Star Trek Chronology Notes

Stardates


Whenever possible I've added stardate references drawn from the episodes. Note that when two stardates are given they do not represent the true "upper and lower bounds" for the episode but rather the first and last stardates given.

Unaired stardates given in this version of the Chronology need some explanation, as I was reluctant to feature many of them in the first place. Stardates for "The Cage" and most birthdates of the crew (excluding Kirk's stardate of birth taken from his tombstone in "Where No Man Has Gone Before") are from the U.S.S. "Enterprise" Officers Manual. Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance was the source for the additional stardates of "City On The Edge Of Forever," "A Piece Of The Action," and "Patterns Of Force." These were never incorporated into the episodes, as far as I know. The first two episodes' stardates were also used in the Photonovels (providing an additional closing stardate for "A Piece Of The Action"), and All (including the erroneous stardate of "Beyond The Farthest Star") were used in Asherman's Star Trek Compendiums--proof of plagiarism, rather than research, on his part. The Photonovel of "Day Of The Dove" provided stardates for that episode. The novelization of "Relics" was where the stardate for the U.S.S. "Jenolen's" disappearance came from. The stardate for "The Next Phase" comes from Ro's death certificate display screen in sickbay. The stardate for "Sub Rosa" reportedly appeared Only in the closed captioning subtitles, curiously replacing the word "Supplemental." Alternate stardates for the animated episodes from Alan Dean Foster's 10 books are provided, in brackets, whenever available or not matching those in the actual aired cartoons. They're considerably more consistent, like TNG stardates, but the 1 stardate unit = 1 solar day rule does not hold up. All animated episode stardates are therefore given and the only unknown stardates for the original episodes are for "Assignment: Earth," "The Omega Glory," and "That Which Survives." The stardate for "Mirror, Mirror" curiously enough surfaced only recently in Diane Duane's "Dark Mirror" novel and in Peter David's "Q-Squared" novel--allowing for a range of stardates. The stardate for the opening of Generations is from J.M. Dillard's ridiculously overpriced book Star Trek: Where No One Has Gone Before, and is the only stardate source. Curiously enough, the TNG era stardates in this movie don't quite match those in Dillard's book, the novelization, or the nearly unaltered networked script.

Episodes in the original series, animated series, and novels do not follow sequentially. If stardates were in order, then the animated episode "The Magicks of Megas Tu" (sd. 1254.4) would precede "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (sd. 1312.4), the first episode with Kirk in command. This simply cannot be. Even in the latter episode, on Kirk's tombstone, his stardate of birth reads 1277.1 (even though his middle initial is "R" instead of "T" on the same stone). Other episodes overlap stardates. "Miri" begins at stardate 2713.5 and goes through 2717.3. "Dagger of the Mind" is from 2715.1 through 2715.2! In other instances, stardates jump back and forth in individual episodes (listen carefully to the logs in "The Enemy Within," "Spock's Brain," "Gamesters of Triskelion," "Mudd's Women," and many others). Either Kirk and Spock are very careless or else there's something to stardates being nonsequential.

According to Gene Roddenberry himself, in The Making of Star Trek: "This time system adjusts for shifts in relative time which occur due to the vessel's speed and space warp ability. It has little relationship to Earth's time as we know it. One hour aboard the 'Enterprise' at different times may equal as little as three Earth hours. The star date specified in the log entry must be computed against the speed of the vessel, the space warp, and it's position within our galaxy, in order to give a meaningful reading."

"I'm not quite sure what I meant by that explanation, but a lot of people have indicated it makes sense," Gene later said. I wish it did make sense, it's been bugging me since the first time I watched Star Trek. One theory is that the U.F.P. Treaty Zone might be divided up into "time zones" where stardates may increase and decrease. This would explain why the date crashes down to 1254.4 in "Magicks of Megas-Tu" when the "Enterprise" is at the galactic center. Why the dating system should be this way is beyond me. If stardate shifting is indeed tied to warp travel, another theory is that Cochrane's Factor (see Star Trek Maps' Intro to Navigation Manual) might play a vital role. Anyhow, stardates are "supposed to" progress normally outside of warp travel in a fixed place--at least all the research I've done into it says so. Under these conditions, the numbers to the left of the decimal point are days and the digit to the right of the decimal represents the time (in tenths of a day). So an example would be stardate 4213.5 being noon of one day and 4214.5 being noon of the next day. For more accuracy it may be extended to two digits after the decimal point. This was the case in "Requiem For Methuselah," the only episode from the original series to do so. Time was of the essence as Kirk desperately needed Ryetalyn to combat the plague aboard ship, as you recall. Note that this timekeeping system in use aboard ship is not necessarily in synch with the ship's own timekeeping system of military hours, but in the case of the episodes "Contagion" and "Identity Crisis" (regarding visual logs) they WERE. If the digit is a true representation of the time in tenths of a solar day, then the following table could be used:

                                    Duty Shift Sections
                        (IF Stardates are in sync with ship's time)
 .041 =  1:00 A.M.
 .083 =  2:00 A.M.
 .1   =  2:24 A.M.
 .125 =  3:00 A.M.
 .167 =  4:00 A.M.
 .2   =  4:48 A.M.
 .208 =  5:00 A.M.
 .250 =  6:00 A.M.
 .292 =  7:00 A.M.
 .3   =  7:12 A.M.
 .333 =  8:00 A.M.          Gamma Section off/Alpha Section on
 .375 =  9:00 A.M.
 .4   =  9:36 A.M.
 .417 = 10:00 A.M.
 .458 = 11:00 A.M.
 .5   = 12:00 P.M. 
 .542 =  1:00 P.M. [13:00]
 .583 =  2:00 P.M. [14:00]
 .6   =  2:24 P.M. [14:24]
 .625 =  3:00 P.M. [15:00]
 .667 =  4:00 P.M. [16:00]  Alpha Section off/Beta Section on
 .7   =  4:48 P.M. [16:48]
 .708 =  5:00 P.M. [17:00]
 .750 =  6:00 P.M. [18:00]
 .792 =  7:00 P.M. [19:00]
 .8   =  7:12 P.M. [19:12]
 .833 =  8:00 P.M. [20:00]
 .875 =  9:00 P.M. [21:00]
 .9   =  9:36 P.M. [21:36]
 .916 = 10:00 P.M. [22:00]
 .958 = 11:00 P.M. [23:00]
1.000 = 12:00 A.M. [24:00]  Beta Section off/Gamma Section on
                            (Note: Duty shift sections rotate by 8
                                   hours every two weeks.  Source:
                                   Line Officer Requirements Manual,
                                   Vol. I).
As if there isn't enough confusion, Star Trek III showed us excerpts from the flight recorder of the "Enterprise" moments before Captain Spock's death in the engine room. Admiral Kirk reviewed the following on his monitor:
Stardate 8128.76 (McCoy: "You're Not going in there.")
Stardate 8128.77 (McCoy: "No! You'll flood the whole compartment!")
Stardate 8128.78 (Spock: "Ship: Out of danger?")
These also support the sequential nature of stardates, the second place after the decimal representing minutes. More precisely 1.666 minutes, judging by the two digits immediately to the right on the display, which are seconds (from 00 to 99). Assuming the "seconds counter" is indeed the stardate taken to the 4th and 5th figures then each full stardate unit is 166.666 minutes, or 2.777 hours (which naturally conflicts with the previously described stardate system associated with the classic series). So rather than being based on tenths of day, this variation is built upon 100 seconds. More insanity: ST II begins at stardate 8130 as spoken by Chekov in the "Reliant's" log! Theories abound, ranging from different stardate systems to the flow of time being different aboard a starship (The Best of Trek #1).

Stardates used in The Next Generation are taken much more seriously. They consist of 5 digits to the left of the decimal point. According to the Writer's Guide, the first digit (a 4) is used to represent The Next Generation, the following digit represents the season, and the remaining 3 digits vary. This was done strictly for continuity, to keep the numbers within an acceptable range: 4xxxx.x. A very reasonable range, too: stardate 7412 (ST-TMP) + 36500 (100 years converted to days) = stardate 43912, or late in the year 2366--less than a year off, taking Star Trek-The Motion Picture as taking place in mid-2267 A.D. Too bad this doesn't work for all stardates, but the range is what matters. Even with this degree of refining stardates, the episodes are still not in order. Stardates jumped all over in the first season of The Next Generation. The second season episodes were almost aired in stardate order. By TNG's third season and onwards, episodes were almost aired in stardate order. Taking this a step further, we know from "The Neutral Zone," a first season episode, that the year was 2364 and all stardates of this time began with 41. Likewise, stardates of TNG's 2nd season began with 42, and the third season 43. Therefore, to calculate the year a TNG stardate falls in, take the first two digits of the stardate and add 2323 (fans of R.A. Wilson & Robert Shea's "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" should LOVE this). One may reason therefore that 1,000 stardate units equals one year and by dividing this up we can determine exactly where in the year a specific stardate falls in relation to the old Terran calendar. This system, while extremely logical, is flawed because Next Generation episodes once again don't progress in stardate order and even if sorted by stardates simply do not hold together for the various reasons stated. Recent episodes have also almost entirely destroyed this system, such as Lwaxana Troi's marriage on stardate 30620.1 in "Dark Page" which is seemingly after Deanna Troi's birth. Stardate 47329.4 is also logged as being one day after the Battle of Wolf 359's fourth anniversary in "Second Sight"--but "The Best of Both Worlds" was set around stardate 43990 not 43328. Then there's the curious case of almost every star- date's right-most digit lining up with the ship's time whenever displayed side-by-side as in the logs of the "Yamato" in "Contagion" as with classic stardates. Yet assuming there is truth to the reasoning that one year is equal to 1,000 stardates and they progress normally, I have employed a simple conversion program and have expressed the theoretical Earth date in braces ({}) following the given stardate(s) whenever available. Whenever a TNG Earthdate was given I have also provided the approximate stardate in braces. Still, let me emphasize that these are only "computer generated approximations" and again do not hold up 100%, especially when you examine the sequence of stardates in TNG's first season. They are meant to serve as rough references using our calendar system. Leap years are another factor, the program I employed (StarDateCalc 1.02 by Afonso Infante) supposedly takes these into account, although Jacob Petri's algorithm, using a slightly different technique can be a day off. The TNG Technical Manual gives the "Enterprise's" commissioning date in both stardate and Terran Old Calendar and they match up perfectly with this program. Wilford Nusser and other Trekkers likewise have written similar programs and have gotten the same results. According to this system, 1 day is equal to about 2.74 stardate units, 1 hour is 0.114, 1 minute is 0.0019, and one second is 0.0000317. To add even more question to the accuracy of these TNG stardate computations, the episode "Data's Day" began on stardate 44390.1 which would be approximately May 22nd of 2367. Data states in his log that the Hindu Festival of Lights (Divali) was being celebrated. If we use this as an accurate fix, the TNG stardate isn't based upon the Terran Calendar. That is, January doesn't begin with the low numbers pro- gressing through December. Instead, based upon this, the stardate start of each year would be roughly midway through our Terran calendar. This was all but ignored by everyone, and reconfiguring stardate calculations based on it (which granted I haven't done here) yields somewhat hairy results at times.

Stardate discussion would not be complete without at least mentioning the Federation Technological Survey manual. A recent, and horribly flawed fan publication, it is however unique for offering up a unified stardate explanation on page 11:

   On December 4th, 2230, at 12:00 PM Terran Greenwich Mean Time
   the United Federation of Planets adopted the Stardate as the
   universal measurement of time.  Stardates are based on the peak
   brightness cycle of a Cepheid Variable star called Fomalhaut-A
   located within Federation borders.  A Cepheid Variable is a
   Yellow Giant Star whose brightness (magnitude) pulsates over a
   regular time span.  Fomalhaut-A was chosen for three reasons:
     - It is visable to all Federation member planets.
     - It's magnitude cycle is 3.2 to 4.4 making it very easy to
       measure.
     - It's magnitude cycle is constant at 109.9 terran days.

   Stardates are mandatory for all Star Fleet correspondence.

   Stardates are broken down into Star Years (109.9 terran days = 1
   Star Year), Star Days (3.66 terran days - 1 Star Day), and Star
   Hours (10 Star Hours = 1 Star Day).  A Stardate is absolute and
   does not vary with one's location within the Federation (if a
   starship travels 100 light years from a system 331 Star Years
   are not deducted from the ship's chronometer.  Starships,
   however, compensate for Warp Coil distortions by logging
   stardates by Actual and Relative - Actual being the onboard
   ships time and Relative being the time coding on any subspace
   communications received, this difference has been as much as 14
   minutes.).

              TYPICAL STARDATE:

           41403.0   59:59:59
           ---__--   -- -- --
            |  | |    |  |  |_1/100 of a second
            |  | |    |  |____Seconds
            |  | |    |_______Minutes
            |  | |
            |  | |____________Star Hour (0 - 9)
            |  |______________Star Day (0 - 30)
            |_________________Star Year ( 0 - infinite)

   The Stardate has proven itself to be a reliable unit of measure
   and has done more to unify the Federation than any treaty yet
   written, A further testament to the practicality of the Stardate
   is the fact that the Klingon Empire began using it as their
   universal measure for over 80 years before aligning itself with
   the Federation.

On a first glance, this page appears quite impressive. On a second glance, it crumbles apart at the seams. Discussed earlier, there is no way that both stardate systems (original series and Next Generation) can function according to a single set of parameters. Original series stardates also cannot progress sequentially without reordering the episodes in stardate order and thereby creating continuity problems. The digit limitations alone do not standup against recorded onscreen stardates (the Star Day has been over 30 many times). Finally, as proven out by the 7-page long timeline following the Stardate explanation in the FTS manual, sticking to this stardate principle results in a most uneven timeline. Kirk's original 5-year mission comes out to be nearly 20 years long (the 2230s and 2250s) with Captain Picard commanding his "Enterprise" starting in 2355. Specific date references within this timeline consistently confict with one another. Most information expressed in the timeline is therefore invalid at least as far as dates are concerned, and little was salvagable (beyond sticking to modern TNG stardated entries which could be dealt with much like any other TNG star- dates).

                Comparison With Other Trek Timelines

Timeline   TOS   TAS   TMS   TNG   Comments
--------   ---   ---   ---   ---   --------
Blish     +460    X     X     X    Based on "The Squire Of Gothos"
                                   [900] & 'Cities In Flight'
FASA      -52     ?   -65   -61    Based on "Space Seed" [200] &
                                   "Encounter At Farpoint" ['78]
FTS       -26     ?   -31    -9    Based on a unified interpretation
                                   of stardates [TOS thru TNG]
Okuda      +5     X    -2     0    Based on "Sarek" [202] &
                                   ST VI [27]
Roden     +10   +10    -1     0    Based on "Encounter At
                                   Farpoint" [137]

'Cities In Flight' is a non-Trek collection by James Blish featuring many technological elements later to be approached in "Spock Must Die!" "Mudd's Angels" and the 12 Blish novelizations. The FASA timeline also includes the Goldstein Spaceflight Chronology book and the contributions of Shane Johnson. The Okuda Chronology features nothing but live-action episodes and films. The Roden timeline is from History Of The Vessel "Enterprise."

Where:
FTS = Federation Technological Survey manual (NOT recommended!)
TOS = The Original Series
TAS = The Animated Series
TMS = The Movie Series
TNG = The Next Generation
X = Not covered/featured
? = Unsure (Spaceflight Chronology claims the "Enterprise" completed only 3 of her 5 years under Kirk without the animated series although elements from TAS are touched upon. FTS only half-honors TAS.)

The differential is expressed in years relative to this Chronology and represents average values only. Specific events may vary by several years. FTS is Way off as it attempts to sort adventures by stardate order and by applying single stardate formula regardless of century. For this reason, according to FTS, TOS took place from 2234 to 2251 (yes, Several 5-year missions under Kirk!) with ST-TMP set around 2253, and Picard com- manded 1701-D from 2355 through the present time of around 2370! Hopefully this timeline will not be used by writers!

For history's sake, here is a copy of the Original Trek timeline which started it all, reproduced in its entirety and exact wording. It's certainly interesting to compare these early dates against the ones in the Chronology, for some dates have changed radically over the years while others haven't changed in two decades:

                 STAR TREK TIME LINE  By Chuck Graham

     |  First lunar landing.
1970 |-
     |  Apollo program continues.
     |  Skylab series proves man's ability to survive in Space.  Joint
     |  orbital mission with Russia.  Development of space shuttle.
1980 |- Unmanned probes land on Mars.
     |  Permanent manned orbiting space station construction in
     |  international cooperative effort.
     |
1990 |-
     |  Revival of NERVA nuclear rocket research program.  Designs for
     |  DY-100 space ferry completed; prototype built.  Nuclear rockets.
     |  Eugenics War, 1994-97.  Rise, fall and disappearance of "super-
2000 |- men".  Formation of World State and UESPA*.  More space
     |  stations.  Moon Station I.  First manned Mars landing; ex-
     |  ploration and settlement.  Fundamental Declaration of Martian
     |  Colonies.  Asteroid belt investigations begin.
2010 |- DY-200 ships designed.
     |  S.S. James Cook makes first journey to Jupiter.
     |  S.S. Savannah lost on first Saturn mission.  S.S. Goddard
2020 |- completes mission successfully.  Birth of
     |  Zefram Cochrane, 2025
     |
     |  Moon and Mars continue to grow in population.  "Space ferries"
2030 |- developed to transport colonists.
     |
     |  Colonel Green's war.
     |
2040 |- Exploration and colonization of Solar System continues.
     |  Discovery of di-lithium.  DY-300 and DY-400 vessels built.
     |  Numerous research stations on distant moons.  Standard
2050 |- procedures developed for exploratory missions.
     |
     |  Solar system fully explored.  DY-500 vessels with ion-impulse
2060 |- drive appear.  Main concentrations of human population remain
     |  on Earth, moon and Mars.  UESEA* becomes UESPA (United Earth Space
     |  Probe Agency) in administrative reorganization.
2070 |-
     |  S.S. Valiant sent out by UESPA to survey nearby star systems.
     |
     |  Last message recieved from Valiant.  Vessel presumed lost.
2080 |- Temporary hiatus in exploration due to governmental reluc-
     |  tance.  Zefram Cochrane begins works at Princeton-Pennsylvania
     |  Accelerator.  Tachyon experiment confirms faster-than-light
     |  speeds.  UESPA decides to apply Cochrane's work to
2090 |- space travel.  Work begins on design of hyperlight engine
     |  and vessel to accomodate it.
     |  Departure of S.S. Bonaventure.
2100 |- Return of Bonaventure.  Existance of other planets and
     |  races confirmed.  Colonies established in nearby systems;
     |  plans made for further exploration.  Such exploration reveals
     |  many new planets.  First contact with Vulcans.  Cultural
2110 |- exchange program begins.
     |  Disappearance of Zefram Cochrane from Alpha Centauri.
     |
2120 |- Exploration and discovery continues.  Many new races con-
     |  tacted.  Interstellar commerce and cultural exchange begins.
     |  Department of Interstellar Relations handles diplomatic
     |  affairs.
2130 |- Proposal to join civilizations into giant political network.
     |  Formation of United Federation of Planets.  Ratification
     |  of Federation Constitution.  Starfleet Academy set up.
2140 |- Standard procedures set up for further exploration.  First
     |  star bases set up.  Aliens begin appearing in starship
     |  crews.  All starships designated by prefix U.S.S.  Colo-
     |  nization of Deneva.
2150 |-
     |  U.S.S. Archon disappears on survey mission to Beta III.
     |
2160 |- Romulan War, 2161-62.  Neutral Zone and asteroid forts
     |  established to guard against further intrusions.
     |  U.S.S. Horizon visits Sigma Iotia II, leaves "The Book"
     |  in violation of Prime Directive.
2170 |-
     |  First contact with Klingon Empire.
     |
     |
2180 |- Exploration and discovery continues.  New classes of ships
     |  designed for exploration and commerce.  New colonies con-
     |  tinue to be established.
     |
2190 |-
     |  Janus VI mining colony established.
     |
     |
2200 |-
     |  Constitution-type starships designed.  Twelve built, in-
     |  cluding the U.S.S. Enterprise.
     |
2210 |-
     |  U.S.S. Valiant lost on exploratory probe to Eminiar VII.
     |  reports that planet is at war with its neighbor.
     |  Birth of Richard Daystrom.
2220 |-
     |  Birth of James T. Kirk.
     |
     |
2230 |-
     |  Kodos "the executioner" murders half the population of
     |  Tarsus IV.
     |
2240 |- Battle of Donatu V with Klingons; inconclusive.
     |
     |  Installation of Daystrom's computer systems aboard Con-
     |  stitution-type starships.  Christopher Pike assumes com-
2250 |- mand of Enterprise.  Talos IV expedition.
     |  Cloud-vampire attacks U.S.S. Farragut in Tycho star
     |  group.
     |
2260 |- James T. Kirk assumes command of U.S.S. Enterprise.
     |  On mission to edge of galaxy, Enterprise finds disaster re-
     |  corder ejected from S.S. Valiant 189 years previously.
     |
     |
     |               THE REST IS KNOWN.
____________________________________________________________________

        * United Earth Space Exploration Authority
First published in "Menagerie V" then in The Starfleet Handbook circa 1975, this timeline started it all. The late 20th Century dates are, of course, dated as are all timelines depicting near-future dates. Beyond this the timeline is incredibly consistent with later Treknical publications and timelines. Many early 21st Century interplanetary spacecraft names are found in the U.S.S. Enterprise Officers Manual's class listing for the DY-100 series. The dating of Colonel Green's War (2035) is substantiated in the Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual and additionally backed up by FASA (tying it to the 2035 sabotage of an experimental fusion drive on the moon). The rest of the 21st Century outline is on the mark with the exception of the unsubstantiated UESEA and the extremely late development of warp drive by Zefram Cochrane (though his date of birth is exact to the year). The late departure and return of the "Bonaventure" is undoubtedly due to this timeline predating "The Slaver Weapon" and Earth's abrupt contact with ferocious invaders. The remaining dates are somewhat vague and rounded, allowing later materials to provide specific years.
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