Star Trek TOS: What is the correct order to watch the DVD seasons sets? (1 Viewer)

[Andy_Bu]

I can see three distinct ways.

1) Production #

2) In the order they were aired

3) by Star Date


They seem to be placed on the DVD's in order of when they were aired but that places shows like "Where no man has gone before" as the third episode and it just looks wrong there.

Any suggestions? I know this is not in any way an arc story but I still want to watch in the best order. I am leaning towards watching them in the order they were produced.

Andy

 

[Paul McElligott]

Since the show was not serialized, I'd say that either 1 or 2 is valid.

Production order probably makes the most sense, if only because you don't have the uniforms change for one episode in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

As far as option 3, weren't there a couple episodes with no stardate mentioned?

 

[Nelson Au]

I've always watched by airdate order. But when I got this set, I decided to try production order. The biggest difference I noticed over decades of watching Star Trek is that in production order, you notice more in the 2nd year that they obviously had ideas and wrote scripts back to back about visiting planets that have Earth like situations or parallel kinds of Earth like situations. For example, Patterns of Force, then Omega Glory IIRC the episodes. But anyway you like if good too.

 

[Bill Williams]

For me the best way to watch them is in production order, because that way you get to see the series as it developed and matured. Of course, Paramount released the series in both production order (the 40 single-disc releases) and airing order (the three season sets), so it's all a matter of taste.

 

[Bob-R]

I say watch them in airdate order. I think Paramount really messed up (and screwed with people's minds in the process) when they released the original videos in production order and not airdate order, atleast the LaserDiscs got it right. If NBC aired "Where No Man Has Gone Before" as the first episode, none of this talk would exist.


Here's my reasoning for airdate order, one forum poster talked about the Earth parallel episodes being close together, I don't know about that but I know in the first season, the episodes The Menagerie Parts I-II and Court Martial were produced back to back, which makes perfect sense from a production standpoint because both take place at a starbase, but it doesn't work if you watch them back to back, I mean, three straight court-themed episodes?!?!? Bottom line, some episodes were shot in the production order they were because they wanted to save some time and money, that's the way it usually always was, they want to save money on props, sets, and cut corners to save time. NBC tried to space the episodes properly but screwed up a bit by airing the pilot episode as the third one because they wanted the newest episodes to go on first (The Man Trap, Charlie X).

That's a vote for airdate order.