What is the official sequence for Star Trek the Original Series episodes?

Question

What is the official sequence of the episodes in the original Star Trek series? I'm interested in the sequence of the story rather than when they were produced or when they aired.

Answer 1

I would think that the episode ordering on the official DVDs would be correct. Wikipedia seems to differ, however.

I can't seem to find a good "Official DVD Order" list other than on Netflix, so I'll paste their list below.

Season 1:

1. Pilot: The Cage
2. The Man Trap
3. Charlie X
4. Where No Man Has Gone Before
5. The Naked Time
6. The Enemy Within
7. Mudd's Women
8. What Are Little Girls Made Of?
9. Miri
10. Dagger of the Mind
11. The Corbomite Maneuver
12. The Menagerie: Part 1
13. The Menagerie: Part 2
14. The Conscience of the King
15. Balance of Terror
16. Shore Leave
17. The Galileo Seven
18. The Squire of Gothos
19. Arena
20. Tomorrow Is Yesterday
21. Court Martial
22. The Return of the Archons
23. Space Seed
24. A Taste of Armageddon
25. This Side of Paradise
26. The Devil in the Dark
27. Errand of Mercy
28. The Alternative Factor
29. The City on the Edge of Forever
30. Operation: Annihilate!

Season 2:

1. Amok Time
2. Who Mourns for Adonais?
3. The Changeling
4. Mirror, Mirror
5. The Apple
6. The Doomsday Machine
7. Catspaw
8. I, Mudd
9. Metamorphosis
10. Journey to Babel
11. Friday's Child
12. The Deadly Years
13. Obsession
14. Wolf in the Fold
15. The Trouble with Tribbles
16. The Gamesters of Triskelion
17. A Piece of the Action
18. The Immunity Syndrome
19. A Private Little War
20. Return to Tomorrow
21. Patterns of Force
22. By Any Other Name
23. The Omega Glory
24. The Ultimate Computer
25. Bread and Circuses
26. Assignment: Earth

Season 3:

1. Spock's Brain
2. The Enterprise Incident
3. The Paradise Syndrome
4. And the Children Shall Lead
5. Is There In Truth No Beauty?
6. Spectre of the Gun
7. Day of the Dove
8. For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
9. The Tholian Web
10. Plato's Stepchildren
11. Wink of an Eye
12. The Empath
13. Elaan of Troyius
14. Whom Gods Destroy
15. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
16. The Mark of Gideon
17. That Which Survives
18. The Lights of Zetar
19. Requiem for Methuselah
20. The Way to Eden
21. The Cloud Minders
22. The Savage Curtain
23. All Our Yesterdays
24. Turnabout Intruder

Answer 2

There is no "order of the story" for TOS episodes. TOS was not intended to have an 'arc' like DS9 or Enterprise. Hardly any TV series did so at the time. You can pretty much count on one hand the number of times an episode makes reference to a previous episode, and none of them are important to the plot.

Reading the description of the early years of filming it is clear that the order of episodes was changed for all sorts of reasons other than plot. For example the first episode filmed (after the pilots) was The Corbomite Maneuver, chosen because it was almost all shipboard and meant the production staff would be climbing into the shallow end. It aired well into the first season.

Your only options are the airing date order or the stardate order, which generally corresponds to production order.

There is a comment in The Making of Star Trek by Stephen E. Whitfield quoting Gene Roddenberry as saying that the stardate can be different in different parts of the galaxy, and that explains why a stardate of a later episode can be lower than a previous episode. While this was never followed through, I think it indicates that stardate is not a reliable ordering in the minds of the producers.

Answer 3

If you go by star date, here is a link to a good list. The series was not run in order by star date, which is very confusing.

Star Trek (TOS) by Stardate

Eps	Air Date	PCode	Stardate	Title
0.	- PILOT -	1	Unknown	"The Cage"
3.	Sep 22 1966	2	1312.4	"Where No Man Has Gone Before"[TOS1]
6.	Oct 13 1966	4	1329.1	"Mudd's Women"[TOS1]
10.	Nov 10 1966	3	1512.2	"The Corbomite Maneuver"[TOS1]
1.	Sep 8 1966	6	1513.1	"The Man Trap"[TOS1]
2.	Sep 15 1966	8	1533.6	"Charlie X"[TOS1]
5.	Oct 6 1966	5	1672.1	"The Enemy Within"[TOS1]
4.	Sep 29 1966	7	1704.2	"The Naked Time"[TOS1]
14.	Dec 15 1966	9	1709.1	"Balance of Terror"[TOS1]
17.	Jan 12 1967	18	2124.5	"The Squire of Gothos"[TOS1]
7.	Oct 20 1966	10	2712.4	"What are Little Girls Made Of?"[TOS1]
8.	Oct 27 1966	12	2713.5	"Miri"[TOS1]
9.	Nov 3 1966	11	2715.1	"Dagger of the Mind"[TOS1]
13.	Dec 8 1966	13	2817.6	"The Conscience of the King"[TOS1]
16.	Jan 5 1967	14	2821.5	"The Galileo Seven"[TOS1]
20.	Feb 2 1967	15	2947.3	"Court Martial"[TOS1]
11.	Nov 17 1966	16	3012.4	"The Menagerie, Pt. I"[TOS1]
12.	Nov 24 1966	16	3013.1	"The Menagerie, Pt. II"[TOS1]
36.	Oct 27 1967	30	3018.2	"Catspaw"[TOS2]
15.	Dec 29 1966	17	3025.3	"Shore Leave"[TOS1]
18.	Jan 19 1967	19	3045.6	"Arena"[TOS1]
27.	Mar 23 1967	20	3087.6	"The Alternative Factor"[TOS1]
19.	Jan 26 1967	21	3113.2	"Tomorrow is Yesterday"[TOS1]
22.	Feb 16 1967	24	3141.9	"Space Seed"[TOS1]
21.	Feb 9 1967	22	3156.2	"The Return of the Archons"[TOS1]
23.	Feb 23 1967	23	3192.1	"A Taste of Armageddon"[TOS1]
25.	Mar 9 1967	26	3196.1	"The Devil in the Dark"[TOS1]
26.	Mar 16 1967	27	3198.4	"Errand of Mercy"[TOS1]
45.	Jan 5 1968	46	3211.7	"The Gamesters of Triskelion"[TOS2]
38.	Nov 10 1967	31	3219.4	"Metamorphosis"[TOS2]
28.	Apr 6 1967	28	3134.0	"The City on the Edge of Forever"[TOS1]
29.	Apr 13 1967	29	3287.2	"Operation - Annihilate!"[TOS1]
33.	Oct 6 1967	39	Unknown	"Mirror, Mirror"[TOS2]
30.	Sep 15 1967	34	3372.7	"Amok Time"[TOS2]
24.	Mar 2 1967	25	3417.3	"This Side of Paradise"[TOS1]
32.	Sep 29 1967	37	3451.9	"The Changeling"[TOS2]
31.	Sep 22 1967	33	3468.1	"Who Mourns for Adonais?"[TOS2]
41.	Dec 8 1967	40	3478.2	"The Deadly Years"[TOS2]
40.	Dec 1 1967	32	3497.2	"Friday's Child"[TOS2]
43.	Dec 22 1967	36	3614.9	"Wolf in the Fold"[TOS2]
42.	Dec 15 1967	47	3619.2	"Obsession"[TOS2]
34.	Oct 13 1967	38	3715.0	"The Apple"[TOS2]
39.	Nov 17 1967	44	3842.3	"Journey to Babel"[TOS2]
54.	Mar 15 1968	43	4040.7	"Bread and Circuses"[TOS2]
35.	Oct 20 1967	35	4202.9	"The Doomsday Machine"[TOS2]
48.	Feb 2 1968	45	4211.4	"A Private Little War"[TOS2]
46.	Jan 12 1968	49	4598.0	"A Piece of the Action"[TOS2]
47.	Jan 19 1968	48	4307.1	"The Immunity Syndrome"[TOS2]
68.	Dec 20 1968	57	4372.5	"Elaan of Troyius"[TOS3]
50.	Feb 16 1968	52	Unknown	"Patterns of Force"[TOS2]
61.	Oct 25 1968	56	4385.3	"Spectre of the Gun"[TOS3]
52.	Mar 1 1968	54	Unknown	"The Omega Glory"[TOS2]
37.	Nov 3 1967	41	4513.3	"I, Mudd"[TOS2]
44.	Dec 29 1967	42	4523.3	"The Trouble with Tribbles"[TOS2]
55.	Mar 29 1968	55	Unknown	"Assignment: Earth"[TOS2]
51.	Feb 23 1968	50	4657.5	"By Any Other Name"[TOS2]
53.	Mar 6 1968	53	4729.4	"The Ultimate Computer"[TOS2]
49.	Feb 9 1968	51	4768.3	"Return to Tomorrow"[TOS2]
58.	Oct 4 1968	58	4842.6	"The Paradise Syndrome"[TOS3]
62.	Nov 1 1968	66	Unknown	"Day of the Dove"[TOS3]
59.	Oct 11 1968	60	5027.3	"And The Children Shall Lead"[TOS3]
57.	Sep 27 1968	59	5031.3	"The Enterprise Incident"[TOS3]
67.	Dec 6 1968	63	5121.0	"The Empath"[TOS3]
71.	Jan 17 1969	72	5423.4	"The Mark Of Gideon"[TOS3]
56.	Sep 20 1968	61	5431.4	"Spock's Brain"[TOS3]
63.	Nov 8 1968	65	5476.3	"For The World Is Hollow, And I Have Touched The Sky"[TOS3]
60.	Oct 18 1968	62	5630.7	"Is There In Truth No Beauty?"[TOS3]
64.	Nov 15 1968	64	5693.4	"The Tholian Web"[TOS3]
72.	Jan 24 1969	69	Unknown	"That Which Survives"[TOS3]
66.	Nov 29 1968	68	5710.5	"Wink of an Eye"[TOS3]
69.	Jan 3 1969	71	5718.3	"Whom Gods Destroy"[TOS3]
73.	Jan 31 1969	73	5725.3	"The Lights of Zetar"[TOS3]
70.	Jan 10 1969	70	5730.2	"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"[TOS3]
65.	Nov 22 1968	67	5784.0	"Plato's Stepchildren"[TOS3]
76.	Feb 28 1969	74	5818.4	"The Cloudminders"[TOS3]
75.	Feb 21 1969	75	5832.3	"The Way to Eden"[TOS3]
74.	Feb 14 1969	76	5843.7	"Requiem for Methuselah"[TOS3]
77.	Mar 7 1969	77	5906.4	"The Savage Curtain"[TOS3]
79.	Jun 3 1969	79	5928.5	"Turnabout Intruder"[TOS3]
78.	Mar 14 1969	78	5943.7	"All Our Yesterdays"[TOS3]

Answer 4

So the assumption that the stardates coincide with the production order is not entirely correct.

Here is the first season in order of stardate. (However, I do prefer to watch in order of production.)

Episode	Stardate
Where No Man Has Gone Before	1312.4 - 1313.8
Mudd's Women	1329.8 - 1330.1
The Corbomite Maneuver	1512.2 - 1514.1
The Man Trap	1513.1 - 1513.8
Charlie X	1533.6 - 1535.8
The Enemy Within	1672.1 - 1673.1
The Naked Time	1704.2 - 1704.4
Balance of Terror	1709.2 - 1709.6
The Squire of Gothos	2124.5 - 2126.3
What Are Little Girls Made Of?	2712.4
Miri	2713.5 - 2713.3
Dagger of the Mind	2715.1 - 2715.2
The Conscience of the King	2817.6 - 2819.8
The Galileo Seven	2821.5 - 2823.8
Court Martial	2947.3 - 2950.1
The Menagerie, Part I	3012.4 - 3012.6
The Menagerie, Part II	3013.1 - 3013.2
Shore Leave	3025.3 - 3025.8
Arena	3045.6 - 3046.2
The Alternative Factor	3087.6 - 3088.7
Tomorrow is Yesterday	3113.2 - 3114.1
Space Seed	3141.9 - 3143.3
The Return of the Archons	3156.2 - 3158.7
A Taste of Armageddon	3192.1 - 3193.0
The Devil in the Dark	3196.1
Errand of Mercy	3198.4 - 3201.7
Operation -- Annihilate!	3287.2 - 3289.8
This Side of Paradise	3417.3 - 3417.7
The City on the Edge of Forever	Unknown

Answer 5

Production order

For me, it makes more sense to watch them in production order and ignore any stardate discrepancies. Watching the second pilot after two normal episodes just seems wrong.

Answer 6

Gene wanted the show to appear in the order it was filmed, not the order is was aired. This is why he "invented" the star date story about to explain the shows being out of sequence. I remember I was there. Here it the order Gene Roddenberry wanted them to be seen in, Netflix lists them in the order they appeared on TV which is NOT the correct order.

1. The Cage (unaired pilot)
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 (Parts I and II)
17. Shore Leave
18. The Squire of Gothos
19. Arena
20. The Alternative Factor
21. Tomorrow is Yesterday
22. The Return of the Archons
23. A Taste of Armageddon
24. Space Seed
25. This Side of Paradise
26. The Devil in the Dark
27. Errand of Mercy
28. City on the Edge of Forever
29. Operation: Annihilate!

Answer 7

The original series was produced as episodic stories with no story or character arcs, so they can be viewed in any order.

However, canon evolved somewhat over the series - Starfleet and the Federation were not part of canon for the earliest episodes, nor were many details of Spock's background/ancestry, skills/abilities, or Vulcan characteristics/attributes/society, Federation allies or foes. All these things were incorporated into canon as the series progressed. You'll also notice an evolution in costume and some sets and props as well, again in production order.

Note that for the original series, Stardate is a fairly good proxy for production order and the evolution of canon. As scripts flowed to the studio for production, they were assigned sequential numbers; stardates were derived from these numbers. Script numbers don't completely align with episode production numbers due to various production concerns, but the orderings are very close. Canon revealed through dialog can be observed to evolve almost perfectly with script numbers, but anything visible on-screen would have been introduced or matured in sequence with production number.

As noted in other answers, broadcast order is out-of-sequence with production order for various reasons, none having anything to do with narrative sequence (because there isn't one).

Watch the show in production order to get the feel of how the show evolved, watch in broadcast order to relive the experience of its original audience.

As to narrative arcs, there is really only one episode which contains anything like a callback to earlier episodes - in "Turnabout Intruder", as Kirk (within Lester's body) tries to authenticate himself to Spock.

Answer 8

Production order

Production order is the order I have always found most satisfying, particularly as there were changes to the sets and the costumes in the early episodes, and production order is the only way these are consistent rather than being rolled back and then reinstated.

The first full UK video release was in production order, and it is of great frustration to me that the DVD and Blu-ray releases have been in broadcast order.

Answer 9

In the 2009 CBS remastered DVD edition - 3 season box set, the episodes appear in the release date sequence with the original un-aired Pilot "The Cage" feathered at the end on the 3rd disk, with commentary by Gene. However, on each DVD main menu episodes are identified with a single number. This is separate from the star date and runs out of sequence with the release dates. These numbers correspond to the production sequence listed above and seem to make the most sense in the evolution of characters and the ST universe.

Answer 10

Michael and Denise Okuda, in the official (but not necessarily canonical or accurate) Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future 1993 give the TOS episodes in production order. so one could say that if you go by the DVD release the airdate order is official for TOS, and if you go by Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future the production order is official for TOS.

If someone has a list of episodes ranked in order of quality they can watch or show them in quality order starting with the best to get someone to like the series, or start with the worst and work up in quality knowing that the episodes will get better and better.

I guess someone could also plan to watch the episodes in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order.

As a general rule most Star Trek TV shows can be viewed and/or fictionally happen in at least four different logical orders:

• Airdate order

• Production order

• Stardate order (some episodes don't have stardates, including all Enterprise episodes, and thus need to be placed rather arbitrarily)

• By order of season, and within each season all episodes with stardates ordered in stardate order, and stardateless episodes placed rather arbitrarily. Since there is some overlapping of stardates between seasons, this allows for the first, second, and third seasons of TOS to correspond with the first, second, and third years of the five year mission, for TAS to be the fourth year, and for TOS novels to be the firth year of the five year mission, a popular fanon.

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I hope to write a book about Star trek chronology someday, giving three alternate chronologies for readers to choose from.

About stardate order

In one chronology I will put every episode of TOs, TAS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager in stardate order when they have stardates and in the most logical order when they don't. I have a highly original theory about Next Generation era stardates.

As most of us know, during the second or third season and later seasons of TNG the creators managed to produce and air the episodes so that production order, original syndication airdate order, and stardate order are exactly the same for almost all episodes. thus there will be very few problems with putting the majority of all Star Trek episodes and movies in order according to my theory about Next Generation era stardates.

And I intend to extend the Next Generation era stardate system back to the second and first season of TNG, the TOS movies, and TAS and TOS.

But won't there be problems with that, like for example, Tasha Yar being alive in an episode with a later stardate than the one she was killed in?

No, because I believe that highly episodic TV shows should be thought of as being about the adventures that could happen to the characters and thus that do happen to them in various alternate universes. Thus Tasha Yar can be alive in one universe after being killed in a totally different alternate universe. And thus TOS episodes with stardates too close together or even overlapping can and must happen in alternate universes to each other.

TAS episodes can have stardates overlapping with first, second, and third season episodes because they happen in alternate universes where the Enterprise has different equipment and some different officers than in the live action episodes. Animated episodes that seem like sequels to live action episodes are actually sequels to somewhat similar but not identical series of events happening in alternate universes to those live action episodes.

About production order

My second chronology would almost always put the episodes in production order - except in cases like "Unification Part II" being produced before "Unification Part I".

So from the second or third season of TNG on the episodes would be in the same order as in the first chronology. But in the first and possibly second season of TNG and in the TOS movies, TOS, and TAs, the productions will be in production order and a different stardate system will be used to explain how stardates can go up and down and up and down again and to predict and calculate when in Earth time a particular statedate can be found.

About airdate order

My third chronology would be like the second in having the episodes mostly in airdate order which will be mostly identical with production and stardate order for everything after the second or third season of TBG, and will have a different stardate system for everything before, explaining and calculating how they go up and down and up and down again.

What about the way the sets and costumes and characters gradually changed, especially in the first few episodes produced? Since the episodes mostly all happen in alternate universes, they can happen in alternate universes where old style uniforms are replaced by new style uniforms, for example, at different times.

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So basically there is no real official order for TOS episodes but production order is probably closest, and I hope to produce three separate chronological systems to make production order, stardate order, and airdate order make equal sense.

Answer 11

There are obvious signs of production differing in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and the others. Even the viewport is more of a cathode ray tube style, as seen in "The Cage. Also, no McCoy, and Sulu is nothing more than a subordinate engineer with math expertise. It makes sense to watch them on the date they were made, not the date they "aired" on TV.

I have no idea why they put the full production ones above the second pilot, nor why anyone would want to watch them in that order. Uhura is also wearing yellow in "later" ones, even if they were made before. Despite stardates, the order to watch them is the order they were made and shot, not the date they were released in syndicate. McCoy was introduced in Corbomite Maneuver, and it shows (in subtle ways) that Rand is also gone over in some of the descriptions. This leaves us to believe it meant Kirk describes his new Yeoman, even if she was long since in the show (if you watch in the official release order).

I would recommend watching "The Cage," "Where No Man Has Gone Before," and "The Corbomite Maneuver" BEFORE watching any of the others, if nothing else! This is purely logical from the perspective of how it was laid out, with the "primitive" enterprise in "Where No Man Has Gone Before (akin to Second Pilot) appearing as if early in Kirk's career. The others are purely personal preferences.

I would probably go with the date of filming for all of them. I wish DVDs did not have the fancy overtures and preludes to the "menu screen," which makes it a hassle to transfer DVDs when you want to watch one on a different DVD.