Prod,airdate or stardate order?

[BlueshirtGuard]

Which do you prefer? I know its an old question but I couldn't find a thread for it that wasn't locked.

I personally prefer the Airdate order simply because it was the way it was first seen by the general public. The Man Trap is a pretty good premiere, not great like Where no man has gone before was but still a solid entry point. The monster scared the crap out of me when I first saw it. Airdate order gets a bad rap but I don't think its too off. Where no man is still aired early (ep 3) and the earlier stardates in the teens still came first. Also I think Amok time is a much better season 2 premiere than Catspaw which was make for Halloween.

I do like Stardate order even though it can be pretty random. The stardates generally do become later as the show went on. My favorite thing about the stardate order is All our Yesterdays is the last episode which is 1000 times better than tunabout intruder.

Most people like prod order and it is good but I still prefer the original airdates.

 

[alensatemybuick1]

Whatever order BBC America uses.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Production order. It's fun to see the show evolve.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I recommend starting with "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and then going in production order, so "Corbomite" is next, and so on.

Save "The Cage" for last, as a post-series bonus film. This, because if you start with "The Cage," then "The Menagerie" comes too soon after and you're tempted to skip it. If that happens, you miss the framing story, which is the equivalent of one whole episode-- with its own good scenes.

 

[drt]

I always preferred production order, as Nerys Myk pointed out above the show does evolve (particularly in the first half of the season, after which it's pretty stable), and it tends to flow a bit better when watched in production order.

That being said, anymore I just watch episodes randomly.

 

[1001001]

I like to watch them in alphabetical order.

 

[uniderth]

I watch in production order starting with the five seasons of Captain Robert April. Then the ten seasons of Pike, which includes The Cage. After that I move on the the first season of Captain Kirk which includes Where No Man Has Gone Before; followed the by the remaining four seasons. Then I watch Star Trek: Planet of the Titans, followed by The Motion Picture. Following that I watch all five seasons of Star Trek II. Then I finish off with the rest of the films.

Oh, wait you were talking about the REAL Star Trek, not my fantasy version.

I usually start with The Cage and watch in Production order. I think it would be interesting to include TAS and watch in stardate order. It might seem pretty random though; but I'll have to try it.

 

[johnnybear]

I'm planning on watching them in stardate order and then the original BBC order intertwined with their 1978-81 broadcast order!
JB

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Production order makes the most sense to me.

 

[johnnybear]

That way you get no arguments over Scotty's new hairstyle unless you think of The Empath!
JB

 

[Noname Given]

I prefer Production order (especially for the first 13 or so episodes of Season 1 as they actually feel connected).

After Season 1 it really doesn't matter as they really took the 'weekly self-contained story' paradigm to heart for the remainder of the series.

 

[Shawnster]

With all tv shows where I have the choice I prefer production order over airdate unless it makes sense to do so otherwise. For example, they produced Unification part 2 before part 1, but that makes no sense to watch them otherwise.

I don't think there are any such issues with TOS, except, of course, having Where No Man... show up as the 3rd episode. Production order makes the most sense in this case.

 

[JoeD80]

I prefer the airdate order; the stories are a little more balanced throughout the seasons. There is plenty of early character development in "The Man Trap" to get a good feel of the show at the start and you don't get two court martial episodes back-to-back that way (Court Martial/Menagerie). Also the stardates in the episodes make it feel OK to have 'Where No Man' later; I just feel like Kirk is telling an earlier story. Also it was the order Desilu was delivering the episodes to the network so I like to think they put some thought in to that (certainly the order would change depending on delivery of effects etc), but it's not like someone was at NBC changing the order as it came to them.

 

[Noname Given]

I prefer the airdate order; the stories are a little more balanced throughout the seasons. There is plenty of early character development in "The Man Trap" to get a good feel of the show at the start and you don't get two court martial episodes back-to-back that way (Court Martial/Menagerie). Also the stardates in the episodes make it feel OK to have 'Where No Man' later; I just feel like Kirk is telling an earlier story. Also it was the order Desilu was delivering the episodes to the network so I like to think they put some thought in to that (certainly the order would change depending on delivery of effects etc), but it's not like someone was at NBC changing the order as it came to them.

^^^
Um with regard to your last sentence, they were always JUST making delivery (sometimes just hours prior to broadcast); so they only thought was: "Is it finished?"

 

[JoeD80]

I'm curious how true that really is. I haven't seen a lot of post production documents to point one way or the other. I think if they were always chasing airdates that closely it wouldn't have been that different from production order. I do know they sometimes ran into issues (like wanting the Menagerie two-parter and hoping to get an episode in December pre-empted) but was it always down to the wire? Most of the dates I see online involve the filming of the episode rather than the post production process.

 

[BlueshirtGuard]

I'm curious how true that really is. I haven't seen a lot of post production documents to point one way or the other. I think if they were always chasing airdates that closely it wouldn't have been that different from production order. I do know they sometimes ran into issues (like wanting the Menagerie two-parter and hoping to get an episode in December pre-empted) but was it always down to the wire? Most of the dates I see online involve the filming of the episode rather than the post production process.

Yeah that would be nice to see. I know from some things on the internet that at the beginning they were done with only like 4 or 5 episodes that were ready to go. They had tons more filmed but as far as Special effects earlier shows like Combinate were not ready on time.

I know later they actually had good reasons for switching the episodes for instance catspaw was saved for October making it a Halloween episode. They put Amok Time first because it was a stronger season two opening

I am a stickler for seeing things in their original format so that's why I like airdate order and without new effects.

 

[feek61]

Production order for me.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I think if they were always chasing airdates that closely it wouldn't have been that different from production order.

It's not that simple. We use "production order" to reference when the actors were filmed performing the script. By that standard, "The Corbomite Maneuver" was number 3: the actors were filmed in late May, early June 1966.

But Fred Steiner didn't conduct his momentous music score until late September 1966, because the miniature fx for "Corbomite" were taking so long that the episode could not be assembled in the order the actors performed it. The finished episode aired on November 10th, after episodes filmed later than "Corbomite" had already been shown.

 

[johnnybear]

Production order over airdate order every time for me as how can you logically have Where No Man as episode three? Apart from the costumes how do you explain Spock's different, more alien look to the softer looking Vulcan from Corbomite onwards? Plus could you really imagine Mitchell and Dehner in the usual uniforms? Dehner might have looked pretty good in hers I'll admit...
JB

 

[CrazyMatt]

I like to watch them in alphabetical order.

Backwards too? I mean the production/airing order, not the episodes themselves. Although, that might be fun too....

Kirk: Senob, troper.
McCoy: Mij, daed seh.
Spock: Turn me on dead man.