Time in Space

[JeffinOakland]

There is no day or night in the depths of space. How is time established? Is there a Starfleet standard? Is it based on Earth's 24 hours and 8 hour shifts? Is it "day" on one ship and "night" on another. What about other species? Certainly Romulans don't feel obligated to respect Starfleet's time or vice versa.

 

[Jedi Marso]

That's why we have the Federation central time beacon, which gives us stardates. I suspect 'ship's time' is a function of who the captain is and which species makes up the majority of the crew. On the Enterprise, the solar day is king. On an Andorian 'Blue Fleet' starfleet ship, I'm sure Andorian local time is the norm. Sucks for Spock, doesn't it?

 

[JeffinOakland]

Federation central time beacon

what's that...where is that mentioned?

 

[Jedi Marso]

what's that...where is that mentioned?

Various places, and I may be naming it incorrectly, but it is central to the idea of the stardate timekeeping system used in Trek.

Federation Time Beacon reference

 

[JeffinOakland]

Various places, and I may be naming it incorrectly, but it is central to the idea of the stardate timekeeping system used in Trek.

Federation Time Beacon reference

Thanks for the reference

 

[Timo]

It should be noted that starships on the far frontier frequently do tricks that take them "out of time" (flying at high relativistic speeds, through spacetime anomalies etc), and only occasionally connect to the time beacons to reset their clocks. Hence it came as a surprise to our heroes in both "Clues" and "Cause and Effect" how far out of sync they were with UFP standard time. Had the heroes not unraveled the mystery in "Clues" so quickly, Data would no doubt have been able to fudge the onboard records of passage of time enough to establish that the rest of the crew had indeed been unconscious for just 30 seconds.

Also, we might want to think that UFP standard time is in sync with San Francisco time on Earth. At least in the 2009 movie, there are references given onboard the ship in the military time format ("at 2200 hours", "2300 hours last night") that seem to mesh with the US West Coast times of day for the respective events, as seen through the windows when our heroes dwell in that part of our planet. Not, say, with Paris time even though that's the supposed residence of the UFP President; for all we know, the formal seat of the UFP Government is in San Francisco. Or then it's a matter of Starfleet keeping the time for the UFP, and San Francisco is the Starfleet town.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The_Baroness]

I've never gotten why, for example, in Voyager theres a 'night shift' made up of a skeleton crew and inexperienced officers.

It might be bedtime on Voyager, but Baddy McBadface from planet Murderon might have just finished his lunch and be ready to crack skulls.

 

[DeepSpaceYorks]

I've never gotten why, for example, in Voyager theres a 'night shift' made up of a skeleton crew and inexperienced officers.

It might be bedtime on Voyager, but Baddy McBadface from planet Murderon might have just finished his lunch and be ready to crack skulls.

I noticed this on ENT the other day. I began ruminating on why alien attacks or engineering problems etc never occur when the main bridge crew are all asleep? Oh, and why put inexperienced crew on 'at night' when there's no such thing in space?

 

[Timo]

It's difficult to figure out the need for a shipwide night when supposedly shift-specific local nights could be arranged just as easily.

I mean, shift-specific days might be difficult to do when there's only one mess hall or gym, not three that could be selectively set at the lighting modes required by the three shifts. But this is merely because days are active periods, and there is a need for specific lit rooms for the activities. At night, there is no corresponding need for a darkened mess hall or a darkened gym!

However, statistically it is understandable that most adventures would take place in "daytime". Naturally, our heroes would arrange for important things, such as arrival on the destination world or a rendezvous with another ship, to take place when the A Team crews the ship and the ship in general is at her most active. They would do this either by carefully timing their arrivals and rendezvouses, or then adjusting their onboard schedule.

It's simply that such preplanned adventures would outweigh the few times when outside forces or accidents intervene. And even when there are surprise events, the episodes often open after the ship has been made aware of the event, so there has been sufficient time to summon the A Team and to turn up the lights.

As for "inexperienced", TNG often (that is, more than once) had Data in command of the night shift. Surely he's the cream of the cream? That VOY featured Kim in the role in turn reflects the fact that the Ensign met the local definition of experienced...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Richard Baker]

There was a very funny Robot Chicken skit where you see the night crew of the Enterprise-D in action- a bunch of partying slackers. IIRC they got a situation to handle and totally screwed up but thins accidentally turned out well.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Even in space with a 3 or 4 section watch rotation, there would be advantages to having a ship's 'day' and 'night', at least for human beings. Duty rotations aside, it provides a more 'homelike' feel for things aboard ship, and allows for things like departmental office hours, staff meetings, and so on to 'sync up' time-wise. Furthermore, delineating a time of day as 'the night shift', which implies lower activity levels and equipment usage aboard ship, allows 'down time' for routine maintenance to be performed, or the conduct of sensitive experiments/calculations such as the ones being run in Stellar Cartography in the episode 'Lessons.'

On earlier ships such as the 22nd Century NX-01, a ship's day becomes even more important. The crew is smaller and almost entirely human, and meals have to be manually prepared and served rather than employing replicators at will. It also allows for things like 'movie night.'

The notion that the night shift watch would consist of all the inexperienced or junior personnel is a victim of TV reality- you have to have your regular series stars 'on duty' when things go down. In truth, each watch section would consist of a liberal mix of experienced and inexperienced people, with varying levels of seniority as well. When you think about it, if you ARE going to have a 'ship's day' and a 'night shift', then it makes perfect sense for LCDR Data to be the night shift duty officer in charge of the bridge- Data doesn't have circadian rhythms to worry about and technically doesn't need to sleep at all. He can stand watch all night and still attend all meetings and functions the next day during normal working hours.

On other ships with more liberally mixed crews, say the USS Titan in the late 24th Century, the notion of a 'ship's day' might not work as well and be discarded completely, or modified as necessary and referred to as something else, paying no mind to circadian rhythms. Again, in the world of Starfleet and Trek it's probably one of those 'captain's discretion' sort of things, like Picard preferring a 3 section duty rotation while Captain Jellicoe wanted a 4 section duty. Something for the captain and senior staff to work out between themselves to keep the ship operating at top efficiency, handled on a ship-by-ship basis. One size wouldn't fit all- a scout ship with a crew of 40 has a much different work and social dynamic than a Galaxy Class starship with a 1000 mixed Starfleet / civilian people on board.

 

[DeepSpaceYorks]

But the conceit in all of Star Trek is that every species, be the Human, Ferengi, Borg or Tholian, all seem to have the same concept of daytimes and night times. Unlikely in an infinite universe.

 

[Timo]

Not really - all the usual species are essentially humans with funny foreheads, and there's no a priori reason to think their biologies and lifestyles would differ from ours. Indeed, all the species are the work of a meddling master species, which seems to have engineered them for maximum compatibility, including the ability to interbreed.

The Borg don't have days or nights, although individual Borg Drones do sleep. Of Tholian nights and days, nothing much is known. Even more exotic species no doubt have even more exotic lifestyles. But only the carbon copies of humans bother to interact with humans on a daily or nightly basis...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Greg Cox]

I confess I'm obsessed with this issue. And it's not just a shipboard thing. Unless otherwise required, it always seems to be mid-day when the away beams down to a planet or to an alien vessel, who may be on their own clocks. And, of course, any given planet is likely to have several time zones of its own.

Sure, an away team can choose to beam down to a part of the planet that's currently warm and sunny, but it's funny how that always happens to be where the planetary government is based, or where the distress signal or mysterious energy signature is coming from.

Just once I want to see something like:

"Welcome, outworlders! We have prepared a lavish feast on your behalf."

"Well, actually, we just had breakfast . .."

Or maybe:

"Hail the Klingon High Council at once!"

"Um, sir, it's three in the morning in the Klingon capital right now."

 

[Jedi Marso]

I confess I'm obsessed with this issue. And it's not just a shipboard thing. Unless otherwise required, it always seems to be mid-day when the away beams down to a planet or to an alien vessel, who may be on their own clocks. And, of course, any given planet is likely to have several time zones of its own.

Sure, an away team can choose to beam down to a part of the planet that's currently warm and sunny, but it's funny how that always happens to be where the planetary government is based, or where the distress signal or mysterious energy signature is coming from.

Just once I want to see something like:

"Welcome, outworlders! We have prepared a lavish feast on your behalf."

"Well, actually, we just had breakfast . .."

Or maybe:

"Hail the Klingon High Council at once!"

"Um, sir, it's three in the morning in the Klingon capital right now."

It's a real world sort of issue that doesn't translate well to a 42 minute TV show. In books, you can attack this issue all sorts of ways. What would Dr. McCoy have to say to the captain about that redshirt security guard who got vaporized because he wasn't paying attention- because he was called to the transporter room for landing party duty during what was- for him- the middle of his sleep period? A guy on the back side of his personal body clock isn't going to bring his A-game. Those sorts of issues are never addressed on ANY TV show, much less Trek. They could make for interesting stories or plot points, though.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I confess I'm obsessed with this issue. And it's not just a shipboard thing. Unless otherwise required, it always seems to be mid-day when the away beams down to a planet or to an alien vessel, who may be on their own clocks. And, of course, any given planet is likely to have several time zones of its own.

Sure, an away team can choose to beam down to a part of the planet that's currently warm and sunny, but it's funny how that always happens to be where the planetary government is based, or where the distress signal or mysterious energy signature is coming from.

Just once I want to see something like:

"Welcome, outworlders! We have prepared a lavish feast on your behalf."

"Well, actually, we just had breakfast . .."

Or maybe:

"Hail the Klingon High Council at once!"

"Um, sir, it's three in the morning in the Klingon capital right now."

"What happened last night, Ensign?"

"Battles! Peril! Scientific breakthroughs! Beautiful/handsome natives! But don't worry, we handled it ourselves without having to wake you, sir. We're now 6 hours out and you couldn't even tell we'd ever been in trouble. I've prepared a full report for your perusal."

"*sigh* Thank you, ensign. *looks around* What happened to Lieutenant Smithson?"

*downcast look* "It's in the report, sir."

 

[Six of Twelve]

Harry Kim seemed to be always on duty. On the "night" shift, he got to play captain. On the "day" shift, he did ensign stuff.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Harry Kim seemed to be always on duty. On the "night" shift, he got to play captain. On the "day" shift, he did ensign stuff.

Poor Harry. All the responsibility and none of the rank.

 

[DeepSpaceYorks]

Harry Kim seemed to be always on duty. On the "night" shift, he got to play captain. On the "day" shift, he did ensign stuff.

I noticed this. When did he ever sleep?

 

[Tenacity]

In the 24th century, it's all about enriching yourself, not obtaining rank.

(at least that what Janeway keeps telling Harry)