I recently decided to take up the task of re-watching Star Trek in chronological order and try to look at it from the perspective of someone who was starting right at the beginning chronologically. To note what would be the first appearance of a character or species or idea from the perspective of the Star Trek timeline and not through production order. To do this I had to separate my perspective as a lifelong fan who remembers when Kirk was the only captain and do away with certain preconceptions of what Star Trek Should be and simply accept the events as they come. In other words, to do away with the notion of certain things violating established canon and simply accept them as canon as they occur.
However, with over eight hundred entries in the established canon, I decided that I wasn't going to force myself to watch every single bit of it. The time it would take alone is an overwhelming factor. I know that there are episodes in every series that I have no particular desire to revisit, and if they don't add to the history of the franchise, if they were only log entry missions of the week style adventures, I felt justified in giving it a pass.
So, of course, I started in the middle.
Despite being the 441st entry and the 8th movie overall, Star Trek First Contact is also legitimately the beginning of the story, so an in media res opening is appropriate.
The story introduces the newcomer to the three species that are arguably the most important, Humans, Vulcans and Klingons. It shows the pivotal moment in which humanity took its first step towards its larger place in the galaxy. It also states right out in the dialogue what the Star Trek mission statement is and gives our theoretical newcomer an idea of what is to come. it's also a rip-roaring adventure. A Fine Place to Start.
The first thing I want to say about Star Trek Enterprise is that I actually only went through seasons 1, 2 and 4. I felt that my "pick and choose" approach would not do the Xindi arc appropriate justice, so I made the vow to come back and revisit it once I have finished with my larger project.
That leaves out 25 episodes and out of the 73 remaining I watched... 41. However, aside from the xindi arc which I plan on revisiting, there are several episodes that I plan to go back and revisit. For instance, I skipped Oasis in season 1 because it was pretty much a beat for beat rehash of Deep Space Nine's far superior Shadowplay. I skipped the In a Mirror Darkly duology and I plan to revisit them after I watch Mirror Mirror. I think by the time I'm done with all of this and finally watch season 3, I will have watched around 70 of the 98 episodes, Which is actually about what I originally suspected I would watch.
As far as our theoretical first time watcher goes, the show does a solid job of establishing the species and politics of the region and establishing the alliances that would one day form the United Federation of Planets. I like how the Romulans were depicted as unseen aggressors attempting to destabilize the region.
In my youth, obsessed with my own notion of what I believe Star Trek was, I could not accept such things as the militaristic an aggressive Vulcans, or Romulans who seemingly had cloaks 100 years early before Spock said that such a thing had never been seen before.
But seen in the context of a first-timer, these things are story progressions rather than canon violations. By the time the story ends, Vulcans are on the peaceful, logical path where we find them in future shows. I even give the apparent Romulan cloaks in Minefield a pass. I consider the so-called cloaks we saw in Minefield and the actual cloaks that we saw in Balance of Terror to be two different types of technology. Until definitively established otherwise, I assume that the cloaks we saw in Minefield are more closely related to holographic cloaking technology that the Romulan vessels were equipped with in their season 4 arc. An illusion of invisibility rather than the real thing.
By the time we reach These Are the Voyages (I fast-forwarded every part of the episode where either Riker and Troi spoke in order to make it feel more chronological). The only real gap in our theoretical first-timers historical knowledge would be the Romulan War. Well first-timer, welcome to the club. Even the Eugenics Wars were given a verbal rundown In the Augments arc, which was unique in that it calls back to both past events and calls forward to characters yet to come. At least Enterprise did a competent job in depicting the Romulans as an unseen aggressor attempting to destabilize the region. Even if we don't see the actual war, our first timer gets a good look at how the Romulans did things back then and establishes them as a threat moving forward.
Our first-timer can now move on and watch certain things for the first time with perspective that many of us did not have the first time we watched these episodes. I think it would be neat to be watching the original series for the first time and hear Colonel Green mentioned and say, "hey I know who that is!" Or to meet Khan for the first time and realize that this was the man that the Augments were speaking of with reverence. Or to catch up with T'Pau after all those years rather than meet her for the first time in Amok Time.
Now we move on to Short Treks.
We have the chronological first appearances of both Michael Burnham and Saru in The Girl Who Made the Stars and The Farthest Star.
And then comes a big moment for our first time watcher. The introduction of, arguably, the most important character in this entire endeavor. Spock. We will actually see much of his life before this moment through flashback, including his birth, but this is where our newcomer meets him for the first time.
And as an introduction to Spock, Q and A works quite nicely. Without being overly expository we learn much about Spock. His intelligence, his curiosity, his humanity and how closely his emotions are to the surface at this point in his life. I also love the irony that one of the biggest mysteries in Star Trek 55-year history, Number One's first name, was outright stated in her first chronological appearance. This chronological first appearance of the character segues quite nicely into his real world first appearance in The Cage, which I watched soon after.
I also watched the Short Treks Ask Not and The Trouble with Edward before The Cage. A nice look at Pike and an origin for the reproductive proclivities of the Tribbles, but not a first appearance as Phlox had a tribble in his menagerie.
Which brings me to where I am now, about to start Star Trek Discovery. Our first timer would have the benefit of already having met 6 of the major players from the next two seasons. Due to the serialized nature of the show, I am planning to watch the entirety of the first two seasons. After that, of course, chronologically speaking, I won't be seeing Michael and friends for quite some time.
Anyway, it was while watching Q and A that I realized that I probably should have been taking notes this whole time and decided to share this experience with my fellow Trek fans here. It's been a fascinating way to look at the franchise. It's making me look at stuff that I thought I knew intimately in an all-new way. Have any of you ever tried a chronological watch through? I would appreciate your thoughts on both your efforts and any thoughts about my approach to my rewatch.
The adventure is just beginning...
However, with over eight hundred entries in the established canon, I decided that I wasn't going to force myself to watch every single bit of it. The time it would take alone is an overwhelming factor. I know that there are episodes in every series that I have no particular desire to revisit, and if they don't add to the history of the franchise, if they were only log entry missions of the week style adventures, I felt justified in giving it a pass.
So, of course, I started in the middle.
Despite being the 441st entry and the 8th movie overall, Star Trek First Contact is also legitimately the beginning of the story, so an in media res opening is appropriate.
The story introduces the newcomer to the three species that are arguably the most important, Humans, Vulcans and Klingons. It shows the pivotal moment in which humanity took its first step towards its larger place in the galaxy. It also states right out in the dialogue what the Star Trek mission statement is and gives our theoretical newcomer an idea of what is to come. it's also a rip-roaring adventure. A Fine Place to Start.
The first thing I want to say about Star Trek Enterprise is that I actually only went through seasons 1, 2 and 4. I felt that my "pick and choose" approach would not do the Xindi arc appropriate justice, so I made the vow to come back and revisit it once I have finished with my larger project.
That leaves out 25 episodes and out of the 73 remaining I watched... 41. However, aside from the xindi arc which I plan on revisiting, there are several episodes that I plan to go back and revisit. For instance, I skipped Oasis in season 1 because it was pretty much a beat for beat rehash of Deep Space Nine's far superior Shadowplay. I skipped the In a Mirror Darkly duology and I plan to revisit them after I watch Mirror Mirror. I think by the time I'm done with all of this and finally watch season 3, I will have watched around 70 of the 98 episodes, Which is actually about what I originally suspected I would watch.
As far as our theoretical first time watcher goes, the show does a solid job of establishing the species and politics of the region and establishing the alliances that would one day form the United Federation of Planets. I like how the Romulans were depicted as unseen aggressors attempting to destabilize the region.
In my youth, obsessed with my own notion of what I believe Star Trek was, I could not accept such things as the militaristic an aggressive Vulcans, or Romulans who seemingly had cloaks 100 years early before Spock said that such a thing had never been seen before.
But seen in the context of a first-timer, these things are story progressions rather than canon violations. By the time the story ends, Vulcans are on the peaceful, logical path where we find them in future shows. I even give the apparent Romulan cloaks in Minefield a pass. I consider the so-called cloaks we saw in Minefield and the actual cloaks that we saw in Balance of Terror to be two different types of technology. Until definitively established otherwise, I assume that the cloaks we saw in Minefield are more closely related to holographic cloaking technology that the Romulan vessels were equipped with in their season 4 arc. An illusion of invisibility rather than the real thing.
By the time we reach These Are the Voyages (I fast-forwarded every part of the episode where either Riker and Troi spoke in order to make it feel more chronological). The only real gap in our theoretical first-timers historical knowledge would be the Romulan War. Well first-timer, welcome to the club. Even the Eugenics Wars were given a verbal rundown In the Augments arc, which was unique in that it calls back to both past events and calls forward to characters yet to come. At least Enterprise did a competent job in depicting the Romulans as an unseen aggressor attempting to destabilize the region. Even if we don't see the actual war, our first timer gets a good look at how the Romulans did things back then and establishes them as a threat moving forward.
Our first-timer can now move on and watch certain things for the first time with perspective that many of us did not have the first time we watched these episodes. I think it would be neat to be watching the original series for the first time and hear Colonel Green mentioned and say, "hey I know who that is!" Or to meet Khan for the first time and realize that this was the man that the Augments were speaking of with reverence. Or to catch up with T'Pau after all those years rather than meet her for the first time in Amok Time.
Now we move on to Short Treks.
We have the chronological first appearances of both Michael Burnham and Saru in The Girl Who Made the Stars and The Farthest Star.
And then comes a big moment for our first time watcher. The introduction of, arguably, the most important character in this entire endeavor. Spock. We will actually see much of his life before this moment through flashback, including his birth, but this is where our newcomer meets him for the first time.
And as an introduction to Spock, Q and A works quite nicely. Without being overly expository we learn much about Spock. His intelligence, his curiosity, his humanity and how closely his emotions are to the surface at this point in his life. I also love the irony that one of the biggest mysteries in Star Trek 55-year history, Number One's first name, was outright stated in her first chronological appearance. This chronological first appearance of the character segues quite nicely into his real world first appearance in The Cage, which I watched soon after.
I also watched the Short Treks Ask Not and The Trouble with Edward before The Cage. A nice look at Pike and an origin for the reproductive proclivities of the Tribbles, but not a first appearance as Phlox had a tribble in his menagerie.
Which brings me to where I am now, about to start Star Trek Discovery. Our first timer would have the benefit of already having met 6 of the major players from the next two seasons. Due to the serialized nature of the show, I am planning to watch the entirety of the first two seasons. After that, of course, chronologically speaking, I won't be seeing Michael and friends for quite some time.
Anyway, it was while watching Q and A that I realized that I probably should have been taking notes this whole time and decided to share this experience with my fellow Trek fans here. It's been a fascinating way to look at the franchise. It's making me look at stuff that I thought I knew intimately in an all-new way. Have any of you ever tried a chronological watch through? I would appreciate your thoughts on both your efforts and any thoughts about my approach to my rewatch.
The adventure is just beginning...
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