A TMP "What If"
- Thread starter Bry_Sinclair
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This seems as plausible an explanation as anything else.Okay, some of this is from previous postings.
8 years before TMP, after the first five year mission the Enterprise undergoes a short refurbishment, there is a general crew rotation. The ship departs on a second (anticipated) five year mission. Kirk is promoted to Fleet Captain at this time, on several occasions he commands small fleets of starships in battle. Three years into the mission Kirk becomes a Commodore, this gives him administrative responsibility over a dozen starships and their crews. Christine Chapel leaves the ship to attend medical school at this point
4 years before TMP, Commodore Kirk turns over command of the Enterprise to Captain Decker at a outlying starbase. After a brief standard resupply Decker took the Enterprise out on what was anticipated to be a three plus year mission. The extensive refit was already scheduled. At this time the Enterprise is no longer considered by Starfleet to be a "front line" vessel and Decker's mission is heavy on survey, exploration and diplomacy, light on border patrol and confrontation assignments.
Spock deactivates his commission and returns to Vulcan. McCoy resigns his commission and goes into private medical research.
Upon arriving on Earth Commodore Kirk takes a few weeks leave and then reports to Starfleet Command to a position on the operations staff.
2.5 years before TMP, Kirk is assigned as Starfleet Chief of Operations. at this time he is promoted to Rear Admiral (note; Chief of Operations in Starfleet is not the top position that it is in the US Navy).
1.5 years before TMP, Starfleet begins redesigning the Enterprise. Scotty returns to Earth as one of the engineers assigned. Pavel Chekov returns to the academy for advanced officer training and then to attend tactical security school.
8 months before TMP, the Enterprise returns to Earth orbit and the refit begins. Decker, Sulu and Uhura remains with the ship during the refit.
Decker at this point has been in command of the Enterprise for less than four years, while there have been rare low-level skirmishes in that time, Decker never commanded the ship in full combat nor handled a major crisis, and is still considered by some to be "untried."
As for me, in 1979 I just looked at it as 10 years from the last TOS episode. Because that's what it was.
Really there's a lot about Star Trek that is better just accepted, and not examined too closely.
If you accept the dates in the spin offs and the Okuda's Chronology, TMP takes place in 2273. This date is derived from Voyager stating that the five year mission ended in 2270, and Kirk's 2.5 years comment. So, there's already a 4 year gap between the end of TOS season 3 and TMP.
If you set TMP somewhere closer to the 2280's, you'd most reasonably something akin to the tone of TWOK. I don't know how that does anything really for the story TMP had to tell.
If you set TMP somewhere closer to the 2280's, you'd most reasonably something akin to the tone of TWOK. I don't know how that does anything really for the story TMP had to tell.
^ That's kind of the 'fanon' comment I was making earlier.
Voyager 'canonised' the date (irrc it was in the episode "Q2"?), but until then it was just supposition on the Okudas' part. The supposition being that "Turnabout Intruder" was somewhere near the end of the five year mission.
There's something like 2000-ish stardate units between "Turnabout..." and TMP, so if one equates those with any kind of meaning, it might imply two years between one and the other. But like we say, the whole point becomes academic, because Voyager just stated it outright.
Voyager 'canonised' the date (irrc it was in the episode "Q2"?), but until then it was just supposition on the Okudas' part. The supposition being that "Turnabout Intruder" was somewhere near the end of the five year mission.
There's something like 2000-ish stardate units between "Turnabout..." and TMP, so if one equates those with any kind of meaning, it might imply two years between one and the other. But like we say, the whole point becomes academic, because Voyager just stated it outright.
It might be that there was one year before "Corbomite Manuever" and one year after "Turnabout Intruder". Than a half year to a year of Kirk and crew doing other things before bring Enterprise in for her refit. Fitting in the four Animated Series episodes that have Stardates after "All Our Yesterdays" (which is the last episode by stardate 5943.7) Only one is set rally close to TMP's stardate (7412.6), "Bem" at stardate 7403.6. "Bem" could take place after the "Five Year Mission" but before Enterprise arrives back for a refit.
"Bem" is the odd one out.
The other three fit closer to being between TOS/TAS and TMP
("Turnabout Intruder" Stardate: 5928.9)
("All Our Yesterdays" Stardate: 5943.7)
"How Sharper than a Serpant's Tooth" Stardate: 6063.4
"The Pirates of Orion" Stardate: 6334.1
"The Counter-Clock Incident" Stardate: 6770.3
("Bem" Stardate: 7403.6)
("Star Trek: The Motion Picture" - Stardate: 7412.6)
The other three fit closer to being between TOS/TAS and TMP
("Turnabout Intruder" Stardate: 5928.9)
("All Our Yesterdays" Stardate: 5943.7)
"How Sharper than a Serpant's Tooth" Stardate: 6063.4
"The Pirates of Orion" Stardate: 6334.1
"The Counter-Clock Incident" Stardate: 6770.3
("Bem" Stardate: 7403.6)
("Star Trek: The Motion Picture" - Stardate: 7412.6)
Very true, but even those other three still come pretty close (within a 1,000 SD units) of TMP. Fortunately the SDs in TOS were never used in such a rigid manner as in TNG so we have a little wiggle room: The notion that SD are a reference to both time and space is a good one (I actually came up with the notion years before I read that GE had done the same thing!) although it would make timekeeping a bit of a mathematical exercise each time! Or perhaps that there is a forgotten / unmentioned 5th digit and SDs continuously rotate. I know there are lots of other fun theories out there too! 
What if the Stardates of that time were only in reference to the ship's own time in space. Once drydocked for the refit, the ship isn't going anyplace and the Stardates stop ticking. Once she's out again, the timer continues on like nothing happened, save it is a few years later.
Enerprise returns home not long after the events in "Bem" and gets decommissioned for a major reconstruction. Many months later Admiral Kirk returns to take the newly finished starship on a mission to stop V'Ger. He picks up the logbook and continues with the next date after the last one he wrote it in some months back. Decker not having used the log since the ship haven't been recommissioned yet.
Enerprise returns home not long after the events in "Bem" and gets decommissioned for a major reconstruction. Many months later Admiral Kirk returns to take the newly finished starship on a mission to stop V'Ger. He picks up the logbook and continues with the next date after the last one he wrote it in some months back. Decker not having used the log since the ship haven't been recommissioned yet.
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