Frequently Asked Questions

I’m new to Star Trek. Is this a good place to start?

It can be! Honestly though, I think this guide works best for someone who maybe watched some Voyager or TNG and enjoyed it, knows what warp speed and Spock are, but never really went deep into the whole centuries-long story.

But either way, if you are willing to adventure through the centuries, through the Federation's rise, fall, and rising again, through Trek’s finest moments and its most ridiculous ones, well, welcome to the guide. :-)

Do I really have to watch ALL of this to understand the show?

Absolutely not. Watch what you want, how you want. This is my personal recommended order, but the beauty of Star Trek is that if one piece of the tapestry doesn’t appeal to you, maybe the next one will!

Is this actually chronological, or are you cheating?

Both, really.

The goal here isn’t a mathematically perfect accounting of every minute of Star Trek history. It’s an enjoyable way to watch the franchise unfold in roughly chronological order, without watching a story before you have the slightest idea who anyone is or why you should care.

Sometimes that means bending the rules and holding an episode back until you’ve seen something that happens later in the timeline but explains what the hell is going on. When I do that, I’ll usually tell you why.

Why doesn’t this start with Kirk? I thought he was the first captain.

Well, he is* if you go in the order the shows were MADE. But Star Trek: Enterprise takes place about a hundred years earlier, despite being made more than thirty years later. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you know what you need to know for it to make sense as we go.

(*Well, not TECHNICALLY, but… you’ll see.)

How do I keep track of what I’ve watched?

Tick “Watched” on any episode or film. Your progress saves automatically, but only in your current browser.

The Your Progress page lets you mark a whole series or year at once. You can also back up your progress there to move it to another browser or device.

Can I print the list?

Yes. The checklist page lets you print the whole guide or just one chapter as a list of tick boxes. You can also leave out anything you’ve already watched.

Does Star Trek even HAVE a consistent timeline?

Yes!

Mostly.

Sort of. Kind of depends on how closely you’re looking.

Star Trek has been around since 1966, with generations of writers trying to maintain a coherent fictional history. And the broad strokes fit together SURPRISINGLY well.

The details? Well, that’s another matter.

Wars happen on dates that no longer make sense. Characters contradict things they said in earlier episodes. Technology advances, then mysteriously regresses. Romulans and Klingons practically swap personalities between the 1960s and the 1980s.

And that’s before time travel, alternate realities, and the occasional full-on error.

Even so, Trek’s history is consistent enough to make a chronological viewing guide possible, and interesting. Watching events unfold in order reveals connections, parallels, and consequences you might miss when watching the shows separately.

My goal is to respect the established timeline wherever possible, make reasonable judgment calls when things get messy, and occasionally throw up my hands and do the best I can. After all, isn’t that the fun part?

How do you handle time-travel episodes?

Generally, I put them where the framing story takes place: the characters’ “present,” rather than whatever time they travel to. Watching them in their destination years might be an interesting experiment, but it would also be insanely confusing.

What if you just plain don’t KNOW when a story takes place?

Sometimes the only real option is an educated guess. Most of Star Trek hangs together if you take a big-picture view, but occasionally you just have to say, “Yeah, this is the best I could figure out.” I try to point those cases out in the commentary.

Why are episodes numbered the way they are?

I mostly follow the episode numbering on Paramount+. Some of those aren’t the choices I’d make myself, but consistency seemed like a virtue.

Why aren’t novels, comics, and fan films in the guide?

Because the question for this guide isn’t “Do I like it?” It’s “Is it considered part of Trek continuity?”

There’s a huge amount of incredible non-canon Trek: novels like Diane Duane’s Spock’s World and John M. Ford’s The Final Reflection; articles and stories in zines like Trek and T-Negative; decades of comics from publishers like Marvel; and games like the influential FASA RPG from the 1980s.

There are also some shockingly well-made fan films and continuations. My personal favorite shall remain unnamed, as its main creator turned out to be a sex pest, but still.

Then there’s Very Short Treks, which came from the Star Trek industrial complex itself but is explicitly non-canon. Not to be confused with Short Treks, which IS canon.

A lot of this stuff is well worth exploring, and I’d personally recommend plenty of it. But this guide is a journey through Trek continuity, so being good isn’t enough to get something onto the list. Some things have debatable status, but these are simply undeniably non-canon.

What about Star Trek: Khan and Star Trek: Scouts?

These are officially produced Trek stories that sit outside the usual “TV and movies” rule of thumb. Khan is a scripted podcast with a framing story around 2293 and flashbacks to 2267–68. Scouts is a series of YouTube shorts for preschoolers that seems to take place in the mid-to-late 24th century.

Khan’s co-writer Kirsten Beyer has said that the people currently working on Star Trek are treating it as canon, but until something onscreen confirms or contradicts it, its hard to say. Scouts is even less clear to me as, I mean, it’s for preschoolers. Though I do enjoy the fan theory that JR is a young Commander Jack Ransom from Lower Decks.

I mention both in the viewing order so they’re on your radar, but I’ve decided against breaking them down into episodes or treating them as full members of this guide’s timeline. For now at least.

Is this just AI slop?

Oh no, it’s 100% human slop. The synopses and pictures come from official sources, but the commentary and viewing-order decisions are all mine. :-)

How often do you update this thing?

The current site design makes it much easier for me to add new episodes pretty quickly after they air, so that is my goal.

There’s also a lot more room for commentary as well, so I plan to keep expanding that over time. But everything you NEED to know to enjoy the journey is already here. Enjoy!

I disagree with your order. Are we going to have a problem?

Not at all! I’d LOVE to hear your case for where I’ve gone wrong. It happens, despite my best intentions, and emails from readers have definitely led to adjustments to the guide.

But we can all agree that New Trek is too woke, right?

Oh my god, shut the fuck up.

Can I give you money for this insane pandemic project-gone-mad?

While I appreciate the fully automated luxury gay space communism of Star Trek, here in the 21st century I have two small children and a mortgage. If you find the site helpful and want to contribute, far be it from me to argue. If you’d rather not, that’s okay too. The site is for everyone.