Final Frontier | The Logic of Star Trek: Part 2

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2.1 What are stardates?

Oh, God. You had to ask, didn't you?

Stardates form quite possibly the most complex nagging problem in the history of complex nagging Star Trek problems. However, they only do this if you think about them too much. Principally, their function is to remind the viewer that he or she is watching a show which is taking place in the future. It's definitely best just to think of them in those terms.

Alternatively, of course, it's fun to play around with stardates and see what you can make of them and if it is possible to get any sense out of them. Bizarrely, and quite unexpectedly, it is possible, although problems inevitably arise - especially involving the dating of the first six Star Trek feature films and of certain episodes in the spin-off series. For the purpose of creating a coherent Final Frontier Star Trek chronology (available at the DTI page, link left), some convoluted reasoning resulted in the following being concluded.

Referring once again to the "Star Trek Chronology", Michael and Denise Okuda quote Gene Roddenberry in Stephen Whitfield's "The Making of Star Trek" as saying that stardates

"adjust for shifts in relative time which occur due to the vessel's speed and space warp capability".

Further,

"the stardate specified in the log entry must be computed against the speed of the vessel, the space warp, and its position within our galaxy in order to get a meaningful reading."

Basically, this means that if starships are moving at different rates of warp speed across space, and they are moving faster than light, then they could conceiveably 'lose time' compared with other ships and bases. This would result in the need for a standardised system of timekeeping much like the Greenwich Meridian here on planet Earth. Thus, stardates.

As a sidebar, it is interesting to note that pages 200-205 of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens' DS9 novel "Millennium, Book II: The War of the Prophets" has a duologue regarding the nature of stardates, one which is as good an explanation as any for their establishment and purpose.

2.2 The Original Series and Star Trek: Animated

So, stardates explained? Not quite. If the timeline of the original series runs according to the parameters of the U.S.S. Enterprise's five-year mission of 2266-2270, then stardates given by Kirk in his logs refer only to the position of the Enterprise within those confines. The five years are broken down into units of 1000 (i.e., 2266 progresses from 1000 to 1999; 2267 from 2000 to 2999, etc.). For example, "Balance of Terror" (stardate 1709) would take place around September 2266; "The Squire of Gothos" (stardate 2124) would be around February 2267; and so on. Unless the Federation has adopted the Enterprise's timekeeping system for the entirety of known space, we cannot use stardates as the basis for a universal calendar. But that's not necessary in terms of just TOS and TAS. In those terms, then, stardates in the original and animated series can be translated into standard calendar years thus:

Stardates 1000-1999: 2266 (first year of five-year mission)
Stardates 2000-2999: 2267
Stardates 3000-3999: 2268
Stardates 4000-4999: 2269
Stardates 5000-5999: 2270 (last year of five-year mission)
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Stardates 6000-6999: 2271 (first year of two-year mission extension)
Stardates 7000-7999: 2272 (second year of two-year mission extension)

2.3 Star Treks I - VI

This is the point where all the careful reasoning goes to pot.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture has a stardate of 7412.6. According to the system established above, this should place it in 2272. This is clearly impossible for several reasons, the chief of which is Commander Will Decker's line that Kirk has not seen active duty in two and a half years, since he was promoted to CEO, Starfleet Operations after the conclusion of the Enterprise's tour of duty. This places ST:TMP firmly in 2275. How to reconcile the conflicting dates?

(Here's the good bit. Concentrate, there'll be a test later.)

The reconciling of the two dates involves a number of conjectural orders from Starfleet. Firstly, at the time of the granting of the two-year extension to the Enterprise's five-year mission, Starfleet adopted that vessel's timekeeping system for the whole fleet. (Remember that that tour of duty is considered legendary in later films and series. This therefore seems logical, considering that Starfleet adopts the Enterprise symbol for the whole fleet after The Motion Picture.)

Secondly, there is a stardate recalibration ordered by Command. In December 2274, the stardates reach the 9999 point:

Stardates 8000-8999: 2273
Stardates 9000-9999: 2274

Starfleet orders that the stardates be remodelled so that a 6 month period is represented by a turnover of the second digit in a stardate. The stardates will begin at 7400 after the year in which the change was ordered. I.e.:

Stardates 7400-7499: January - June, 2275
Stardates 7500-7599: July - December, 2275
Stardates 7600-7699: January - June, 2276
Stardates 7700-7799: July - December, 2276
Stardates 7800-7899: January - June, 2277
Stardates 7900-7999: July - December, 2277

Star Trek: The Motion Picture's stardate of 7412 now places it in January 2275.

Depressingly, Star Trek II's stardate (8130) is inconsistent with this system, as are those of Star Trek III (8210), Star Trek IV (8390) and Star Trek V (8454). This calls for another stardate recalibration (Starfleet must have a very bad timekeeping department). Specifically, in January 2278, when the stardate system reaches the 8000 mark, Starfleet orders that a thousand unit progression will once again represent one calendar year. I.e.:

Stardates 8000-8999: 2278
Stardates 8100-8199: 2279
Stardates 8200-8299: 2280
Stardates 8300-8399: 2281
Stardates 8400-8499: 2282 and so on until stardates 9500-9599, representing the year 2293. Accordingly, Star Treks II through V are placed in:

STII: 2279
STIII: 2280
STIV: 2281
STV: 2282

There's a neat tie-in with the DS9 episode "Homefront" here. In that instalment, when UFP President Jaresh-Inyo refers to the fact that there hasn't been an Earth-wide emergency in "almost a century", he could easily be referring to the events of Star Trek IV - "Homefront" is set in 2372, almost a century after 2281.

The events of Star Trek VI take place on stardate 9521, placing it in the year 2293. This ties in with McCoy's line in the film that he has been associated with the Enterprise for 27 years - since 2266!

2.4 The Next Generation-era dating

For the spin-offs, an entirely different stardate system has been instituted - one which is far more stable and throws up nowhere near as many problems (and certainly has no irreconcilable ones). The pilot episode of The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint", has a stardate of 41153.7. All of the episodes of the first season have a stardate in the 41000-41999 range (although nowhere near in order - see section 2.5) and the episode "The Neutral Zone" establishes that the current calendar year is 2364. As all of the episodes of the second season have stardates in the 42000-42999 range, it is easy to state that they all take place in 2365, the third season in 2366 and so on, right the way through to the seventh series of Voyager (2377).

In creating the new system for TNG, Roddenberry chose a five-digit number to underline the fact that a good deal of time had passed since the original series, and chose 4 as the first digit simply because the series was set in the 24th century. Despite this, the stardates crossed the 50000 point with "Basics, Part II" in Voyager's third season and, working backwards, it's possible to state that Starfleet instituted this new method of stardate keeping on 1 January 2323. The webmaster wouldn't even like to speculate on what Starfleet did for stardates between 2298 and 2323, and begs no-one to ask.

2.5 Problems arising from TNG-era stardates

There are but a few anomalies arising from the TNG-DS9-Voyager system of stardates, mostly relating to the order of episodes.

1. The first season of The Next Generation (2364) is quite jumbled as regards stardates. In the Final Frontier timeline, the episodes have been arranged in stardate order. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if not for the fact that Tasha Yar rather inconveniently dies in "Skin of Evil" (stardate 41601), placing the events of that episode before other instalments in which she is still alive, specifically "The Battle", "The Big Goodbye", "Angel One" and "The Arsenal of Freedom". In order to reconcie this, the FInal Frontier timeline regards the "Skin of Evil" stardate as erroneous and moves the episode to the end of the season (necessary due to the 41997 stardate of "The Big Goodbye"). For those episodes that Tasha is absent, Worf is acting security chief, and we assume that Tasha is unfit for duty, off-ship, or on leave. (As for the stardate, either Picard has his facts wrong or the computer played back a duff log entry.)

2. The second, rather more minor, problem with stardates in the spin-offs occurs with the second season Voyager episodes "Lifesigns" (stardate 49504) and "Investigations" (stardate 49485). In "Investigations", the treacherous Jonas is killed by Neelix, but he is seen to be alive in "Lifesigns", even though that episode has a 'later' stardate. I rationalise that Janeway read her date incorrectly, and so have altered the stardate from 49485 to 49585.

3. The third problem occurs with the dating of the eighth feature film, Star Trek: First Contact. In the US, First Contact came out in cinemas before the airing of the DS9 episode "In Purgatory's Shadow". In that episode, Captain Sisko refers to "the recent Borg attack", in a line intended to refer to the film. When placed in stardate order, however, First Contact happens after the events of "In Purgatory's Shadow" - so Sisko must be referring to another Borg attack.

Well, bet you're glad you wanted to know about stardates, aren't you? Please, just use them as a reminder that you're in the future ...

The Logic of Star Trek: Part 2
Stardates

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