Hello. I'm a first-time watcher. I've watched a few Star Trek: The Original Series (first 3 episodes or so) but and the new movies. But beyond that -- nothing. Question is... what should be my watching order? I see Netflix has the other series as well -- so that's nice.
Production order and airdate order are common viewing schemes. I can't remember what order Netflix puts them in. Since the show is from the good old days when everything on TV wasn't serialized, the exact viewing order won't mess up your understanding of what's going on in a given episode. ETA: ...unless you somehow end up watching The Menagerie, Part 2 before Part 1. Kor
Netflix has the episodes in production order, I believe. Just be sure you watch a significant amount of the first and second seasons before you dive into the third and you should be good. Enjoy and welcome to the BBS! Be sure to post in this thread and tell us what you think as you go along!
I envy you because it's been so long since any episode of the series was new to me. I wouldn't stick to production order too religiously, though - there are at least 20 episodes in the first two seasons that can be easily skipped and returned to later. One way into the series would be to first see only those episodes that had music scores specifically written for them (pieces of which the series' music editor would reuse in later episodes). For the second season, for example, these would include "Amok Time," "Catspaw," "Who Mourns for Adonais?," "Metamorphosis," "Friday's Child," etc. The music was a huge part of what made the series so vivid. I mean, just try on for size the opening of act one of "Friday's Child" (episode title sequence). Especially with the remastered version shown on Netflix, it's pretty damn magnificent, even though it's just the Enterprise in orbit around, um, Capella 4. Note: My viewpoint is admittedly skewed because I did start with the third season - with "Spock's Brain," the season 3 premiere, in 1968, Friday nights at 10 pm. Never saw a season 1 or 2 episode until weekday reruns began a few years later.
Watch Enterprise first. It’ll be interesting to see someone’s perspective on the franchise starting with that first.
Honestly, it doesn't really matter what order you watch TOS in. It's not like a modern show with ongoing story arcs and such. It was meant to watched and reran in most any order.
@Kor You got it. Seems like Netflix has us covered! @Shawnster Where can I join in this discussion? @JonnyQuest037 Oh, thank you! Just finished Charlie X. Charlie needs to choke on some salt tablets.... @gottacook I said the same thing about LOST. Thank you for that. Will keep an ear out on those. @thribs Interesting... but I do like Shatner... so maybe
Well, Admiral, I was 11 and all I knew of the show was that it was clearly an improvement over Lost in Space, which had just ended its run on CBS. Moreover, I already owned and enjoyed the first book of James Blish's versions of the early episodes. Under those circumstances, I had no reason to disdain "Spock's Brain"; I hadn't seen any earlier, better-written episodes to compare it to.
Actually, with the exception of some of the stuff with Kara and the Eyemorgs, the dialogue in Spock's Brain is pretty good - better than average for TOS.
Once I became a fan (From Kelvin Movies) my viewing order was TOS season 1-3 though I think I would've probably liked to view them in Production order first. The stories don't really tie together, it's true, but the relationship development between characters is more visible to me in Production Viewing vs the way they are released on disc. As far as Other series, It was TOS first then I watched the TOS movies, then skipped over The Next Gen because it was the reason it took me so long to become a Star Trek fan at all () and watched Voyager, then Enterprise, then Deep Space 9. I am currently trying to slog my way through Next Gen as it is the last series but I've stalled out half way through. I watched Discovery as it was released. I've seen a few of the Next Gen movies that weren't that bad, First Contact and then another one I can't remember the name of. Guess that says it all lol Funnily enough I heard a LOT of bad press about Deep Space 9 sucking, but I rather enjoyed it.
To be honest, after the first 10 episodes or so, production order is kind of irrelevant as they really got the 'stand alone' format down by then. IMO for the first 7 or so episodes, some aspects almost seem serialized in a fashion as you do see comradeare and a sense of continuity between many of the secondary characters and their interactions moreso than for the rest of the series.