Re: TOS forum original series viewing run : Production or Airdate orde
There are some shows where airdate order makes more sense, because the stories were written to occur in a certain order but had to be shot out of order for various practical reasons. For instance, TNG's "Unification, Part 2" was shot before Part 1 due to Leonard Nimoy's availability, and the premiere episode of Sherlock's first season was shot last because the producer wanted to give the actors time to get comfortable in their performances and give the show the strongest start possible.
But this is not the case with TOS. Its airdate order was arbitrarily selected by the network for reasons that had nothing to do with story continuity, because at the time, most shows didn't have much continuity. Broadcast order was subject to the vagaries of how long it took to complete the effects work (which is why the first episode shot in season 1, "The Corbomite Maneuver," wasn't aired until midseason) or the preferences of the network (which is why both seasons 2 and 3 opened with Spock-centric episodes).
For the most part, then, the order makes little difference. But there is an advantage to production order, because what change and development did occur was in the actors' performances, the set design and construction, the evolution of concepts, etc. There are some things that make more sense in production order, at least in season 1. Clearly the second pilot, with its different crew and sets and uniforms, works better as the first Kirk episode than the third. "Corbomite" has Kirk complaining about being assigned a female yeoman, which works better if it's Rand's first episode rather than her fifth.
Granted, though, there are a couple of things that don't work so well in production order either. Chapel confessing her love for Spock in "The Naked Time" would work better some time after we saw her lose her fiance in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", but it's three episodes earlier in both orders. And "Court-martial" and "The Menagerie," which both feature Starbase 11 but with different commanding officers, are consecutive in production order. It's possible that was done to allow reusing the sets, with the episodes never meant to air consecutively, and indeed in broadcast order there were seven episodes between them. That's one thing that's better in airdate order, but that alone is not enough for me to recommend it.
Personally *I* much prefer to watch TOS in production order, and continue to be somewhat mystified that TPTB have defaulted to the IMO inferior airdate order for most of the home media releases since DVD came along.
