TOS//TAS viewing order...

Yeah, done once or twice it’s okay. But it became a somewhat regular gimmick that quickly became tiresome.

 

I find 8 episodes on Memory Alpha listed as a stardate "Not Given" or "Unknown" not sure what the difference would be between these two. How is it that some refer to there only being 4 or 6 episodes with no stardate?

 

If you want the events depicted to make more sense with an assumption that at least a couple of weeks (on average) happen between events depicted in the episodes then, yes, the idea the three seasons of TOS depict the vast bulk of the 5-year mission makes much more sense than each season depicting a year of the mission. So, basically, each season of TOS is depicting about 18 months of the 5-year voyage. Thats four and a half years with a bit of wiggle room for previously undocumented stories. Add in TAS then each season could be depicting about 15 months of the 5-year voyage. And note the “5-year mission” could actually be anything from 4-1/2 to nearly 6 six years in duration.

In my own head canon this is indeed the way I see it.

 

For time between episodes, these two videos are a great resource. OrangeRiver maps out the Enterprise's course during TOS from episode-to-episode, and we can estimate how long it took to get from Point A to Point B.

Season 1


Seasons 2 and 3

 

It should go without saying I don’t consider “Where No Man Has Gone Before” as part of the 5-year mission. I see it as happening perhaps some months after taking over from Pike and before they return for an overhaul/refit then assigned a 5-year mission and now sporting the new uniform design. So WNMHGB is several months to maybe about a year before the events of the first season start.

 

You know the interesting thing here is that you would think they would have Pikes first officer, number one be the second signatory here; as she was actually down on the planet and also interacting directly with the Talosians.

I mean beyond the tempting to retrieve Pike by blasting through the sealed doorway with his hand laser, Spock himself never had any direct contact with the Talosians prior to effectively 'signing' that report. He was also still a junior officer as well in that time period.

 

What was the production team's logic of Denoting Spock as Half-Vulcan (twice)? Im glad it was real text since it would barely be readable in 1966 anyway, but what was wrong with just listing him as Science Officer Spock?

 

For the audience, I imagine. I'm impressed that they put in readable text for something that was going to last a second or two on a small screen over the air with lousy reception. They must have known it was possible - in that close shot - for someone to read parts of it even that quickly.

So for production reasons (i.e. audience information), Spock was stated as half Vulcan. Naturally, back then, there was no reason to believe everyone saw all prior episodes, so you have to re-state these things, which is why it was brought up so often in general conversation in the early days. As for why Spock is listed on the document, again, production reasons: Nimoy is the co-star and they had to connect him to the scenario while building Mendez's case. Number One wasn't introduced to audiences yet and an official document would have required them to name her. Since I prefer the mystery of the character (Una exists in another reality as far as I'm concerned - YMMV), I'm fine with it.

In universe, I can easily imagine Pike wanted the science officer to sign off since he most likely did the analysis on the Talosians for Pike's report. Much like he wanted Boyce's opinion for the log early in the episode. A little CYA from your staff never hurt your case. Spock himself may have wanted to be listed that way since he was obviously still embracing his mother's side (see the smiles, the shouting and "the women!!!"). Later, as he got more self conscious about it, he stopped signing documents that way.

 

Hey, we've been trying to make sense of Stardates for 57 years and nobody's managed it yet.

Holy crap. I agree with Richard Arnold about something.

Maybe Spock's input was sought because he was on the ship during the encounter and could report on the attempts to rescue Pike and the Talosians reading the ship's records. Things that Pike and THE WOMEN!!! wouldn't be privy to.