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A Lit-verse based TOS chronology

Sorry - Got a new laptop for my birthday, some of my files must not have ported over correctly. This is an old write-up. I'll post the correct one later once I find it.
 
Okay here it is – last time. Cleaned up all the old junk and duplicate files on both the desktop and laptop and put everything on a thumb drive so hopefully no more uploading the wrong files.

2276
C. AUGUST – 2276
Stardate: 9250
The Wounded Sky

C. SEPTEMBER – 2276
Stardates: 304.6–2816.3
My Enemy, My Ally – Note: Moved as per Christopher’s and Idran suggestion.

2277
JULY/AUGUST – 2277
July 31+
Doctor’s Orders

C. SEPTEMBER – 2277
The Romulan Way – Note: McCoy is 50. At the beginning of the story he is on a three-week vacation (which is interrupted).

C. OCTOBER – 2277
Stardates: 7416.664–7468.55
Spock’s World – Note: Moved as per Christopher’s and Idran suggestion. 1 month in orbit being refitted/resupplied. Spock has been on the Enterprise by himself 16 days at the start of the story. Spans approximately 7-10 days.

C. NOVEMBER – 2277
Swordhunt – Note: Takes place in ‘November’. ‘The Romulan Way’ was ‘2 months ago’ (i.e. ‘September’) Spans approximately 17+ days. K’s’t’lk is 1 to 3 years old according to McCoy.
Honor Blade

C. DECEMBER – 2277
The Empty Chair

P.S.
A couple of more items – Chapter 14 of ‘The Genesis Report’ in ‘The Genesis Wave Volume 1’ dates the explosion of Praxis to June of 2293. According to the diary entries made by Amanda Greyson in the novel ‘Sarek’, that story begins on September 16, 2293, one month after the Khitomer Conference in ‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’, which means that ‘The Undiscovered Country’ occurs sometime around August 15+, 2293.
In ‘The Undiscovered Country’ after the briefing on Praxis, Kirk tells Spock that the crew of the Enterprise is due to stand down in 6 months time. If the story takes place c. August of 2293 then their projected retirement date would be c. late December 2293/c. early January 2294. Of course that date was probably brought forward following the events at Khitomer. Also during their trial McCoy is asked how long he’s been the Enterprise’s CMO to which he replies ’27 years’. So McCoy joined the Enterprise sometime in late 2265/early 2266 prior to ‘The Corbomite Maneuver’.
Then in the opening of ‘Generations’, one of the reporters asks Captain Kirk what it is like to not be the Captain of a ship named Enterprise in 30 years. Of course she’s either simplifying for the viewing audience or forgetting that both Captain’s Decker and Spock commanded the Enterprise for a short time. Either way subtract 30 years from 2293 means that Kirk took command of the Enterprise sometime in 2263, or, the opening sequence of ‘Generations’ is set sometime in 2294 and Kirk took command of the Enterprise in 2264 which ties in with Chapter 13 of the eBOOK ‘Seasons Of Light And Darkness’ which says that Kirk took command on or around May 13, 2264.
Also, the novelization of ‘Generations’ opens up almost immediately after ‘The Undiscovered Country’ with the Enterprise returning to Spacedock to be decommissioned. McCoy retires to Georgia and Spock goes to Vulcan to join the Sarek in the diplomatic corps. It then jumps ahead ‘One Year Later’ to the day before the launch of the Enterprise-B. I haven’t read all of the post-‘Undiscovered Country’ novels but I do know that ‘Sarek’, ‘The Last Roundup’ and ‘The Ashes Of Eden’ combined take up about 9 months of time, so we’re looking at a June-August 2294 date for the opening sequence of ‘Generations’.
Something else I’d like to point out. While some people over the years have discussed Admiral Morrow’s line in ‘The Search For Spock’ about the Enterprise being 20 year old, later in the movie ‘Mr. Adventure’ is talking to Uhura and he mentions that she’s retiring after 20 years in Starfleet. 20 years in Starfleet means she would have joined sometime in 2265 just prior to ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’.
 
As an added bonus here are 3 other versions of the ‘Rihannsu’ timeline from 3 other online chronologies I’ve found over the years.
THE STAR TREK ANNOTATED TIMELINE – 2003
WIN SCOTT ECKERT
2272
JANUARY – 2272
The Wounded Sky

2275
JULY – 2275
Doctor’s Orders

2276
MAY – 2276
My Enemy, My Ally

SEPTEMBER – 2276
The Romulan Way

NOVEMBER – 2276
Swordhunt
Honor Blade

DECEMBER – 2276
The Empty Chair

MID-MARCH – 2278
Spock’s World

THE STAR TREK FANDOM CHRONOLOGY – STADATE 0410.08
JAMES DIXON
2264
NOVEMBER – 2264
Stardate: 9250.0
The Wounded Sky

Doctor’s Orders

2270
SEPTEMBER – 2270
Stardates: 0304.6-2816.3
My Enemy, My Ally

2271
SEPTEMBER – 2271
The Romulan Way

NOVEMBER – 2271
Swordhunt
Honor Blade

DECEMBER – 2271
The Empty Chair

SEPTEMBER – 2281
Spock’s World

THE CHRONOLOGY OF WRITTEN STAR TREK FICTION – 1/13/2006
GEOFF TOWBRIDGE
2275
The Wounded Sky

SEPTEMBER – 2275
My Enemy, My Ally

2276
JULY – 2276
Doctor's Orders
Spock's World

SEPTEMBER – 2276
The Romulan Way

NOVEMBER – 2276
Swordhunt
Honor Blade

DECEMBER – 2276
The Empty Chair
 
I remember now that Christopher and Idran convinced you to move Spock's World. I'm sticking with VotI's version, for what it's worth. It's good to see your final workup. I completed all my notes on the movie era this afternoon as well. Now to integrate them into the order of things on my website.
 
Then in the opening of ‘Generations’, one of the reporters asks Captain Kirk what it is like to not be the Captain of a ship named Enterprise in 30 years. Of course she’s either simplifying for the viewing audience or forgetting that both Captain’s Decker and Spock commanded the Enterprise for a short time. Either way subtract 30 years from 2293 means that Kirk took command of the Enterprise sometime in 2263, or, the opening sequence of ‘Generations’ is set sometime in 2294 and Kirk took command of the Enterprise in 2264 which ties in with Chapter 13 of the eBOOK ‘Seasons Of Light And Darkness’ which says that Kirk took command on or around May 13, 2264.

Then again, if she's simplifying the events, she could just as well be rounding off the date. "Thirty years" could easily mean 28 or 29 years. I've never subscribed to the Okudachron policy of assuming that every round number must be exact. People round things off to the nearest ten or hundred all the time.


Something else I’d like to point out. While some people over the years have discussed Admiral Morrow’s line in ‘The Search For Spock’ about the Enterprise being 20 year old, later in the movie ‘Mr. Adventure’ is talking to Uhura and he mentions that she’s retiring after 20 years in Starfleet. 20 years in Starfleet means she would have joined sometime in 2265 just prior to ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’.

And people get things wrong all the time. Given that Morrow's estimate is clearly incorrect, there's no reason to assume Mr. Adventure is any more reliable a source.
 
Ryan
I'm glad you liked it. I'm still not entirely happy with it but there's just no way to move the novels around that's going to make everything work to everyone's satisfaction.

Anyway in going back over my notes for the 'New Earth' series I found that in trying to get the novels placed in the timeline I overlooked a book. Memory Alpha and your chronolgy have 'SCE: Foundations - Book 3' in 2280 after the 'Gateways' novels.

I haven't read any of the SCE books, is 2280 a 'firm' date or is it one that can be moved to later in the chronology say after the Enterprise returns in 2281 around the time of 'The Pandora Principle'? If it is then I'd hate to have to try and rework the 'New Earth' series again; once was enough.

Also over the weekend I managed to get my hands on the 'Lost Years' novels - 'Traitor Winds', 'A Flag Full of Stars', and 'Recovery'. They look to be fairly quick reads so I should have some preliminary thoughts on them by this weekend. A quick skim through then tells me that it's not looking too good for 'Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor' as he shows up in the first chapter of 'A Flag Full of Stars'.

It might end up being that I/we will have to treat the John Byrne material as an alternate continuity and just use some broad strokes to make it fit.
 
Anyway in going back over my notes for the 'New Earth' series I found that in trying to get the novels placed in the timeline I overlooked a book. Memory Alpha and your chronolgy have 'SCE: Foundations - Book 3' in 2280 after the 'Gateways' novels.
I haven't read any of the SCE books, is 2280 a 'firm' date or is it one that can be moved to later in the chronology say after the Enterprise returns in 2281 around the time of 'The Pandora Principle'? If it is I'd hate to have to try and rework the 'New Earth' series again; once was enough.

It's not very firm at all, as far as I can tell. It just has to be sometime after the 2279 events of Chapters 1-2 of In the Name of Honor, according to the Pocket Timeline. Although in skimming the two stories, I can't tell why it says it has to go there.


Also over the weekend I managed to get my hands on the 'Lost Years' novels - 'Traitor Winds', 'A Flag Full of Stars', and 'Recovery'. They look to be fairly quick reads so I should have some preliminary thoughts on them by this weekend. A quick skim through then tells me that it's not looking too good for 'Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor' as he shows up in the first chapter of 'A Flag Full of Stars'.
It might end up being that I/we will have to treat the John Byrne material as an alternate continuity and just use some broad strokes to make it fit.

The whole Lost Years series is already incompatible with the modern continuity, it seems to me, and moreover, its different books contradict each other's chronology. AFFoS is supposed to be something like a year and a half after the end of the 5-year mission, but is also explicitly and non-negotiably set on the 300th anniversary of Apollo 11, in July 2269. TW is actually set before AFFoS (since the Enterprise saucer is at an earlier stage of its refit), but is dated as 2270. The sequels were delayed by years and done under several different editors; indeed, TW and Recovery weren't even part of the original planned series. (The third book was supposed to be something called The War Virus, but it was cancelled.) As for Recovery, it portrays the visible "face" of the Tholians as a helmet worn by a more conventionally organic species, which conflicts with how both canon and the novels have treated the Tholians.

All the Byrne stuff works best as a separate continuity from the novelverse as well. The various Byrne series all interconnect, so they're best treated as a single whole, and various parts of it differ from the novels' interpretations of things. The Byrne Romulan stories give a different name for the praetor and a different interpretation of the events surrounding "Balance of Terror" than the Vanguard novels use. The Byrne Assignment: Earth disagrees with some of the novelverse Gary Seven stuff, such as the identity of the two agents whose deaths prompted Gary's trip to Earth (From History's Shadow offered a different take on them, IIRC) and Gary and Roberta's long-term future as shown in a flashforward (conflicting with The Eugenics Wars' version). And Frontier Doctor shows Kirk actively involved in the Enterprise refit, which is hard to reconcile with ST:TMP, where Decker had overseen the refit and Kirk knew little about its specifics.
 
Anyway in going back over my notes for the 'New Earth' series I found that in trying to get the novels placed in the timeline I overlooked a book. Memory Alpha and your chronolgy have 'SCE: Foundations - Book 3' in 2280 after the 'Gateways' novels.

I haven't read any of the SCE books, is 2280 a 'firm' date or is it one that can be moved to later in the chronology say after the Enterprise returns in 2281 around the time of 'The Pandora Principle'? If it is then I'd hate to have to try and rework the 'New Earth' series again; once was enough.

That was something I was just noticing as I was looking back over everything in the movie era this weekend as well. I looked back at the text of the ebook and didn't notice anything that gave that specific date. Not entirely sure why VotI placed it there, but I decided to push it forward to 2281 as well.

Also over the weekend I managed to get my hands on the 'Lost Years' novels - 'Traitor Winds', 'A Flag Full of Stars', and 'Recovery'. They look to be fairly quick reads so I should have some preliminary thoughts on them by this weekend. A quick skim through then tells me that it's not looking too good for 'Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor' as he shows up in the first chapter of 'A Flag Full of Stars'.

It might end up being that I/we will have to treat the John Byrne material as an alternate continuity and just use some broad strokes to make it fit.

Yes I am sure there are continuity differences between the two series. I look forward to reading your thoughts on them, as it's been years since I read those so I'm not sure of the exact discrepancies that might pop up.
 
There are times, when I’m working and I get frustrated that this line from Gordon W. Prange’s ‘Miracle At Midway’ seems appropriate – ‘. . . picture a hundred brown, muscular hands reaching for a hundred bottles of aspirin.’ That’s how I’ve felt the last few days trying to beat these novels into submission. I've finally gave up, there’s no way to reconcile these 3 novels with current continuity or even within themselves; so I’m just going to go ahead and list the chronological data points and let you work them out.

2269
TRAITOR WINDS – This one was probably the easiest to work with. It starts on December 14, 2269 and ends on January 1, 2270.
Chekov entered Starfleet Security Academy ‘4 months ago’. – C. September 2269
Uhura begins a teaching assignment at Starfleet Academy ‘3 months ago’. – C. October 2269
Sulu began working at White Sands Flight Center ‘3 months ago’. – C. October 2269. He began flying the ‘Wraith II’ ‘almost 2 months ago’. – C. November 2269.
Dr. M'Benga began working at Stanford Medical Center in pathology ‘3 months ago’. – C. October 2269
Kirk was promoted to Admiral ‘months ago’.
Mark Piper served onboard the Enterprise for one year; McCoy served the other four.
Janice Rand has transferred to Communications and is stationed at Iceland.
Christine Chapel is back in medical school going for a joint M.D./Ph. D.
Kyle has transferred to Tasmania and is working at the big transporter platform.
The Romulan cloaking device was obtained ‘only a few short years ago’.

A FLAG FULL OF STARS – Oh boy, where to begin. The novel spans from July 4-20, 2269 during the month of the Apollo Tricentennial which places it before the events of ‘Traitor Winds’, but the evidence given in the novel supports a later date.
Chapters 1-5
It begins on a Friday with the Fourth of July weekend over and the holiday bunting is being taken down from the Golden Gate Bridge. Okay so according to the calendar program on my computer, in 2269 the 4th of July will fall on a Sunday, making the Friday the day the novel starts July 9th.
Admiral Kirk promoted Decker to Captain to oversee the refit of the Enterprise ‘almost nine months earlier’.
Uhura is back at communications. At the helm is Lt. Commander Sulu. Chekov is still in Annapolis attending Starfleet Security Academy.
For 6 months the Enterprise saucer section has been being refitted at the San Francisco Navy Yard.
Decker has been preparing for the launch for ‘more than 8 months’.
Admiral Kirk was put in charge of Starfleet Operations ‘8 months ago’.
The Enterprise returned from its five-year-mission ‘a year ago’. ‘6 months ago’ the saucer section was separated from the primary hull and flown down to the Navy Yards. The whole refit will take ‘another year’. Followed by a shakedown cruise.
‘Months’ before Lori Ciana and Kirk had been working together as diplomatic troubleshooters. Then ‘8 months ago’ Admiral Nogura promoted Kirk to Chief of Operations. Lori is leaving on a tour of the ‘New Human’ colonies. She’ll be gone 2-3 months. She leaves Friday night.
Kevin Riley is 29. He married a woman named Anab Saed. ‘We signed for a year, and after 6 months she took a one-year deep space assignment (The Starhawk). I talked her into extending our contract to eighteen months.’ He called her the day the contract expired and she decided not to renew. That was a week ago.
‘Errand of Mercy’ was ‘some 6 years ago’.

Chapters 6-10 to page 168
Begins at 0800 Saturday. Again according to the calendar program it’s July 10, 2269. Apollo Day is ‘a week from Tuesday’. So that means the upcoming Tuesday is the 13th and the following Tuesday is the 20th. The 300th Anniversary of Sputnik was 12 years ago.
Kirk was 14 when the Tarsus IV incident occurred. Kevin Riley was 4.
The Space Shuttle Enterprise has been refitted with modern technology and is scheduled to fly from Earth to the Moon on Apollo Day, Tuesday July 20th. The US Flag has 56 stars.
During the call-in portion of ‘World News Saturday’ McCoy calls in. Kirk hasn’t spoken to McCoy in ‘over a year’ and ‘I thought you were still off planet’. (Note: This is the one place where you could slot ‘Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor.)

Chapter 10 pages 168-172
Sunday – July 11, 2269

Chapter 10 pages 172-176 to Chapter 13
Monday – July 12, 2269

Chapter 14
Early Wednesday morning, Apollo Day – July 14th, 2269
G’dath has been in a coma for 2 days. Lori left Earth ‘a few days ago’. See this is where it gets confusing – every indication is that this is supposed to be Tuesday July 20, 2269 or Wednesday July 21, 2269 as it is Apollo Day and the Space Shuttle Enterprise is joining the flotilla of spacecraft on their way to the Moon to orbit Tranquility Base. However, everything points to it only being 2-4 days since the story started. There’s a week or so worth of missing time that’s unaccounted for.

RECOVERY – Note: Since this and ‘The Lost Years’ were both written by J.M. Dillard it is the one most tied into that novel and it pretty much ignores ‘Traitor Winds’ and ‘A Flag Full Of Stars’. Spans approximately 2 days.
It’s been a year and a half since Kirk was promoted to Admiral. Kirk was last on the bridge of a starship ‘2 years ago’.
Kevin Riley is ’30 odd years old’. Riley decides to leave Starfleet and become Ambassador Sarek’s aide.
It’s been 2 months since Kirk’s one-year marriage contract to Lori Ciana had expired and she decided not to renew.
It’s been ‘6 months’ since Kirk has left his office and ‘over year’ since he was last in space – presumably after the events of ‘A Flag Full of Stars’.
‘Almost 2 years before’ Kirk had been at his mother’s farm in Iowa when Nogura had talked him into accepting a promotion to Admiral.
For the past year and a half McCoy has been researching the Fabrini.
Spock has been on Vulcan for more than a standard Terran year studying the Kolinahr. ’20 years ago’ Sarek and Spock fought over Spock’s decision to join Starfleet. Spock last saw McCoy a year ago during the events of ‘The Lost Years’.
Sonak has served on the Paladin for ‘3 years, 10 months, 212 days, six hours . . .’
It’s been ‘over a year’ since Kirk last saw McCoy.
The epilogue has Spock climbing up the steps to the Kohlinahr Masters and being touched by V’Ger.
 
Bumping this thread for some new data points from Seekers #4: Historian's note has it as five months after Turnabout Intruder, Beyond the Farthest Star is mentioned as being "earlier this year", and unfortunately the "Lovell was repairable and went on to be fixed post-Time Trap" theory was implicitly Jossed; al-Khalid and others from the Lovell crew are on temporary assignment to a science vessel, the Aephas, following the explicitly described destruction of the Lovell, waiting for the SCE to give them a new ship. So it looks like Time Trap has to be pulled out and put into the TOS run.

Still reading, I'll give more updates if I see any others.

Edit: oh, and there's a tie in to That Which Divides that places it "a few months ago".
 
Thanks for that great info, Idran. I read the historians note, but not the whole novel yet so I wasn't aware of alot of that. I'll be making the appropriate changes to the site as soon as I can. Plus I want to revisit those conversations we've had about The Time Trap in light of this new info.
 
Sure! I finished it earlier today, and those are the only specific time references to past episodes/books that I caught.
 
Finally taking a closer look at this new info. Apart from The Time Trap issue all of the other data points line up with what I have. It does seem odd that Beyond the Farthest Star is "earlier this year" when Turnabout Intruder was only 5 months back. Seems an odd way of describing what I would simply call " a few months ago".
 
Maybe (in your timeline) it warrants bumping up "That Which Divides" a bit, maybe to August instead of September? Note puts "All That's Left" as November 2269 by your reckoning, and describing it as "a few months before" seems a little off to me if it was only two months ago. And August could still be (maybe barely) described as "late 2269". Though I suppose it could be that "All That's Left" is in late November and "That Which Divides" is in early September? But even that seems a little close for that description.

And I agree about the oddness for Beyond the Farthest Star, but that at least can probably just be chalked up to an idiosyncratic description or something.
 
I have Prime Directive lasting until mid/late September so that wouldn't be my first choice. Really I don't have a problem with it only being two months later. It's no more awkward of phrasing than the "earlier this year" thing.

Looking back at the details of the Time Trap discussion, I'm reminded that Christopher explicitly dated The Time Trap somewhere very late 2269 to early 2270 in Forgotten History. So I wish there was a way to reconcile these two conflicting books.

What's your take on this development, Christopher?
 
What's your take on this development, Christopher?

I haven't read it yet, so I can't say for sure. It seems that Dayton and Kevin just have a fundamentally different interpretation of TAS chronology than I do. And I think the novel continuity has grown so huge by this point that there's no way to avoid inconsistencies. Some details probably have to be taken as inexact or as matters of interpretation. I find it increasingly useful to fall back on Roddenberry's take that Star Trek is an occasionally inaccurate dramatization rather than a strictly literal documentary.
 
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