Enterprise S1 · E1–2
Broken Bow
The Enterprise crew sets on a maiden voyage with a mission to return a wounded Klingon to his people.
1Chapter 1 of 14
2063–2161 · 93 stops

This site is NOT a chronology - it is a viewing guide that will assist you through watching the entire franchise in in-universe story order, all the way from the 21st to the 43rd centuries, while making adjustments as needed to ensure an enjoyable viewing experience. It is not rigid - some episodes are shifted in the order to keep things as clear and fun as possible. The guide is updated regularly to stay current with new episodes.
Star Trek: First Contact starts in 2373, but largely takes place in 2063. You really can’t watch it first though, as so much of it will make no sense, so I DO NOT recommend watching it here. Even so, though the purpose of this list is to be a watching order and not a chronology, I mention the basic events of Cochrane’s warp drive test and the meeting of the Vulcans as it is good background for….
Star Trek essentially begins on this date, when Zefram Cochrane creates faster-than-light travel (“warp drive”) allowing humans to meet extraterrestrial life, the Vulcans, for the first time. This is depicted in the time-travel film Star Trek: First Contact, but we will not be watching that until much later in the timeline, as it would otherwise make an astonishingly small amount of sense. For now, just consider it the backstory that sets everything in the Star Trek universe in motion.
We start with Star Trek: Enterprise (technically just titled Enterprise until season three). While the first in the timeline, this show was actually the sixth Star Trek series made, and therefore includes many intentional foreshadowings of future events.
Nearly everything here involves things we will see expanded on in the future, be it technologies we will later see in more refined form, first appearances of races and planets that will eventually be explored in much more detail in later series, and tensions with and between other cultures that will one day become friends and allies. We’ll point out some of these as we get to the later shows.
We mostly follow the release order, but will flip episodes 11 and 12 from this season, as well as skip some episodes in Seasons two and four until later in the viewing order.
Joining the guide
First aired September 26, 2001
Enterprise S1 · E1–2
The Enterprise crew sets on a maiden voyage with a mission to return a wounded Klingon to his people.
Enterprise S1 · E4
Crew members go on a survey mission to a seemingly uninhabited Earth-like planet where a mysterious alien presence sends them into a state of paranoid overdrive.
Enterprise S1 · E5
After discovering the presence of a damaged alien vessel, Archer dispatches Tucker to its aid, but the engineer's encounter with a Xyrillian female has an unexpected side effect.
Enterprise S1 · E6
Archer and the Enterprise crew set out to learn what happened to the lost human colony of Terra Nova, and discover a tribe of human-hating cave dwellers.
Enterprise S1 · E7
When Archer and his crew pay a friendly visit to an ancient Vulcan monastery, they stumble into an interstellar conflict between the Vulcans and their militaristic rivals, the Andorians.
Enterprise S1 · E8
While the Enterprise crew researches a newly discovered comet, Archer tries to deal diplomatically with a Vulcan ship that is suspiciously watching them.
Enterprise S1 · E9
The Enterprise crew encounters a pre-industrial society that is afflicted with a plague caused by exploitative secret visitors.
Enterprise S1 · E10
Enterprise must intervene when the leader of a human freighter crew sets out for revenge against alien pirates.
Enterprise S1 · E12
An ill-prepared Enterprise is under attack by mysterious aliens with unknown motivations.
Enterprise S1 · E11
While Enterprise joins an alien pilgrimage to witness a religious stellar occurrence, Archer finds himself again faced against the Suliban warrior Silik.
Enterprise S1 · E13
Dr. Phlox faces a serious dilemma as a dying race begs for help from Enterprise.
Enterprise S1 · E14
T'Pol, Reed and Hoshi get stranded on a Klingon "shipwreck" sinking inside a gas giant. Archer tries to convince a captured Klingon to help before his crewmates get crushed in the intense pressure of the planet's atmosphere.
Enterprise S1 · E15
When T'Pol is ordered by her superiors to leave Enterprise, she goes on one last away mission with Archer to planet Coridan, where they are taken captive by a militant faction and once again encounter the volatile Andorians.
Enterprise S1 · E16
During a shuttlepod mission, Tucker and Reed are cut off from Enterprise and become convinced the starship has been destroyed and that their days are numbered.
Enterprise S1 · E17
A group of atypical Vulcans visiting Enterprise subject T'Pol to uncomfortable new ideas.
Enterprise S1 · E18
While exploring an uncharted planet, Enterprise crew members encounter a group of aliens who are hunting down indigenous creatures for recreation.
Enterprise S1 · E19
When the Ferengi, a group of intergalactic thieves, stun the Enterprise crew and try to rob the ship, it's up to Trip to work covertly to stop them.
Enterprise S1 · E20
The crew is directed to a barren planet, where a derelict ship may be salvageable for supplies. But the crew quickly learns that rumors about the shipwreck being haunted may be true.
Enterprise S1 · E21
Archer and Mayweather are detained by the Tandarans in a Suliban internment camp. Learning of the Suliban's persecution by the Tandarans, Archer enlists the aid of Enterprise and his crew.
Enterprise S1 · E22
When a strange, symbiotic alien creature boards Enterprise and captures several crew members, it's up to Hoshi to decipher the creature's complex language.
Enterprise S1 · E23
Archer is ordered to transport Vulcan Ambassador V'Lar, an early role model of T'Pol's, from a planet where her integrity has been called into question.
Enterprise S1 · E24
When Archer and Trip are invited to a desert-like planet by an alien leader, they discover he is a terrorist who has lured them there under false pretenses.
Enterprise S1 · E25
Shore leave takes some interesting twists when the Enterprise crew finally arrives at Risa, the famous pleasure planet.
Enterprise S1 · E26
After apparently causing the obliteration of an alien colony, Enterprise is ordered to return to Earth, until a surprise visitor offers Archer startling evidence about what really happened...
Enterprise S2 · E1
Daniels and Archer must find a way back to the 22nd Century in order to make sure history plays out as it should. Meanwhile, on board Enterprise, the Suliban have taken over the ship, but Reed, Trip, and T'Pol formulate a plan to eject the aliens.
Enterprise S2 · E2
After Archer and Trip become curious about a visit T'Pol made to a Pennsylvanian mining town called Carbon Creek, she tells the two a tale about a Vulcan ship that crash-landed in 1957.
Enterprise S2 · E3
S2 E3: Whilst attempting to explore a new planet, Enterprise triggers a cloaked mine. While the crew deal with the resulting damage, it's discovered that another mine is stuck to the hull.
Enterprise S2 · E4
Suffering from damage inflicted in the Romulan minefield and unable to complete repairs on their own, Archer orders a distress call to be put out.
Enterprise S2 · E5
Archer spends a night in sickbay after Porthos falls ill with a deadly virus following a visit to an alien planet.
Enterprise S2 · E6
In need of fuel, Enterprise visits a mining colony for deuterium supplies. The crew discovers that the colony is being controlled by Klingon marauders who are regularly pillaging the mined deuterium.
Enterprise S2 · E7
After T'Pol is contacted by the Vulcan High Command, Archer, Mayweather and T'Pol travel to an arctic world to apprehend a fugitive.
Enterprise S2 · E8
Archer and Reed return to a pre-warp society that is on the verge of war to recover a lost communicator.
Enterprise S2 · E9
While Enterprise is surveying a black hole in a trinary star system, the stellar phenomenon causes strange effects on the crew.
Enterprise S2 · E10
Hoshi experiences her first transporter experience and strange after-effects lead her to believe she wasn't reassembled correctly.
Enterprise S2 · E11
Trip boards an alien cargo vessel to help repair a stasis pod, which holds a beautiful woman in suspended animation. When the woman accidentally wakes up, she reveals she's not a passenger, but a prisoner.
Enterprise S2 · E12
When a lethal neutronic storm approaches faster than Enterprise can escape, the crew take shelter in the maintenance shafts inside the warp nacelles. They also provide refuge to a group of aliens, who aren't exactly honest about themselves.
Enterprise S2 · E13
During a solo test mission on Shuttlepod 1, Trip is attacked by a territorial alien and forced to land on the night side of a moon.
Enterprise S2 · E14
Enterprise visits a planet where an Interspecies Medical Exchange conference is being held. Dr. Phlox tries to obtain research on a terminal disease from the Vulcan contingency, without revealing T'Pol has been infected by it.
Enterprise S2 · E15
Both the Vulcans and the Andorians make a claim to a small planet and military conflict soon erupts. As the fighting goes on, the Vulcans announce they are willing to discuss cease fire terms.
Enterprise S2 · E16
The Enterprise crew find a small craft drifting in space and are surprised to find it contains a human corpse. More questions arise when both the Suliban and Tholians make claims to the craft.
Enterprise S2 · E17
Archer and Tucker are wrongly arrested and placed on a prisoner transport heading for a penal colony named Canamar. Things go from bad to worse when one of other prisoners plots a takeover of the ship.
Enterprise S2 · E20
Travis's visit home to the ECS Horizon becomes rather turbulent, as he clashes with his brother, the ship's new captain, and as the ship is attacked by pirates.
Enterprise S2 · E21
When militants take over a world, the Enterprise crew move to evacuate Denobulan geologists that are deep underground. Meanwhile, Phlox has to save a dying Antaran that refuses treatment due to the history of their races.
Enterprise S2 · E22
The Enterprise crew makes first contact with the Vissians, a species with three genders. When Trip meets one of the species' third gender, known as Cogenitor, he is disturbed to learn that all cogenitors are treated extremely poorly.
Enterprise S2 · E24
Archer tells T'Pol the story of when he and a rival named A.G. Robinson were in competition for breaking the warp 2 barrier.
Enterprise S2 · E25
Archer learns the Klingons have put a price on his head when he is captured by a Tellarite bounty hunter. As Enterprise pursues, a virus causes T'Pol to go into premature Pon Farr.
Enterprise S2 · E26
An alien race known as the Xindi launch an attack on Earth, causing great casualties and massive damage. As Enterprise heads back home, an unlikely source informs Archer about the Xindi and that their next attack will destroy Earth.
Enterprise S3 · E1
It has been six weeks since Enterprise's new mission began and the crew have made virtually no progress. Now finally, they may have a lead as Enterprise is en route to a mining colony that is supposed to have a Xindi worker.
Enterprise S3 · E2
Strange things are occurring on Enterprise, leading most of the ship's systems to become disabled. Before the crew can make repairs, a group of Osaarians board and loot the ship.
Enterprise S3 · E3
Enterprise journeys to a planet a Xindi ship visited. Once on the planet, though, Archer, Reed and Hoshi become infected with a strange mutating virus.
Enterprise S3 · E4
Archer rescues a mysterious slave girl from an alien market. However, she soon begins using her strange powers to collect information about humans for her Xindi overlords.
Enterprise S3 · E5
An automated distress call from a Vulcan starship is detected. Archer, T'Pol, Reed and Hawkins attempt a rescue mission, but they become trapped on board the vessel and have to fend off the Vulcan crew, who have turned violent.
Enterprise S3 · E6
Hoshi is contacted by Tarquin, an alien with telepathic powers who gives an interesting proposition: he will use his powers to obtain information about the Xindi and their weapon for the crew.
Enterprise S3 · E7
After Enterprise arrives at a Xindi colony, Archer, Reed and Major Hayes infiltrate a facility that is producing a substance crucial to the Xindi weapon.
Enterprise S3 · E8
Twelve years into the future, T'Pol reveals that she and Archer are living in a colony of the last surviving humans.
Enterprise S3 · E9
Enterprise discovers a planet in the Expanse whose society is identical to the "wild west", and is surprisingly inhabited by humans, who are oppressing another species.
Enterprise S3 · E10
Trip is injured during an attempt to improve the warp engines. Archer allows Phlox to create a symbiote of Trip, which will only live for fifteen days and provide neural tissue needed for a vital transplant.
Enterprise S3 · E11
Daniels sends Archer and T'Pol to 2004 Detroit to follow three Xindi-Reptilians who are creating a biological weapon.
Enterprise S3 · E12
Enterprise comes to the aid of the Triannon, a species that worships the Spheres and their Builders. Once aboard Enterprise, their leader D'Jamat commandeers the ship in order to fight a holy war, and wipe out the heretics on his homeworld.
Enterprise S3 · E13
Enterprise detects a signal leading to a testing ground for the Xindi weapon prototype, but they have to move through a field of anomalies in order to get there faster.
Enterprise S3 · E14
After capturing Degra, the creator of the Xindi weapon, Archer and the Enterprise crew conduct a carefully orchestrated deception in order to convince him to reveal the location of the weapon.
Enterprise S3 · E15
Enterprise crew discover a mysterious alien adrift in a small pod within a field of anomalies. Meanwhile, emotions run high as Reed feels threatened by Major Hayes, and T'Pol learns that Trip has been giving neuro-pressure to a female MACO.
Enterprise S3 · E16
When a transdimensional disturbance is altering the space between Enterprise and Azati Prime, Phlox must put the entire crew into a comatose state, and run the ship alone, in order to cross the region safely.
Enterprise S3 · E17
Archer becomes obsessed with saving a Xindi-Insectoid hatchery discovered aboard a crashed ship. When his actions seem to put Enterprise at risk, the crew consider taking drastic action.
Enterprise S3 · E18
After getting to Azati Prime, the crew discover the almost complete Xindi weapon is on an ocean planet.
Enterprise S3 · E19
A badly damaged Enterprise responds to a distress call from an Illyrian ship that's been damaged by anomalies.
Enterprise S3 · E20
Enterprise, still trying to recover from the damage from the attack by the Reptilians, docks with Degra's ship. Archer tries to convince Degra that the Xindi's real enemy is the Sphere Builders, and not humanity.
Enterprise S3 · E21
As Enterprise prepares to enter the subspace corridor that will get them to their rendezvous with Degra, they encounter a duplicate Enterprise manned by the original crew's descendants.
Enterprise S3 · E22
While T'Pol leads a mission to retrieve the memory core from a Sphere, Archer appears before the Xindi Council to attempt to convince them that humanity is not their enemy.
Enterprise S3 · E23
With time running out and the Reptilians about to arm the weapon, Archer has to convince the Aquatics to help the Humanoids, Arboreals and Enterprise intercept it.
Enterprise S3 · E24
Archer leads a team to stop the Xindi weapon before it reaches Earth. Meanwhile, Enterprise attempts to destroy a key Sphere, despite deadly interference from the Sphere Builders.
Enterprise S4 · E1
Archer and the crew of Enterprise find themselves in 1944 and discover the outcome of World War II was altered by the Temporal Cold War.
Enterprise S4 · E2
With Silik's help, Archer searches for the temporal operative who altered Earth's past and threatens to destroy all of time.
Enterprise S4 · E3
Enterprise returns to Earth to a hero's welcome, Archer is haunted by his experiences and actions in the Expanse.
Enterprise S4 · E4
Criminal Arik Soong is brought aboard Enterprise to assist in finding some genetically enhanced humans he created after stealing altered DNA left over from the Eugenics Wars.
Enterprise S4 · E5
Soong returns to Cold Station 12 with the Augments, a medical facility where he once worked, where there are hundreds of genetically engineered human embryos stored.
Enterprise S4 · E6
After turning on their creator, the Augments attempt to start a war between Humans and Klingons.
Enterprise S4 · E7
Earth's embassy on Vulcan is bombed and the evidence points to a religious faction known as "Syrrannites", a group following a revolutionary interpretation of the teachings of Surak, the father of Vulcan logic.
Enterprise S4 · E8
Archer and T'Pol locate the Syrrannites. However, unbeknownst to Archer and T'Pol, more is going on than just a simple act of terrorism.
Enterprise S4 · E9
Archer, T'Pol and T'Pau attempt to take a sacred, but controversial artefact back to the Vulcan High Council, in hopes of settling an internal struggle going on among the Vulcan people.
Enterprise S4 · E10
The inventor of the transporter, Emory Erickson, comes aboard Enterprise for a risky experiment.
Enterprise S4 · E11
Non-corporeal aliens study the Enterprise crew as they respond to a fatal viral infection brought on board from an away mission.
Enterprise S4 · E12
Enterprise journeys to Babel with a Tellarite ambassador on board for peace talks with the Andorians, when a distress call from Shran is received.
Enterprise S4 · E13
Archer tries to unify the Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans in a plan to capture a marauder ship threatening to destabilize the region.
Enterprise S4 · E14
Archer visits Shran's icy homeworld to find an Andorian subspecies called the Aenar, to determine their connection to the marauder destroying ships in the region.
Enterprise S4 · E15
While Enterprise visits Earth for the launch of Columbia, Phlox is kidnapped and forced to help the Klingons deal with a grave threat to their species.
Enterprise S4 · E16
With Columbia's help, Enterprise's crew grapples with sabotage to their ship as they pursue the truth behind the kidnapping of Phlox.
Enterprise S4 · E17
As a gift for negotiating with the Orion Syndicate, Captain Archer receives three Orion Slave Girls. Soon, their seductive powers begin to affect everyone on board except for Trip and T'Pol.
Enterprise S4 · E20
A xenophobic faction of humanity threatens to undermine talks to form a new coalition of planets.
Enterprise S4 · E21
A human isolationist leader threatens to destroy Starfleet Command unless all aliens leave Earth immediately.
I break my not-a-chronology rule again here to mention the events of the Romulan War and the founding of the Federation, as Enterprise was clearly building to those events and it is a notable “gap” in on-screen history.
The Earth-Romulan War, which was first mentioned in the original 1960s series, occurs here. Enterprise intended to cover this starting in the fifth season, but was unfortunately cancelled after Season Four. While we don't get to see the conflict on screen, its impact is felt throughout Enterprise and beyond. During the war, Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites form a loosely structured Coalition of Planets which manages to push back the Romulans. Once the war is ended, this Coalition leads directly to…