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 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.
Enterprise - Season 1, episodes 1&2 - Broken Bow
The Enterprise crew sets on a maiden voyage with a mission to return a wounded Klingon to his people.
Original airdate - September 26, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 3 - Fight or Flight
The crew comes across an abandoned ship of dead aliens.
Original airdate - October 4, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 4 - Strange New World
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.
Original airdate - October 10, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 5 - Unexpected
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.
Original airdate - October 17, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 6 - Terra Nova
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.
Original airdate - October 24, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 7 - The Andorian Incident
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.
Original airdate - October 31, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 8 - Breaking the Ice
While the Enterprise crew researches a newly discovered comet, Archer tries to deal diplomatically with a Vulcan ship that is suspiciously watching them.
Original airdate - November 7, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 9 - Civilization
The Enterprise crew encounters a pre-industrial society that is afflicted with a plague caused by exploitative secret visitors.
Original airdate - November 14, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 10 - Fortunate Son
Enterprise must intervene when the leader of a human freighter crew sets out for revenge against alien pirates.
Original airdate - November 21, 2001
This viewing order flips episodes 11 and 12 to respect in-episode calendar dates, but it doesn’t actually have any real significance otherwise.
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 12 - Silent Enemy
An ill-prepared Enterprise is under attack by mysterious aliens with unknown motivations.
Original airdate - January 16, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 11 - Cold Front
While Enterprise joins an alien pilgrimage to witness a religious stellar occurrence, Archer finds himself again faced against the Suliban warrior Silik.
Original airdate - November 28, 2001
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 13 - Dear Doctor
Dr. Phlox faces a serious dilemma as a dying race begs for help from Enterprise.
Original airdate - Jan 23, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 14 - Sleeping Dogs
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.
Original airdate - January 30, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 15 - Shadows of P’Jem
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.
Original airdate - February 6, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 16 - Shuttlepod One
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.
Original airdate - February 13, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 17 - Fusion
A group of atypical Vulcans visiting Enterprise subject T'Pol to uncomfortable new ideas.
Original airdate - February 27, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 18 - Rogue Planet
While exploring an uncharted planet, Enterprise crew members encounter a group of aliens who are hunting down indigenous creatures for recreation.
Original airdate - March 20, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 19 - Acquisition
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.
Original airdate - March 27, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 20 - Oasis
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.
Original airdate - April 3, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 21 - Detained
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.
Original airdate - April 24, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 22 - Vox Sola
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.
Original airdate - May 1, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 23 - Fallen Hero
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.
Original airdate - May 8, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 24 - Desert Crossing
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.
Original airdate - May 8, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 25 - Two Days and Two Nights
Shore leave takes some interesting twists when the Enterprise crew finally arrives at Risa, the famous pleasure planet.
Original airdate - May 15, 2002
Enterprise - Season 1, episode 26 - Shockwave, Part I
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...
Original airdate - May 22, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 1 - Shockwave, Part II
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.
Original airdate - September 18, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 2 - Carbon Creek
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.
Original airdate - September 25, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 3 - Minefield
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.
Original airdate - October 2, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 4 - Dead Stop
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.
Original airdate - October 9, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 5 - A Night in Sickbay
Archer spends a night in sickbay after Porthos falls ill with a deadly virus following a visit to an alien planet.
Original airdate - October 16, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 6 - Marauders
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.
Original airdate - October 30, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 7 - The Seventh
After T'Pol is contacted by the Vulcan High Command, Archer, Mayweather and T'Pol travel to an arctic world to apprehend a fugitive.
Original airdate - November 6, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 8 - The Communicator
Archer and Reed return to a pre-warp society that is on the verge of war to recover a lost communicator.
Original airdate - November 13, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 9 - Singularity
While Enterprise is surveying a black hole in a trinary star system, the stellar phenomenon causes strange effects on the crew.
Original airdate - November 20, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 10 - Vanishing Point
Hoshi experiences her first transporter experience and strange after-effects lead her to believe she wasn't reassembled correctly.
Original airdate - November 27, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 11 - Precious Cargo
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.
Original airdate - December 11, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 12 - The Catwalk
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.
Original airdate - December 18, 2002
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 13 - Dawn
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.
Original airdate - January 8, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 14 - Stigma
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.
Original airdate - February 5, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 15 - Cease Fire
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.
Original airdate - February 12, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 16 - Future Tense
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.
Original airdate - February 19, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 17 - Canamar
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.
Original airdate - February 26, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 18 - The Crossing
Non-corporeal aliens possess the bodies of the Enterprise crew.
Original airdate - April 2, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 19 - Judgment
Archer is put on trial for crimes against the Klingon Empire.
Original airdate - April 9, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 20 - Horizon
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.
Original airdate - April 16, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 21 - The Breach
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.
Original airdate - April 23, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 22 - Cogenitor
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.
Original airdate - April 30, 2003
We will be skipping episode 23 (“Regeneration”) until later in this viewing order, as it relies on knowledge of future events you won’t have yet. This is the first of a few times we will skip episodes like this, but to be clear - by the end of the viewing order you will have seen every single episode of Star Trek in a way that ensures they make sense.
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 24 - First Flight
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.
Original airdate - May 14, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 25 - Bounty
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.
Original airdate - May 15, 2003
Enterprise - Season 2, episode 26 - The Expanse
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.
Original airdate - May 21, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 1 - The Xindi
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.
Original airdate - September 10, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 2 - Anomaly
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.
Original airdate - September 17, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 3 - Extinction
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.
Original airdate - September 24, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 4 - Rajiin
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.
Original airdate - October 1, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 5 - Impulse
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.
Original airdate - October 8, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 6 - Exile
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.
Original airdate - October 15, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 7 - The Shipment
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.
Original airdate - October 29, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 8 - Twilight
Twelve years into the future, T'Pol reveals that she and Archer are living in a colony of the last surviving humans.
Original airdate - November 5, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 9 - North Star
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.
Original airdate - November 12, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 10 - Similitude
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.
Original airdate - November 19, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 11 - Carpenter Street
Daniels sends Archer and T'Pol to 2004 Detroit to follow three Xindi-Reptilians who are creating a biological weapon.
Original airdate - November 26, 2003
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 12 - Chosen Realm
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.
Original airdate - January 14, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 13 - Proving Ground
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.
Original airdate - January 21, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 14 - Stratagem
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.
Original airdate - February 04, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 15 - Harbinger
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.
Original airdate - February 11, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 16 - Doctor’s Orders
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.
Original airdate - February 18, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 17 - Hatchery
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.
Original airdate - February 25, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 18 - Azati Prime
After getting to Azati Prime, the crew discover the almost complete Xindi weapon is on an ocean planet.
Original airdate - March 3, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 19 - Damage
A badly damaged Enterprise responds to a distress call from an Illyrian ship that's been damaged by anomalies.
Original airdate - April 21, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 20 - The Forgotten
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.
Original airdate - April 28, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 21 - E²
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.
Original airdate - May 5, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 22 - The Council
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.
Original airdate - May 12, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 23 - Countdown
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.
Original airdate - May 19, 2004
Enterprise - Season 3, episode 24 - Zero Hour
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.
Original airdate - May 26, 2004
In its fourth, final, and in my opinion best season, Enterprise, under the guidance of a new showrunner, takes advantage of its ability to foreshadow events in chronologically later stories with a number of multi-episode mini-arcs. Please pay attention to the episode numbers as we will be skipping episodes 18, 19, and 22 until later in the chronology.
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 1 - Storm Front, Part 1
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.
Original airdate - October 8, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 2 - Storm Front, Part 2
With Silik's help, Archer searches for the temporal operative who altered Earth's past and threatens to destroy all of time.
Original airdate - October 15, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 3 - Home
Enterprise returns to Earth to a hero's welcome, Archer is haunted by his experiences and actions in the Expanse.
Original airdate - October 22, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 4 - Borderland
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.
Original airdate - October 29, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 5 - Cold Station 12
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.
Original airdate - November 5, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 6 - The Augments
After turning on their creator, the Augments attempt to start a war between Humans and Klingons.
Original airdate - November 12, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 7 - The Forge
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.
Original airdate - November 19, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 8 - Awakening
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.
Original airdate - November 26, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 9 - Kir’Shara
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.
Original airdate - December 3, 2004
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 10 - Daedalus
The inventor of the transporter, Emory Erickson, comes aboard Enterprise for a risky experiment.
Original airdate - January 14, 2005
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 11 - Observer Effect
Non-corporeal aliens study the Enterprise crew as they respond to a fatal viral infection brought on board from an away mission.
Original airdate - January 21, 2005
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 12 - Babel One
Enterprise journeys to Babel with a Tellarite ambassador on board for peace talks with the Andorians, when a distress call from Shran is received.
Original airdate - January 28, 2005
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 13 - United
Archer tries to unify the Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans in a plan to capture a marauder ship threatening to destabilize the region.
Original airdate - February 4, 2005
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 14 - The Aenar
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.
Original airdate - February 11, 2005
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 15 - Affliction
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.
Original airdate - February 18, 2005
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 16 - Divergence
With Columbia's help, Enterprise's crew grapples with sabotage to their ship as they pursue the truth behind the kidnapping of Phlox.
Original airdate - February 25, 2005
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 17 - Bound
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.
Original airdate - April 15, 2005
Although we’re moving on from Enterprise after this year, we will return to watch the skipped episodes 18 and 19 and the series finale episode 22 later. Instead we are going out on a two-parter that is near universally considered a better end-point for this part of the story.
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 20 - Demons
A xenophobic faction of humanity threatens to undermine talks to form a new coalition of planets.
Original airdate - May 6, 2005
Enterprise - Season 4, episode 21 - Terra Prime
A human isolationist leader threatens to destroy Starfleet Command unless all aliens leave Earth immediately.
Original airdate - May 13, 2005
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…
…the formation of the United Federation of Planets, the primary political setting of the Star Trek franchise.
From this point on, Star Trek focuses on the Federation, depicting its periods of peace, war, expansion, and decline, which will set the agenda for much of the franchise.
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