I always assumed it was related to the closest star, not necessarily having anything to do with earth time.
StarDate
- Thread starter Kirk1701A
- Start date
Well I can't see how that theory could work considering that in most episodes the Enterprise is somewhere else in space each and every week! 
JB
JB
The way I see it, to make all the inconsistencies consistent, like the Warp Factor formula, is that there are different versions of StarDate.
The TOS had it's own version.
When TNG, DS9, VOY came about, it had it's own version.
Just like the Warp Factor scale and formula was changed.
The TOS had it's own version.
When TNG, DS9, VOY came about, it had it's own version.
Just like the Warp Factor scale and formula was changed.
@ StarDate
Stardate system by necessity needs to be the same, or universal, throughout the Federation or Starfleet. Anything else would make the stardate system meaningless. Basically every ship and station would have its own dating system, it's own calendar, if you will. When transmitting reports or log files, varying calendars or stardate systems would create chaos disorder.
I concur, that's why I think the starting point should be based on the founding of the "Coalition of Planets" which led to the creation of the UFP.
The problem though is that time ISN'T universal. It varied based on speed. If a stardate is an attempt to be a universal clock for the Federation then it must vary according to local usage. For example One Stardate unit would be different for earth compared to Miller's planet (from Interstellar) If stardates represent the same universal block of time then different locations are going to have different stardates.
The concept of stardates was supposed to account for relativistic effects related to velocity, location within the galaxy, etc. So an event with a lower stardate didn't necessarily actually happen "before" an event with a higher stardate. Depending on the circumstances, you might have to record your captain's log with a lower stardate than you did last week!
From the 1967 Star Trek writer's guide:
Kor
From the 1967 Star Trek writer's guide:
Kor
5779, to be precise.
I like to think that the TNG-VOY system either began with stardate 0000.1 in 2323 or stardate 1000.1 in 2324.
I don't believe that we mere mortals are meant to understand such great and profound mysteries of the universe.
Kor
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Stardate
http://starchive.cs.umanitoba.ca/?stardates/part4
I think the big version change in StarDate happened somewhere between 2293 & 2294 given the drastic change in numbering scheme.
Any previous dates in log books / official data files were changed automatically by the new formula for date & time on computer.
As for what they picked to be Year 0 or 0###.X is unclear!
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The first time we hear of a Stardate chronologically in Trek, it's part of a Xindi message in Enterprise. So perhaps they adopted the dating scheme of the people who tried to blow up their planet.
5779, to be precise.
That's pretty awesome really and makes you think a little upon the history of the planet!
JB
Or it's probably the Xindi Version of the Unified Xindi StarDate since the Universal Translator translates words to the closest human language equivalent.
If we go by the idea of 1000 units equals a year during the TNG-VOY era, then "Encounter At Farpoint"'s opening stardate 41153.7 should be 40-41 years after the new system took effect.
Or, rather, 40-41 years after the Zero Day, which could have been applied retroactively. After all, there never was Anno Domini 1 back in the days of Anno Domini 1 - that was invented much later.
2323 might be the Zero Year for stardates. Or then 2123 was, considering the five-digit dates hide the centuries from us (say, perhaps Starfleet was founded on that date, or so the humans want to think, with their own starfleet being a greater grandfather to the UFP one than all the other ones). Or then, say, minus 77777777 was, for profound cosmic reasons.
Timo Saloniemi
2323 might be the Zero Year for stardates. Or then 2123 was, considering the five-digit dates hide the centuries from us (say, perhaps Starfleet was founded on that date, or so the humans want to think, with their own starfleet being a greater grandfather to the UFP one than all the other ones). Or then, say, minus 77777777 was, for profound cosmic reasons.
Timo Saloniemi
For which era? TOIS or TNG? Between TOS and TNG a new stardate calculation was clearly created. (ST6 ends at 9800-something, TNG starts at 40000-something, there's no time dilation effect going on between those 80 years or what not... 
)
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