Spoilers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x08 – “The Life of the Stars”

[tenmei]

Yes, I have far too much time on my hands and found a stardate calculator -

1x01 - October 19th, 319(1)

1x02 - October 20th, 319(1) [dialogue hints at a time-jump between the cadets receiving their room assignments and Caleb/Darem objecting to being roommates]

1x03 - November 10th 319(1) to c. November 14th, 319(1) [ Stardate 868858.7, it has been three weeks since 1x01/1x02)

1x04 - December 11th, 319(1) [ 868943.8, it's three days into the mission to the Val Nebula)

1x05 - January 17th, 319(2) to January 24th, 319(2) [dialogue states that it has been 96 days since 1x01/1x02, episode takes place over a week]

1x06 - Late February/Early March, 319(2) ["I haven't been off this ship in six months ..."]

1x07 - Late March/Early April [it has been 32 days since Caleb spoke to Tarima]

1x08 - May 16th, 319(2) to c. May 29th 319(2) [ Stardate 869372.1, "What took us two centuries to build, you killed in 209 days ..." (the visit to Kasq is on May 17th) and Stardate 869408.67 - it has been several weeks since 1x07 ("The patch the holo-engineers made has been failing for weeks ...")]

 

[cooleddie74]

Funny how the stardates indicate it's 3192 but the producers and advertising all but say it's 3195.

 

[Manticore]

The scene where a drunken Tarima comes close to sexually assaulting Caleb (and then transitions to verbally abusing him) is tough to watch and incredibly sad. But I admire the inclusion of genuinely difficult, out-of-control moments like that. They make the resolution feel that much stronger.

...skipping 16 pages.

I loved the fact that they showed Caleb refusing her advances while she was inebriated. I was so sure that he'd accept them, but I love a show understanding that sex with someone while they're inebriated is bad.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The writers are choosing what to show though. I made this point on another board, but just because a show is teen drama doesn't mean they necessarily ignore the thing they do. Friday Night Lights had a pretense of showing the kids playing and practicing football, Glee had a pretense of practicing singing, even Heated Rivalry shows hockey once in a while in between all the steamy stuff that people are actually interested in.

They wrote an episode based around taking a laser tag gym class, which would have been fine if it paid off later on if they had Darem defer to Genesis during a crisis or if the one of them were on the Miyazaki instead and had a reason to show off their phaser prowess.

The Lazer tag only has to "pay off" in the episodes it's in. In fact, I don't think the episode was about phaser prowess.

 

[Roald]

Jammer gave the ep a very bad review…. was not expecting that, I think he’s way too harsh with this one…

 

[Fateor]

Funny how the stardates indicate it's 3192 but the producers and advertising all but say it's 3195.

I would say that's more sad then funny given how easy it is to calculate stardates.

 

[BigJake]

Jammer gave the ep a very bad review…. was not expecting that, I think he’s way too harsh with this one…

A lot depends on the weight one gives to different things. Jammer (never heard of this person before your post persuaded me to look them up) appears to be annoyed by things it didn't occur to me to care about, to be completely unmoved by the acting work behind the two characters whose trauma the episode is focused on, and to be working out PTSD from bad experiences in a lit class into the bargain. I can't connect with any of those problems but I guess I can see where they might come from.

 

[Manticore]

I would say that's more sad then funny given how easy it is to calculate stardates.

Speaking for myself, I don't remember the stardate 1 second after it's stated. Stardates ultimately do not matter, which is one reason why Roddenberry et al invented them back in the '60s.

 

[BigJake]

Speaking for myself, I don't remember the stardate 1 second after it's stated. Stardates ultimately do not matter, which is one reason why Roddenberry et all invented them back in the '60s.

The idea of stardates being "easy to calculate" made me chuckle. Roddenberry didn't know how to "calculate" them, they were made up as they went along.

 

[Manticore]

The idea of stardates being "easy to calculate" made me chuckle. Roddenberry didn't know how to "calculate" them, they were made up as they went along.

Heh, admittedly, when I was 17 or 19, the stardates being wrong would have bothered me a bit more. However, I'm 40 now, so that was a long time ago and a radically, hilariously different me. These days, I mostly care about the characters, the plots, and the messages. The only character that I don't really like at the moment is Tarima, and they've done a really good job with the optimism of Trek.

 

[Fateor]

Speaking for myself, I don't remember the stardate 1 second after it's stated. Stardates ultimately do not matter, which is one reason why Roddenberry et al invented them back in the '60s.

Actually stardates do matter, because they tell us when a thing is happening.

The idea of stardates being "easy to calculate" made me chuckle. Roddenberry didn't know how to "calculate" them, they were made up as they went along.

It's 2026 not 1966, now days it's literally as simple as punching dates into a calculator.

 

[Manticore]

Actually stardates do matter, because they tell us when a thing is happening.

Hard disagree, but I won't belabor the point.

 

[BigJake]

It's 2026 not 1966, now days it's literally as simple as punching dates into a calculator.

With all due love and respect to Andreas Schmidt -- I've used his calculator for fanfics -- it's a fan guesstimation tool, not a canonically definitive method of calculating stardates. The latter does not exist.

Star Trek in general was not invented with crunchy, precise worldbuilding in mind. Demanding this of it is a ticket to madness, IMO.

 

[fireproof78]

Star Trek in general was not invented with crunchy, precise worldbuilding in mind. Demanding this of it is a ticket to madness, IMO.

This.

That's why I want a reboot. Create the hard and fast rules rather than assumptions.

 

[Turtletrekker]

This.

That's why I want a reboot. Create the hard and fast rules rather than assumptions.

Hard and fast rules aren't needed. They interfere with the story.

 

[BigJake]

This.

That's why I want a reboot. Create the hard and fast rules rather than assumptions.

I think a lot of people who are frustrated by the loosey-goosey approach of Trek would benefit from watching The Expanse. That franchise is doing what they're looking for.

 

[fireproof78]

Hard and fast rules aren't needed. They interfere with the story.

Didn't say need. Said want.

Then those who demand technical correctness in their fun media can have it.

 

[Ceridwen]

Stardates can't make sense because time does not make sense at interstellar scales.

But you didn't hear that from me.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Actually stardates do matter, because they tell us when a thing is happening.

Nah They're essentially meaningless.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

I think a lot of people who are frustrated by the loosey-goosey approach of Trek would benefit from watching The Expanse. That franchise is doing what they're looking for.

I could not get into the expanse it was just lacking that special something for me.

I like rigid inflexible rules in my universes, I just ignore and tweak when they're broken on screen because human error occurs during productions in everything.