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Star Trek II, III, IV movie Timeline question...

first problem
has is basing something on a date of a vi tage the vintage year has nothing to donwith anything if you drunk whine or whiskey u base the vintage and the peice based on the quality of the harvest for wine : some years have good grapes some dont : scot h is based in aging etc :

See here:

People still get aroused at the idea that the Romulan Ale is some cheap stuff that McCoy pawned off on Kirk. But as has been pointed out before, and I quote, "It's an ale!" Meaning it isn't some hard liquor. Rather, it's Romulan Budweiser. And like most beers, be they lager or ale, the fresher the better. So a 2283 year on it is then a good thing, as that means it hasn't gone stale yet.
 
Remarkably, he's reading it before he gets the glasses. ;)

One wonders... Did the prop have actual text on it? In English or alienese? The label is intentionally very, very dark...

Anyway, FWIW, BK613 explained it all, back in 2015:



Timo Saloniemi
i still argue its just a good vintage supposedly
 
@DIrishB I'm glad to hear that Michelob is no good being that we tried to source it for our Voyage Home episode of our Podcast, Spocklight, to recreate Kirk and Gillian's meal but not available in the UK :( so we plumped for Anchor Brewery California Lager instead, brewed in San Fran itself. Not only that but we called the Pizza joint during the Pod for them to make a to order pizza exact as it is in the film and the oven was broken...
 
People in fiction have to speak correctly almost all the time, to give the readers/viewers correct information about the fictional world. Unlike real people, they almost never give inaccurate information.

Real people, even the smartest, often make simple mistakes. One possible explanation for the sinking of HMS Victoria in 1893 is that Admiral Tryon made a simple mistake, confusing his ships' turning radius for their turning diameter, and so thought the maneuver was safe.

Isaac Asimov wrote new novels in the 1980s to tie his classic robot, empire, and foundation novels into one large series. In the introduction to one - probably Prelude to Foundation - Asimov listed the fictional order of the novels. But by mistake - probably corrected in later editions - Asimov listed The Currents of Space as happening before The Stars like Dust, not after.

Just as Asimov's list could not change the internal evidence that The Currents of Space happened thousands of years after The Stars like Dust, so Gene Roddenberry and Richard Arnold could not decree arbitrary fictional dates for Star Trek productions with any certainty that their dates would agree with the evidence in various productions. But during the 1980s they arbitrarily decided that TOS happened 300 years after the episodes were aired in 1966-1969, and that each season of TNG was a calendar year, starting with 2364, 400 years after "The Cage" was filmed, and they didn't notice or care about any contradictory evidence in the episodes.

The Okudas accepted those assumptions as a basis for their chronological work in the Star Trek Encyclopedia and Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future, so all of their work trying to be as accurate as possible is a house of cards erected upon a foundation of quicksand.

One of the biggest failures in the official but not canonical chronology is the failure to notice that various Star Trek productions, starting with various TOS episodes, give dates in different Earth calendars with different starting years. Thus events in years with higher numbers do not necessarily happen after events in years with lower numbers.

So don't assume that the official dates of various Star Trek events are accurate.
 
So glad I'm not alone out there.

Question for discussion: Did the Okudas, 25 years ago when they first sold the Chronology to its publisher, fill a gap that some group of fans had been asking to be filled, with respect to timelines of the various series and movies that had been produced to date? Or was it their own impulse alone that led them to think such an effort - in combination with their insider status Trek-wise - would lead to a sale? (And if there was indeed some sort of demand among fans, how was it made known? At conventions, by U.S. mail, carrier pigeon, or what?)

To take it a step further: Is there some natural impulse in humans to make events fit into a chronology?

Related question: In the early 1950s, whose idea was it - the author or the publisher - to put month-and-year dates at the top of all the stories in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles? (At least one of those stories, "Mars Is Heaven!," when originally published separately, had a specific date: One character says "This being 1960, yes sir" to Captain Black. This was edited out for the story's appearance in Chronicles as "The Third Expedition" because it didn't conform to the new dating

Great question about The Martian Chronicles.

I remember reading some type of fanzine collected books in the 80s, probably in *elementary* school, with page after page analyzing and playing with years and dates for timeline creation. This type of nitpicking has been apparently part of the Trek DNA since the 70s lol.

About various Star Trek chronologies. I have always considered the official chronology a house of cards based on a foundation of quicksand. And until it appeared it was common for fans to offer various and competing chronologies.

I have seen more Star Trek chronologies than I can remember, starting with one published in 1968 in Star Trek: an Analysis of a phenomenon in Science Fiction. I was trying to list all the ones I could remember, but I kept accidentally erasing all my work and gave up.

I actually just started a thread about various Star Trek chronologies.
http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/different-star-trek-chronologies.285392/
 
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And again, position in the galaxy, warp speed being traveled, etc all affected the Stardates:

"They marked off sections on a pictorial depiction of the known universe and extrapolated how much earth time would elapse when traveling between given points, taking into account that the Enterprise's warp engines would be violating Einstein's theory that nothing could exceed the speed of light. They concluded that the 'time continuum' would therefore vary from place to place, and that earth time may actually be lost in travel. 'So the stardate on Earth would be one thing, but the stardate on Alpha Centauri would be different,' Peeples says. 'We thought this was hilarious, because everyone would say, "How come this date is before that date when this show is after that show?" The answer was because you were in a different sector of the universe."

-Joel Engel, explaining Stardates based on interview with Samuel Peeples, who wrote "Where No Man Has Gone Before" episode and brainstormed the Stardate system with Roddenberry.

There's no real rhyme or reason to it. They're completely random, and this quote, as well as quotes from Roddenberry himself who says same (that position in galaxy and warp speed affected the Stardates so they're not linear or in a progressive order).

From TOS series bible:

"Stardates are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, can vary widely from episode to episode."

So, again, don't make mistake of taking Stardates as definitive markers of a chronology for the show.

The production order is the generally accepted chronology for that reason.

It's also why viewing the 1000 dates as first year, 5000 dates as fifth year is also likely an invalid assumption.

I hope to someday create my own chronologies of Star Trek.

In one, I put every episode in order of stardates (though most episodes happen in alternate universes of their own) extending the Next Generation era stardate system back to TOS era and lining it up with Earth dates according to my unique system that nobody else seem to have deduced yet.

In another system the productions in and after the second season of TNG will be in stardate order as in the above (though most episodes happen in alternate universes of their own) since stardate order, production order, and airdate order are almost exactly the same in that era. TOS, TAS, and the first season of TNG will be in airdate order and use a different star date system. A stardate system which can calculate and predict the Earth dates that various stardates will fall on despite being much stranger than the TNG one.

In another system the productions in and after the second season of TNG will be in stardate order as in the above (though most episodes happen in alternate universes of their own) since stardate order, production order, and airdate order are almost exactly the same in that era. TOS, TAS, and the first season of TNG will be in production order and use a different and third star date system. A stardate system which can calculate and predict the Earth dates that various stardates will fall on despite being much stranger than the TNG one.
 
For all we know, Klingon years are longer than Earth years...
In The Final Reflection by John M. Ford there are several references that establish that Klingon years are longer than Earth years. But there is one that makes Klingon years shorter than Earth years. I guess Ford did the math in reverse hen writing that.
 
But what evidence shows they reset every decade or so?



That's actually not completely true. Details that may not be addressed or revealed within episodes or films can still be viewed as canon. A good example of that may be details revealed in say, a Marvel Comic Guidebook, revealing a minor character's middle name or some other less than important detail. It does happen. I always assumed that was case with making Kirk's birthday same as Shatner's. It's not addressed in the episodes or films (the only canon material) when his birthday is (in Prime timeline, Kelvin timeline makes it quite clear), but I thought it was generally agreed Kirk's birthday is March 22.

It's accepted as such on Memory Alpha and various other info sites.

Presumably Roddenberry chose Shatner's actual birthday to align with Kirk's during this:

"In March 1985, when the town was looking for a theme for its annual town festival, Steve Miller, a member of the Riverside City Council who had read The Making of Star Trek – a book that lists Kirk's year of birth as 2228 rather than 2233 as established in TOS: "The Deadly Years" – suggested to the council that Riverside should proclaim itself to be the future birthplace of Kirk. Miller's motion passed unanimously. The council later wrote to Roddenberry for his permission to be designated as the official birthplace of Kirk, and with Roddenberry's consent, the towndeveloped a tourist industry around the idea. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home then established on screen that Kirk was from Iowa."

Presumably Roddenberry determined Kirk's birthday was same as Shatner's, or agreed to it based on someone else's suggestion.

I consider things like the writer's guides and The Making of Star Trek (1968) and the 1968 article "To Make a Star Trek" in Analog magazine to be semi canon. The more official the source the more canon. And the more that Star Trek creators thought that those sources might influence future Star Trek writers and provided information to those sources the more canon they were.

You write:The Making of Star Trek – a book that lists Kirk's year of birth as 2228 rather than 2233 as established in TOS: "The Deadly Years"
I don't remember any specific years being mentioned in The Making of Star Trek (1968). Are you talking about the same book? Could you quote where it gives Kirk's birth year?
 
I won't rehash timeline-related comments of mine from other threads, but with respect to "canon," are we to believe (just to take one example of the many contradictions among filmed episodes or movies) that James Kirk's middle initial is somehow both T. and R.? Perhaps the James R. Kirk of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" will feature somehow in the new Discovery series...

Even the science varied between episodes. (For example, the ship's orbit decaying shortly after Finney messes with the engines in "Court Martial," versus Norman's line early in "I, Mudd": "If you do not come with me, your engines will be destroyed and you will remain in orbit here forever.") Why does anyone take any of this seriously enough to even use the word "canon"?!

What's enjoyable or thought-provoking about a given Star Trek episode (or movie) is changed not one iota by whether it fits into anyone's idea of what is "official."

[Similarly, I get annoyed when I see (for example) a 50th-anniversary story that refers to Nichelle Nichols' role in the original series as "Nyota" Uhura.][/QUOTE]

I don't know what planet you came from to investigate Earth culture, but it is quite common for Earthlings to have multiple names. For example, an Ann Francis Veronica Hurst (1801-1868) was the third wife of Jacob Demuth (1779-1842) of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She was named as "Mrs. Demuth", "Ann Demuth", Ann F. Demuth", "Francis Demuth", etc. in various documents. Jacob Demuth and his second wife named 2 of their sons "Carl Augustus Rudolphus Hartafel Demuth" and "Gottfrid Ottfrid Obadja Eckert Demuth". Similarly Mrs. Margaret Augusta Wise Buckius Demuth was the mother of the famous artist Charles Henry Buckius Demuth.

So I find it easy to believe that when James Tiberius Ragnar Horatio Kirk - or whatever his full name was - joined Starfleet he chose his favorite middle name to makes his official name form "Jame R. Kirk" and after the events on Delta Vega changed his official Starfleet name form to James T. Kirk because he didn't want to be reminded of the tombstone and having to kill Gary.

About orbits, we all know that low orbits decay much faster than high orbits, and a high enough orbit will seem eternal to mortal humans. And some of the creators of TOS were amateur or professional pilots. So possibly they imagined that sometimes the Enterprise would use an astronautical orbit, and sometimes - perhaps for reasons connected to transporter use - it would use an aeronautical orbit.

And some fans enjoy episodes more when they think about those things.
 
And if we start counting from "Corbomite Maneuver", we get 2293 (or thereabouts) all right. Although McCoy seems to have prehistory with Kirk, and possibly also has prehistory with the Enterprise - enough to amount for those "skipped" years between TOS and TMP (no need to think he skipped anything between TMP and TUC). Alternately, the leeway from the prehistory could be used for adjusting the dating of TUC.
Interestingly, while non-canon, there's also Vonda McIntyre's 1986 novel Enterprise: The First Adventure, which has McCoy signing on for a temporary stint as ship's surgeon in 2264 during Kirk's first voyage as captain, taking over for Dr. Piper for an indefinite period prior to WNMHGB. Although written prior to The Undiscovered Country, it could help to account for some of that "interstitial" time McCoy might've been factoring into his dialogue during the Qo'noS trial-sequence in that film (regarding the "27 years"-figure).


TSfS picks up immediately after TWoK, within days, weeks at most. That's evident based on the damage to the ship and Kirk still struggling with Spock's recent death. TSfS occurs over a few days at most, and that can be partially backed up by the resurrected Spock's aging at an accelerated pace on the Genesis planet (given how he ages from a child to teenager in a few hours).

TVH picks up 3 months later from TSfS.

And TFF seems to pick up 3 weeks (maybe a bit more) after TVH based on the retrofitting and updating Scotty has been doing for 3 weeks.
Not necessarily -- there's evidence to suggest that the timespan between The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier is substantially more than three weeks; among other things, Harve Bennett himself stated in interviews that there was at least a six-month shakedown-cruise for the Enterprise-A between the fourth and fifth movies, and there are other bits in TFF's onscreen dialogue (such as "twenty years" passing since the establishment of official communications between the UFP and the Romulans) as well which support a much longer timescale in between stories.

If anything, going by TFF alone, the timescale would actually be pushed further into the future (as in, even into 2288, perhaps), if we assume that official relations between those powers didn't simply commence instantaneously overnight following the events of "Balance of Terror" (which was a pretty seismic incident), but rather took some reasonable time to set up, in order for the two sides to build up diplomatic trust, for the Romulans to come to the table with some dignity intact, etc.
 
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@DIrishB I'm glad to hear that Michelob is no good being that we tried to source it for our Voyage Home episode of our Podcast, Spocklight, to recreate Kirk and Gillian's meal but not available in the UK :( so we plumped for Anchor Brewery California Lager instead, brewed in San Fran itself. Not only that but we called the Pizza joint during the Pod for them to make a to order pizza exact as it is in the film and the oven was broken...
Michelob was an American "premium" beer before the advent of the craft beer movement that made such American "premium" beer variants laughable. Frankly, I'm not sure exactly what made this beer 'premium' as it tasted to me like all the other American beers - essentially weak pilsners. It has been argued that anchor steam was (one) of the first American beers in the craft beer movement. Personally, I drink mostly Belgian Trappist beers - as they are full of flavor
 
@PCz911 I can assure you we only intended to drink it in an attempt to recreate Kirk and Gillian's meal in audio form on the Podcast lol, not because we enjoy American "premium" beers ;)
 
So, I'm doing a major re-watch of the entire Star Trek universe in chronological order: all episodes of every series (including The Animated Series) and all the films.

I've just finished Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home, and had a question about the placement of Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III - The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home.

The official chronology placed STII and STIII in 2285, and STIV in 2286... but this makes little sense.

First, Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan establishes its been 15 years since the episode Space Seed, which is definitively set in 2267. Normally one would assume STII-TWoK must occur in 2282, however McCoy gives Kirk a bottle of Romulan Ale, vintage 2283 for his birthday (which occurs on March 22). This means it must be at least 2283. Also, Kirk seems to not like the taste of the ale (he makes a face as if he's forcing it down). This makes me think Romulan Ale is best after its aged, and newer vintages can be unpalatable for humans.

Also, if we presume Space Seed occurs in the middle or towards end of 2267, STII's setting of March, 2283 is 15 years and change later, which gives validity to the scripted mentions of "15 years" passing between the episode and film.

Further, STIII-TSfS picks up almost immediately after STII, maybe a few weeks at most to allow for some minor repairs to the Enterprise (after the notable damage received in the space battle with Khan over the nebula) and enough time for David Marcus and Saavik to be assigned/join the science team investigating the Genesis Planet. Presumably that'd place STIII in April, 2283.

Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home is said to occur 3 months after STIII, so presumably in July, 2283, not 2286.

Maybe I'm wrong, but considering the official chronology has it occurring 18 years after Space Seed that doesn't really jive with the 15 years mentions in STII, and even if we presume they're rounding they'd likely be more apt to round up to 20 years instead of rounding down by 3 years to come to 15 years instead of 18.

Any thoughts on this? Am I overthinking it or overlooking something? Just wondering.
I totally agree with you as Kahn would definitely remember how long he was marooned on Ceti Alpha V and Kirk would also remember. It is in my book I wrote on stardates. I suppose Kahn could have been referring to Ceti Alpha year but if I remember my space seed correctly Ceti Alpha V is a bit like Earth.
 
Kirk says 15 years instead of 20 because rounding up would mean admitting even more time has passed—something he’s already struggling with as he feels the weight of age. By saying 15, he’s subconsciously trying to hold back time. Kind of like when I insist the ’90s were only a decade ago.
 
It's weird that both Khan and Kirk would hold the exact same delusion.

Occam's Razor suggests that fifteen years have passed. The easiest thing to move is Space Seed. The Okudas arbitrarily placed TOS 300 years in the future, but there's no real reason why the episode couldn't take place in 2269 or 2270.

This thread is a temporal anomaly in itself!
 
Well the last post was eight years ago until someone revived it. Normally the mods jump to close necro threads.
 
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