I'm about to start the Original Series over again from the beginning. When I watched them last time in late 2005 I printed up a list from here of the order the episodes should be watched especially in the first season. I have since moved and no longer have that list. If anyone could again recommend the proper order it would be much appreciated!
Order of Watching
- Thread starter SAndrews10
- Start date
On the whole it doesn't matter. Watch The Cage first, then Where No Man, then The Man Trap.
I know that this is rather simplistic, but I would personally watch each episode based on their airing date, starting with the first pilot, The Cage.
I like stardate order.
Code:
[U]Episode[/U] [U]Stardate[/U] [U]Title[/U]
1x01 1312.4 - 1313.8 Where No Man Has Gone Before
1x03 1329.8 - 1330.1 Mudd's Women
1x02 1512.2 - 1514.1 The Corbomite Maneuver
1x05 1513.1 - 1513.8 The Man Trap
1x07 1533.6 - 1535.8 Charlie X
1x04 1672.1 - 1673.1 The Enemy Within
1x06 1704.2 - 1704.4 The Naked Time
1x08 1709.2 - 1709.6 Balance of Terror
1x18 2124.5 - 2126.3 The Squire of Gothos
1x09 2712.4 What Are Little Girls Made Of?
1x11 2713.5 - 2713.3 Miri
1x10 2715.1 - 2715.2 Dagger of the Mind
1x12 2817.6 - 2819.8 The Conscience of the King
1x13 2821.5 - 2823.8 The Galileo Seven
1x14 2947.3 - 2950.1 Court Martial
1x15 3012.4 - 3012.6 The Menagerie, Part I
1x16 3013.1 - 3013.2 The Menagerie, Part II
2x01 3018.2 Catspaw
1x17 3025.3 - 3025.8 Shore Leave
1x19 3045.6 - 3046.2 Arena
1x20 3087.6 - 3088.7 The Alternative Factor
1x21 3113.2 - 3114.1 Tomorrow is Yesterday
1x24 3141.9 - 3143.3 Space Seed
1x22 3156.2 - 3158.7 The Return of the Archons
1x23 3192.1 - 3193.0 A Taste of Armageddon
1x26 3196.1 The Devil in the Dark
1x27 3198.4 - 3201.7 Errand of Mercy
1x28 Unknown The City on the Edge of Forever
2x17 3211.7 - 3259.2 The Gamesters of Triskelion
2x02 3219.8 - 3220.3 Metamorphosis
1x29 3287.2 - 3289.8 Operation -- Annihilate!
2x05 3372.7 Amok Time
1x25 3417.3 - 3417.7 This Side of Paradise
2x04 3468.1 Who Mourns for Adonais?
2x11 3478.2 - 3479.4 The Deadly Years
2x03 3497.2 - 3499.1 Friday's Child
2x08 3541.9 The Changeling
2x07 3614.9 - 3615.4 Wolf in the Fold
2x18 3619.2 - 3620.7 Obsession
2x09 3715.0 - 3715.6 The Apple
2x10 Unknown Mirror, Mirror
2x15 3842.3 - 3843.4 Journey to Babel
2x14 4040.7 - 4041.7 Bread and Circuses
2x06 4202.9 The Doomsday Machine
2x16 4211.4 - 4211.8 A Private Little War
2x19 4307.1 - 4309.4 The Immunity Syndrome
3x02 4372.5 Elaan of Troyius
3x01 4385.3 Spectre of the Gun
2x12 4513.3 I, Mudd
2x13 4523.3 - 4525.6 The Trouble with Tribbles
2x20 Unknown A Piece of the Action
2x21 4657.5 - 4658.9 By Any Other Name
2x24 4729.4 - 4731.3 The Ultimate Computer
2x22 4768.3 - 4770.3 Return to Tomorrow
2x23 Unknown Patterns of Force
2x25 Unknown The Omega Glory
2x26 Unknown Assignment: Earth
3x03 4842.6 - 4843.6 The Paradise Syndrome
3x04 5027.3 - 5027.4 The Enterprise Incident
3x05 5029.5 And the Children Shall Lead
3x08 5121.5 The Empath
3x17 5423.4 - 5423.8 The Mark of Gideon
3x06 5431.4 - 5432.3 Spock's Brain
3x10 5476.3 - 5476.4 For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
3x07 5630.7 - 5630.8 Is There in Truth No Beauty?
3x09 5693.2 The Tholian Web
3x11 Unknown Day of the Dove
3x13 5710.5 - 5710.9 Wink of an Eye
3x14 Unknown That Which Survives
3x16 5718.3 Whom Gods Destroy
3x18 5725.3 - 5725.6 The Lights of Zetar
3x15 5730.2 - 5730.7 Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
3x12 5784.2 - 5784.3 Plato's Stepchildren
3x19 5818.4 - 5819.3 The Cloud Minders
3x20 5832.3 - 5832.6 The Way to Eden
3x21 5843.7 - 5843.8 Requiem for Methuselah
3x22 5906.4 - 5906.5 The Savage Curtain
3x24 5928.5 - 5930.3 Turnabout Intruder
3x23 5943.7 - 5943.9 All Our YesterdaysOh for fuck's sake. Why not alphabetical? It has just as much significance.
Beaker has a valid point, though his way of expressing it unfortunately is typical Beaker. TOS episodes are pretty well self-contained (counting The Menagerie 1 & 2 to be a single episode for purposes of this discussion). Anybody unfamiliar with Star Trek could watch just about any episode and understand it with no knowledge of prior episodes. Viewing order doesn’t matter much. Plotwise, it doesn’t matter at all.
I prefer stardate order. Other fans prefer production order or original airdate order. But most fans are pretty much in agreement that it’s not all that important. In terms of character development, the characters, and particularly their relationships with each other, do evolve a bit over the course of the series, but I think you’ll get pretty much the same effect of that no matter which of the three common orders (air, production, stardate) you choose. I wouldn’t recommend alphabetical order or random order, but it wouldn’t ruin the experience.
Another possibility is to use the IMDB or GEOS ratings and watch them in order from best to worst. When you start to get sick of it, it probably means you’ve gotten to the crap episodes and you might stop at that point. If you’re determined to watch all 79 episodes, then I wouldn’t do it this way.
I prefer stardate order. Other fans prefer production order or original airdate order. But most fans are pretty much in agreement that it’s not all that important. In terms of character development, the characters, and particularly their relationships with each other, do evolve a bit over the course of the series, but I think you’ll get pretty much the same effect of that no matter which of the three common orders (air, production, stardate) you choose. I wouldn’t recommend alphabetical order or random order, but it wouldn’t ruin the experience.
Another possibility is to use the IMDB or GEOS ratings and watch them in order from best to worst. When you start to get sick of it, it probably means you’ve gotten to the crap episodes and you might stop at that point. If you’re determined to watch all 79 episodes, then I wouldn’t do it this way.
I'm watching them in original airdate order mainly because that's how my brain works best. Like Mytran, I can see the development of the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and Bones more this way then I think I could if I watched them in stardate order. Plus, do you watch the unknown stardate ones first or last?
Write down all the episode titles on little slips of paper.
Put the slips of paper on a bulletin board.
Throw darts at the bulletin board.
Alternately, put the slips of paper into a large top hat, then have a large breasted assistant do the honors.
Otherwise, I suggest production order. It's the best way to see the show develop.
Stardate order, on the other hand, is nonsensical, because the stardates were largely nonsensical at that point.
Put the slips of paper on a bulletin board.
Throw darts at the bulletin board.
Alternately, put the slips of paper into a large top hat, then have a large breasted assistant do the honors.
Otherwise, I suggest production order. It's the best way to see the show develop.
Stardate order, on the other hand, is nonsensical, because the stardates were largely nonsensical at that point.
In production order....
First Season
First Season
- 1.The Cage
- 2.Where No Man Has Gone Before
- 3.The Corbomite Maneuver
- 4.Mudd's Women
- 5.The Enemy Within
- 6.The Man Trap
- 7.The Naked Time
- 8.Charlie X
- 9.Balance of Terror
- 10.What are Little Girls Made Of?
- 11.Dagger of the Mind
- 12.Miri
- 13.The Conscience of the King
- 14.The Galileo Seven
- 15.Court Martial
- 16.The Menagerie, Part I
- 17.The Menagerie, Part II
- 18.Shore Leave
- 19.The Squire of Gothos
- 20.Arena
- 21.The Alternative Factor
- 22.Tomorrow is Yesterday
- 23.The Return of the Archons
- 24.A Taste of Armageddon
- 25.Space Seed
- 26.This Side of Paradise
- 27.The Devil in the Dark
- 28.Errand of Mercy
- 29.The City on the Edge of Forever
- 30.Operation - Annihilate
- 31.Catspaw
- 32.Metamorphosis
- 33.Friday's Child
- 34.Who Mourns for Adonais?
- 35.Amok Time
- 36.The Doomsday Machine
- 37.Wolf in the Fold
- 38.The Changeling
- 39.The Apple
- 40.Mirror, Mirror
- 41.The Deadly Years
- 42.I, Mudd
- 43.The Trouble with Tribbles
- 44.Bread and Circuses
- 45.Journey to Babel
- 46.A Private Little War
- 47.The Gamesters of Triskelion
- 48.Obsession
- 49.The Immunity Syndrome
- 50.A Piece of the Action
- 51.By Any Other Name
- 52.Return to Tomorrow
- 53.Patterns of Force
- 54.The Ultimate Computer
- 55.The Omega Glory
- 56.Assignment: Earth
- 57.Spectre Of The Gun
- 58.Elaan of Troyius
- 59.The Paradise Syndrome
- 60.The Enterprise Incident
- 61.And The Children Shall Lead
- 62.Spock's Brain
- 63.Is There In Truth No Beauty?
- 64.The Empath
- 65.The Tholian Web
- 66.For The World Is Hollow, And I Have Touched The Sky
- 67.Day of the Dove
- 68.Plato's Stepchildren
- 69.Wink of an Eye
- 70.That Which Survives
- 71.Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
- 72. Whom Gods Destroy
- 73.The Mark Of Gideon
- 74.The Lights of Zetar
- 75.The Cloud Minders
- 76. The Way to Eden
- 77.Requiem for Methuselah
- 78.The Savage Curtain
- 79.All Our Yesterdays
- 80.Turnabout Intruder
Last edited:
I fit them in by production order. The table in post #4 lists the episodes in my version of stardate order along with the stardates given in each episode and the production numbers.
This. Nonsensical, I might add, by design, in the vain hope viewers would pay attention to matters like story, plot, acting, etc., rather than how warp fields or ion pods work.
I guess some people like to follow nonsense.
It would explain scientology.
With production order you can see the concepts and characters evolve and change as the cast and crew grow more "comfortable" with the show.
I have my reasons for liking stardate order. I understand that not everyone will agree, and, as stated above, I believe this is a question on which reasonable people may easily disagree. I prefer civil disagreement in which people politely express their opinions without suggesting that everyone who has a different opinion has some kind of personal character flaw. Try it some time.
Request denied.
Why, that's just crazy talk...
After further consideration, I’d put TCOTEOF before Errand of Mercy. The “unknown stardate” episodes give me a little flexibility to order them to personal preference. I think that, dramatically, TCOTEOF->EOM works better than EOM->TCOTEOF.
Production order has EOM->TCOTEOF.
Airdate order has EOM->The Alternative Factor->TCOTEOF
Stardate order has flexibility because no stardate is given in TCOTEOF. I can satisfy my own artistic sensibilities with TCOTEOF->EOM.
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