History ContinuitySnarl / LiveActionTV

** The Timeless Child retcon under Creator/ChrisChibnall somehow managed to make things worse. Trying to reconcile [[spoiler:the Fugitive Doctor]] having a police box TARDIS with the onscreen confirmation that the Doctor definitely only stole their TARDIS in the first place as Creator/WilliamHartnell is an exercise in self-inflicted SanitySlippage.
** ''Doctor Who'' avoids it more than most decades-long franchises because the show embraces its NarmCharm so much and features TimeTravel. It's got no "why do the Klingons look different" situations (except the Silurians, and arguably the Cybermen) because Zygons are still red, rubbery, and suction cup-y, and Daleks are still evil pepper shakers of doom — prop quality has advanced but the look hasn't — and no "why did the year 2000 look super futuristic then but now looks like the actual year 2000 did" questions because cracks in time ''ate'' that Dalek invasion you don't remember — the malleability of reality in this show means ''it's part of continuity that continuity is flexible.'' The TARDIS interior goes from [[{{Zeerust}} the 60s and 70s idea of futuristic]] in the 60s and 70s to looking organic because it's a LivingShip in the Russell T Davies seasons to TheAllegedCar, Spaceship Edition in the Amy and Rory years to TheNewTens' idea of futuristic in the Clara years because it's a LivingShip, GeniusLoci, and EldritchLocation that can change anything about its inner dimension on a whim. Some things seem more advanced [[CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel at an earlier point in their own history]] for simpler reasons — aesthetics change and in the year 5000 when he'll be made, K9 will look modern again.

** In the immortal words of Creator/StevenMoffat: "It is impossible for a show about a dimension-hopping time traveller to have a canon." — there's a reason why one of the best episode guides for the show is titled ''The Discontinuity Guide''. The [[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Doctor_Who_Wiki Doctor Who Wiki]] follows this guideline, but does try to indicate which stories are [[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Tardis:Valid_sources "valid sources"]]. Even if multiple stories disagree about something, as long as they're all valid sources the wiki simply treats each version as a separate account of the events.

** On the topic of ''Kamen Rider'', there are the three [[MultipleEndings alternate ending films]] for ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'', ''Series/KamenRider555'', and ''Series/KamenRiderBlade''. While there's evidence in all three as to when they are supposed to take place, all of them have elements that contradict what's happened in the series proper at that point - i.e., ''Ryuki: Episode Final''[[note]]''would'' take place after episode 46[[/note]] has Shinji and Yui meet prior to the series, which is never stated;[[note]]the rest of the inconsistencies can be accounted for by taking place during one of Odin's Time Vents[[/note]] ''555: Paradise Lost''[[note]]''would'' take place after episode 25[[/note]] has the Delta gear destroyed, whereas in the series proper, it's still intact at the time the movie takes place;[[note]]although the differences are explained in [[AllThereInTheManual an SIC Hero Saga story]], indicating that the Saga and the movie are the result of ForWantOfANail[[/note]] and ''Blade: Missing Ace''[[note]]''would'' take place after episode 47 of ''Blade''[[/note]] a), incorrectly states that humanity was the winner of the Battle Royale that occurred prior to the series (when it was the Human Undead), and b), [[spoiler: by having the [[TheAntiChrist Joker Undead]] be the last Undead to be sealed, technically means that the Albino Joker Undead won the Battle Royale depicted in the series, when it's established that, should that happen, TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt will happen (yet it's stated that the movie is set 4 years after the TV series); the series itself averted this by having [[TheHero Kazuma]] turn himself into a Joker Undead and staying away from Hajime[=/=]the first Joker Undead, locking the battle in a stalemate]].

** And then there's the Eugenics Wars. In the 1967 episode "Space Seed", it's established that the Earth was devastated in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture the 1990s]] by a great war fought against (or possibly between) [[BewareTheSuperman genetically-engineered supermen]]. Trouble is, ''Star Trek'' was still going strong by the time the actual '90s rolled around. And some episodes made in that time and afterwards seem to suggest that the '90s happened like they did in RealLife. But the Eugenics Wars are still {{canon}} and an important part of ''Star Trek''[='s=] BackStory as they are the origin of iconic villain [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan Khan]], as well as being the cause of a centuries-long taboo on genetic augmentation of humans that is a major plot point on ''Deep Space 9'' and was brought up again in ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds''. This has never really been officially resolved, although author Greg Cox wrote a series of ''Star Trek'' novels covering the Eugenics Wars, depicting them as part of a SecretHistory and trying to match it all up with real history.

** And Giru ''existing.'' In the series, Giru is [[spoiler: never active. A complete set of ten Core Medals for a dinosaur Greeed exists, and five wind up in Eiji and five wind up in Maki]]. Also, there were {{Out Of Character Moment}}s with the OOO crew, as all the details of the series hadn't been finalized when the movie was produced. This results in a movie that is clearly a direct continuation of ''Double'' but just as clearly ''can't'' be in continuity for ''OOO''.

*** The summer movie for OOO is better, but not by much, although unlike ''Movie War Core'', it's written by the writer of the TV series - it's stated to take place in between episodes 36 and 37, but:

** On the topic of ''Kamen Rider'', there's the 3 [[MultipleEndings alternate ending films]] for ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'', ''Series/KamenRiderFaiz'', and ''Series/KamenRiderBlade''. While there's evidence in all 3 as to when they are supposed to take place, all 3 of them have elements that contradict what's happened in the series proper at that point - i.e., ''Episode Final''[[note]]''would'' take place after episode 46[[/note]] has Shinji and Yui meet prior to the series, which is never stated[[note]]the rest of the inconsistencies can be accounted for by taking place during one of Odin's Time Vents[[/note]]; ''Paradise Lost''[[note]]''would'' take place after episode 25[[/note]] has the Delta gear destroyed, whereas in the series proper, it's still intact at the time the movie takes place[[note]]although the differences are explained in [[AllThereInTheManual an SIC Hero Saga story]], indicating that the Saga and the movie are the result of ForWantOfANail[[/note]]; and ''Missing Ace''[[note]]''would'' take place after episode 47 of ''Blade''[[/note]] a), incorrectly states that humanity was the winner of the Battle Royale that occured prior to the series (when it was the Human Undead), and b), [[spoiler: by having the [[TheAntiChrist Joker Undead]] be the last Undead to be sealed, technically means that the Albino Joker Undead won the Battle Royale depicted in the series, when it's established that, should that happen, TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt will happen (yet it's stated that the movie is set 4 years after the TV series); the series itself averted this by having [[TheHero Kazuma]] turn himself into a Joker Undead and staying away from Hajime[=/=]the first Joker Undead, locking the battle in a stalemate]].
** And then there's the summer movie for Kamen Rider Kiva. While the presense of Kiva's Emperor Form but lack of Ixa Rising suggests it takes place some time in between episodes 24 and 27[[note]]the absence of the Spider Fangire, a recurring minor villain, would suggest in between episodes 26 and 27, since he's killed in the former[[/note]], it can't take place in that time period, since a), Wataru is shown going to high school[[note]]whereas in the series proper, he's 21 and has a steady job making violins[[/note]], b), he finds out about the arms monsters and Castle Doran's ability to go back in time, and c), Yuri learns Wataru is Kiva[[note]]both of which happen much later in the show[[/note]]. Aside from the aforementioned lack of Ixa Rising, Kamen Rider Saga and the Zanvat Sword not appearing in this film at all makes it impossible to take place over time. Much like with the summer movie for ''OOO'', these exist ''despite'' the movie having the same writer as the TV series.

** With the conflicting information given about her age (being officially born in 1986, [[ActorSharedBackground much like her actress]], but also being 24 in an episode set in about 2013), and the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight "In the Forest of the Night"]] dating flap making her death both ''in'' 2016 and ''after'' 2016, Clara Oswald's tombstone presumably has more question marks in the birth and death dates than is traditional.

** To get into the show's worst offenses, when Colonel Potter takes over the camp, it's explicitly stated to be September 19, 1952, but a later episode opened on New Year's Eve, 1950 with Potter and Winchester there. And UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar started in late June of 1950, so apparently the show's first ''five seasons'' with Colonel Blake and Frank took place over the course of ''barely more than five months''. And early episodes with Blake and Frank tended to give the year as 1951 or 1952. And the September 19, 1952 date doesn't work very well even on its own since it requires that ''eight seasons'' take place over the course of ''ten months''. There was also a season NINE episode depicting a retrospective on the year 1951, including the famous Dodgers/Giants pennant race.

** To get into the show's worst offenses, when Colonel Potter takes over the camp, it's explicitly stated to be September 19, 1952, but a later episode opened on New Year's Eve, 1950 with Potter and Winchester there. And UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar started in late June of 1950, so apparently the show's first ''five seasons'' with Colonel Blake and Frank took place over the course of ''barely more than five months''. And early episodes with Blake and Frank tended to give the year as 1951 or 1952. And the September 19, 1952 date doesn't work very well even on its own since it requires that ''eight seasons'' take place over the course of ''ten months''.

** It gets worse if you try to reconcile the series with the actual course of the Korean War. Every episode seems to take place at a point in the war when Korea is divided about evenly between communist and allied forces. Seoul is consistently under allied control and the 4077th is regularly said to be located near Uijeongbu. This makes it unlikely that many episodes take during the first year of the war, when the front lines were moving rapidly. Instead, the whole series appears to take place during the final two years of the war, in which there was a WWI-style stalemate in the center in the Korea. Coupled with this are eipsides like "Deluge" which explicitly mention the initial Chinese People's Volunteers assaults over the Yalu in late 1950, a time when the 4077th would have been in northern Korea following the troops -- in those episodes, the camp is still depicted as if it was in Uijeongbu.