100
votes
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Suggested order for Amazon Prime Doctor Who series
Unfortunately, Amazon has made a dog's breakfast of Doctor Who, splitting up random Tennant episodes and the Christmas Specials into separate "shows" that should not be separate, splitting out various ...
- 9,634
47
votes
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What do I need to watch before watching Star Trek: Picard?
You can enjoy the show without having to watch anything in advance - as you mentioned yourself. That having said, Star Trek: Picard is dealing with a few themes that can be better understood by ...
35
votes
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Can The Malloreon be read without first reading The Belgariad?
In theory yes, but it's not recommended.
You should at least know the basic shape of events in the Belgariad before you start the Malloreon. Fortunately, many (all?) editions of the Malloreon start ...
- 136k
32
votes
Do you really need to read “The Silmarillion” before reading “The Children of Húrin”, “Beren and Lúthien” or “The Fall of Gondolin”?
It is not strictly necessary, but it is recommended
The Silmarillion gives you an overview of the First Age. The Great Tales are stories that happen in the First Age, and they correspond to chapters ...
- 96.1k
28
votes
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What do I need to watch to understand this character's history in an upcoming episode of "The Mandalorian"?
Spoilers ahead
The problem here is Ahsoka Tano is a central character to both the Clone Wars TV series, as well as Star Wars: Rebels. It's like asking which Harry Potter books explain Hermione Granger ...
- 53.7k
23
votes
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What should I watch before playing Alien: Isolation?
Isolation has no continuity with the prequels as far as I can remember. My advice to you is this:
Watch Alien, the theatrical cut.
Play Alien: Isolation.
Read Alien: Out of the Shadows, set after ...
- 8,438
22
votes
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Which films are required viewing before "Avengers: Endgame"?
As Joss Whedon said when Age of Ultron was released, Marvel works hard to try to make these very expensive crossover movies work for as large an audience as possible:
Kevin Feige and I are fanboys, ...
- 33.2k
21
votes
What is the release date order for all of Star Trek?
Here is a complete timeline of every Star Trek show and movie released to date:
1964-1967: [TOS] Season 1
1967-1968: [TOS] Season 2
1968-1969: [TOS] Season 3
1973-1974: [TAS] Season 1
1974: [TAS] ...
- 15.3k
18
votes
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Is there any crossover between Star Trek TV shows after the broadcast of Enterprise?
Yes, several. Most details are minor (for example, a minor character in Picard season 1 is of a species introduced in Discovery). There are a few big points of crossover, so I'll describe those ...
- 2,180
17
votes
Accepted
What is necessary to know before seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales?
The first three films form the trilogy of Jack, Elizabeth, and Will, which culminates in Will being turned into the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Also, at the end of the third film, Barbossa steals ...
- 20.6k
17
votes
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Can one watch Defenders without watching the previous individual shows?
According to Defenders showrunner Marco Ramirez, one of the goals of the project was to ensure that you could, indeed, watch the show without needing to watch all of the others (which amounts to some ...
- 165k
17
votes
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Do any editions of Chronicles of Narnia use the publication order numbering?
The first several "boxed set" editions all used publication order. I grew up, for example, with the Collier editions. Wikipedia strongly implies that the first publisher to use the in-universe ...
- 20.5k
15
votes
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Suggested reading order for the Solar Cycle by Gene Wolfe
(Comments indicated this question was opinion-based, but as it hasn't been closed, I'll self-answer with the results of my research (thanks to commentators for also providing some information) and ...
- 16.5k
15
votes
Accepted
How are Robin Hobb novels related to each other?
From what I have gathered, this cycle is composed by the following series
Yes, your list of series in the cycle is exhaustive. Here's a full list of all stories. In addition to what you listed, there ...
- 16.5k
14
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Can one watch Defenders without watching the previous individual shows?
You could, but you would very clearly feel like you were missing some key information.
The first few episodes set up all the characters and have enough exposition for you to figure out what's going ...
- 104k
13
votes
Which films are required viewing before "Avengers: Endgame"?
If she knows next to nothing of the MCU or Marvel in general the best course of action is to watch them all. In fact that is the best course of action anyway so you understand all of the references ...
- 144k
13
votes
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What's the recommended reading order for the books in "The Expanse" series?
The book publisher (Orbit) recommends reading them in published order.
What order should I read the series?
We recommend reading both the novels and short fiction in publication order to avoid ...
- 718k
12
votes
Accepted
What are the essential films one needs to watch before "Logan"?
Realistically, you don't need to see any of them, as long as you are aware of who Logan and Charles Xavier are and what their basic personalities are like. This movie was filmed in such a way that it'...
- 104k
12
votes
What do I need to watch before watching Star Trek: Picard?
In addition to Philipp's list, there's some other contextual episodes worth noting.
TNG S4E03 Brothers. This helps to explain
There are several inside references and jokes in PIC S1E09 and E10 that ...
- 53.7k
11
votes
About To Re-Watch The Toy Story Franchise, What is the Best Order?
The key elements of the canon are the four Toy Story movies. The additional tie-in materials fit between the various films but without altering or adding to the canon.
As such, the tie-ins can be ...
- 718k
11
votes
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How do all the short stories and graphic novels fit into the Rivers of London Timeline?
Handily the Author maintains as chronology page, which you can find here.
This falls downs a little for a reading order however, by putting the flashback Action at a Distance graphic novel and the ...
- 20.4k
11
votes
Accepted
In what order should I watch the Hunger Games films?
Movies
In brief, the cinematic release order is fine, and probably to be recommended.
The four original movies (The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 ...
- 718k
10
votes
What do I need to watch before watching Star Trek: Picard?
Aside from the answer above regarding Picard, the Borg, Seven, and androids, here are some other episodes dealing with the other big part of the show: the Romulans.
The Original Series episode "...
- 21.7k
10
votes
What to read in History of Middle-earth?
The History of Middle-earth is a twelve-volume collection of J.R.R Tolkien's unpublished manuscripts, edited and commented on by his son Christopher Tolkien.
The main goal of the series is to showcase ...
- 96.1k
10
votes
Do you really need to read “The Silmarillion” before reading “The Children of Húrin”, “Beren and Lúthien” or “The Fall of Gondolin”?
It depends on what you are looking for. If you just want to read a stand-alone story, you can read these as such. However, there's quite a bombardment of names and places, which may be confusing and ...
- 5,709
10
votes
Can Wayward Children be read in any order?
According to the author:
I enormously recommend reading in release order, as the odd numbered books are telling a linear story.
- 239k
9
votes
Can I read "Abaddon's Gate" without having read the previous books in the Expanse series?
You should read the novels in order. You'll have a MUCH better sense of what's going on and enjoy the books more, plus later books definitely contain spoilers re earlier ones.
There are a few very ...
- 555
9
votes
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Does "A Second Chance at Eden" require knowledge of "The Night's Dawn" trilogy or can it be stand-alone?
Most of the stories in the collection were first published before the Night’s Dawn trilogy, and so of course they don’t require knowledge of the trilogy. If anything, you should read it before reading ...
- 63.1k
9
votes
Reading order after "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Children of Húrin"
As you are probably aware, The Silmarillion just represents a best-effort attempt to provide a somewhat logical compilation of the various early writings, which ranged from plot outlines to nearly-...
- 3,984
8
votes
What was the original intended order of the episodes of Firefly?
I have just rewatched the whole thing and thought Trash and the Message should show before Heart Of Gold and Object in space. Reason being they stole the Lassiter in Trash and Mal made a reference to ...
- 81
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