, which [[NeckSnap breaks his neck]] and he falls into the ocean, with all the money he stole floating on the surface.
* LoveTriangle: Isabella with Wynn and her husband, Edward. Edward is not present for most of it, though.
* LukeIAmYourFather: Just before she leaves the ship in a lifeboat, Isabella reveals that Wynn is the father of her daughter.
* MadeForTVMovie: By Hallmark and aired on CBS.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Due to the women and children first policy when filling the lifeboats. One of the most famous RealLife examples: almost 75% of the female passengers survived, compared with less than 20% of the men.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: While fleeing for the lifeboats with baby Trevor, Alice passes Mr. Allison in a stairway and calls out to him, but he doesn't hear her.
** Third Officer Groves on the ''Californian'' offers to listen in on the ''Titanic's'' wireless traffic around midnight, but the power for their set runs out just as Phillips is sending the distress signal.
* MrExposition:
** Captain Smith and J. Bruce Ismay. A good number of their lines are facts about the ''Titanic'', from how much food they are carrying to the horsepower of the engines.
** Mrs Foley serves the same purpose, pointing out notable First Class passengers and their back stories.
* NouveauRiche: Molly Brown. But, as Mrs Foley puts it, "too rich to ignore".
* OohMeAccentsSlipping:
** Tim Curry's Irish accent.
** A number of characters are played by American or Canadian actors with dodgy English accents, notably Mike Doyle as the Creator/DickVanDyke sounding Cockney Jamie.
** Averted by George C. Scott, who [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent doesn't even bother]] giving Captain Smith an English accent.
* PhotoMontage: The opening credits feature a series of photographs of the ''Titanic'' during its construction.
* PrettyInMink: A number of the dresses on the first class ladies feature this.
* RacistGrandma: Mrs. Foley mentions that the Strauss are Jewish in a hushed voice, demonstrating mild antisemitism.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: Captain Smith chastises First Officer Murdoch for not hitting the iceberg head-on to minimize damage. The entry for this trope on UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic goes into more detail, but in summary, at best, ramming would have likely killed many of the people who were sleeping in the bow. Not to mention, the first instinct of any competent sailor is ''not'' to ram their ship into an obstacle.
* RapeAsDrama: Probably the most jarring and random example ever.
* {{Retirony}}: Captain Smith.
* ShoutOut: One wonders if they gave Chief Engineer Bell a Scottish accent simply so they could have the rather forced line of "[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The pumps cannae take much more, Cap'n!]]"
* ShownTheirWork: One of the few things they actually got right is ''Titanic'' splitting in two, making this technically the first film to accurately depict the sinking. Of course, the film barely shows the ship splitting apart.
** Despite the many inaccuracies mentioned above, the miniseries does reference a number of obscure events about the sinking. There was a lifeboat drill scheduled for Sunday morning, which was cancelled for unknown reasons (suggested here because Captain Smith "didn't want to interrupt the Sunday services"). Also, wireless operators Phillips and Bride did fight with a stoker who attempted to steal their lifebelts just as they were about to leave for the boat deck.
* SkewedPriorities:
** Bess Allison. After Alice runs out with baby Trevor, screaming about how they're going to drown, she stands in the hallway yelling for Alice and saying she doesn't have his sugar water.
** Ismay chides the officers for arming themselves during the sinking because many of the passengers are very influential, even though the ship is already sinking and at least half of those aboard are going to die.
** Mrs. Foley is more concerned with having her dog accompany her in the lifeboat than her husband. The following morning, when it is apparent that many aboard ''Titanic'' have not survived, she complains loudly about ''her'' losses: her entire Paris wardrobe, twelve pairs of good shoes and she doesn't even have any face powder.
* TemptingFate:
** Count the number of people who mention that the ship is unsinkable.
** Ismay insists to reporters in Southampton that "we're not going to need lifeboats".
** Smith describes his career at sea as "uneventful" and not worth writing about.
* ThatMysteriousThing: Isabella tells Madeleine Astor that her husband, "Helped me at a terrible time in my life." We never learn what this "terrible time" was about.
* ThereAreNoCoincidences: Wynn claims it is fate that he and Isabella should be reunited on the maiden voyage of the ''Titanic''. Turns out it wasn't, and [[CrazyPrepared he already knew that she would be on board]].
* ThisCannotBe: Captain Smith's reaction to learning that they've hit an iceberg.
* TooDumbToLive: The Allisons, for waiting until the last minute to put their daughter on a lifeboat.
** In real life, Alice did not take Trevor and get on the first boat to be lowered. She escaped late in the sinking, adding to the confusion of the rest of the family.
** Mr. Dickie boasts about his ticket for the ''Titanic'' to a guy who just came in hiding from the police. In fairness, he does seem to be very drunk.
* TheUnfairSex: Isabella gets a very easy ride for someone who, after a two day fling with an old flame she hadn't seen in years, decides to divorce her husband (whom she admits is a decent man who helped her at a difficult time in her life) and give up her daughter in order to go gallivanting off to Bolivia with said lover. Then when the lover dies during the sinking and she is reunited with her family, she apparently decides to carry on as if nothing happened.
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Simon explains his plan for robbing First Class to Jamie. They'll stake out the staterooms while everyone is at dinner, then clean them out on the last night of the voyage. Afterwards, they'll hide the loot in Mr. Astor's loo and Simon's plumber friend onboard will sneak them out in his toolbox. This plan gets shot to hell once the ship starts sinking, so Simon simply goes ahead with looting the staterooms and Purser's Office while everyone is fleeing for the lifeboats.
* VillainousBreakdown: Ismay becomes a sniveling coward the moment he learns the ship will sink.
* VillainProtagonist: Jamie, a thief who steals his ticket to get on ''Titanic'', steals John Jacob Astor's wallet and plans to rob the First Class state rooms and purser's office with Simon. He does eventually do a HeelFaceTurn though.
* YankTheDogsChain: Mr. Dickie has saved all his money to buy a ticket aboard the ''Titanic'', and it's stolen the night before the voyage. He shows up at the dock right as the ship is leaving, meaning he's either spent all morning trying to go to the police, or he just woke up, in which case he'd have missed the ship anyway. Either way, it's unlikely he'd have survived the sinking.
* YouAreTooLate: Captain Rostron and the ''Carpathia'' were among the [[BigDamnHeroes heroes of the night]], but they arrived too late to help 1500 of the 2200 aboard ''Titanic''.
** Captain Smith tells the Allisons that there are no more lifeboats once they finally realize they need to save their daughter.
* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: Ismay threatens Lowe in this fashion after Lowe scolds him for interfering in the lifeboat launch. It doesn't work and Lowe [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech puts him in his place]].
-->'''Ismay:''' Do you know who I am?
-->'''Lowe:''' I don't care if you're the bloody Prince of Wales, you move back or I'll knock your teeth down your throat!
* YourCheatingHeart: Isabella. She meets her old lover Wynn on board, rekindles their relationship and decides to end her marriage to be with him, even sending a telegram informing her husband. Then Wynn dies in the sinking and once in New York, she discovers that her husband never got the telegram, so [[KarmaHoudini she gets away scot free]].
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[[caption-width-right:340:All the effort put into the cast, and not into historical accuracy.[[labelnote:*]]No, the ''Titanic'' did not have flames coming out of her smokestacks during the sinking.[[/labelnote]]]]
A full year before Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}'' broke box office records, Robert Lieberman directed a TV miniseries about the [[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic ill-fated liner]]. Boasting an AllStarCast which included Creator/CatherineZetaJones, Peter Gallagher, Creator/TimCurry, and Creator/GeorgeCScott, the film was aired in two parts on CBS in November 1996.
The film follows three plots:
# Isabella is returning to America after attending her aunt's funeral. On the trip, she meets Wynn, her ex-lover, who begins to rekindle their romance.
# The Allison family and their new nurse, Alice Cleaver. Unlike the other two plots, this is based on real-life passengers, but only loosely, as here Alice is portrayed as a mentally disturbed child killer.
# Jamie, a down-on-his-luck pickpocket, sneaks aboard the ''Titanic'' after lifting a ticket from an immigrant. He meets a missionary family, and a crewman who is planning on robbing the First Class.
Very much in the TheyJustDidntCare category, the production was rushed to capitalize on the hype for the upcoming Cameron movie, and is littered with inaccuracies. It also features one of the most random [[RapeAsDrama rape scenes]] in television history.
Despite being released a year before the Cameron film, there are numerous similarities between the two. In particular, the lead character is a young man from Third Class with the initial "J", who boards with a ticket that didn't originally belong to him,[[note]]Jamie steals his ticket from a passenger whereas Jack won his at poker.[[/note]] falls in love with another passenger and uses someone else's tuxedo to mingle in First Class, where he meets John Jacob Astor.
For other works by this name, [[{{Titanic}} go here]].
See also ''Series/HitlerTheRiseOfEvil'', another Canadian miniseries that aired on CBS which was rife with historical inaccuracies.
----
!! Tropes featured include:
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The plain, dumpy Molly Brown is played by glamorous Marilu Henner.
* AnachronismStew:
** Jamie describes to Aase a "moving picture" he saw once, though by 1912 moving pictures were nothing new.
** Third Class had baths, not showers - rare in the UK at the time.
** While talking to Astor about "moving pictures," Jamie says he'll invest in the up-and-coming Keystone Studios, which was founded three months ''after'' the ''Titanic'' sank.
** First class passengers are seen dancing the tango when in fact there was no dancing for first class passengers on ''Titanic'' and the tango was not even embraced by the upper classes until a few years later.
* AnyoneCanDie: Even people who didn't actually die that night, it seems.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The number of historical mistakes here makes any in Cameron's film moot. [[labelnote:A note on maritime terminology...]]Before we get started, we'll be mentioning "port" and "starboard" quite a bit. To those who don't know or get confused, when looking forward to the bow (front) of a ship, starboard is the ''right'' side and port is the ''left'' side.[[/labelnote]]
** Thomas Andrews is completely absent from the events of the sinking, and his role is merged with Captain Smith. Chief Officer Henry Wilde, Third Officer Herbert Pitman and Sixth Officer James Moody are also omitted. Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall is shown dying during the sinking when he actually survived (and was on the first boat picked up by ''Carpathia''). First Officer Murdoch, a [[UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} Scotsman]], here has an upper-class English accent and his uniform has three stripes, the markings of a Chief Officer. In addition, Chief Engineer Joseph Bell has a distinct Scottish accent, whereas he was from Cumbria in Northwestern England.
** Isabella asks to switch rooms, but is told the ship is completely booked. Only half the rooms of First and Second Class were occupied.
** The ship is shown to be docked on its starboard side in Southampton, when ''Titanic'' was actually docked on the port side.
** J. Bruce Ismay says that his father founded the White Star Line. Actually, Thomas Ismay founded the parent company Oceanic Steam Navigation, and purchased the house flag and trade name of White Star after the line had originally gone bankrupt in 1868.
** There was no press conference on board before the voyage. In addition, Smith's comment about "shipbuilding becoming such an art that any ship foundering is impossible" was made five years prior on the ''Adriatic''.
*** When asked if he's had any accidents or wrecks in his career, Captain Smith brushes off a few "winter squalls, storms, and fog" as the most noteworthy of his "adventures," seemingly forgetting the collision between RMS ''Olympic'' and the cruiser HMS ''Hawke'', which happened under Smith's command barely six months prior to the ''Titanic'' setting sail.[[note]]In fairness to Smith, the ''Olympic'' was under compulsory pilotage in the Solent when the ''Hawke'' collision occurred, and the pilot was officially blamed for it.[[/note]]
** As in most re-tellings of the story, it is stated that Smith planned to retire after the maiden ''Titanic'' voyage. There is actually very little contemporary evidence to support this. He certainly never confirmed it to any newspaper reporters.
** Benjamin Guggenheim and Molly Brown did not board the ship at Southampton, and instead boarded in France. Because of that, they were not able to attend dinner on the first night out.
** John Jacob Astor is mentioned to be "the richest man in the world." However, he was the richest man on board; though still wealthy, he wasn't even the richest man in America.[[note]]That honor belongs to tycoons such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, the latter of whom gave away $350 million just before his death. That's four times as much as Astor was worth at the time of his death.[[/note]]
** It is stated that there was only one pair of binoculars on the bridge for the officers to share around, so Murdoch therefore confiscates the pair from the crow's nest. In fact, Second Officer Lightoller testified that each senior officer had his own set of binoculars. It was only the ''lookouts''' binoculars which were misplaced. Shortly before the ship set sail, Captain Smith brought on Chief Wilde as Chief Officer, which meant Murdoch and Lightoller were each demoted a rank, and Second Officer David Blair was removed from the command roster altogether. When he left the ship, Blair accidentally took with him the keys to the locker in which the binoculars were kept (in other versions, he actually took the binoculars with him or they were left in his cabin). Given the state of optics in 1912, and that there was no moon and a flat calm sea, it is unlikely binoculars would have made a significant improvement.
** It is implied that the Allisons' nanny is Alice Cleaver, the child killer. In fact she was a different woman.
** As in many versions of the story, Bruce Ismay is shown to be desperate for the ''Titanic'' to break a speed record when he would have known that the White Star Line's ships could not match the Cunard's liners the ''Lusitania'' and the ''Mauretania'' for speed. Instead, the White Star Line aimed to beat Cunard by offering more comfort and luxury. Furthermore, arriving in New York a day early would not have earned him plaudits but the wrath of passengers whose hotel and travel arrangements were for the following day, not to mention irritating New York customs.
** Margaret Brown is inaccurately portrayed as a loud [[CigarChomper cigar chomping]], poker playing, oversexed hillbilly. She is seen in the smoking room, which would have been a male only domain in 1912. She was also never referred to as Molly in her lifetime.
** Frederick Fleet notes a haze on the horizon and then immediately sees the iceberg. Both he and Reginald Lee actually noted a haze about ten minutes before seeing the iceberg, but didn't report it.
** Fourth Officer Boxhall answers the bridge telephone and relays Fleet's sighting of the iceberg, even though it was Sixth Officer Moody who did this.
** Quartermaster Hitchens rolls the ship's wheel to the starboard side when ordered "hard-a starboard." In this era, British vessels still used tiller commands, which were reversed: the ship's wheel would need to be swung in the direction the ship was turning while the tiller (which controlled the rudder) was turned to the side that was ordered. Ergo, a hard-a starboard order would mean to turn the wheel fully to port.
** Captain Smith chastises Ismay by telling him that they have "precisely the number of lifeboats required by the British Board of Trade." In actuality, ''Titanic'' carried four more boats than the law required for a ship of her size.
** The officers see the ''Californian'' directly ahead and attempt to signal her from the bridge. The "mystery ship," believed to be the ''Californian'', was actually sighted off the starboard side.
** As in the Jim Cameron film, this perpetuates the myth that steerage passengers were deliberately locked below decks during the sinking. The gates were meant to ensure that steerage passengers did not gain access to First or Second Class areas, preventing the spread of diseases so that only steerage had to go through health inspections and immigration processing at Ellis Island. Even when locked, they did not bar access to the boat deck. However, whereas the Cameron film demonstrates a sense of confusion, which likely did happen since the crew did not have any idea what the evacuation procedures were for steerage (whether they had their own boats, were allowed to come up, etc.), here they're locked because "lifeboats are for First Class only."
** The weapons that are removed from the ship's safe are a Smith & Wesson and two Iver Johnson revolvers. However, the guns that the officers had on board were Webley revolvers (accurately used in Jim Cameron's film).
** Near the end, Captain Smith makes a sanctimonious speech about how the Titans in Greek mythology challenged the gods and were cast down for it. In fact, they ''were'' gods, and were overthrown by the Olympians.[[note]]The fate of the defeated Titans had a spookier parallel with ''Titanic'''s; they were condemned to spend an eternity in Tartarus, a dark and damp abyss in the lowest depths of the world.[[/note]]
** First Officer Murdoch is portrayed as shooting himself late in the sinking, even though there is little evidence to support this.
** Bruce Ismay escaped in Collapsible C, which was launched from the starboard side of the bridge. However, here, he gets away in a lifeboat on the port side. In addition, there are more lifeboats shown to be readied after his boat is launched, even though Collapsible C was the second-to-last boat to be launched.[[note]]The final two collapsibles, B and A, were stored on top of the officers' quarters. By the time they were moved to position, the water had reached the boat deck and both were washed off.[[/note]]
** Wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride are shown jumping off the ship together. However, they separated once they left their cabin, with Bride heading for the overturned Collapsible B and Phillips heading aft.
** Fifth Officer Lowe reports to Captain Rostron of ''Carpathia'' that the ship sank at 2:40am. It was actually 2:20, after sinking in ''two hours and forty minutes''. It was also Fourth Officer Boxhall (who inexplicably dies during this movie), not Lowe, who was the first officer picked up by ''Carpathia'' and he relayed this information to Rostron.
** On the ''Californian'', Captain Lord and wireless operator Cyril Evans are shown to be much older than they were in 1912; Lord was 39 (and beardless), while Evans was 20. Third Officer Groves was not on the bridge when the ''Titanic's'' rockets were sighted, it was Second Officer Stone and the apprentice Gibson. Groves thought the ship in the distance was a passenger liner, but here he changes his mind and agrees with Lord that it is a small freighter or fishing boat.
** The epilogue mentions "All attempts to raise the ''Titanic'' have failed." No such attempt has or ever will be made. Yes, there was the section of the hull they raised in 1996, but a tiny section is ''not'' the entire ship.
*** While there were plans to raise or salvage the ship since she sank, none of these passed the conceptual stage, mostly because there was no way to reach or find the wreck. Once the wreck was discovered, it became clear it could never be raised.
* ArtisticLicenseShips:
** Quartermaster Robert Hitchens takes the ship out of Southampton, when actually this was the job of the ship's pilot (who disembarked when the ship departed from Ireland).
** Captain Smith is seen at the ship's wheel, when this task would be the duty of a lower ranking sailor, such as a quartermaster. Furthermore, he allows a passenger to take the wheel, which would never be permitted in reality. Indeed, under White Star Line rules, passengers were not even allowed on the Bridge.
** Many officers are depicted observing military protocol (saluting, saying "Captain on deck," etc.). This is an aversion, as it was common for sailors and officers in Britain to switch between military duty and merchant marine service. Indeed, the officers of ''Titanic'' were members of the Royal Navy Reserve.
** Smith complains that distress rockets should be red. In fact, there was no specified colour for distress rockets, and white would have been acceptable.
** On the bridge, Lightoller casually informs Smith that the ship has increased speed on Ismay's orders. The notion that an unqualified civilian could give navigation orders to the engineers and officers on any vessel without even the captain's knowledge or consent is absurd.
** When Captain Smith decides to retire to his quarters, he tells Lightoller he's "going below." However, the captain's quarters were right behind the bridge. The proper term would be "going off deck."
** As for the ship itself, the miniseries goes wrong wherever Cameron went right:
*** While the CGI model is pretty good, the exterior sets have no resemblance to the actual layout of the ship. For instance, the bridge set is missing the wings on its port and starboard sides.
*** Attendants are shown placing chairs and decorations the day before departure. However, the ship had already been fitted out in Belfast prior to her arrival in Southampton.
*** The bridge seems to consist of a single room, with an engine telegram at the front, the ship's wheel, and a map table in the back. The actual bridge was a fairly extensive complex. The forward section had the engine telegrams at the front in what was the ''navigation bridge''. The main steering wheel (which controlled the ship's tiller) was enclosed in the wheelhouse in the rear section. The chart room was adjacent to the bridge through the wheelhouse.
*** ''Titanic'' did not have a two story tea room with revolving doors and huge windows. There would not have been enough room on the ship for such a structure.[[note]]The closest equivalent would be the palm court restaurant on A Deck, which did have revolving doors but was not two stories.[[/note]]
*** The glass dome over the grand staircase is absent, and replaced with a chandelier.
*** The First Class smoking room did not have a bar; drinks were served by waiters.
*** The wireless room did not have a service window for the passengers. Messages were sent and delivered via stewards.
*** ''Titanic'' did not have a brig or prison of any kind.[[note]]Indeed, the term "brig" is only for naval, as in military, ships. ''Titanic'' was a passenger, i.e. civilian, liner.[[/note]]
*** The engineering sections, which took up three-quarters of the watertight compartments, seem to only consist of one room with boilers on one side and valve controls on the other. In addition, a modern klaxon blares throughout the engine room, which the ship did not have. Chief Engineer Bell is in an area that shows flooding, whereas he likely remained in the turbine area with the generators (which did not flood until the ship broke in half).
*** When Simon and Jamie leave to loot First Class, Simon closes the gate and sees that the lifeboats are being loaded. They appear to be walking down the First Class Promenade, which was right underneath the boat deck and thus the lifeboats wouldn't be visible.
*** Speaking of lifeboats, in several scenes they are obviously modern metallic ones instead of wooden.
* BeardOfEvil: Simon, as if being played by Creator/TimCurry wasn't indication enough.
* BigNo: Jamie screams "NOOO!!!" when he accidentally falls into a lifeboat, as he promised the Jack family he would come back for them.
* CaliforniaDoubling: Filmed in {{Vancouver}} [[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/17/movies/the-city-that-can-sub-for-all-of-america.html for cost-cutting measures]] (despite the Titanic having sunk in the Atlantic, not the Pacific).
* CheerfulChild: Loraine Alison, who has boundless excitement for going into a lifeboat.
* CheshireCatGrin: Simon gives one to Jamie. No surprise, as Simon is played by Tim Curry.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Beyond most adaptations, J. Bruce Ismay is portrayed as casually undermining Captain Smith's authority, even going behind his back to order more boilers lit and the ship's speed to be increased.
* CrazyPrepared: Simon changes his plan to loot First Class very quickly, even bringing a sheet along so he can be disguised as a woman and sneak into the lifeboats.
* DeadlyDeferredConversation:
** Shortly before the collision with the iceberg, Astor's maid comes to him to say that the Allison's maid is actually a child killer. As it's late at night, Astor says that he'll talk to Mr. Allison about it in the morning. Neither Astor nor Allison survives.
** On the night of the sinking, Smith promises to deal with Ismay and his orders to increase ''Titanic'''s speed in the morning.
* DespairEventHorizon: Aase goes over one after getting raped by Simon.
* DisasterMovie
* DisguisedInDrag: How Simon gets into a lifeboat, though it's more HidingInAHijab.
* DolledUpInstallment: Some foreign video distributors marketed this miniseries as a sequel to Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}''.
* DramaticShattering: Part One of the movie ends shortly after the collision with a unattended glass sliding out of the frame and onto the deck.
* DrivenToSuicide: Just like the Jim Cameron film, this features First Officer Murdoch shooting himself after killing someone trying to get into a boat. However, this is far more malicious as it depicts him coldly shooting a stoker without any provocation.
* DullSurprise: The default setting of anyone who's not excessively panicking at the mere sight of water in the ship.
* DutchAngle: The sinking is done in near-total Dutch angles, trying to show the sinking without moving the sets. It gets a bit comical when actors are trying to be off-balance when they're on level ground, not to mention it's used soon after the collision (when the tilt was not apparent yet), with along with varying between scenes and even giving the impression that the ship is heavily listing (beyond what was reported).
* TheEdwardianEra: Big hats, tailcoats, and everything in between.
* EvilBrit: Tim Curry.
* FaceDeathWithDignity:
** Captain Smith
** The Band
** The gentlemen in the First Class Smoking Room
* FatalFamilyPhoto: Even if you did not know that Captain Smith doesn't survive, this makes it more obvious by showing Smith keeping a picture of his wife and daughter.
* ForegoneConclusion: [[CaptainObvious The ship sinks]].
* GallowsHumor: Harold Bride calls the band playing "music to drown by." Interestingly, this line popped up in the Jim Cameron film.
** The bartender in the First Class Smoking Room says that all drinks are on the house. To this, Astor replies "I'd ask for ice, but this is ridiculous."
* GorgeousPeriodDress: Like most of its counterparts, pretty much anyone in first class.
* HeavenSeeker: The Jack family and their saved Scandinavian, Aase. Aase is so into God, she does not care about the "incredible new" moving pictures.
* HeroicBSOD: Surprisingly, averted. Captain Smith, who by many accounts became distant and indecisive upon realizing the gravity of the situation, is remarkably coherent. He criticizes Murdoch on his handling of avoiding the iceberg like someone a century later would.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line who was savaged by the press for merely surviving the disaster is here portrayed to be a deranged speed obsessed lunatic, undermining the crew at every turn and even going as far as heading down into the boiler room (something that could never happen in reality) and screaming at the stokers to light more boilers. Once ''Titanic'' hits the iceberg, Ismay is shown to be a sniveling, panicking idiot who snakes his way into one of the last lifeboats.
** He also gets a small HistoricalHeroUpgrade. One scene has him berating officers for lowering boats half-full and demands that they be filled, even though this was something that Thomas Andrews did.
* HopeSpot: This depicts the ''Titanic'' and ''Californian'' seeing each other and attempting to signal via morse lamp. However, the ''Californian'' crew is either too stupid or too tired to think about turning the wireless back on to communicate directly.
* HystericalWoman: Alice is this, due to her nightmares/premonitions about the sinking. Bess Allison also becomes this when Alice takes Trevor, essentially screaming "MY BABY! WHERE'S MY BABY?!!"
* IdiotBall: The ''Californian'' crew are portrayed as having this, seeing rockets and attempting to signal by Morse lamp, yet just shrugging it off.
** The Allison family also have this, as they literally wait until all the boats are gone to get their daughter into a lifeboat.
* InformedAttractiveness: For the ship itself. Several characters comment on the beauty of ''Titanic'', though the number of inaccuracies about the ship makes these rather laughable.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Molly Brown yells at the officers who effectively force her into a lifeboat, saying she's going to have a word with Captain Smith about this.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Inverted. Wynn says that soon people will be flying across the Atlantic in airplanes, a full fifteen years before this first happened, in a year when airplanes were still being fine-tuned.
** Played straight when Jamie chats with Astor about investing in the up-and-coming "moving picture" business, which the latter is skeptical about.
* {{Jerkass}}: The crew is even more snobbish and disrespectful towards steerage than they are in the Jim Cameron film. Late in the sinking, one of them just walks past a locked gate and snickers at the steerage passengers trapped there, saying the lifeboats are for First Class only.[[note]]Despite the profit from First Class, the ''real'' moneymakers in the transatlantic passenger business were steerage, as there were far more of them emigrating from Europe to America than the wealthy elite going back and forth. White Star prided itself on the luxury and comfort it provided to all its passengers, especially steerage. Accommodations for steerage on White Star ships were far better than those on other ships, making it doubtful that the company would tolerate looking down at Third Class passengers.[[/note]]
* JitterCam: The first half of the miniseries uses this to simulate the ship rolling while at sea, even though the voyage was remarkably smooth and calm. Naturally, none of the actors try to compensate for walking on a rolling deck.
* JustifiedCriminal: Jamie, who plans to rob the ship with Tim Curry, but has a change of heart and decided to help save the other steerage passengers instead.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Tim Curry's character rapes Aase, loots the First Class staterooms during the sinking, and then gets into a lifeboat disguised as a woman. After a scuffle on the lifeboat following the sinking, he is hit by an oar, which [[NeckSnap breaks his neck]] and he falls into the ocean, with all the money he stole floating on the surface.
* LoveTriangle: Isabella with Wynn and her husband, Edward. Edward is not present for most of it, though.
* LukeIAmYourFather: Just before she leaves the ship in a lifeboat, Isabella reveals that Wynn is the father of her daughter.
* MadeForTVMovie: By Hallmark and aired on CBS.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Due to the women and children first policy when filling the lifeboats. One of the most famous RealLife examples: almost 75% of the female passengers survived, compared with less than 20% of the men.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: While fleeing for the lifeboats with baby Trevor, Alice passes Mr. Allison in a stairway and calls out to him, but he doesn't hear her.
** Third Officer Groves on the ''Californian'' offers to listen in on the ''Titanic's'' wireless traffic around midnight, but the power for their set runs out just as Phillips is sending the distress signal.
* MrExposition:
** Captain Smith and J. Bruce Ismay. A good number of their lines are facts about the ''Titanic'', from how much food they are carrying to the horsepower of the engines.
** Mrs Foley serves the same purpose, pointing out notable First Class passengers and their back stories.
* NouveauRiche: Molly Brown. But, as Mrs Foley puts it, "too rich to ignore".
* OohMeAccentsSlipping:
** Tim Curry's Irish accent.
** A number of characters are played by American or Canadian actors with dodgy English accents, notably Mike Doyle as the Creator/DickVanDyke sounding Cockney Jamie.
** Averted by George C. Scott, who [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent doesn't even bother]] giving Captain Smith an English accent.
* PhotoMontage: The opening credits feature a series of photographs of the ''Titanic'' during its construction.
* PrettyInMink: A number of the dresses on the first class ladies feature this.
* RacistGrandma: Mrs. Foley mentions that the Strauss are Jewish in a hushed voice, demonstrating mild antisemitism.
* RammingAlwaysWorks: Captain Smith chastises First Officer Murdoch for not hitting the iceberg head-on to minimize damage. The entry for this trope on UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic goes into more detail, but in summary, at best, ramming would have likely killed many of the people who were sleeping in the bow. Not to mention, the first instinct of any competent sailor is ''not'' to ram their ship into an obstacle.
* RapeAsDrama: Probably the most jarring and random example ever.
* {{Retirony}}: Captain Smith.
* ShoutOut: One wonders if they gave Chief Engineer Bell a Scottish accent simply so they could have the rather forced line of "[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The pumps cannae take much more, Cap'n!]]"
* ShownTheirWork: One of the few things they actually got right is ''Titanic'' splitting in two, making this technically the first film to accurately depict the sinking. Of course, the film barely shows the ship splitting apart.
** Despite the many inaccuracies mentioned above, the miniseries does reference a number of obscure events about the sinking. There was a lifeboat drill scheduled for Sunday morning, which was cancelled for unknown reasons (suggested here because Captain Smith "didn't want to interrupt the Sunday services"). Also, wireless operators Phillips and Bride did fight with a stoker who attempted to steal their lifebelts just as they were about to leave for the boat deck.
* SkewedPriorities:
** Bess Allison. After Alice runs out with baby Trevor, screaming about how they're going to drown, she stands in the hallway yelling for Alice and saying she doesn't have his sugar water.
** Ismay chides the officers for arming themselves during the sinking because many of the passengers are very influential, even though the ship is already sinking and at least half of those aboard are going to die.
** Mrs. Foley is more concerned with having her dog accompany her in the lifeboat than her husband. The following morning, when it is apparent that many aboard ''Titanic'' have not survived, she complains loudly about ''her'' losses: her entire Paris wardrobe, twelve pairs of good shoes and she doesn't even have any face powder.
* TemptingFate:
** Count the number of people who mention that the ship is unsinkable.
** Ismay insists to reporters in Southampton that "we're not going to need lifeboats".
** Smith describes his career at sea as "uneventful" and not worth writing about.
* ThatMysteriousThing: Isabella tells Madeleine Astor that her husband, "Helped me at a terrible time in my life." We never learn what this "terrible time" was about.
* ThereAreNoCoincidences: Wynn claims it is fate that he and Isabella should be reunited on the maiden voyage of the ''Titanic''. Turns out it wasn't, and [[CrazyPrepared he already knew that she would be on board]].
* ThisCannotBe: Captain Smith's reaction to learning that they've hit an iceberg.
* TooDumbToLive: The Allisons, for waiting until the last minute to put their daughter on a lifeboat.
** In real life, Alice did not take Trevor and get on the first boat to be lowered. She escaped late in the sinking, adding to the confusion of the rest of the family.
** Mr. Dickie boasts about his ticket for the ''Titanic'' to a guy who just came in hiding from the police. In fairness, he does seem to be very drunk.
* TheUnfairSex: Isabella gets a very easy ride for someone who, after a two day fling with an old flame she hadn't seen in years, decides to divorce her husband (whom she admits is a decent man who helped her at a difficult time in her life) and give up her daughter in order to go gallivanting off to Bolivia with said lover. Then when the lover dies during the sinking and she is reunited with her family, she apparently decides to carry on as if nothing happened.
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Simon explains his plan for robbing First Class to Jamie. They'll stake out the staterooms while everyone is at dinner, then clean them out on the last night of the voyage. Afterwards, they'll hide the loot in Mr. Astor's loo and Simon's plumber friend onboard will sneak them out in his toolbox. This plan gets shot to hell once the ship starts sinking, so Simon simply goes ahead with looting the staterooms and Purser's Office while everyone is fleeing for the lifeboats.
* VillainousBreakdown: Ismay becomes a sniveling coward the moment he learns the ship will sink.
* VillainProtagonist: Jamie, a thief who steals his ticket to get on ''Titanic'', steals John Jacob Astor's wallet and plans to rob the First Class state rooms and purser's office with Simon. He does eventually do a HeelFaceTurn though.
* YankTheDogsChain: Mr. Dickie has saved all his money to buy a ticket aboard the ''Titanic'', and it's stolen the night before the voyage. He shows up at the dock right as the ship is leaving, meaning he's either spent all morning trying to go to the police, or he just woke up, in which case he'd have missed the ship anyway. Either way, it's unlikely he'd have survived the sinking.
* YouAreTooLate: Captain Rostron and the ''Carpathia'' were among the [[BigDamnHeroes heroes of the night]], but they arrived too late to help 1500 of the 2200 aboard ''Titanic''.
** Captain Smith tells the Allisons that there are no more lifeboats once they finally realize they need to save their daughter.
* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: Ismay threatens Lowe in this fashion after Lowe scolds him for interfering in the lifeboat launch. It doesn't work and Lowe [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech puts him in his place]].
-->'''Ismay:''' Do you know who I am?
-->'''Lowe:''' I don't care if you're the bloody Prince of Wales, you move back or I'll knock your teeth down your throat!
* YourCheatingHeart: Isabella. She meets her old lover Wynn on board, rekindles their relationship and decides to end her marriage to be with him, even sending a telegram informing her husband. Then Wynn dies in the sinking and once in New York, she discovers that her husband never got the telegram, so [[KarmaHoudini she gets away scot free]].
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