Stardate

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference

The stardate is a comprehensive calendar system used in the Federation and other races and organizations within our galaxy. This system of time allows planets and outposts that are light years apart and starships traveling at near-relativistic velocities to keep track of a unified time base despite local and unforeseen changes in the speed at which time passes. The stardate system was introduced in the Federation sometime between 2161 and 2265. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages..."; TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")

Stardate units standardize time measurement between various cultures, worlds and races. It has little relationship to Earth's time as we know it; one hour aboard a starship at different impulse speeds may equal many Earth hours. Stardates are calculated through a complicated equation that takes into account relativistic effects, universal expansion and the effects of gravity on time and space. Every so often the stardate system has to be updated to take into account the expansion of space or other natural effects. Starfleet vessels did this by contacting a nearby Starfleet time beacon and adjusting their internal chronometer. (TNG: "Cause and Effect")

Stardates were in use as far back as the 2150s, although Earth had not yet adopted the system. Among the species who did utilize stardates at the time were the Xindi. In 2154, Degra, a Xindi-Primate, sent a coded message to Enterprise containing a stardate for when Enterprise should rendezvous with Degra's ship at specified coordinates, which were also contained within the message. Vulcans also seemed to have an understanding for stardates at that time, as T'Pol was able to calculate that the given stardate was three days away. (ENT: "Damage")

In the 24th century, approximately one thousand (1,000) stardate units pass for every Earth year, although there are variations in the system at some points in the timeline. (Star Trek: The Next Generation; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Star Trek: Voyager)

In an alternate timeline, the combat date replaced the stardate as the dating system used by Starfleet during their war with the Klingon Empire. This was indicative of the militaristic nature of Starfleet in this timeline. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")

[edit] Background

According to Gene Roddenberry, stardates were created to avoid placing the events of the original series within a specific year. At present, no canonical information exists regarding how the stardate system works. According to Roddenberry in The Making of Star Trek, however, stardates adjust for shifts in relative time which occur due to the vessel's speed and space warp capability. Stardates specified, in a log entry for example, must be computed against the speed of the vessel, the space warp factor, and its position within our galaxy in order to give a meaningful reading when read back.

Sometimes stardates pass with little rhyme or reason, since they are simply manufactured by the show's creative personnel and not intended to be analyzed for any type of pattern. Gene Roddenberry and many other members of the production staff maintained that perceived irregularities in stardates stem from our own lack of understanding of subspace physics and space warp factors.

In the original Star Trek, stardates were usually four digits long. To show the passage of time, the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation decided to use five-digit stardates. They chose to begin the stardate with the number 4, chosen because the program was set during the 24th century. The next digit signified the season of TNG (so TNG Season 1 episodes had stardates 41xxx.x, Season 2 had stardates 42xxx.x, and so forth). The remaining digits increased gradually over the course of the season, from xx000.0 to xx999.9. Under this system, 1,000 stardate "units" were equal to one year. Stardate 41986.0 occurred during the year 2364 which would mean the origin of the 24th century stardate system was around the year 2323. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone")

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager continued the TNG format, so that DS9's stardates ranged from 46379.1 to 52861.3, and Voyager's stardates ranged from 48315.6 to 54973.4. Star Trek Nemesis, the latest Star Trek story in the 24th century, had a stardate of 56844.9, showing that it took place 15 years after the first season of TNG. The USS Brattain was commissioned on stardate 22519.5, 19 years before the first season, making it the earliest mentioned stardate in the 24th century. (TNG: "Night Terrors")

In addition, it has been suggested by some sources that the final digit of a stardate (following the decimal place) represents one-tenth of a 24-hour day – for example the TNG Bible claims that "the digit following the decimal point may be regarded as a day counter". It is not clear how this can be reconciled with the notion that 1,000 stardate units are equal to one year. If 1,000 stardates equal one year, then one stardate unit should represent approximately 8 hours and 46 minutes. In TNG: "Time Squared" it was indicated that stardate 42679.5 was six hours in front of stardate 42679.2, indicating that 0.1 stardate unit was equal to 2 hours.

Although the vast majority of stardates are given with only one digit following the decimal point, the captain's log in TNG: "Code of Honor" is recorded with two digits (41235.25 and 41235.32) and other references have two, three or even four digits, as in TNG: "The Child", where a stardate of 42073.1435 is seen on a viewscreen in the Observation Lounge or in VOY: "Relativity", when Seven of Nine travels back in time from 52861.274 to 49123.5621. Occasionally there are no digits, such as when "today's date" is given as stardate 47988. (TNG: "All Good Things...")

[edit] Inconsistencies

There have been many inconsistencies with stardates throughout all of the Star Trek series. Examples include:

In TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the stardates within the episode progress by 1.4, from 1312.4 to 1313.8, in what could not be more than a few days, yet the stardates of the births of three crew members are given as 1087.7, 1089.5 and 1277.1. Kirk's birth is only 35.3 stardates before his first captain's log, about one for every year of his life. And in TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", the first stardate given is 1512.2 and the second one, given eighteen hours later is 1513.8, suggesting that 1.6 stardates equals 18 hours or 1 stardate equals 11 hours and 15 minutes.
In TNG: "Skin of Evil" where Tasha Yar is killed, the stardate of 41601.3 is given. In the previous TNG: "The Arsenal of Freedom", a stardate of 41798.2 is given, and Yar is still alive and well, most likely due to a production error related to the fact that those two episodes were filmed out of order.
In TNG: "Datalore", Riker dropped one of the numbers in his log, stating "Stardate 4124.5".
In DS9: "Second Sight", stardate 47329.4, it is said to be the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Wolf 359, stardate 44002.3.
In DS9: "In Purgatory's Shadow", Captain Sisko gives mention to the "recent Borg attack" depicted in Star Trek: First Contact. However, in the very next episode, DS9: "By Inferno's Light", the stardate of 50564.2 is given. In First Contact, the stardate of 50893.5 is given, suggesting that it takes place months after "In Purgatory's Shadow".
In VOY: "Unimatrix Zero, Part II", set during stardate 54014.4, Tuvok mentions that his date of birth is stardate 38774. Assuming the generally accepted rule that 1,000 units equals one year, this would mean that he was fifteen years old at the time of the episode.

[edit] Apocrypha

In the book Where Sea Meets Sky, Captain Christopher Pike has to use conversion formulas to convert stardates to the Gregorian Calendar for his friend "Nowan" from the bar "The Captain's Table".

[edit] External links

Stardate at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
The Stardate FAQ - primarily develops one particular theory of stardates that has gained some currency
Determining Calendar Dates from Stardates - has calculations and calculators based upon information from the television series' and movies
Star Trek logs - database of stardates and logs from the Star Trek films and television series