Well, I'm about to boldly go where no man has gone before...

MODS: See the paragraph at the bottom of this post.

No, I'm not joining the space program. I'm far too much of a coward for something like that. What I mean is, that I, having never seen an episode of Star Trek all the way through, am going to go through all canonical portions of the franchise in chronological order, from "Broken Bow" to "Living Witness". I've been a Warsie all my life, but with a potential reboot from the new ST movie in May, I've decided to see how the other half lives. Before posting this, I've managed to get through the first 11 episodes of Enterprise (through "Cold Front" on the timeline below). The ordering that I'm planning to follow comes from the Voyages of Imagination reference book, which I picked up on a whim at Borders, not even knowing how ****ing awesome the timeline in the back was.

I looked up the canon policy that Paramount holds with regard to the Trek franchise, and was surprised that it was significantly simpler than that of Star Wars. For those who don't know, Trek canon consists of only the live action series and movies (with the Animated Series and the books "Mosaic" and "Pathways" falling into a gray area between canon and non-canon). That in mind, I've already typed up an episode plan for everything from the beginning of Enterprise to the sixth movie (in other words, everything before the start of TNG). For those who may be interested, here's what I came up with (I included the years just as a reminder to myself).



ENTERPRISE [Episodes 1-96]


2151

Broken Bow
Fight or Flight
Strange New World
Unexpected
Terra Nova
The Andorian Incident
Breaking the Ice
Civilization
Fortunate Son
Silent Enemy
Cold Front
Dear Doctor
Sleeping Dogs
Shadows of P'Jem
Shuttlepod One
Fusion
Rogue Planet
Acquisition
Oasis

2152

Detained
Vox Sola
Fallen Hero
Desert Crossing
Two Days and Two Nights
Shockwave
Shockwave, Part II
Carbon Creek
Minefield
Dead Stop
A Night in Sickbay
Marauders
The Seventh
The Communicator
Singularity
Vanishing Point
Precious Cargo
The Catwalk
Dawn
Stigma
Cease Fire
Future Tense
Canamar
The Crossing
Judgment

2153

Horizon
The Breach
Cogenitor
Regeneration
First Flight
Bounty
The Expanse
The Xindi
Anomaly
Extinction
Raijin
Impulse
Exile
The Shipment
Twilight
North Star
Similitude
Carpenter Street
Chosen Realm
Proving Ground
Stratagem
Harbinger
Doctor's Orders

2154

Hatchery
Azati Prime
Damage
The Forgotten
E²
The Council
Countdown
Zero Hour
Storm Front
Storm Fron, Part II
Home
Borderland
Cold Station 12
The Augments
The Forge
Awakening
Kir'Shara
Daedalus
Observer Effect
Babel One
United
The Aenar
Affliction
Divergence
Bound

2155

In a Mirror, Darkly
In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II
Demons
Terra Prime


THE ORIGINAL SERIES


2254

The Cage

2265

Where No Man Has Gone Before

2266

Corbomite Maneuver
Mudd's Women
The Enemy Within
The Man Trap
The Naked Time
Charlie X
Balance of Terror
What Are Little Girls Made of?
Dagger of the Mind
Miri
The Conscience of the King

2267

The Galileo Seven
Court Martial
The Menagerie, Part I
The Menagerie, Part II
Shore Leave
The Squire of Gothos
Arena
The Alternative Factor
Tomorrow is Yesterday
Return of the Archons
A Taste of Armageddon
Space Seed
This Side of Paradise
The Devil in the Dark
Errand of Mercy
The City on the Edge of Forever
Operation -- Annihilate!
Catspaw
Metamorphosis
Friday's Child
Who Mourns for Adonais?
Amok Time
The Doomsday Machine
Wolf in the Fold
The Changeling
The Apple
Mirror, Mirror
The Deadly Years
I, Mudd
The Trouble with Tribbles
Bread and Circuses
Journey to Babel
A Private Little War

2268

The Gamesters of Triskelion
Obsession
The Immunity Syndrome
A Piece of the Action
By Any Other Name
Return to Tomorrow
Patterns of Force
The Ultimate Computer
The Omega Glory
Assignment: Earth
Spectre of the Gun
Elaan of Troyius
The Paradise Syndrome
The Enterprise Incident
And the Children Shall Lead
Spock's Brain
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
The Empath
The Tholian Web
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
Day of the Dove
Plato's Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
That Which Survives
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

 

This guy is doing what you're doing (except he's really slow about it) and he's doing it in another order aka order of appearance.

Order of appearance instead of canonical order makes a lot more sense because Enterprise does make references to other Trek series and movies.

 

Ha, it's Star Trek. Time is fluid.

If you want to be really, really particular, things like the past scenes in IV should be viewed before watching most of the series.

 

I read about the many time travel episodes (not enough to spoil anything), and I came to the decision to stick those episodes and movies within the "flow" of the series they are in (VoI does this in its timeline). Generations, for example, may start before TNG, but the main plot of the movie takes place after TNG. Similar situation with "The City on the Edge of Forever". While the majority of the episode takes place in 1930, the frame story places it during TOS in my viewing order.

 

johnboy3441 a question are you going to watch the Original versions of Star Trek: The Original Series or the Re-mastered versions I was just wondering.

 

I would use the Remastered episodes for my watch-through if I could, but I couldn't find them readily available. I still have until I finish Enterprise, though, so maybe they'll pop up.

 

I just got rickrolled...Kind of.

 

At this point I'm going to put in a plug for a series of books called "The Nitpicker's Guide to ____(Star Trek series)___".
It includes some interesting references... such as that the syndicated version of one episode of Classic Trek (tos) is actually longer than the Official VHS Released episode, and every plot point and inconsistency the author could find or had pointed out to him.
(Trek 1, Chekov greets spock getting out of the shuttle, then is already at his station when spock walks onto the bridge--how did he get there so fast?)
There was one volume for classic trek (TOS + movies 1-6), two for Next Generation Trekers (seasons 1-5 and 6-7 plus one or two movies), and I think one for DS9, though I'm not sure.
It might be fun to read the books as you go through.

BTW: don't be surprized if season 3 of Enterprise leaves you less than thrilled. Just slog through it. Season 4 is a bit better, and has some of the best episodes since TOS.

What I find funny about Trek is that they keep trying to recapture the flavor of TOS with each new series, and keep getting sidetracked with other ideas that cause it to drift away from that goal into something else entirely. I think the biggest mistake is their need to constantly introduce too many characters. TOS had two primary actors with a 3rd as a soundingboard, but really, the show was Kirk, Spock, and McCoy (who eventually made it into the opening credits). All the other shows list every single recuring character they can in the opening credits, and spend so much time fussing with the 2nd stringers, that the sense of focus is constantly lost. TOS didn't have episodes that focussed on Sulu, Checkov, Uhura, or Scotty. Never! They were there for flavor, consistancy, and support, but that was it. There should not be Ensigns listed in the opening credits. Pick 2-3 actors, and focus the show on those characters. That's what worked. Yet with every reboot, the 'modern' all-inclusiveness bleaches all the life from the story.
OK, enough rambling. Fee free to ignore me--that's probablly the safest and best course of action anyway.

Good luck on your project.

 

That's the one thing I'm dreading most about this run-through. While I've remained mostly in the dark about Trek (other than the basics, such as what a Klingon looks like), my experience with MST3K fanfiction has made me aware of a character named Wesley Crusher. Tell me, is he really as unbearable as everyone says he is?

 

Most of the time, you can ignore Wesley. When the episode focuses on him, however, he's even worse than Adric, and look what happened to him! to be fair, Will Weaton had ideas about what to do with the character, but the directors consistantly ignored or over-road him. What Adult wants to listen to the ideas of a teenager?

Even with the Scotty & Uhura episodes, the story and action was still focussed on the main 3 actors of the show.

On a side note, I saw a very amusing YouTube fan-edit flick of Star Trek vs Star Wars with -D next gen crew vs ISD Avenger and Vader. Got a giggle. Probablly not new.

BTW: before you have to worry about wesley, you have 4 seasons of Enterprise (including the horrible season 3), 3 seasons of TOS, and 6 movies.

 

Am I the only person on the planet who doesn't really mind Wesley? Sure, some of the episodes that focused on him were poorly written, but I still kind of like the character himself.

 

I agree, Wesley as a character was fairly likable. The problem was that they made him too smart for his own good. I mean, when he can outthink Data, who's intelligence significantly surpasses everyone else's combined and when he has a better grasp of Warp theory that Geordi, who's only the Chief Engineer of the Federation flagship, its not surprising that they more or less wrote him out of the show by season three and did away with him completely by season six. The TNG writers should have handled Wesley in a similar manner to the way the DS9 writers handled Dr. Bashir, in that they explained the origin of his exceptional brillaince and they made him an expert in a particular field.