Some people wonder how many alternate universes there are in Star Trek? One, Two, Three, Four?
In my opinion, when a series is as episodic as some versions of Star Trek are, almost every single episode of a series is in an alternate universe of its own, different from the alternate universes of every other episode.
You can imagine the producers and writers of a series searching countless tens, thousands, millions, billions, trillions, etc. of alternate universes that branch off from the time the series begins with the characters meeting and taking up their roles. They search countless universes for exciting stories and in the vast majority of alternate universes there are none. But in a few universes they find exciting stories to tell.
And so the protagonists might never have a single dangerous and exciting adventure in the vast majority of alternate universes in which they live. And in the alternate universes where they have one exciting adventure worthy of telling a story about, they usually do not have another one.
This means that the protagonists have a reasonable probability of surviving until the end of the series in most of the alternate universes that branch out from the beginning of the series. If all of the episodes in a long running series happen one after another in the same timeline, then the odds against the protagonists surviving tens and often hundreds of dangerous missions and adventures be come incredibly, unbelievably vast.
So therefore, if I like the protagonists of an adventure series, and if the series has a loose episodic structure instead of a tight, serialized structure, I prefer to imagine that the protagonists' exciting and dangerous adventures all happen in different alternate universes so that the odds against their survival in any one alternate universe are not too high.
So the first Star Trek production, "The Cage" began with the Enterprise receiving a distress signal from Talso IV, and probably lasted for a few hours or days. In the course of that episode many decisions were made. So no doubt there are countless alternate universes were the events ended differently than they did in "The Cage".
TOS was descended from an alternate universe where the course of events was as seen in "The Cage", But in the years after "The Cage" many alternate universes branched off, with only one of them leading to Kirk taking command of the Enterprise with the familiar crew under him.
And immediately after Kirk took command of the Enterprise with the familiar crew under him Starfleet Command decided where to send him and what mission to give him. So immediately alternate universes started branching out.
Some fans may think that all TOS episodes must happen after the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and it is possible that they do all happen after "Where No Man Has Gone Before" which does explain why Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Elizabeth Dehner are not seen in any other episodes.
But it is possible that some or all of the TOS episodes are not sequels to "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and that there are other reasons why Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Elizabeth Dehner are not seen in any other episodes. Note that the Enterprise had a refit between the making of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and the making of the regular series episodes of TOS.
If one puts the TOS episodes in production order or broadcast order, then the stardates of the episodes go up and sometimes go down. Thus it is hard to calculate when a episode happens from its stardate. But if episodes happen in stardate order then stardates can be used to calculate when the episodes happen.
"Where No Man Has Gone Before", on stardates 1312.4 to 1313.8, might not be during the five year mission, but all the TOS episodes are. The TOS five year mission stardates go from 1329.8 during "Mudd's Women" to 5943.9, the second stardate in "All Our Yesterdays". If the five year mission began with "Mudd's Women" and ended with "All Our Yesterdays" and lasted for four point zero to six point zero years, there would be 4,614.8 stardate units in 4.0 to 6.0 years. Thus there could be 769.133 to 1,153.7 stardate units per year, or about 2.1057 to 3.1586 per day.
So if episodes happen in stardate order the 16.00 stardate units between "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "Mudd's Women" happen over 5.0655 to 7.5984 days.
If the animated episodes are included they go from stardate 1254.4 in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" to 7403.6 in "Bem". 6,149.2 stardates in 4.0 to 6.0 years makes 1,024.866 to 1,537.3 stardates per year and 2.8059 to 4.2088 stardates per day, thus making the period between "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "Mudd's Women" 3.8041 days to 5.7022 days.
That would be too short a period for the Enterprise to have a refit. Therefore, if episodes happen in order of stardates, "Mudd's Women" should be in an alternate universe to "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
"Mudd's Women" was produced 4th and broadcast 6th on 13 October 1966 with opening stardate 1329.8, and "The Corbomite Maneuver" was produced 3rd and broadcast 10th, on 10 November 1966, with opening stardate 1512.2.
"I, Mudd" was produced 42nd and broadcast 37th on 3 November 1967 with stardate 4513.3. "The Deadly Years" was produced 41st and broadcast 41st on 8 December 1967 with stardate 3478.2.
"I, Mudd" is a sequel to "Mudd's Women" and "The Deadly Years" is a sequel to "The Corbomite Maneuver".
When they meet Harry Mudd in "Mudd's Women" Chekov doesn't know him.
In "The Deadly Years" Kirk uses another corbomite bluff and when he does Chekov and Sulu smile at each other, showing that Chekov is familiar with Kirk's previous corbomite bluff.
It would obviously be easy for Chekov to join the Enterprise crew after "Mudd's Women" and before "I, Mudd" or any other episode where Chekov is a character. It also would obviously be easy for Chekov to join the crew before "The Corbomite Maneuver" and hear about Kirk's bluff, long before "The Deadly Years" or any other episodes where Chekov was seen. But it is not so easy for Chekov to be aboard for "the Corbomite Maneuver" but not for "Mudd's Women".
If the TOS episodes happen in broadcast order "Mudd's Women" is before "The Corbomite Manever" and it is easy to imagine Chekov coming aboard between the two episodes. If the TOS episodes happen in stardate order there are 182.1 stardates between 1330.1, the latest stardate in "Mudd's Women", and 1512.2, the first stardate in "The Corbomite Maneuver", enough time for Chekov to come aboard between the two episodes.
Burt if the episodes are in production order "The Corbomite Maneuver" comes before "Mudd's Women". Thus if the episodes are in production order they should be in alternate universes where Chekov comes aboard the Enterprise before "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The Deadly Years" in one alternate universe but comes aboard the Enterprise sometimes between "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd" in the other alternate universe.
If the episodes are in broadcast or stardate order the events can happen in one timeline in this order. "Mudd's Women", Chekov comes aboard, "The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Deadly Years", and I, Mudd". But "I, Mudd" doesn't have to happen in the same timeline as "The Deadly Years", and 'Mudd's Women" doesn't have to happen in the Same timeline as "The Corbomite Maneuver". It is only certain that "I, Mudd" is a sequel to "Mudd's Women" and that "The Deadly Years" is a sequel to "The Corbomite Maneuver".
The animated episode "Mudd's Passion" is a sequel to "I, Mudd".
The first episode with the Vulcan touch telepathy was "Dagger of the Mind" the 11th episode produced and the 9th broadcast, on 3 November 1966 with stardate 2715.1. But the process seemed a bit different in "Dagger of the Mind" than in later episodes, enough that it might have been a different Vulcan skill than the better known mind meld.
Thus it is possible that the first episode with the Vulcan Mind Meld was "A Taste of Armageddon", the 24th episode produced and the 23rd broadcast, on 23 February 1967, with stardate 3192.1.
And even if Spock used the same ability in both episodes, "A Taste of Armageddon" might not have been a sequel to "Dagger of the Mind" since Spock seems to talk like the others have no knowledge of that ability:
And then Spock apparently compels the guard to enter the cell and be captured.
In "The Devil in the Dark" the 27th episode produced and the 25th broadcast on 9 march 1967, with stardate 3196.1, Spock mind melds with the Horta:
Spock may mean that Kirk has learned about it in "Dagger of the Mind" and/or "A Taste of Armageddon" or that Kirk has learned about it in a Vulcan studies course. Thus the first season may have one, two or three alternate universes where Spock uses the Vulcan Mind Meld for the first time in Kirk's experience.
In all later Mind Meld episodes it seems likely that Kirk & the others have already seen the Mind Meld in action.
In "By Any Other Name" the 51st episode produced and the 51st broadcast on 23 February 1968, with stardate 4657.5, the Kelvin ship was wreaked by the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy:
So "By Any Other Name" should be a sequel to "Where No Man Has Gone Before", or possibly a similar event in an alternate universe.
Kirk doesn't mention events of "Dagger of the Mind", "The Devil in the Dark", or "The Changeling", the 38th episode produced and the 32nd broadcast on 29 September 1967 with stardate 3541.9. So perhaps they happened in alternate universes to "By Any Other Name", or maybe Kirk just didn't mentioned them.
"Space Seed" was the 25th episode produced and the 22nd broadcast on 16 February 1967 with stardates 3141.9 to 3143.3 . As every fan knows, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a sequel of "Space Seed", happening 15 years later. For decades fans have wondered how Chekov and Khan recognized each other in WOK if Chekov didn't become a member of the bridge crew until the second season.
As seen above, that might be a problem with "Space Seed" was in an alternate universe where Chekov did not come aboard the Enterprise until long after "Mudd's Women", but it would not be a problem if Chekov came aboard sometime before "The Corbomite Maneuver". Then Chekov could have met Khan in "Space Seed" before becoming part of the bridge crew in the second season. Thus if "Mudd's Women" and "the Corbomite Maneuver" happen in alternate universe where Chekov comes aboard at different the Enterprise at different times, the alternate universe of "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan would be the one of "The Corbomite Maneuver" and not the one of "Mudd's Women".
I am going to bed now and will add many more examples later.
In my opinion, when a series is as episodic as some versions of Star Trek are, almost every single episode of a series is in an alternate universe of its own, different from the alternate universes of every other episode.
You can imagine the producers and writers of a series searching countless tens, thousands, millions, billions, trillions, etc. of alternate universes that branch off from the time the series begins with the characters meeting and taking up their roles. They search countless universes for exciting stories and in the vast majority of alternate universes there are none. But in a few universes they find exciting stories to tell.
And so the protagonists might never have a single dangerous and exciting adventure in the vast majority of alternate universes in which they live. And in the alternate universes where they have one exciting adventure worthy of telling a story about, they usually do not have another one.
This means that the protagonists have a reasonable probability of surviving until the end of the series in most of the alternate universes that branch out from the beginning of the series. If all of the episodes in a long running series happen one after another in the same timeline, then the odds against the protagonists surviving tens and often hundreds of dangerous missions and adventures be come incredibly, unbelievably vast.
So therefore, if I like the protagonists of an adventure series, and if the series has a loose episodic structure instead of a tight, serialized structure, I prefer to imagine that the protagonists' exciting and dangerous adventures all happen in different alternate universes so that the odds against their survival in any one alternate universe are not too high.
So the first Star Trek production, "The Cage" began with the Enterprise receiving a distress signal from Talso IV, and probably lasted for a few hours or days. In the course of that episode many decisions were made. So no doubt there are countless alternate universes were the events ended differently than they did in "The Cage".
TOS was descended from an alternate universe where the course of events was as seen in "The Cage", But in the years after "The Cage" many alternate universes branched off, with only one of them leading to Kirk taking command of the Enterprise with the familiar crew under him.
And immediately after Kirk took command of the Enterprise with the familiar crew under him Starfleet Command decided where to send him and what mission to give him. So immediately alternate universes started branching out.
Some fans may think that all TOS episodes must happen after the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and it is possible that they do all happen after "Where No Man Has Gone Before" which does explain why Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Elizabeth Dehner are not seen in any other episodes.
But it is possible that some or all of the TOS episodes are not sequels to "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and that there are other reasons why Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Elizabeth Dehner are not seen in any other episodes. Note that the Enterprise had a refit between the making of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and the making of the regular series episodes of TOS.
If one puts the TOS episodes in production order or broadcast order, then the stardates of the episodes go up and sometimes go down. Thus it is hard to calculate when a episode happens from its stardate. But if episodes happen in stardate order then stardates can be used to calculate when the episodes happen.
"Where No Man Has Gone Before", on stardates 1312.4 to 1313.8, might not be during the five year mission, but all the TOS episodes are. The TOS five year mission stardates go from 1329.8 during "Mudd's Women" to 5943.9, the second stardate in "All Our Yesterdays". If the five year mission began with "Mudd's Women" and ended with "All Our Yesterdays" and lasted for four point zero to six point zero years, there would be 4,614.8 stardate units in 4.0 to 6.0 years. Thus there could be 769.133 to 1,153.7 stardate units per year, or about 2.1057 to 3.1586 per day.
So if episodes happen in stardate order the 16.00 stardate units between "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "Mudd's Women" happen over 5.0655 to 7.5984 days.
If the animated episodes are included they go from stardate 1254.4 in "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" to 7403.6 in "Bem". 6,149.2 stardates in 4.0 to 6.0 years makes 1,024.866 to 1,537.3 stardates per year and 2.8059 to 4.2088 stardates per day, thus making the period between "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and "Mudd's Women" 3.8041 days to 5.7022 days.
That would be too short a period for the Enterprise to have a refit. Therefore, if episodes happen in order of stardates, "Mudd's Women" should be in an alternate universe to "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
"Mudd's Women" was produced 4th and broadcast 6th on 13 October 1966 with opening stardate 1329.8, and "The Corbomite Maneuver" was produced 3rd and broadcast 10th, on 10 November 1966, with opening stardate 1512.2.
"I, Mudd" was produced 42nd and broadcast 37th on 3 November 1967 with stardate 4513.3. "The Deadly Years" was produced 41st and broadcast 41st on 8 December 1967 with stardate 3478.2.
"I, Mudd" is a sequel to "Mudd's Women" and "The Deadly Years" is a sequel to "The Corbomite Maneuver".
When they meet Harry Mudd in "Mudd's Women" Chekov doesn't know him.
In "The Deadly Years" Kirk uses another corbomite bluff and when he does Chekov and Sulu smile at each other, showing that Chekov is familiar with Kirk's previous corbomite bluff.
It would obviously be easy for Chekov to join the Enterprise crew after "Mudd's Women" and before "I, Mudd" or any other episode where Chekov is a character. It also would obviously be easy for Chekov to join the crew before "The Corbomite Maneuver" and hear about Kirk's bluff, long before "The Deadly Years" or any other episodes where Chekov was seen. But it is not so easy for Chekov to be aboard for "the Corbomite Maneuver" but not for "Mudd's Women".
If the TOS episodes happen in broadcast order "Mudd's Women" is before "The Corbomite Manever" and it is easy to imagine Chekov coming aboard between the two episodes. If the TOS episodes happen in stardate order there are 182.1 stardates between 1330.1, the latest stardate in "Mudd's Women", and 1512.2, the first stardate in "The Corbomite Maneuver", enough time for Chekov to come aboard between the two episodes.
Burt if the episodes are in production order "The Corbomite Maneuver" comes before "Mudd's Women". Thus if the episodes are in production order they should be in alternate universes where Chekov comes aboard the Enterprise before "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The Deadly Years" in one alternate universe but comes aboard the Enterprise sometimes between "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd" in the other alternate universe.
If the episodes are in broadcast or stardate order the events can happen in one timeline in this order. "Mudd's Women", Chekov comes aboard, "The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Deadly Years", and I, Mudd". But "I, Mudd" doesn't have to happen in the same timeline as "The Deadly Years", and 'Mudd's Women" doesn't have to happen in the Same timeline as "The Corbomite Maneuver". It is only certain that "I, Mudd" is a sequel to "Mudd's Women" and that "The Deadly Years" is a sequel to "The Corbomite Maneuver".
The animated episode "Mudd's Passion" is a sequel to "I, Mudd".
The first episode with the Vulcan touch telepathy was "Dagger of the Mind" the 11th episode produced and the 9th broadcast, on 3 November 1966 with stardate 2715.1. But the process seemed a bit different in "Dagger of the Mind" than in later episodes, enough that it might have been a different Vulcan skill than the better known mind meld.
Thus it is possible that the first episode with the Vulcan Mind Meld was "A Taste of Armageddon", the 24th episode produced and the 23rd broadcast, on 23 February 1967, with stardate 3192.1.
And even if Spock used the same ability in both episodes, "A Taste of Armageddon" might not have been a sequel to "Dagger of the Mind" since Spock seems to talk like the others have no knowledge of that ability:
And then Spock apparently compels the guard to enter the cell and be captured.
In "The Devil in the Dark" the 27th episode produced and the 25th broadcast on 9 march 1967, with stardate 3196.1, Spock mind melds with the Horta:
Spock may mean that Kirk has learned about it in "Dagger of the Mind" and/or "A Taste of Armageddon" or that Kirk has learned about it in a Vulcan studies course. Thus the first season may have one, two or three alternate universes where Spock uses the Vulcan Mind Meld for the first time in Kirk's experience.
In all later Mind Meld episodes it seems likely that Kirk & the others have already seen the Mind Meld in action.
In "By Any Other Name" the 51st episode produced and the 51st broadcast on 23 February 1968, with stardate 4657.5, the Kelvin ship was wreaked by the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy:
So "By Any Other Name" should be a sequel to "Where No Man Has Gone Before", or possibly a similar event in an alternate universe.
Kirk doesn't mention events of "Dagger of the Mind", "The Devil in the Dark", or "The Changeling", the 38th episode produced and the 32nd broadcast on 29 September 1967 with stardate 3541.9. So perhaps they happened in alternate universes to "By Any Other Name", or maybe Kirk just didn't mentioned them.
"Space Seed" was the 25th episode produced and the 22nd broadcast on 16 February 1967 with stardates 3141.9 to 3143.3 . As every fan knows, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a sequel of "Space Seed", happening 15 years later. For decades fans have wondered how Chekov and Khan recognized each other in WOK if Chekov didn't become a member of the bridge crew until the second season.
As seen above, that might be a problem with "Space Seed" was in an alternate universe where Chekov did not come aboard the Enterprise until long after "Mudd's Women", but it would not be a problem if Chekov came aboard sometime before "The Corbomite Maneuver". Then Chekov could have met Khan in "Space Seed" before becoming part of the bridge crew in the second season. Thus if "Mudd's Women" and "the Corbomite Maneuver" happen in alternate universe where Chekov comes aboard at different the Enterprise at different times, the alternate universe of "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan would be the one of "The Corbomite Maneuver" and not the one of "Mudd's Women".
I am going to bed now and will add many more examples later.
(And even if you're going to do it, you seem to be calculating to too many significant digits... we just don't have sufficiently precise stardate data to allow that.) IMHO the show flows best when viewed in production order.
