Star Dates
- Thread starter Carrjan
- Start date
I've never dated any stars so why would I care about them?Honestly...I never cared about the star date
I hear they're hot.I've never dated any stars so why would I care about them?
Roddenberry used Stardates because he didn't want TOS to be any specific future date, Basically it took place sometime in the future. Also it would be absurd for Federation to use the Gregorian Calendar which is based on one religion of one of its planets. Even a united Earth probably will come up with a new calendar.
But once Roddenberry was gone writers started using the Gregorian Calendar which reached the highest point of absurdity in a VOY episode where a Romulan dude mentioned a Gregorian date (the episode where they were able to communicate with Alpha quadrant via a mini wormhole).
But once Roddenberry was gone writers started using the Gregorian Calendar which reached the highest point of absurdity in a VOY episode where a Romulan dude mentioned a Gregorian date (the episode where they were able to communicate with Alpha quadrant via a mini wormhole).
Must be from the Romulan Catholic Church.
I've not checked this at all recently, but my memory is that if you watch TOS in production order, rather than airdate order, the Stardates do go up from episode to episode.
My personal headcanon also back-ports the idea that 1,000 Stardates is a Standard Year, as established in TNG. I explain the very small numbers in TOS by saying it took a long time for the Federation to settle on a common calendar and time system. That's the sort of thing that real diplomats and bureaucrats can get very hung up on, after all.
I go back and forth on the question of whether or not a Standard Year is an Earth Year. The quote above suggests that 1 SD is supposed to be 1 Standard Day, which would either make a Standard Year close to 3 Earth Years long or make a Standard Day a little under 9 Earth Hours long.
If we say that the Standard Year is, indeed, the same as an Earth Year, that makes 1 SD 8.77 Earth Hours long, and makes the 0.1 SD or Standard Hour 52.6 Earth Minutes long. That's not horrible, but if we say that the Standard Hour is 50 Earth Minutes long, and that the Standard Day is 30 Standard Hours or 3 SDs long, then the Standard Day works out to 1,500 Earth Minutes which is 25 Earth Hours. In my headcanon, 25 Earth Hours is a reasonable compromise between Earth, Andor, Vulcan, and Tellar's days. This makes the Standard Year 347 Earth Days, 4 Earth Hours, and 48 Earth Minutes long, which is close enough to an Earth Year that it doesn't muck up the storytelling much but also moves the Federation away from "everything is based off Earth norms." Which I like.
Mostly. From Trek Core
|
Ep  | Title | Prod  | Airdate | Stardate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1x00 | The Cage | 001 | 1988-10-04 | Unknown |
| 1x03 | Where No Man Has Gone Before | 002 | 1966-09-22 | 1312.4 |
| 1x10 | The Corbomite Maneuver | 003 | 1966-11-10 | 1512.2 |
| 1x06 | Mudd's Women | 004 | 1966-10-13 | 1329.1 |
| 1x05 | The Enemy Within | 005 | 1966-10-06 | 1672.1 |
| 1x01 | The Man Trap | 006 | 1966-09-08 | 1513.1 |
| 1x04 | The Naked Time | 007 | 1966-09-29 | 1704.2 |
| 1x02 | Charlie X | 008 | 1966-09-15 | 1533.6 |
| 1x14 | Balance of Terror | 009 | 1966-12-13 | 1709.2 |
| 1x07 | What Are Little Girls Made Of? | 010 | 1966-10-20 | 2712.4 |
| 1x09 | Dagger of the Mind | 011 | 1966-11-03 | 2715.1 |
| 1x08 | Miri | 012 | 1966-10-27 | 2713.5 |
| 1x13 | The Conscience of the King | 013 | 1966-12-08 | 2817.6 |
| 1x16 | The Galileo Seven | 014 | 1967-01-05 | 2821.5 |
| 1x20 | Court Martial | 015 | 1967-02-02 | 2947.3 |
| 1x11 | The Menagerie, Part 1 | 016 | 1966-11-17 | 3012.4 |
| 1x12 | The Menagerie, Part 2 | 016 | 1966-11-24 | 3013.1 |
| 1x15 | Shore Leave | 017 | 1966-12-29 | 3025.3 |
| 1x17 | The Squire of Gothos | 018 | 1967-01-12 | 2124.5 |
| 1x18 | Arena | 019 | 1967-01-19 | 3045.6 |
| 1x27 | The Alternative Factor | 020 | 1967-03-30 | 3087.6 |
| 1x19 | Tomorrow is Yesterday | 021 | 1967-01-26 | 3113.2 |
| 1x21 | The Return of the Archons | 022 | 1967-02-09 | 3156.2 |
| 1x23 | A Taste of Armageddon | 023 | 1967-02-23 | 3192.1 |
| 1x22 | Space Seed | 024 | 1967-02-16 | 3141.9 |
| 1x24 | This Side of Paradise | 025 | 1967-03-02 | 3417.3 |
| 1x25 | The Devil in the Dark | 026 | 1967-03-09 | 3196.1 |
| 1x26 | Errand of Mercy | 027 | 1967-03-23 | 3198.4 |
| 1x28 | The City on the Edge of Forever | 028 | 1967-04-06 | 3134.0 |
| 1x29 | Operation: Annihilate! | 029 | 1967-04-13 | 3287.2 |
Attachments
Ep | Title | Prod | Airdate | Stardate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2x07 | Catspaw | 030 | 1967-10-27 | 3018.2 |
| 2x09 | Metamorphosis | 031 | 1967-11-10 | 3219.8 |
| 2x11 | Friday's Child | 032 | 1967-12-01 | 3497.2 |
| 2x02 | Who Mourns for Adonais? | 033 | 1967-09-22 | 3468.1 |
| 2x01 | Amok Time | 034 | 1967-09-15 | 3372.7 |
| 2x06 | The Doomsday Machine | 035 | 1967-10-20 | 4202.9 |
| 2x14 | Wolf in the Fold | 036 | 1967-12-22 | 3614.9 |
| 2x03 | The Changeling | 037 | 1967-09-29 | 3451.9 |
| 2x05 | The Apple | 038 | 1967-10-13 | 3715.3 |
| 2x04 | Mirror, Mirror | 039 | 1967-10-06 | Unknown |
| 2x12 | The Deadly Years | 040 | 1967-12-08 | 3478.2 |
| 2x08 | I, Mudd | 041 | 1967-11-03 | 4513.3 |
| 2x15 | The Trouble With Tribbles | 042 | 1967-12-29 | 4523.3 |
| 2x25 | Bread and Circuses | 043 | 1968-03-15 | 4040.7 |
| 2x10 | Journey to Babel | 044 | 1967-11-17 | 3842.3 |
| 2x19 | A Private Little War | 045 | 1968-02-02 | 4211.4 |
| 2x16 | The Gamesters of Triskelion | 046 | 1968-01-05 | 3211.7 |
| 2x13 | Obsession | 047 | 1967-12-15 | 3619.2 |
| 2x18 | The Immunity Syndrome | 048 | 1968-01-19 | 4307.1 |
| 2x17 | A Piece of the Action | 049 | 1968-01-12 | 4598.0 |
| 2x22 | By Any Other Name | 050 | 1968-02-23 | 4657.4 |
| 2x20 | Return to Tomorrow | 051 | 1968-02-09 | 4768.3 |
| 2x21 | Patterns of Force | 052 | 1968-02-16 | 2534.0 |
| 2x24 | The Ultimate Computer | 053 | 1968-03-08 | 4729.4 |
| 2x23 | The Omega Glory | 054 | 1968-03-01 | Unknown |
| 2x26 | Assignment: Earth | 055 | 1968-03-29 | Unknown |
Ep | Title | Prod | Airdate | Stardate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3x06 | Spectre of the Gun | 056 | 1968-09-20 | 4385.3 |
| 3x13 | Elaan of Troyius | 057 | 1968-11-29 | 4372.5 |
| 3x03 | The Paradise Syndrome | 058 | 1968-10-04 | 4842.6 |
| 3x02 | The Enterprise Incident | 059 | 1968-12-20 | 5027.3 |
| 3x04 | And the Children Shall Lead | 060 | 1968-09-27 | 5029.5 |
| 3x01 | Spock's Brain | 061 | 1968-10-25 | 5431.4 |
| 3x05 | Is There In Truth No Beauty? | 062 | 1968-10-11 | 5630.7 |
| 3x12 | The Empath | 063 | 1968-11-22 | 5121.5 |
| 3x09 | The Tholian Web | 064 | 1968-11-15 | 5693.2 |
| 3x08 | For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky | 065 | 1968-12-06 | 5476.3 |
| 3x07 | Day of the Dove | 066 | 1968-10-18 | Unknown |
| 3x10 | Plato's Stepchildren | 067 | 1968-11-08 | 5784.2 |
| 3x11 | Wink of an Eye | 068 | 1968-11-01 | 5710.5 |
| 3x17 | That Which Survives | 069 | 1969-01-17 | 5725.3 |
| 3x15 | Let That Be Your Last Battlefield | 070 | 1969-01-10 | 5423.4 |
| 3x14 | Whom Gods Destroy | 071 | 1969-01-24 | 5730.2 |
| 3x16 | The Mark of Gideon | 072 | 1969-01-03 | Unknown |
| 3x18 | The Lights of Zetar | 073 | 1969-01-31 | 5843.7 |
| 3x21 | The Cloud Minders | 074 | 1969-02-14 | 5818.4 |
| 3x20 | The Way to Eden | 075 | 1969-02-21 | 5906.4 |
| 3x19 | Requiem for Methuselah | 076 | 1969-02-28 | 5832.3 |
| 3x22 | The Savage Curtain | 077 | 1969-03-07 | 5906.4 |
| 3x23 | All Our Yesterdays | 078 | 1969-03-14 | 5943.7 |
| 3x24 | Turnabout Intruder | 079 | 1969-06-03 | 5928.5 |
Ah, so my memory is wrong. They're close though, enough so that I wonder if they'd be in order if we knew which script was started when.
IIRC, Mudd's Women, Charlie X and the Omega Glory were early episode ideas.
And of course, if you watch TOS by stardate order, Chekov was already on the Enterprise when Khan arrived.
It also spells out the whole plot of the Temporal cold war if you substitute letters for numbers at the correct intervals.
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