I have seen a few timelines proposed on this sub for the sequential order of episodes of Black Mirror. This is difficult to do as the technology featured does not seem to have an obvious continuity, and the Black Mirror universe uses subtle Easter eggs rather than overarching plots to tie in episodes with one another.

With that said, here is my timeline, along with some analyses on what is going on in the world at the time. Rather than attempt to number every episode, I have decided to group episodes into eras. The order of episodes which share an era will not always be definitive. This timeline also relies on some non-canon extrapolation, but to the best of my knowledge, my timeline does not contradict any established canon.

The Modern Era

This era is characterized by present day tech.

1. The National Anthem, Shut up and Dance

2. The Waldo Moment

These three episodes do not rely on hypothetical future technology. The only problem Waldo presents for the timeline is the ending, that Jaime wakes up in a seemingly dystopian future. Jaime does not appear to have aged much, so we can assume it is only a few years later.

I theorize that Waldo was a passing fad. While many powerful people did exploit it, I think that they were not successful in the long term using Waldo as a means of population control. The city in the ending scene certainly looks futuristic, but ultimately we don't see anything more than armored police and a lot of screens. Perhaps this time was a brief period of unrest, but society resumed looking relatively normal shortly after.

The Postmodern Era

This era is characterized by near future tech.

3. Playtest, White Bear

These two episodes show near future tech. White Bear is nearly possible in the real world now, assuming we could perfect a technique for inducing the desired amount of retrograde amnesia required to continually make Victoria accept the fiction.

In Playtest, Cooper dies in the moment he tests the gopher game, so the tech did not necessarily have to be advance enough for the horror game Cooper played, which was a time dilated experience Cooper had in his own head as all his "synapses lit up all at once." Tech required for a virtual reality uploaded to someone's brain may be far off in the real world, but it seems closer than the tech featured in all other episodes.

4. Hated in the Nation

It is interesting to note that in this episode, the UK has a Chancellor rather than a Prime Minister. This could be indicative of a political shift that started in the Waldo era, or it might be what came after the Waldo era once the UK became stable again after whatever unrest in Waldo caused armored police to prowl the street. However, the UK may still be a relatively normal democracy at this point: Chancellor and Prime Minister are comparable positions with different names.

The Augmentation Era

This era is characterized by early transhumanism and a comprehensive understanding of the human brain which allows for the tech featured.

5. Crocodile

This episodes features the most primitive tech of the era.

6. Arkangel

This is a precursor to the more advanced grain tech in The Entire History of You.

7. Be Right Back

Be Right Back is one of the most difficult episodes to place, as it requires very advanced robotics technology, but it certainly predates sentient cookies and simulation tech. I believe this episode fits within the Augmentation Era, but I'm not sure where. But because of how realistic and dynamic Ash is, I have decided this happens right before the UK embraces grains.

8. The Entire History of You

This is the peak of the augmentation era. This happens at least several decades after Krokodil and Arkangel, as there are children who have had grains long enough that they are using them to sue their parents for insufficient attention. I also am going to make two guesses: One, that many people do not have grains (they are not mandatory and all the people featured in The Entire History of You are upper-middle class, they might not be available to poorer people.) Two, grains were eventually done away with. And from here we enter:

The Simulation Era

I have chosen to place this era here and use it to categorize two episodes which are very difficult to place on the timeline.

9. Hang the DJ, 15 Million Merits

The placement of 15 Million Merits here is probably going to be the most controversial thing on this timeline, because I am contending that 15 Million Merits was a simulation. Two reasons for this: One, in Black Museum, 15 million merits is a story that is read in a graphic novel which shows Bing with the shard of glass at his throat. Two, it’s just an absurd world, and in my opinion, too absurd to be real. The use of the bicycles implies not only an energy crisis but that humans despite advancement have not only run out of fossil fuels but are no longer able to exploit solar, wind, nuclear or any other kind of power. And yet for the primitive technique of creating energy by pedaling, screens are everywhere, sucking up a lot of this supposedly vital energy that everyone pedals so hard for. What the purpose of this stimulation was is unknown. If you disagree with the simulation theory and think 15 Million Merits is real, then it’s the furthest into the future.

I am placing Hang the DJ before all cookie featuring episodes, and the reason for this is the assumption that the sims are not actually sentient. As they lose time and can’t remember where they were before, I think that the length of the episode, around 50 minutes, is actually the length of a “lifetime” in the sim and that nothing we didn’t see happened to the sims. These two episodes are by far the most difficult to place, since placing them relies on several assumptions.

The Cookie Era

This era is characterized by the creation of sentient cookies.

10. White Christmas, San Junipero, USS Callister, Black Museum,

Placing these episodes in any kind of sequence is difficult, but I think they all happen within a short time of one another – the time frame between Rolo Haynes’ transition from his neuroscience job to his death in the Black Museum.

The Era of the Beautiful People

This ironically named era is the furthest into the future.

11. Nosedive, Metalhead, Men Against Fire,

I theorize that the events of these episodes happen at about the same time. The world of Nosedive is the world of the beautiful people, those who are left in proper society after all the roaches were thrown out or killed. Civilians are augmented with the rating system while soldiers are augmented with Mass. At this point, we have entered a totalitarian and brutal world. While an international military hunts roaches, civilians do not have to be overtly controlled by the government because they control each other via ratings instead, as they live in a world where one’s rating affects every aspect of their life.

What about Metalhead? I propose it is not an apocalypse, but rather that all the humans seen in Metalhead are roaches and the dogs are military equipment designed to hunt them down and kill them. Perhaps the place in Metalhead is an area in which roaches were successful in waging a prolonged guerilla war. The military found it too costly to outright conquer this area, so they instead sent dogs to kill everyone.

And that’s the timeline. I want to emphasize again that the placing of Hang the DJ and 15 Million Merits are debatable, as is the question of whether 15 Million Merits takes place in the physical world and whether the sims in Hang the DJ are sentient. I hope you enjoyed reading. Feel free to offer your take and where each episode should be in the timeline.

My choices: White Christmas, San Junipero, Shut Up and Dance, White Bear, Nosedive

So lets try and put the episodes in chronological order. I like the believe all the episodes are related within the Black Mirror Universe. So here we go starting from earliest to latest. Currently listening a little bit drunk mind you to "Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax" and "Tangerine Dream - Love On A Real Train"

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Possible Now:

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First episode thus far in the series:

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National anthem: Completely possible right now with our current technology. I think there is a reason for this episode being first and pilot episode

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Shut up and Dance: Completely possible right now. Remote desktop applications are readily available. Someone remaining anonymous online could do such a thing especially to dumb Windows OS users. All you need is a vulnerable mark.

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The Waldo Moment: Waldo is completely and totally possible right now. I AM WALDO

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Next step: our species needs to advance to in order to continue along the Black Mirror path is:

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Hated in the nation: We start using AI bees to save our species and keep mother nature in balance

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Be Right Back: We start dabbling into using AI to replicate learning based on a persons social media, information that they share, etc

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We start using the technology where you can record ALL interactions via an implanted chip that basically makes a backup copy our interactions and rate each other using said technology.

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Nosedive:

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The Entire History of You

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Arkangel:

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Crocodile:

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Hang The DJ: Love is illogical and can't be systematically selected based on what is logical

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AI Rebels and the writing is on the wall: We're too vested though and can't turn back :(

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Metalhead: This is a preview of how robots and AI will eventually enslave us. AI and Biological intelligence will become so entangled you won't know who is human or AI anymore

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Biological Religion fights against AI but fails:

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Men Against Fire: We show that biological / religious fanatics try and thwart the AI threat but are unable to. Here the enemy is shown as an actual plague even though it's just computer programming showing that the enemy is actually human, just have opposing views so the AI has to create an obvious enemy so the soldiers can adequately annihilate said enemy.

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Biology Fails / Prelude to "cookies" and the technology and failures leading to creating "cookies"

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Playtest: We are able to clone biological consciousness and replicate it via "cookies:

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White Bear: Questions our morality. Are we punishing this woman or just have her on display ?

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White Christmas: Similar scenario dealing with morality and justice for AI / cookies / our consciousness

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San Junipero: Would you rather biologically die and face the unknown or live in supposed eternal bliss as a cookie ?

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USS Callister: All he needs is a DNA sample and with that can compile it to an AI cookie consciousness

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Black Museum: A great chronological ranking of the technology in the Black Mirror Universe. Ends with revenge against the museum curator who basically put the convicted "victim" on display and tortures him as a cookie.

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Last episode in series:

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Fifteen Million Merits: How amazing that the second episode in the series is the most technologically advanced episode thus far in the series. Do we know if the main character is AI or biological ? The future sure does seem bleak if that's the best we have to offer.

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Plot twist: Bandersnatch What's the difference between AI and Biological intelligence ? How can you tell one from another at this point ?

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My opinion: This is the best most thought provoking TV show ever created. You're an artistic genius Charlie Brooker

I don't think we will ever be able to achieve the technology past Next Step:

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Our species resource constructs and God paradoxes make it impossible. I enjoy fantasizing about the possibilities though.

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I’ve been selectively watching black mirror episodes, and I want to ask if there have been any episode with a happy or at least a feel good ending?

As a fan, here's what I would do:

• I'd have it be a 74 minute long special just like White Christmas that's called London Eve with it being a twisted fight for survival type of visceral story with technology infused into it as even though it's somewhat large in scale, I still want it to feel very grounded and real like maybe this could actually happen like most of the best Black Mirror episodes do especially its first four seasons.

• Black Mirror: London Eve is about three different groups of Americans in London who through a terrible turn of events all end up becoming intertwined in an intense and high stake fight to survive. The three groups are a documentary crew led by an award-winning filmmaker, a family touring there as the oldest daughter has been accepted into a prestigious college in where else London and a top of the line police detective who's just been recently transferred there on a series of mysterious murders unearthed. But what are said turn of events and fight to survive — the former two end up becoming terrorized by a group of sociopathic upper class hunters who decide to use them for their latest Most Dangerous Game-type of hunt in the wild with the detective coming right into it as he discovers the crimes he's investigating are in fact directly connected to this sick group.

• The four leads will be played by Cary Elwes, Lee Tergesen, Julianne Moore and Jay Karnes with the psychopathic and demented main antagonist being played by none other than Jack Gleeson. Elwes is the eccentric one, Tergesen and Moore are what gives it heart, Karnes is the deadpan one and Gleeson is the calculating one who when crossed, loses it.

• The directors that I've got on what is basically whatever they call a shortlist are Nia DaCosta, Jaume Collet-Serra, Brad Anderson, Gareth Evans and last but definitely not least Neil Jordan. Each have their own strengths that can perfectly apply or fit with Black Mirror.

&

• Last but not least, we will actually have a shared universe connection. It turns out at the end which I can only describe it as a bigger version of the ending to Eden Lake only with a "... and the hunt goes on" bittersweet type of deal, Jack Gleeson's character is both the Prince of the royal family and the brother of Princess Susannah from the series' very first episode The National Anthem who like the rest falls for her brother's lies hook, line and sinker showing that it turns out she wasn't worth saving or fucking a pig for at all.

• 1 - 2 : ★★★★★
• 3 - 12 : ★★★★.5
• 13 - 22 : ★★★★
• 23 - 27 : ★★★.5
• 28 : ★★★
• 29 : ★★.5
• 30 : ★★
• 31 - 32 : ★.5

note: I already had the list made on Letterboxxd and didn't want to bother remaking it on Serializd, so I'm sharing the LB one