By this I mean if you were a complete newbie to the franchise could you begin your viewing with ENT, (skip DISC because it's not yet complete), then on to TOS, then TNG, DS9 and finally VOY.
Would you encounter any serious problems , would it be coherent, does the foreshadowing work?
Do you think DISC, once finished, will fit into said viewing order?
There is one thing to think about. It is easy to put a series as a whole in chronological order of fictional date or in chronological order of production, but what about the individual episodes of each series?
The most popular orders for the possible chronological sequence of episodes within a
Star Trek series are:
1) Production order, which can be found from the episode's production number or from the dates of filming from various websites.
2) First broadcast order or original airdate order which can be found from various websites.
3) Stardate order which can be found from various websites. (This requires some way to handle episodes that don't have stardates).
Most
Star Trek chronologists assume that episodes happen in one of those three chronological orders. And I also tend to suggest a fourth possible viewing order:
4) Because of stardates overlapping between seasons, by order of seasons and within a season by order of stardates. (This requires some way to handle episodes that don't have stardates).
From the second season of
Star Trek: The Next Generation on to the last season of
Star Trek: Voyager the broadcast or airdate order, the production order, and the stardate order (for the majority of episodes which did have stardates) were the same for almost every episode.
Thus the order of episodes would be almost exactly the same if the episodes in the second to seventh seasons of
Star Trek: The Next Generation, the seven seasons of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the seven seasons of
Star Trek: Voyager are viewed and are considered to happen in production order, airdate order, or stardate order.
But even among those twenty seasons and over four hundred episodes, the numerical majority of
Star Trek so far, there will be some chronological problems. Because of the availability of Leonard Nimoy, "Unification Part 2" was filmed before "Unification Part 1" although it obviously has to happen after "Unification Part 1".
Four episodes of
Star Trek: Voyager - "The 37's", "Projections", "Elogium", and "Twisted" - were produced during the show's first season but not broadcast until the show's second season, mixed in with second season episodes. Thus their chronological position in production order and stardate order will be different from their chronological position in airdate order.
And there was overlapping between the seasons of
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999), and
Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001) and between three movies with the TNG cast shown after the last episode of
Star Trek:The Next Generation (1987-1994) -
Star Trek: Generations (1994),
Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998); the fourth TNG movie,
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), was made after the end of
Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001).
If someone wanted to they could watch
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
, Star Trek: Generations (1994),
Star Trek: First Contact (1996),
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998),
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002),
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999), and
Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001) in that order.
But that would ignore the fictional dates of the episodes and movies. It makes more sense to watch the episodes of
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994),
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999), and
Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001), along with the four movies, in their production order, broadcast order (and release order for the movies), and stardate order, when all three agree.
When the three orders don't agree, or when there is no stardate in an episode, or when there are reasons of plot to put an episode or movie before or after another episode or movie, there may be some problems with figuring out the correct chronological order.
And the situation is similar in
Star Trek: Enterprise except that instead of stardates there are occasional Earth dates. There are only a few contradictions between the different methods of putting the episodes in chronological order.
The six
Star Trek movies with the original cast are also in the same chronological order by production order, release date order, and stardate order, as well as the four movies from the 1980s being the same order by story event order.
But the episodes of
Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969) and
Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974) are in different chronological orders if sorted by production order, airdate order, and stardate order. A few episodes may be in the same position according to two of those orders, but most of the episodes have three different positions according to the three different main chronological orders they can be put in. So anyone watching TOS and/or TAS in chronological order will have to decide which order is chronological order.
Thus watching
Star Trek in chronological order requires a plan for the chronological order of episodes within each series.
