Production Order VS. Broadcast Order

Airdate order. It's how it was aired. That's how it should be seen.

 

So, to hell with the internal continuity, the order to view them is whatever some programming genius in '66 decided, purely on the basis of which episode was completed on time.

Production order, all the way, kids.

 

So, it's not OK to disagree? It's not OK to prefer the airdate order?

There was NO "internal continuity" on this show. It was produced that way so that it could be aired out of order, which was necessary in order to even get the show on the air by the scheduled airdates.

And nobody has to agree with me. It's the way I prefer to watch the show. I can't speak for anyone else, but at least acknowledge that some people prefer watching it in that order.

While I'm thinking of it... how about a third idea: random order. It still makes sense no matter how you look at it!

 

Well you can see the development of the characters in Production order. Early Kirk and Spock are different than what they would become.

 

You can also see how the sets were embelished and developed (which is a particular point of interest to me). The way the characters developed during the first dozen episodes is also interesting to watch, but after that point the roles had become more established and changes are rare (with perhaps the exception of a couple of early Chekov eps)
Most second and third season episodes can be watched in any order you care to mention, for all the difference it makes.

 

i don't think any movie is filmed in the order of it's scenes. of course, broadcast order if you want continuity. production order is determined by availability of cast, and crew, sets, fx folks, whatever, but not from the story arch. scotty's hair seems to be different, so what? there can be weeks and months between the stories of two episodes.

 

I've always preferred 'random' order. It's the way I watched it as a kid... it's the way I watch it now. That was the great thing about Star Trek, you got a complete story with every episode.

 

Uh, actually, in syndication they were aired in production order---not random or original airdate order.

You may have missed some but they always showed them in production order. They did it that way all through the 1970s.

It's just silly to have Rand disappear for 6 episodes and then reappear for BoT or Spock revert back to his smirking, smiling, sometimes angry persona after Nimoy finally found the character. Or have them revert to calling it 'space central' after finally hammering out the 'Starfleet' & "Federation' nomenclature. Or go back to wearing the leather holster after coming up with the velco belt.

Sure the network wanted it to be an 'air them in any order' standard drama, but the producers were creating a show that evolved and built upon continutiy. It is especially important for the first season as there were so many changes, so quickly.

 

Don't know where you grew up but in Cincinnati (WXIX, WLWT, WCPO) they showed up in random order.

 

Sure

 

When it hit wide syndication, if there was an order to when the episodes were aired, it tended to production order (as I mentioned upthread, the things are numbered, so it's a no-brainer to just air whatever's next in the sequence and save the heavy lifting for something else).

The only time "airdate order" ever really came into play was when the show on on NBC, and that was really only a factor in the early part of the season and had more to do with what episode was ready for air (and, in the case of "The Man Trap", which episode the network felt was a better kick off out of the pitiful few episodes that were ready; Richard Arnold thinks they picked that one because it was the first episode in which anybody dies).

Any use of airdate order after June, 1969 is a needless homage to factors out of anyone's control. I think it's a safe bet that if they could have, "The Corbomite Maneuver" would've been the first one aired, not "The Man Trap".

 

Yeah, the network sent them numbered to the syndication affilliates.
Also, there were only 79 epsodes---a tiny number requiring every effort be made to NOT show the any more often than absolutely necessary.
To air a syndicated show with only 79 episodes in random fashion would have been iditoic as folks who,, early on would see a 'repeat' would then think they had seen them all. That would have greatly hurt the show in syndication.

I first realized they were showing them in production order after seeing the mostly lame 3rd seson eps and then, bam, back to WNMHGB.
I knew they weren't being shown in 'original airdate' because i had the 'Making of Trek' book and they listed them in original airdate order and I could see they weren't being show in that order.
Then I got the compendeum or some other book with production order listing and saw that they were in that order.

Maybe a rare exception where they might show Catspaw around halloween, but that would be about it.

Besides, this is about production vs. airdate order, NOT 'random order'
Good luck holding out for a set with a random order decided by some mook without a clue.

 

Arnold takes quite a bit of crap around here for his views, but this one actually makes a bit of sense. I can totally see a network exec doing this, even if subconsciously.

 

I suspect Richard's main failing is not asking enough questions of his benefactor, like why TAS was being excluded, that sort of thing.

 

Always fun to watch someone get their panties in a bunch when someone disagrees with them. In Cincinnati it ran in a random order. Sorry to piss on your parade.

 

No panties in a bunch----i simply don't believe you.

They didn't send them to an affiliate numbered and they ignored it and ran it 'random' for any length of time.

Maybe for a short time some idiot didn't pay attention, but to think they'd just play them throughout the 1970s in random order---not buying it for a minute.

It also presupposes you knew the production order and knew the airdate order and then noticed it was neither---i don't buy it, sorry.

If other folks want to believe your assertion good for them, I don't take posters word as valid when it makes no sense.

Now you can post again and pretend how 'upset' I am, but me not believing some nonsense story on the internet doesn't upset me in the least.

 

How about remastered order?

 

I guess if you had gotten into TOS for the first time by watching the Remasterd versions---that might work for some folks.

 

Anyone have an old TV Guide from the 70s?