Introduction

(This article is a “sequel” to “Numbers, Shmumbers: Season and Episode Numbers in Voltron: Defender of the Universe,”  which was published to this website in 2019.)

This article was written in 2026, the tenth-anniversary year of VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER. 2026 and ten are momentous numbers for this great show, and to celebrate, I thought I’d share some more numbers – production numbers from episodes of the show.

What Is a Production Number?

A production number is a unique and persistent identifier for a given episode. It allows the production team to refer to an episode in a consistent way.

Episode titles can change throughout preproduction, production, and even postproduction. For example, in the original STAR TREK, the episode “The Corbomite Maneuver” had the working title of “Danger Zone.”

The sequence of episodes can change as well. Returning to the original STAR TREK, the episode “The Man Trap” was the eighth episode to be produced, but it was the first episode to air.

The sequence of episodes’ production numbers doesn’t always correspond with the intended “narrative sequence” of the episodes. The Star Trek franchise provides an example of this phenomenon, too. Actor Leonard Nimoy guest-starred in a two consecutive episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Due to Nimoy’s busy schedule, those episodes — “Unification I” and “Unification II” — were filmed in reverse order. “Unification I” takes place before “Unification II,” but because of the swapped production schedule, the production number of “Unification I” (40275-208) is higher than that of “Unification II” (40275-207).

In general, production numbers aren’t shared outside production offices. They aren’t a secret; they just aren’t that interesting to most people. They are of interest to me, which is I decided to try to learn the production numbers of all episodes of VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER. This has not been an easy task, and unfortunately, as of this writing, it is also not a finished task.

Sources

My sources for VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER episodes’ production numbers are listed below.

Form Podcast

The first source of production number information that I found was Form Podcast, produced by Nerdist and hosted by Kyle Anderson. In 2018, Form Podcast reviewed episodes from the first through fourth seasons of VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER alongside guests who worked on the show. Podcast episodes that provided VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER production number information are listed below.

• Episode 1 featured guests Joaquim Dos Santos and reviewed “The Rise of Voltron.” This podcast episode also revealed that “The Rise of Voltron” had been produced as three episodes: “The New Alliance,” “From Days of Long Ago,” and “Defenders of the Universe.” The production number of “The New Alliance” was revealed to be 101, and it was stated that the three episodes were produced together, suggesting that the production numbers of “From Days of Long Ago” and “Defenders of the Universe” are 102 and 103, respectively. This podcast episode also strongly implied, but did not state outright, that the production number of “Crystal Venom” is 111.
• Episode 9 featured guests Eugene Lee, Lauren Montgomery, Christie Tseng, and Anthony Wu, and it reviewed “Crystal Venom.” This podcast episode also revealed the production number of “The Legend Begins” to be 207.
• Episode 25 featured guests Joaquim Dos Santos and reviewed “Changing of the Guard.” This podcast episode strongly implied that the production number of “Changing of the Guard” is 201, and it strongly implied that the production number of “A Little Adventure” is 301. The episode also revealed that VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER was produced in three production seasons or blocks, each containing 26 episodes. In general, episodes of the first production season have production numbers 101 through 126, episodes of the second production season have production numbers 201 through 226, and episodes of the third production block have production numbers 301 through 326.
• Episode 28 featured guests Joaquim Dos Santos and Chris Palmer, and it reviewed “Hole in the Sky.” This podcast episode once again revealed the production number of “The Legend Begins” to be 207.
• Episode 30 featured guests Mitch Iverson and reviewed “Tailing a Comet.” This podcast episode also revealed that the production number of “Changing of the Guard” is 201.
• Episode 31 featured guests Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery and reviewed “The Legend Begins.” This podcast episode also revealed that the production number of “The Depths” is 114.
• Episode 33 featured guests Lauren Montgomery, Steve Ahn, and Mitch Iverson. This podcast episode also reviewed “Reunion” and revealed its production number to be 205.

Shamus Kelley

The second source of VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER production numbers was not a podcast, but rather a person: writer Shamus Kelley. Shamus is perhaps best known for his writing for Den of Geek. He also hosts RoboSkullCast: A Robotech Podcast with his friend Nick. I met Shamus in person at WonderCon 2017, and Shamus has been a guest in mulitple episodes of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast. Shamus is kind, insightful, and witty, and under circumstances that have to be read to be believed, Shamus acquired a collection of VOLTRON production art and related materials from some episodes of the show’s first two seasons. Shamus generously mailed some of the production art to me, and more recently he has begun to list pieces from his own collection for sale on Ebay. Shamus shared photos of some of his VOLTRON production art and materials, and analysis of those photos has revealed the production numbers of several episodes. Over time I’ll analyze more photos from his collection, as well as art from my own collection, in hopes of learning even more episodes’ production numbers.

Thanks to Shamus’ photos of his art collection, production numbers of the following episodes were revealed or confirmed:

“The New Alliance” (Production #101)

“From Days of Long Ago” (Production #102)

“Defenders of the Universe” (Production #103)

“Some Assembly Required” (Production #104)

“Return of the Gladiator” (Production #105)

“The Fall of the Castle of Lions” (Production #106)

“Return to the Balmera” (Production #109)

“Crystal Venom” (Production #111)

“Space Mall” (Production #120)

“The Blade of Marmora” (Production #121)

Benjamin Kaltenecker

The third source of VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER production numbers was line producer Benjamin Kaltenecker. In 2017, Marc Morrell and I interviewed Benjamin on Let’s Voltron: The Official Podcast in Episode #97. At VoltCon 2021, Marc and I met Benjamin in person, and interviewed him once more. Benjamin is incredibly kind and generous, and in 2026, he was kind enough to send me screen shots of spreadsheets that contained the production numbers (201-226 and 301-326) of every episode from VOLTRON’s third through eighth seasons. Thank you, Benjamin!

The Numbers

This table contains VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER episodes and their production numbers, if known. I will update this article with new information if it becomes available.

As of this writing, I do not yet know the production numbers of 16 episodes from VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER‘s first two seasons. If you have evidence of these episodes’ production numbers, then please contact me (Greg Tyler) by way of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast. Thank you!

The abbreviated column headers are as follows:

• Prod #: Production number
• Prod Seas: “Production season” number
• Ep #: Episode number according to non-Netflix sources such as Amazon and DVDs, which treat “The Rise of Voltron” as three episodes instead of one
• Nf Ep #: Episode number according to Netflix (which treats “The Rise of Voltron” as one episode instead of three)
• Seas #: Season number
• Ep # in Seas: Episode number within a season, according to non-Netflix sources
• Nf Ep # in Seas: Episode number within a season, according to Netflix
• Title: Episode title
• OAD: Original air date

Prod #	Prod Seas	Ep #	Nf Ep #	Seas #	Ep # in Seas	Nf Ep # in Seas	Title	OAD
101-103	1	N/A	1	1	N/A	1	The Rise of Voltron	2016-06-10
101	1	1	N/A	1	1	N/A	The New Alliance	2016-06-10 (as part of “Rise”)
102	1	2	N/A	1	2	N/A	From Days of Long Ago	2016-06-10 (as part of “Rise”)
103	1	3	N/A	1	3	N/A	Defenders of the Universe	2016-06-10 (as part of “Rise”)
104	1	4	2	1	4	2	Some Assembly Required	2016-06-10
105	1	5	3	1	5	3	Return of the Gladiator	2016-06-10
106	1	6	4	1	6	4	The Fall of the Castle of Lions	2016-06-10
?	1	7	5	1	7	5	Tears of the Balmera	2016-06-10
?	1	8	6	1	8	6	Taking Flight	2016-06-10
109	1	9	7	1	9	7	Return to the Balmera	2016-06-10
?	1	10	8	1	10	8	Rebirth	2016-06-10
111	1	11	9	1	11	9	Crystal Venom	2016-06-10
?	1	12	10	1	12	10	Collection and Extraction	2016-06-10
?	1	13	11	1	13	11	The Black Paladin	2016-06-10
?	1	14	12	2	1	1	Across the Universe	2017-01-20
114	1	15	13	2	2	2	The Depths	2017-01-20
?	1	16	14	2	3	3	Shiro’s Escape	2017-01-20
?	1	17	15	2	4	4	Greening the Cube	2017-01-20
?	1	18	16	2	5	5	Eye of the Storm	2017-01-20
?	1	19	17	2	6	6	The Ark of Taujeer	2017-01-20
120	1	20	18	2	7	7	Space Mall	2017-01-20
121	1	21	19	2	8	8	The Blade of Marmora	2017-01-20
?	1	22	20	2	9	9	The Belly of the Weblum	2017-01-20
?	1	23	21	2	10	10	Escape from Beta Traz	2017-01-20
?	1	24	22	2	11	11	Stayin’ Alive	2017-01-20
?	1	25	23	2	12	12	Best Laid Plans	2017-01-20
?	1	26	24	2	13	13	Blackout	2017-01-20
201	2	27	25	3	1	1	Changing of the Guard	2017-08-04
202	2	28	26	3	2	2	Red Paladin	2017-08-04
203	2	29	27	3	3	3	The Hunted	2017-08-04
204	2	30	28	3	4	4	Hole in the Sky	2017-08-04
206	2	31	29	3	5	5	The Journey	2017-08-04
208	2	32	30	3	6	6	Tailing a Comet	2017-08-04
207	2	33	31	3	7	7	The Legend Begins	2017-08-04
209	2	34	32	4	1	2	Code of Honor	2017-10-13
205	2	35	33	4	2	2	Reunion	2017-10-13
210	2	36	34	4	3	3	Black Site	2017-10-13
211	2	37	35	4	4	4	The Voltron Show!	2017-10-13
212	2	38	36	4	5	5	Begin the Blitz	2017-10-13
213	2	39	37	4	6	6	A New Defender	2017-10-13
214	2	40	38	5	1	1	The Prisoner	2018-03-02
215	2	41	39	5	2	2	Blood Duel	2018-03-02
216	2	42	40	5	3	3	Postmortem	2018-03-02
217	2	43	41	5	4	4	Kral Zera	2018-03-02
218	2	44	42	5	5	5	Bloodlines	2018-03-02
219	2	45	43	5	6	6	White Lion	2018-03-02
220	2	46	44	6	1	1	Omega Shield	2018-06-15
221	2	47	45	6	2	2	Razor’s Edge	2018-06-15
222	2	48	46	6	3	3	Monsters & Mana	2018-06-15
223	2	49	47	6	4	4	The Colony	2018-06-15
224	2	50	48	6	5	5	The Black Paladins	2018-06-15
225	2	51	49	6	6	6	All Good Things	2018-06-15
226	2	52	50	6	7	7	Defender of All Universes	2018-06-15
301	3	53	51	7	1	1	A Little Adventure	2018-08-10
302	3	54	52	7	2	2	The Road Home	2018-08-10
303	3	55	53	7	3	3	The Way Forward	2018-08-10
307	3	56	54	7	4	4	The Feud!	2018-08-10
305	3	57	55	7	5	5	The Ruins	2018-08-10
304	3	58	56	7	6	6	The Journey Within	2018-08-10
306	3	59	57	7	7	7	The Last Stand, Part 1	2018-08-10
308	3	60	58	7	8	8	The Last Stand, Part 2	2018-08-10
309	3	61	59	7	9	9	Know Your Enemy	2018-08-10
310	3	62	60	7	10	10	Heart of the Lion	2018-08-10
311	3	63	61	7	11	11	Trial by Fire	2018-08-10
312	3	64	62	7	12	12	Lions’ Pride, Part 1	2018-08-10
313	3	65	63	7	13	13	Lions’ Pride, Part 2	2018-08-10
314	3	66	64	8	1	1	Launch Date	2018-12-14
315	3	67	65	8	2	2	Shadows	2018-12-14
316	3	68	66	8	3	3	The Prisoner’s Dilemma	2018-12-14
317	3	69	67	8	4	4	Battle Scars	2018-12-14
318	3	70	68	8	5	5	The Grudge	2018-12-14
319	3	71	69	8	6	6	Genesis	2018-12-14
320	3	72	70	8	7	7	Day Forty-Seven	2018-12-14
321	3	73	71	8	8	8	Clear Day	2018-12-14
322	3	74	72	8	9	9	Knights of Light, Part 1	2018-12-14
323	3	75	73	8	10	10	Knights of Light, Part 2	2018-12-14
324	3	76	74	8	11	11	Uncharted Regions	2018-12-14
325	3	77	75	8	12	12	The Zenith	2018-12-14
326	3	78	76	8	13	13	The End is the Beginning	2018-12-14

Conclusion

VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER is a great show. I loved it as it was being released on Netflix between 2016 and 2018, and I love it now. Production numbers are a geeky peek behind the scenes into an aspect of how the show was made.