Stardates

[USS_Excalibur]

Who knows how stardates work? I am trying to make a fanfic and I cannot know where to begin with the stardate record.

 

[Dan1025]

To be honest no one knows how they work exactly, they are pretty much just educated guesses designed to mark the rough amount of time passing between events.

In the TNG system, 1000 stardate units is approximately one year, but we really don't know the exact amount of time smaller quantities equal. I read somewhere once that stardates somehow compensate for the distortion of time across the vastness of space or something but that wasn't canon.

I'd really recommend looking up the stardate system on Memory Alpha to read into it, most of what you need to know to make up believeable stardates can be found there.

Good luck with your fic

 

[USS_Excalibur]

OMG... this is so confusing. This is the most helpful tho.

Under this system, 1,000 stardate units were equal to approximately one year, since that is the normal timespan between two TV seasons. The value of the century digit nine seasons later was clarified as early as TNG: "Future Imperfect", where the imaginary Jean-Luc Riker asks the computer to display his birthday party of stardate 58416, less than sixteen years in the future according to the episode. The relation to the 24th century could only be symbolic. The writers of the Star Trek Chronology further developed the system by having a calendar year start at 000 and end at 999, although this does not fit all references in the show, such as a Diwali celebration around stardate 44390, too early in the year according to the simplified system. (TNG: "Data's Day") Stardate 41986.0 was in 2364 according to TNG: "The Neutral Zone", hence the simplified system assumes that stardates 41xxx.x covered the entire year 2364, stardates 42xxx.x the entire year 2365 and so forth.

The second digit continued to increase every TV season in other spin-offs as well, even after TNG had ended. Since DS9 premiered during the sixth season of TNG and was set in exactly the same timeframe, stardates on DS9 ranged from 46379.1 to 52861.3. Likewise, the first season of Voyager would've been the eighth season of TNG had it continued, so Voyager 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 approximately fifteen years after the first season of TNG. However, stardates of events prior to TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint", but not so far back as the time of TOS, do not always conform to this method of counting. For example, in TNG: "Dark Page", the stardate for an event which took place 42 years before 47254.1 is given as 30620.1, which, according to the standard method of counting used after "Encounter at Farpoint", should only be 17 years earlier.

So they had 1000 divisions of the year in space. Also an earlier paragraph shows how the first number after the decimal is a tenth of a day. So logically it must mean 1000 day years in space.

**** I am so confused. But I have to stick to canon. As contradicting as is.

Well, It is going to take place in the 31st Century. So I could suggest that a new system took place (which will be stated in the glossary/appendix).

 

[Majestic]

Star Trek XI uses a more standardise version to the rest of Trek.

However I would recommend that you look for Stardate Calculators from Google, I use one of them for my Midway Fan Fiction, however I can't recall which one.

 

[Borg_Queen]

The writers of the Star Trek Chronology further developed the system by having a calendar year start at 000 and end at 999, although this does not fit all references in the show, such as a Diwali celebration around stardate 44390, too early in the year according to the simplified system. (TNG: "Data's Day") Stardate 41986.0 was in 2364 according to TNG: "The Neutral Zone", hence the simplified system assumes that stardates 41xxx.x covered the entire year 2364, stardates 42xxx.x the entire year 2365 and so forth.

This is the one I have used then I have written stories, though the stardate calculators Syf showed me to stated that the system I had used were wrong.

Yes it's confusing then they use many different systems, all canon, in the series. Though I have also heard statements that the stardate system shall not make sense, meaning whatever you use will be right as long as it's consistent with at least one of the already used systems.

PS.: I don't have the link to the different stardate calculators Syf showed me, though a note to them is that the calculators contradicts eachother.

 

[USS_Excalibur]

This is the one I have used then I have written stories, though the stardate calculators Syf showed me to stated that the system I had used were wrong.

Yes it's confusing then they use many different systems, all canon, in the series. Though I have also heard statements that the stardate system shall not make sense, meaning whatever you use will be right as long as it's consistent with at least one of the already used systems.

PS.: I don't have the link to the different stardate calculators Syf showed me, though a note to them is that the calculators contradicts eachother.

Would it be too much to have a revision of the system given that it is the 31st Century after all? When I try to follow it I am always left dumb founded. I was thinking of this:

CCYYDDD.F

C is for the number of the century. In this case 31. Y is for the year of the century, being a 2 digit number from 00 to 99. D is for Day. Being a number from 000 to 999 because of a 1000 day calendar. F is for the fraction of the day, from 0 to 9. The spacial Calendar remains asynchronous with the earth calendar as it has become a galactic standard calendar accepted by nearly all races alike. Because of differences in the calander, references to times listed under older stardate systems will be followed by OD (Obsolete Date).

 

[Amateur]

Would it be too much to have a revision of the system given that it is the 31st Century after all? When I try to follow it I am always left dumb founded. I was thinking of this:

CCYYDDD.F

C is for the number of the century. In this case 31. Y is for the year of the century, being a 2 digit number from 00 to 99. D is for Day. Being a number from 000 to 999 because of a 1000 day calendar. F is for the fraction of the day, from 0 to 9. The spacial Calendar remains asynchronous with the earth calendar as it has become a galactic standard calendar accepted by nearly all races alike. Because of differences in the calander, references to times listed under older stardate systems will be followed by OD (Obsolete Date).

That sounds plausible and logical to me

 

[K_merse]

This only works for TNG and so on, but not for TOS.
The problem is that stardate was always guessed, sometimes there's even a hidden message in the stardate, ike in DS9 episode. "Our man Bashir" where the stardate is xxx00.7, referring to James Bond's iconic number.

 

[SciFiFan]

I had read some where (though I don't remember where) that the stardate went something like this.

TOS: The stardate in TOS were just numbers pulled out of the air. No real rhyme or reason to it.

TNG: They actually used production sequences here. One number represented the season, another set of numbers were the episode numbers, and another set was the production number (EI filming reference XXX).

Again, I could be (and probably am) wrong on this.

STXI uses a system based on the military's Julian day. Today, October 24, 2010 = 10297 (or something like that, its been a while since I used it.)

 

[Borg_Queen]

What is most important, is that then you first has started to use a certain system in your fanfic, you have to stick to it.

 

[Lord_Trekie]

I have a Stardate Calculator on my wiki if you want to use it.

Stardate - Task Force 575