I'm about to start the Original Series over again from the beginning. When I watched them last time in late 2005 I printed up a list from here of the order the episodes should be watched especially in the first season. I have since moved and no longer have that list. If anyone could again recommend the proper order it would be much appreciated!
I know that this is rather simplistic, but I would personally watch each episode based on their airing date, starting with the first pilot, The Cage.
I like stardate order. Code: [U]Episode[/U] [U]Stardate[/U] [U]Title[/U] 1x01 1312.4 - 1313.8 Where No Man Has Gone Before 1x03 1329.8 - 1330.1 Mudd's Women 1x02 1512.2 - 1514.1 The Corbomite Maneuver 1x05 1513.1 - 1513.8 The Man Trap 1x07 1533.6 - 1535.8 Charlie X 1x04 1672.1 - 1673.1 The Enemy Within 1x06 1704.2 - 1704.4 The Naked Time 1x08 1709.2 - 1709.6 Balance of Terror 1x18 2124.5 - 2126.3 The Squire of Gothos 1x09 2712.4 What Are Little Girls Made Of? 1x11 2713.5 - 2713.3 Miri 1x10 2715.1 - 2715.2 Dagger of the Mind 1x12 2817.6 - 2819.8 The Conscience of the King 1x13 2821.5 - 2823.8 The Galileo Seven 1x14 2947.3 - 2950.1 Court Martial 1x15 3012.4 - 3012.6 The Menagerie, Part I 1x16 3013.1 - 3013.2 The Menagerie, Part II 2x01 3018.2 Catspaw 1x17 3025.3 - 3025.8 Shore Leave 1x19 3045.6 - 3046.2 Arena 1x20 3087.6 - 3088.7 The Alternative Factor 1x21 3113.2 - 3114.1 Tomorrow is Yesterday 1x24 3141.9 - 3143.3 Space Seed 1x22 3156.2 - 3158.7 The Return of the Archons 1x23 3192.1 - 3193.0 A Taste of Armageddon 1x26 3196.1 The Devil in the Dark 1x27 3198.4 - 3201.7 Errand of Mercy 1x28 Unknown The City on the Edge of Forever 2x17 3211.7 - 3259.2 The Gamesters of Triskelion 2x02 3219.8 - 3220.3 Metamorphosis 1x29 3287.2 - 3289.8 Operation -- Annihilate! 2x05 3372.7 Amok Time 1x25 3417.3 - 3417.7 This Side of Paradise 2x04 3468.1 Who Mourns for Adonais? 2x11 3478.2 - 3479.4 The Deadly Years 2x03 3497.2 - 3499.1 Friday's Child 2x08 3541.9 The Changeling 2x07 3614.9 - 3615.4 Wolf in the Fold 2x18 3619.2 - 3620.7 Obsession 2x09 3715.0 - 3715.6 The Apple 2x10 Unknown Mirror, Mirror 2x15 3842.3 - 3843.4 Journey to Babel 2x14 4040.7 - 4041.7 Bread and Circuses 2x06 4202.9 The Doomsday Machine 2x16 4211.4 - 4211.8 A Private Little War 2x19 4307.1 - 4309.4 The Immunity Syndrome 3x02 4372.5 Elaan of Troyius 3x01 4385.3 Spectre of the Gun 2x12 4513.3 I, Mudd 2x13 4523.3 - 4525.6 The Trouble with Tribbles 2x20 Unknown A Piece of the Action 2x21 4657.5 - 4658.9 By Any Other Name 2x24 4729.4 - 4731.3 The Ultimate Computer 2x22 4768.3 - 4770.3 Return to Tomorrow 2x23 Unknown Patterns of Force 2x25 Unknown The Omega Glory 2x26 Unknown Assignment: Earth 3x03 4842.6 - 4843.6 The Paradise Syndrome 3x04 5027.3 - 5027.4 The Enterprise Incident 3x05 5029.5 And the Children Shall Lead 3x08 5121.5 The Empath 3x17 5423.4 - 5423.8 The Mark of Gideon 3x06 5431.4 - 5432.3 Spock's Brain 3x10 5476.3 - 5476.4 For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky 3x07 5630.7 - 5630.8 Is There in Truth No Beauty? 3x09 5693.2 The Tholian Web 3x11 Unknown Day of the Dove 3x13 5710.5 - 5710.9 Wink of an Eye 3x14 Unknown That Which Survives 3x16 5718.3 Whom Gods Destroy 3x18 5725.3 - 5725.6 The Lights of Zetar 3x15 5730.2 - 5730.7 Let That Be Your Last Battlefield 3x12 5784.2 - 5784.3 Plato's Stepchildren 3x19 5818.4 - 5819.3 The Cloud Minders 3x20 5832.3 - 5832.6 The Way to Eden 3x21 5843.7 - 5843.8 Requiem for Methuselah 3x22 5906.4 - 5906.5 The Savage Curtain 3x24 5928.5 - 5930.3 Turnabout Intruder 3x23 5943.7 - 5943.9 All Our Yesterdays
Beaker has a valid point, though his way of expressing it unfortunately is typical Beaker. TOS episodes are pretty well self-contained (counting The Menagerie 1 & 2 to be a single episode for purposes of this discussion). Anybody unfamiliar with Star Trek could watch just about any episode and understand it with no knowledge of prior episodes. Viewing order doesn’t matter much. Plotwise, it doesn’t matter at all. I prefer stardate order. Other fans prefer production order or original airdate order. But most fans are pretty much in agreement that it’s not all that important. In terms of character development, the characters, and particularly their relationships with each other, do evolve a bit over the course of the series, but I think you’ll get pretty much the same effect of that no matter which of the three common orders (air, production, stardate) you choose. I wouldn’t recommend alphabetical order or random order, but it wouldn’t ruin the experience. Another possibility is to use the IMDB or GEOS ratings and watch them in order from best to worst. When you start to get sick of it, it probably means you’ve gotten to the crap episodes and you might stop at that point. If you’re determined to watch all 79 episodes, then I wouldn’t do it this way.
When viewed in production order, the early 1st series episodes do try and feature a bit of character development, such as Sulu having a different hobby each week. You also get to see the relationship between K, S & M grow.
I'm watching them in original airdate order mainly because that's how my brain works best. Like Mytran, I can see the development of the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and Bones more this way then I think I could if I watched them in stardate order. Plus, do you watch the unknown stardate ones first or last?
Write down all the episode titles on little slips of paper. Put the slips of paper on a bulletin board. Throw darts at the bulletin board. Alternately, put the slips of paper into a large top hat, then have a large breasted assistant do the honors. Otherwise, I suggest production order. It's the best way to see the show develop. Stardate order, on the other hand, is nonsensical, because the stardates were largely nonsensical at that point.
In production order.... First Season 1.The Cage 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, Part I 17.The Menagerie, Part II 18.Shore Leave 19.The Squire of Gothos 20.Arena 21.The Alternative Factor 22.Tomorrow is Yesterday 23.The Return of the Archons 24.A Taste of Armageddon 25.Space Seed 26.This Side of Paradise 27.The Devil in the Dark 28.Errand of Mercy 29.The City on the Edge of Forever 30.Operation - Annihilate Second Season 31.Catspaw 32.Metamorphosis 33.Friday's Child 34.Who Mourns for Adonais? 35.Amok Time 36.The Doomsday Machine 37.Wolf in the Fold 38.The Changeling 39.The Apple 40.Mirror, Mirror 41.The Deadly Years 42.I, Mudd 43.The Trouble with Tribbles 44.Bread and Circuses 45.Journey to Babel 46.A Private Little War 47.The Gamesters of Triskelion 48.Obsession 49.The Immunity Syndrome 50.A Piece of the Action 51.By Any Other Name 52.Return to Tomorrow 53.Patterns of Force 54.The Ultimate Computer 55.The Omega Glory 56.Assignment: Earth Third Season 57.Spectre Of The Gun 58.Elaan of Troyius 59.The Paradise Syndrome 60.The Enterprise Incident 61.And The Children Shall Lead 62.Spock's Brain 63.Is There In Truth No Beauty? 64.The Empath 65.The Tholian Web 66.For The World Is Hollow, And I Have Touched The Sky 67.Day of the Dove 68.Plato's Stepchildren 69.Wink of an Eye 70.That Which Survives 71.Let That Be Your Last Battlefield 72. Whom Gods Destroy 73.The Mark Of Gideon 74.The Lights of Zetar 75.The Cloud Minders 76. The Way to Eden 77.Requiem for Methuselah 78.The Savage Curtain 79.All Our Yesterdays 80.Turnabout Intruder
I fit them in by production order. The table in post #4 lists the episodes in my version of stardate order along with the stardates given in each episode and the production numbers.
This. Nonsensical, I might add, by design, in the vain hope viewers would pay attention to matters like story, plot, acting, etc., rather than how warp fields or ion pods work. I guess some people like to follow nonsense. It would explain scientology.
With production order you can see the concepts and characters evolve and change as the cast and crew grow more "comfortable" with the show.
I have my reasons for liking stardate order. I understand that not everyone will agree, and, as stated above, I believe this is a question on which reasonable people may easily disagree. I prefer civil disagreement in which people politely express their opinions without suggesting that everyone who has a different opinion has some kind of personal character flaw. Try it some time.
After further consideration, I’d put TCOTEOF before Errand of Mercy. The “unknown stardate” episodes give me a little flexibility to order them to personal preference. I think that, dramatically, TCOTEOF->EOM works better than EOM->TCOTEOF. Production order has EOM->TCOTEOF. Airdate order has EOM->The Alternative Factor->TCOTEOF Stardate order has flexibility because no stardate is given in TCOTEOF. I can satisfy my own artistic sensibilities with TCOTEOF->EOM.