Star date system plz explaing??

[GotNoRice]

I’ve been re-watching TNG, DS9, and Voyager (as well as movies during this time) and trying to do so in order of Stardate and almost wishing I had not. Star Trek: First Contact for example has a Stardate that puts it after several DS9 episodes that more or less contradict the stardate reference. There is a DS9 episode where the “recent borg attack” was mentioned” as well as the DS9 episode where Worf swaps his House of Mogh emblem for his House of Martok emblem on his Sash, both of which occurred in DS9 episodes that have stardates “before” First Contact even though he is seen still wearing the house of mogh emblem in the movie, etc.

 

[Captain Ryan]

This site may help you understand, I especially like the 'Inconsistencies' section.

 

[The Borg Queen]

It's a date that sounds futuristic and outer-spacey, because they call it a stardate.

Maybe they use the Cochranian Calendar in the Federation?

 

[Timo]

There is a DS9 episode where the “recent borg attack” was mentioned”

...OTOH, in ST:FC, Picard claims that the Borg have been advancing and the Feds have been retreating. That would imply Borg attacks we didn't see on screen, as nothing of the sort ever happened in a TNG episode. So there could well have been a "recent" Borg attack or five, a few months before the movie.

Apart from this, stardates in TNG, DS9 and VOY plus the TNG movies are remarkably consistent and cross-consistent, although sometimes only because many of the DS9 and VOY episodes (as well as ST:INS) lack a definite stardate and therefore can be argued not to create a timeline contradiction.

Too bad that the first season of TNG isn't quite as consistent. It's the fault of last-minute rewrites, really: the penultimate scripts that one can read at TrekCore show more palatable stardates (or lack of stardates) that would erase the Now Tasha's Dead, Now She Isn't problem. But if we "squint aurally" in just two episodes and hear the penultimate rather than ultimate stardates, TNG S1 also makes sense in stardate order.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TGTheodore]

I just accepted that 1000 units equaled about one Earth year.

That's what I used in my early spec scripts and pitches to the franchise. It also makes the most sense, essentially being "metric" time. (Base 10)

The stardates used in TNG and later were more like production numbers for the episodes rather than integral stardates. They just got larger until they realized they didn't "ration" out enough numbers to stay consistent.

It didn't matter what stardate you used when you pitched a story, because it would have to be changed anyway (unless a particular story took place specifically within the established timeline).

In spec scripts, you'd generally use Stardate "4XXXX.X"

Also, in the 1960's, television shows weren't as retentive about continuity. That happened later.

--Ted