Production Order vs. Airing Order

[Damian]

I was curious how people prefer their original series order? It seems a lot of old school fans that watched the series when it first aired prefer the airing order.

I didn't come into the club until 1986 just prior to TVH. I didn't start watching the TV series until I saw the movies. When I started renting the VHS tapes at my local video store they were in production order and the only TV station that was airing it at the time was WPIX in NY, which aired them in production order also. So I got used to watching them in production order. And personally it seems to flow better in production order. Certainly 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' feels more natural watching as the 1st episode (2nd if including 'The Cage' which I usually do) as opposed to the 3rd episode. And 'The Corbomite Maneuver' seems to fit better as the first episode of the series proper. It's hard to say why but it seemed to me Kirk and Spock were still very early in their developing friendship and getting to know you phase, whereas in 'The Man Trap' it seems they were past that point. It does seem to matter less as time goes on in the series. I mean it probably doesn't matter if you watch "The Apple" before or after "The Doomsday Machine" after all.

The only thing that kind of bugs me is the Blu-Ray edition of the original series is in airing order...which his fine. But I just wish they put the production number on the disc for those of us that prefer to watch it in production order when doing a series re-watch. Instead I have to pull out a separate list to find which episode to watch next or grab my Compendium. Sort of a pain.

I added a poll this time just out of curiosity. I'm curious to see if there are others like myself that prefer production order. I'm also interested to see if there are any people that watched Star Trek in airing order that prefers to watch them in production order now.

 

[J.T.B.]

I like production order, I find it works better for behind-the-scenes stuff. Except "The Cage" should not be watched first under any circumstances. Reruns were in production order when I was a kid, too, more or less.

 

[Leonidas]

I like the production order too because you see the correct order like they had to make sense.

 

[johnnybear]

If you think airing order sucks then go try out the BBC order!!! They kept to the same order for years apparently with the odd episode moved about or replaced because of a special broadcast or whatever! The series goes Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Naked Time, City On The Edge of forever, A Taste of Armageddon, Mudd's Women, Tomorrow is Yesterday, The Menagerie, The Devil in The Dark, Shore Leave, Space Seed, The Man Trap, Dagger of The Mind, The Corbomite Maneuver and you'll have to check out the rest for yourselves but it's pretty whacky! Has anyone else discovered a weird screening order?
JB

 

[Damian]

If you think airing order sucks then go try out the BBC order!!! They kept to the same order for years apparently with the odd episode moved about or replaced because of a special broadcast or whatever! The series goes Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Naked Time, City On The Edge of forever, A Taste of Armageddon, Mudd's Women, Tomorrow is Yesterday, The Menagerie, The Devil in The Dark, Shore Leave, Space Seed, The Man Trap, Dagger of The Mind, The Corbomite Maneuver and you'll have to check out the rest for yourselves but it's pretty whacky! Has anyone else discovered a weird screening order?
JB

The only other order I can think of is when they did the remastered episodes, they sort of aired them as they were completed. But yeah, the order you site is pretty out there. It's almost like what they happened to grab out of the video cabinet. Sometimes networks do a best of order or some sort of link, but I can't think of any with that order other then they are all 1st season episodes.

 

[BillJ]

Random order. I just pick an episode I have an itch to watch.

 

[Damian]

Random order. I just pick an episode I have an itch to watch.

Ha-ha, I've done that from time to time. But every so often I get the urge to watch the series beginning to end, like I am now since I just finished up Enterprise and the 1st season of Discovery.

It's probably the only way I'd watch "Plato's Stepchildren" after all

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

Just finished watching them in production order. I guess I'll have to watch the original cast movies in order next.

 

[Phaser Two]

I like this ongoing discussion and appreciate the reasons for each perspective - and the current Production Order Rewatch thread has been really fun - but I really don't have a preference. I did a rewatch in airdate order a while back and thoroughly loved it; the production order discrepancies didn't bother me even when they result in oddities like starting with "The Man Trap." And most days, I just pick episodes I want to watch and do so. Last weekend I watched "Galileo Seven" and "Squire of Gothos" and enjoyed them both enormously.

 

[Marsden]

Almost like @BillJ but rather than random, I say "any" as in any order will do. There is certain episodes that must be after others to make some sense in the background but all of them are completely contained stories that need no other episode to enjoy, something that's sadly lacking in television of today. Some of my favorite shows are serials that continue from each episode but I miss episodic television at times when I just want to "watch a show". My favorite show ever that isn't Star Trek was one gigantic story that went for 5 years and it just doesn't work if you don't watch the whole thing and pay attention while you're at it. X-Files had a kind of story through it but it had a lot of Monster of the Week episodes that were great to enjoy all on their own. So I don't have any order in mind, or conversely, any order will do.

 

[1001001]

I’ll give the same answer I’ve given every time this question gets posted.

I prefer alphabetical order.

 

[Phaser Two]

I’ll give the same answer I’ve given every time this question gets posted.

I prefer alphabetical order.

Acknowledged. Do you ignore "The" in titles when alphabetizing?

 

[Marsden]

I’ll give the same answer I’ve given every time this question gets posted.

I prefer alphabetical order.

Is All Our Yesterdays or A Private Little War first?

 

[Delta Vega]

If you think airing order sucks then go try out the BBC order!!! They kept to the same order for years apparently with the odd episode moved about or replaced because of a special broadcast or whatever! The series goes Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Naked Time, City On The Edge of forever, A Taste of Armageddon, Mudd's Women, Tomorrow is Yesterday, The Menagerie, The Devil in The Dark, Shore Leave, Space Seed, The Man Trap, Dagger of The Mind, The Corbomite Maneuver and you'll have to check out the rest for yourselves but it's pretty whacky! Has anyone else discovered a weird screening order?
JB

The BBC order I remember was always : "The Man Trap", "The Naked Time", "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "Shore Leave", "The Dagger Of The Mind", "The Conscience Of The King", "Mudd's Women", "What Are Little Girls Made Of ?", "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "The Menagerie", "The Devil In The Dark", "Court Martial", or similar to that anyway.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Production order is the only thing that has any sense to it. NBC's aired order was based on what episodes had their visual fx finished soonest, and sometimes other considerations that had nothing to do with the saga.

It pains me that the remastered DVD set and the Bluray set are in air date order. But then again, adjusted for inflation, the Bluray set costs a tiny fraction of what the series cost on VHS. By comparison, they're practically giving it away.

 

[Marsden]

But then again, adjusted for inflation, the Bluray set costs a tiny fraction of what the series cost on VHS. By comparison, they're practically giving it away.

That's a great point. I bought all 3 seasons DVD for 100.00 (I think) I paid 27.99 ish for each cassette that had 2 episodes, except one had 3 episodes, and they didn't even include "The Cage"

 

[Damian]

I’ll give the same answer I’ve given every time this question gets posted.

I prefer alphabetical order.

Oops, didn't realize this was done before. I did a search but I guess I entered the wrong search terms.

It pains me that the remastered DVD set and the Bluray set are in air date order.

Yeah, that sort of bugged me too. When they first came out on VHS it was production order. I can live with the air order, I just wished they put the production number next to the episode name on each disc for those that wanted to watch it in production order. It stinks that I have to look at a separate list to figure out what to watch next if I want to watch it through in production order.

It's interesting to note that with TNG it's the reverse...it makes more sense to watch it in order of airdate. For instance I noticed "The Ensigns of Command" actually had an earlier production number than "Evolution", but "Evolution" clearly makes more sense as the earlier episode. Though in general, TNG was aired in production order more times then not after the 1st season.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

It's interesting to note that with TNG it's the reverse...it makes more sense to watch it in order of airdate. For instance I noticed "The Ensigns of Command" actually had an earlier production number than "Evolution", but "Evolution" clearly makes more sense as the earlier episode. Though in general, TNG was aired in production order more times then not after the 1st season.

Another case, if I recall: TNG filmed Leonard Nimoy's 2-parter ("Unification") in reverse order, to facilitate Nimoy's schedule.

 

[Maurice]

I wish polls like this had a "Doesn't matter to me" option, because that could be a sizable % of viewers.

 

[Poltargyst]

I was curious how people prefer their original series order? It seems a lot of old school fans that watched the series when it first aired prefer the airing order.

I didn't come into the club until 1986 just prior to TVH. I didn't start watching the TV series until I saw the movies. When I started renting the VHS tapes at my local video store they were in production order and the only TV station that was airing it at the time was WPIX in NY, which aired them in production order also. So I got used to watching them in production order. And personally it seems to flow better in production order. Certainly 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' feels more natural watching as the 1st episode (2nd if including 'The Cage' which I usually do) as opposed to the 3rd episode. And 'The Corbomite Maneuver' seems to fit better as the first episode of the series proper. It's hard to say why but it seemed to me Kirk and Spock were still very early in their developing friendship and getting to know you phase, whereas in 'The Man Trap' it seems they were past that point. It does seem to matter less as time goes on in the series. I mean it probably doesn't matter if you watch "The Apple" before or after "The Doomsday Machine" after all.

The only thing that kind of bugs me is the Blu-Ray edition of the original series is in airing order...which his fine. But I just wish they put the production number on the disc for those of us that prefer to watch it in production order when doing a series re-watch. Instead I have to pull out a separate list to find which episode to watch next or grab my Compendium. Sort of a pain.

I added a poll this time just out of curiosity. I'm curious to see if there are others like myself that prefer production order. I'm also interested to see if there are any people that watched Star Trek in airing order that prefers to watch them in production order now.

I'm watching the series in production order for the first time as part of the Production Order thread, and I've been pulled into liking that order best.

I grew up watching Star Trek reruns on WPIX. I assumed that was airdate order. Didn't realize it was production order, but that question wouldn't have even entered my head then.