Viewing order?

[Candlelight]

I know like most shows TOS is fairly straight forward, and with the majority of episodes stand alones it doesn't matter.

But I've seen two main episode guides around the way, one starting with Where No Man Has Gone Before and the other starting with The Man Trap (which I'm guessing is production order vs original viewing order).

It's pretty much apples and oranges but does anyone have a preference?

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Production order for me.

 

[Tiberius]

I also watch them in production order.

I always felt that air date order was determined very much by a case of "Well, we need to show an episode and this one is finished, so we'll slap that one on..."

 

[Art Vandelay]

I do prefer production order as well, the main reason being that it actually starts with the pilot. After that, the lack of continuity leads to the choice indeed coming down to apples and oranges.

You could try and watch the episodes in stardate order, but it's really a mess.

 

[number6]

Alphabetical for me.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Alphabetical for me.

Starting with All Our Yesterdays and finishing with Wolf in the Fold?

Too cool.

 

[JoeD80]

I always felt that air date order was determined very much by a case of "Well, we need to show an episode and this one is finished, so we'll slap that one on..."

Well it works better than showing the unfinished ones.

 

[Timo]

Stardate order. Plot and other development make the most sense that way.

The couple of episodes without a stardate work best towards the end of the run, but I'd still save "All Our Yesterdays", with the highest stardate of them all, to the very last. It's good to go out with a bang.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Harvey]

It's probably best to watch in production order, though it's not a deal breaker. I sure wish the Blu-Ray sets weren't in airdate order, though.

 

[Art Vandelay]

It's probably best to watch in production order, though it's not a deal breaker. I sure wish the Blu-Ray sets weren't in airdate order, though.

An absolute annoyance, to be sure. The only DVD/Blu-ray edition ever to get this right was the 40-volume run that came out between 1999 and 2001.

 

[Winterwind]

I prefer production order... but it's a bit of a pain popping the discs in and out when you want to watch it that way. Still, it's Star Trek so I guess it's "good pain".

 

[Candlelight]

Cheers everyone. I thought that would be a better way too.

 

[GNDN]

Unfortunate that the blu-rays stuck with airdate order, would have preferred production order.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Production order. You can see the characters and show develop and evolve. I dont think that's possible using airdate or Stardate.

 

[number6]

Has anyone watched the series in Stardate Order? I'd be curious to see how or if the story unfolds in a more significant way with regards to character development..

 

[Albertese]

I dunno, but I think I'm gonna try it. Including the Animateds. The old Concordance has a list of all the eps in Stardate order, I think that'd be a fun way to do it!

--Alex

 

[Gary7]

I can't remember the last time I watched Star Trek episodes in any kind of sequential order. I've seen them so many times, it's all a blur. I just watch them by random selection...

But if I had to watch them all over again, I'd probably do production order as well. I wouldn't do Stardate order, because they were inconsistently stated from episode to episode.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

If you include the animateds, I believe that you'll find "The Magicks of Megas-tu" comes before most, if not all, of the first season.

 

[Shon T'Hara]

I do The Cage, WNMHGB and The Corbomite Maneuver in that order so I can see the evolution of the main cast, but after that I watch in airdate order.

 

[ToddPence]

Has anyone watched the series in Stardate Order? I'd be curious to see how or if the story unfolds in a more significant way with regards to character development..

I actually did. I originally arranged my episodes when I put them on old VHS tapes back in the day in stardate order. Watching the episodes of TOS in stardate order is actually far less problematic than trying to watch them in stardate order in TNG or Voyager. The biggest problem is figuring out where to place the eight TOS episodes where no stardate is given. Also, the couple of instances where stardates overlap with each other (as in "The Corbomite Manuever" and "The Man Trap"; and "Miri" and "Dagger of the Mind.")

One big issue that stardate order solves in TOS is establishing that Chekov was indeed aboard the Enterprise at the time of "Space Seed". ("Catspaw", the episode which introduces Chekov, has a stardate which predates "Space Seed".)