When is a Rocket not a Rocket?

I have a post I made on the Only Connect alumni Facebook page to prove that I did spot this at the time. On Monday, in the very first set of the series we were shown firstly snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan, then Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy. Being as Mr. O’Sullivan has the nickname Rocket both I and the team in the studio had this relatively gentle set from these two clues. Victoria went on to ask what they felt the next clue would have been then said it was Stephenson’s Rocket. The photograph that appeared was certainly a Stephenson locomotive. But not the Rocket – it was in fact Stephenson’s Locomotion number 1, an earlier and more primitive locomotive.

From the lofty vantage of their high horse that champion of Truth and Justice, the Daily Express has today thundered about viewers’ outrage about the error. Well, what can you expect from the Daily Express after all? To be honest, what the incident does do is to highlight how very rare it is for any kind of error to happen in OC. Because, you know, errors can come into any quiz. I remember Sinatragate in Alan Heath’s Mastermind Grand Final a few years ago, for example, where a question to one of the other finalists wrongly said that the singer died 10 years before he actually did.

Mistakes happen. Human error happens.

As it happens, the fact that the team got the connection after two clues meant that the mistake did not affect the outcome of the show. But what interests me is to think about what would have happened if it had? Let’s play out the potential scenarios:-

The team take the third clue. One of them recognises the Locomotion, which confuses them. They have to take a fourth clue. They get rocket from 1,2 and 4 and then point out the error. The production team maybe stops the show – investigates – films another set instead and the error is never aired.

The team see the error but in the heat of battle do not mention it. They get 1 point instead of the 2 they would have had. However his does not affect the outcome of the show.

The team see the error but in the heat of battle do not mention it. They get 1 point instead of the 2 they would have had. They go on to lose by a single point. They then raise it after the show has been filmed. Outcome?

The team don’t see the error. They watch their heat on TV and in the days that follow many people point it out to them. As it did not affect the outcome they shrug it off.

The team don’t see the error. They watch their heat on TV and in the days that follow many people point it out to them. Let’s say it did affect the outcome, but the series has already been filmed. What then?

And so on.

Look, I know that if I was playing in a quiz and such an error had happened to me, I would have been really annoyed about it. I’m not perfect, far from it. But at the end of the day, at times like this I think it helps to remember the Great Magnus Magnusson’s observation about Mastermind – It’s Only A Bloody Game. The same can be said of any quiz, I think. From my own personal experience nobody takes more care over their questions than the team behind Only Connect. Thankfully Monday night’s did not affect the outcome of the show. Mistakes happen. Get over it.