Buzz
In Star Trek, stardates are frequently mentioned as a futuristic dating system. For instance, stardate 47457.1 corresponds to Captain Picard's birthday. Interestingly, this stardate can translate to June 16th, November 4th, January 8th, or January 10th, depending on the calculation method. Let’s dive into the nerdy details.
The Original Series
During the original Star Trek TV series, stardates were essentially made up. According to the Star Trek Guide, the series bible, writers were instructed to improvise. Here’s an excerpt (emphasis added):
Select any set of four digits followed by a decimal point [ed. note: tenths digit] to serve as your story's stardate. For instance, 131 could represent noon on one day, while 1314.5 would signify noon the following day. Each decimal point approximates one-tenth of a day. Ensure the stardates progress logically within your script, but don’t concern yourself with consistency across other scripts. Stardates are calculated based on a formula that accounts for galactic location, travel speed, and other variables, allowing them to fluctuate significantly between episodes.
This system was clearly not well-planned, essentially reducing to "Choose a number and keep it close." Gene Roddenberry, the show's creator, later commented:
When we started producing episodes, we’d assign a stardate like 2317 one week, then increase it to 2942 the next week, and so on. However, since episodes didn’t air in the order they were filmed, viewers began questioning, "Why does the stardate jump from 2891 one week to 2337 the next, then to 3414 the week after?"
He further clarified that the explanation involving "galactic location, travel velocity, and other factors" was merely a way to mask the initial inconsistency of the stardates, even if the episodes had aired sequentially.
The Next Generation
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the system became more consistent. The TNG Writer's/Director's Guide introduced a logical formula with improved continuity. Here’s how it worked:
A stardate consists of a five-digit number followed by a decimal and an additional digit. For example: "41254.7." The first two digits are always "41," where the 4 represents the 24th century, and the 1 denotes the first season. The remaining three digits increase unevenly throughout the season, ranging from 000 to 999. The digit after the decimal typically counts the days.
This implies that a TNG season spans 1,000 days. Thankfully, they were on a continuing mission rather than a five-year one.
Both Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Voyager adopted the TNG stardate system, as did the film Star Trek Nemesis.
Unsurprisingly, early in TNG, the writers made mistakes. A notable example is Tasha Yar's death, which happened around Stardate 41601.3, yet she appeared alive in a prior episode with the later Stardate 41997.7. By 1992, the writers had tightened their guidelines to prevent such errors:
A Stardate is represented as a five-digit number followed by a decimal and an additional digit. For instance: "46254.7." The initial two digits are "46," where the 4 signifies the 24th Century, and the 6 denotes the sixth season. The subsequent three digits increase sequentially throughout the season, ranging from 000 to 999. The digit after the decimal measures tenths of a day. Thus, Stardate 45254.4 corresponds to noon on the 254th "day" of the fifth season. Given that 24th-century Stardates rely on a complex mathematical formula, an exact match to Earth-based dating systems is unattainable.
Despite clearly stating that aligning Stardates with Earth-based dates is impossible, people have still attempted to do so.
The Reboot
Just as things began to make sense, they shifted again. From a detailed and insightful article on Memory Alpha, here’s how the reboot (J.J. Abrams-directed) movies handle stardates (emphasis added):
Long Story Short
The functionality of stardates lacks a single, clear explanation, primarily because they don’t function consistently. They vary across series and even within the same series, as writers frequently altered the system. With Roddenberry attempting to retroactively adjust continuity even in TOS, it’s fitting that the system remains somewhat chaotic. Tracking time across the galaxy is a complex challenge, so perhaps a little leniency is warranted.
For those interested in exploring various Stardates and diving deeper into this topic, visit Memory Alpha's stardate page. Be warned—after reading it, you’ll likely want to avoid the subject altogether. If you’re still curious, check out this page for a highly unofficial yet logically sound decimal time system. And don’t miss the story of France’s 10-hour day, another decimal time experiment that ended in widespread confusion.
