The Process

The following are details of the steps we took to create our episode chronology. We hope you'll agree that we took great care in "getting it right". (WARNING: Some Spoilers Included!)


Step 1.) Time Travel

- One of the first questions we had to ask ourselves before we even began was what to do with all those pesky time-travel episodes. After all, this is supposed to be a linear listing and time travel isn’t exactly linear. After thinking about it for a while, it became clear that the best way to deal with this was to place these episodes at their “point of origin”. To be specific, from the point of origin of the Prime Universe Characters who are central to the story being told.

- For example: In “Star Trek: First Contact” the crew of the Enterprise-D travels from the late 24th century back to the mid 21st century to stop the Borg. We placed this episode in its appropriate spot according to its 24th century origin stardate, NOT in the 21st century during Zephram Cochran’s warp flight.

- Another Example: Although the Enterprise episode "Carpenter Street" begins and ends the actual episode in 2004, the main characters (our "heroes" if you will) hail from the 22nd century shortly after the events of "Similtude". Therefore, although the episode's "point of origin" may be in the past, the real perspective of the story is from the NX-01 crew's point of view, so it is placed accordingly.




Step 2.) Constructing the Basic Chronological List

- Unfortunately, there was nothing “basic” about this. We discovered after compiling a number of different lists that due to various factors, we would have to approach each era of Trek history slightly differently in order to get the most accurate chronology. So, we took it step-by-step:


Enterprise

- Since ENT was the latest show to be produced (at the time of the initial creation of this list), the writers and producers had a pretty good bearing on when and where these episodes fit into the rest of Star Trek lore. ENT is also one of the more serialized series (at least the last two seasons), so this one was pretty easy.

- We simply started everything off with “Broken Bow” and placed the episodes in the same sequence they originally aired on television... with a few exceptions noted below.

- We did, hold “These Are The Voyages…” until much later due to the fact that the events actually occur in a holodeck on the Enterprise-D. This made “Terra Prime” the last episode chronologically before Discovery.


Discovery Seasons 1 and 2

- These are super serialized and all take place between "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Due to the serialized nature, airdate order was the obvious way to go. Season 3 onward?... see below.

Strange New Worlds

 - The events of this show occur after Season 2 of Discovery and before TOS "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Episodes themselves are listed in airdate order as the show is semi-serialized.

The Original Series

- Unlike ENT, this was the first show produced and the-powers-that-be were still trying to figure everything out when they made/presented this show. Particularly the first season.

- Due to this, it made much more sense to us to order these episodes by their production number, rather than by air dates (which causes a lot of inconsistencies) or stardates (which were made up somewhat randomly at this point). Presenting them in the order they were produced made the most sense chronologically.

- So, we started with the first two pilots: “The Cage”, then “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and went by production number from there, ending with “Turnabout Intruder”.


TOS Movies

- This was easy. After “Turnabout Intruder” comes “The Motion Picture” followed by Star Trek(s) II – VI.


TNG (Seasons 1 through 5)

- This is was the last grouping before things start crossing over. When looking at season one, we realized that the stardate system at this point in the production schedule still had something to be desired. The stardates don’t line up sequentially with either the original air date or the production number.

- Since ordering by either stardate or production number would likely cause some discrepancies (ie. Tasha Yar dies in one episode, but is alive in the next), we decided to play it safe and simply order the first 5 seasons of TNG by their original television air date, much like we did with ENT.


TNG Seasons 6 and 7 / DS9 / VOY / TNG Movies

- Here’s where it gets really tricky. There is a lot of overlap involved, but with some effort and care, we figured it out!

- One nice thing was that by this point, the stardate system seems to have been universalized by the producers, making stardates from this point on an extremely accurate way to determine how an episode from one series relates chronologically to episodes in the other series.

- Some episodes, however have unknown stardates. When this occurred we used other episodes within the same series as a reference point, so that the sequence within a single series would remain intact (provided the stardates also aligned)…

- Occasionally, ordering by stardate would cause an episode to be placed in a different order within its own series than it originally aired on TV. In these extremely rare instances (listed below under "Temporal Anomalies"), we watched the episodes in question to make sure ordering by stardate would not cause any “in-series” continuity errors. If they did, we left them in their original order. This may have resulted in a few rare instances when stardates are slightly out of order, but this makes the most sense in regards to continuity. (production numbers also helped aid us in this aspect)

- Also on occasion, there would be an episode of DS9 and an episode of VOY that originally aired on the same night and both had unknown stardates. In these cases the sequence of these two episodes was basically up to our discretion, so we placed them in an order that would add the most variety to the viewing experience by alternating them depending on what episodes came before or after.

- We then went back through and adjusted to account for Multiple-Part episodes and arcs. We put these together so that a single “story” would not be broken up by episodes from another series. (Luckily, the stardates seemed to cooperate quite nicely here!) For example: VOY: “Warhead” originally aired just prior to DS9: “Dogs of War”. However, since “Warhead” has an unknown stardate, we chose to place it after DS9: “What You Leave Behind” as not to interrupt the final 8-episode Dominion War arc.


Star Trek: Picard

- This series takes place after the events of both Nemesis and Star Trek (2009)'s destruction of Romulus in the Prime Universe and is placed accordingly.



Step 3.) Sorting Out “Temporal Anomalies” (contradictions, exceptions, and where the real work is done)


ENT: “These Are the Voyages…”

- As mentioned above, this entire episode takes place on the holodeck of the Enterprise-D during the events of TNG: “The Pegasus”. Therefore, we placed this episode directly after “The Pegasus” on our list, rather than post ENT: “Terra Prime”.

- We also feel that the episode when placed here provides a nice throwback to the Archer’s mission when viewing these in chronological order.


VOY: "Lifesigns" and "Investigations"

- These episodes cause one of those rare moments (late in Trek) where the stardates conflict with plot ordering. Even though the Stardates would place "Investigations" before "Lifesigns", in "Lifesigns" Tom Paris is still maintaining his "misbehavior", a minor arc that is finally resoved in "Investigations".

- Since the Tom Paris plot-line is obviously more relevant than the stardate mentioned in Janeway's log, we re-ordered these to coincide with the former (and subsequently the original airing order).


"Star Trek: First Contact"

- This is another instance of the stardate conflicting with internal plot references. The stardate for "First Contact" would actually place it after DS9: "Children of Time", however the events of "First Contact" are actually referenced by Captain Sisko in DS9: "In Purgatory's Shadow".

- As a result, we moved "First Contact" up, and like the VOY episodes above, chose plot references over the Captain's Log. (Hey, even Starship Captains forget what day it is from time to time ;)


“Star Trek: Insurrection”

- Ok, here we go. This is the big elephant in the room, but it's got to happen SOMEWHERE specifically in the timeline, so here's our best effort!

-  It has no apparent stardate, and a number of lines and/or situations that suggest contradictory placements within the timeline. For one thing, Worf is present and still a Starfleet officer, which would suggest these events take place prior to DS9: “What You Leave Behind” when Worf agrees to become the Federation Ambassador to Qo'nos. Memory-Alpha.org even suggests that “Insurrection” takes place during the events of DS9: “It’s Only a Paper Moon” due to Worf’s absence from that episode. Although very good arguments can be made for placing this AFTER "What You Leave Behind", the majority consesus seems to be that Memory-Alpha's suggested placement is the best one, so that's where we put it. Thanks to all our readers who commented to help us come to this decision!


VOY: "Living Witness" 

- UPDATED Jan 2021 - This episode takes place entirely in the distant future (from VOY's perspective) c. 3074. There are flashbacks to the 24th century where the Doctor's backup was lost, but the episode itself takes place in the Delta Quadrant somewhere around the time of The Burn (give or take a few decades). Since Discovery Season 3 has been released, we're placing it just before it in the timeline.


2009’s “Star Trek”

- Since Spock from the Prime universe is present and a main character in the film, we felt this movie should definitely be included in our chronology.

- Placing this film in our timeline was actually pretty simple. Since most of the events take place in an alternate universe, we simply used a variation of our time-travel "point of origin" rule (above). Using Spock-Prime's future as that point of origin, we placed this post- Star Trek: Nemesis on our list. The events from the original canon that Spock Prime recalls (ie. the destruction of Romulus) clearly take place after that movie and prior to the upcoming Star Trek: Picard series.


ENT: "In A Mirror Darkly Parts I and II"

- This is an odd case where the episodes take place entirely in the Mirror Universe without any Prime Universe characters crossing over to form a "point of origin" for our timeline. Oddly enough, if there were in fact NO ties to the Prime Universe a case could be made for these episodes to be omitted from our list entirely. HOWEVER, although no "characters" from the Prime Universe appear, a SHIP from the Prime Universe does appear! So, we took the Primeline "point of origin" from the USS Defiant (NCC-1764) from the TOS episode "The Tholian Web". Since that ship from the Prime Universe plays a major role in the events of these episodes, we used our time travel rule the same way we did for 2009's "Star Trek" film, and placed these episodes directly after "The Tholian Web". This makes more sense chronologically than placing it between ENT: "Bound" and ENT: "Demons" where it originally aired, and keeps us consistent with our own rules. Thanks to a poster on our site for pointing these episodes out and causing us to think through it some more!

SNW: Those Old Scientists

Similarly to ENT: "These Are the Voyages", this is essentially an episode of Lower Decks bookending things that happen "in the past" during the time of Strange New Worlds.


DSC Season 3 and onward...

 - Discovery seasons 1 and 2 take place pre-TOS and are placed as such. However, season 3 takes place roughly 1,000 years after the first two seasons. As such, we will make an exception to our temporal "point of origin" rule, and place these episodes AFTER Nemesis, ST: Picard, etc. The reason being although the characters and ship are from a previous time period, the universe they inhabit from this point on is entirely that of the 32nd century. DSC Short Trek: "Calypso" is also being placed at the end for this reason. 



OTHER NOTES

"Kelvin Timeline" Films (Other than 2009's "Star Trek")

- Subsequent films that take place in the Kelvin timeline have very little to do with the Prime Universe. Although "Star Trek Into Darkness" does include a cameo of Spock Prime, and "Star Trek Beyond" mentions his death and features some images from the Primeline, we don't feel that they are enough of a plot point in those films to officially include them in our chronology of the Prime Universe. If you want to include them in your watching, we recommend watching them immediately following Star Trek (2009).



"Very Short Treks"

  - Those who have been on this site for a while know that for many many years this was only a list of live-action Star Trek episodes. Though I, myself still struggle to accept the animated adventures as canon (particularly Lower Decks due to it's extreme difference in tone from the rest of the shows - despite it's overall fun!), I've come to realize that although this site started out as a personal project just for myself, it's developed a life of it's own over the years and it's more for all of you now that it is for me. :) That said, I still think the "very short Treks" add little value to the canon, and are a even further departure in tone. That combined with the fact that they are mere minutes long led me to decide not to include them.








29 comments:

  1. Hi, thank you so much for this guide. It's been a lot of fun re-watching the shows in the chronological in-universe order. A fellow Trek fan has pointed out to me that "Star Trek: Generations" is a special case since the beginning places it right after the sixth TOS movie. So I've watched this part and stopped before it jumped to the post-TNG part.

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  2. Is there a particular reason why TNG S3E2 and S3E3 are out of order? I don't see any explanation anywhere on the site.

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    1. Great catch! That was just a mistake. We've corrected it!

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  3. Is there any reason as to why TNG s3e12-14 are out of order? As per the air dates, it should "the High Ground", "Deja Q", then "A Matter of Perspective." On the list, it has "A Matter of Perspective" first, followed by "The High Ground", and then "Deja Q." Great list overall though, and I've really enjoyed watching them in chronological order.

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    1. Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the list! You're right, those were out of order! Thanks for catching that! We've corrected it! :)

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  4. As also earlier suggested, I would find the "airing episode numbers" (eg "ENT S3e2" etc useful when hopping between stuff, so browsing for episodes that break the airing order would be easier?

    Just finished ENT yesterday, into the Cage today :)

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    1. This is also because with "international Netflix" we have to deal with translated episode titles too... (10 episodes of DSC watched :) )

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    2. Having read some comments about season and episode number, I took that upon myself to add. The list is too long to fit in a comment so I’ve put them on a website so you and anyone else can reference it.
      https://film-buff.tripod.com/startrekchronological.html

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  5. Any reason why TNG S4314 (Clues) and TNG S4E13 (Devil's Dues) are switched in order?

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  6. For those who got here before reading the comments on the actual episode list who also are interested in The Animated Series, note that the comments section for the list point out that one episode of TAS should be viewed before Where No Man has gone before.

    The list itself is fantastic. I echo the request for the season/episode numbers to be listed somewhere, and also for a visual queue when an episode "jump" happens, such as episodes that will show up in streaming services out of order or if an episode is skipped because it happens later in the chronology.

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    1. Having read some comments about season and episode number, I took that upon myself to add. The list is too long to fit in a comment so I’ve put them on a website so you and anyone else can reference it.
      https://film-buff.tripod.com/startrekchronological.html

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  7. Is it possible to make ENT: "First Flight" the second episode of the series since it's largely a prequel to the pilot? Would there be any continuity errors moving it? I'm thinking of doing this myself, not asking for you guys to. Just wondered if it would work without issue.

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  8. Star Trek movie VI Undiscovered Country came out after TNG started, why is it placed before TNG’s start in the list?

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    1. Moombeam, this list is of Star Trek in Chronological order using in show dates. The events depicted in STVI take place decades before TNG takes places.


      This is not a list of dates they where released.

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  9. Star Trek Movie VI Undiscovered Country came out after TNG started. Why is it placed before TNG?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Moombeam, this list is of Star Trek in Chronological order using in show dates. The events depicted in STVI take place decades before TNG takes places.


      This is not a list of dates they where released.

      Delete
    2. I realize my error now sorry lol I’m new to trek and after watching TNG I decided to go back and watch all the series and found this list to watch everything chronologically and got a little confused. Thanks for answering!

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    3. I realize my error now sorry lol I’m new to trek and after watching TNG I decided to go back and watch all the series and found this list to watch everything chronologically and got a little confused. Thanks for answering!

      Delete
  10. Star Trek Movie VI Undiscovered Country came out after TNG started. Why is it placed before TNG?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Moombeam, this list is of Star Trek in Chronological order using in show dates. The events depicted in STVI take place decades before TNG takes places.


      This is not a list of dates they where released.

      Delete
  11. Just wanted to let you know that on 7/28/20 my wife and I decided to watch all of trek chronologically. using this site as the backbone we ended up watching discovery season 3 as it aired and chronological. Before this voyage. My Wife had never seen Voyager or Enterprise and I had only seen a hand full of episodes from TOS and ENT and nothing of TAS. It was really magical.

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    1. That's awesome! Congrats on completing the journey (so far!). Glad our list could help. :)

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  12. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  13. I think Lower Decks should be added to the list as it has been confirmed that it is cannon now. Love the list by the way, I used it to create an ultimate playlist on Plex.

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  14. Why are seasons two and three of TOS left as they aired no stardate used?

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  16. Greetings, it is Enterprise E,not D,in 1st Contact.
    Live long& prosper.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I saw that the episodes of TNG,DS9 ad VOY are out of place. you placed an episode that came out later in a week before an episode of another series that came out earlier in the same week. For instance you put DS9 babel that came out in 24 jan 1993 before TNG ship in a bottle that came out 23 jan 1993 when it should be the other way round. why is that

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Hey everyone! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. As you may have noticed, I don't keep up with this site nearly as often as I'd like to. That being said, I will continue to update it as new content is produced/season come out and will endeavor to respond to comments when I'm able. Please forgive me if I don't respond to all of them. Thanks for viewing!!