Talk:Stardate

Stardates
Back some years ago, before Paramount began to remaster Star Trek original series, I had postulated in a document (which never left my possession) the same remastering idea, and as part of it, I suggested that the chronometer on the astrogator console incorporate three additional digits which are automatically included in documents and references, defaulted to, but not required to be spoken. By the mid 24th century, only two of these digits are default included.

My concept would have been that a pair of "century" digits would prefix a full seven-digits prior to the decimal. Century 01 may have been as long ago as the 19th or 20th century, but at least long enough ago to cover the earliest known currently participating spacefaring planet. The stardate (nn)00001 would have been the Earth year 1924, 2024, 2124, 2224, 2324, etc.; the stardate (nn)41001 would have been the Earth year 1964, 2064, 2164, 2264, 2364, etc. So, if Century 01 is 1824 to 1923, then Archer's voyages would have been during Century 04, Kirk's during Century 05, and Picard's during Century 06.

Kirk's original five year mission (TOS and TAS) would have been (05)41312.4 to (05)45943.9; his voyage to meet Vejur would have been in the 0548000s or 0549000s (unfortunatley, not 0547412.6 or 0557412.6). The encounter with Khan would have been in the area of about 0558000s, and with Chancellor Gorkon around the 0569000s. Picard's voyages would all take place in the next "century" (2324 to 2423).

If Archer had used stardates, his would have been in the "century" prior to Kirk's (2124 to 2223), with September 2151 being equal to about 0427700 and mid 2155 (Terra Prime) equal to about 0431500, and the Federation founding being around the 0437000s. More likely, Archer would have used four-digit stardates as Kirk would a century later, and reached (042)9999 then starting over at (043)0000 during the year in Xindi space.

Just my input on stardates, that would serve to bridge the discrepancy between Kirk's four-digit time and Picard's five-digit era, without the dates progressively covering almost 100 years in a span of stardates from 6000 to 41000 (only 35 years if each 1000 dates equals a year). My proposal would also allow for extensive prior use of stardates long before Kirk's voyage, rather than just a bit more than 15 months (from 0000.1 to 1312.4). Truncation of dates is a logical activity, analogous to us leaving out "A.D.", or leaving out the year when giving a date. We make the default assumption of year and era, and so the computers would automatically insert the current "century" (in Picard's time) and "century" and "decade" in Kirk's time. Kirk's citation of a date in "Court Martial" regarding Finney's reprimand would be a curiosity, but the computer could check the records for Finney's and Kirk's common period aboard the Republic and add the appropriate decade digit.

GCapp1959 13:32, 16 January 2009 (UTC)