Stardate calculators

[The Wormhole]

During the TNG-DS9-VGR period, including the TNG films, star dates were pretty consistent,

Nope. Take First Contact and DS9 season 5, for example. The stardate given in First Contact, 50893.5, would place it between the DS9 episodes Children of Time (50814.2) and Empok Nor (50901.7). Yet the events of the movie are directly referenced in the episode In Purgatory's Shadow, which has no stardate, but the next episode, By Inferno's Light (which is also part 2 of Purgatory's Shadow) has the stardate 50564.2.

 

[Deks]

The stardates on VOY were more consistent it seems.
Starting stardate 48315.6

The frst diigt (4) denominated most likely a decade or something.
Second digit (8) represents the year
Third digit (3) represents months (I think)
4th digit (1) represents days (again, I think)
5th digit (5) represents hours (probably)

The second digit did increase with the progression of every year... so by the time VOY hit the last episode (Endgame), the stardate was 54973.4
The first season wasn't a full year for the crew... neither was the second season if I'm not mistaken... so there was a bit of a delay as the final stardate should have been 55315.6 (I think)... so there's a difference of about 4 to 6 months (depending because the stardates change every tenth digit - so the months would be differently reflected in the third digit (if it actually measures months).

 

[Tuskin38]

Discovery Season 3 used a TNG era style Stardate in an episode or two, I don't recall if Season 4 used any stardates.

This is true, look no further than Discovery bringing back TOS' totally random numbers. I have no idea if Strange New Worlds has any kind of system but I kinda doubt it.

SNW is still going with random TOS style Stardates. Except for the Series premier which used a Kelvin Timeline style stardate for some reason, but that's the only episode to do that.

Lower Decks doesn't follow the exactly 1000 stardates = one year formula, they've smudged it a bit.

According to Brad Winters, one of the producers on the show, Lower Decks series premier takes place on January 1st, 2380, and the episode gives Stardate as 57436.2. Then the first episode set in 2381 according to him, is Season 3 Episode 6, Stardate 58456.2, but he didn't give an Earth date for the episode.

Erin Macdonald, the current science advisor for Star Trek, came up with a new formula for Stardates that Lower Decks uses, but AFAIK she hasn't released it yet, she said she would, but that was almost 2 years ago.

She (or maybe it was Brad) said they felt comfortable with smudging stardates because the TNG writers guide said it really shouldn't line up.

Side note, the TNG writers guide also said it's impossible to convert Stardates to Earth Dates precisely.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Stardate#The_Next_Generation_era

 

[Dukhat]

Nope. Take First Contact and DS9 season 5, for example. The stardate given in First Contact, 50893.5, would place it between the DS9 episodes Children of Time (50814.2) and Empok Nor (50901.7). Yet the events of the movie are directly referenced in the episode In Purgatory's Shadow, which has no stardate, but the next episode, By Inferno's Light (which is also part 2 of Purgatory's Shadow) has the stardate 50564.2.

I see. So you’re taking one example where they made a mistake, and making a judgment about the entire 14 year run of TNG through VOY? As I said, they were ‘pretty’ consistent. That a few mistakes were made in that 14 year span of time doesn’t really detract from the fact that stardate usage was more consistent during that period of time than any other Trek production before or since.

 

[Lord Garth]

TOS Stardates are less random than people think. TNG/DS9/VOY Stardates are consistent 99% of the time. The 1% is blown out of proportion. Though, yeah, "Homestead" did throw a massive curveball.

Discovery Season 3 used a TNG era style Stardate in an episode or two, I don't recall if Season 4 used any stardates.

Disco Season 4 used them twice.

"All Is Possible" --> Stardate 865661.2
"Rosetta" --> Stardate 865783.7

 

[Nike]

No Comment?

Click to expand.

 

[Nike]

The stardates on VOY were more consistent it seems.

The second digit did increase with the progression of every year... so by the time VOY hit the last episode (Endgame), the stardate was 54973.4
The frst diigt (4) denominated most likely a decade or something.
Second digit (8) represents the year.

Yes.

Third digit (3) represents months (I think)

There are 12 months, not 10.

4th digit (1) represents days (again, I think)

10 days???

5th digit (5) represents hours (probably)

again, it doesn’t fit. Besides, it’s the digit(s) after the decimal that represent time of day.

The first season wasn't a full year for the crew... neither was the second season if I'm not mistaken...

First season was only 16 episodes, half a year 48315.6-48846.5. Second was a full year.

so there was a bit of a delay as the final stardate should have been 55315.6 (I think)... so there's a difference of about 4 to 6 months

How do you figure?

(if it actually measures months).

it doesn’t

 

[Nike]

The 1% is blown out of proportion..

Agreed.

Though, yeah, "Homestead" did throw a massive curveball.

I just ignore “Homestead.”

 

[1001001]

Agreed.

I just ignore Homestead.

I've asked you once before not to post more than twice in a row. Even better, slow down and put all your thoughts into one post.

Thanks

 

[KamenRiderBlade]

it seems that you have stardates changing in the future. But we already know how they look in the 32nd century.

In my 26th Century Timeline, Michael Burnham comes back to the mid 25th century from the 32nd century and massively changes UFP History (She pulls a Admiral Janeway) so that the UFP doesn't have to face "The Burn" and brings (knowledge / technology / defenses) against "The Burn" into the past so that the UFP is strong enough that we can validate via Temporal Communications that the UFP exists up to at least the 40,000 AD 'Earth Calender' ( A intentional reference to WarHammer 40K). At that point in time, another massive Galaxy wide conflict occurs from Extra Galactic & Multi-Dimensional Threats, but that is another story for another time.

Alot of the issues that the UFP faces leading up to the original 32nd century timeline gets averted and rectified early on, including dealing with species 10-C early on to help protect them from their disaster that would lead them to cause disasters into our future.

I'm going to make Michael Burnham so important to my timeline, that she is the foundation for many changes.

But by the time we see her, she'll be a long retired Captain, married with Booker and having many children, living peacefully on Earth.

Ergo, my TimeLine's StarDate will live on well past the 32nd Century =D

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

The stardates on VOY were more consistent it seems.
Starting stardate 48315.6

The frst diigt (4) denominated most likely a decade or something.
Second digit (8) represents the year

Originally, out of universe the first digit represented the century and the second represented the year/season.

However, this was reckoned during DS9 Season 5 and Voyager Season 3 into a combined 1 unit per year system (limited to post 2322 unless negative dates are possible).

Third digit (3) represents months (I think)
4th digit (1) represents days (again, I think)
5th digit (5) represents hours (probably)

Nope, the intention was always that one unit represented roughly one-third of an Earth day (or a standard duty shift).

Hours are approximately in decimal time, usually as .N but .NN is also used on occasion, but the standard 24hr clock is typically used (except on DS9, which mostly uses a highly illogical 26hr system instead).

 

[Tuskin38]

However, this was reckoned during DS9 Season 5 and Voyager Season 3 into a combined 1 unit per year system (limited to post 2322 unless negative dates are possible).

TNG did it first, in Season 4 with Future Imperfect. While it was obviously a fake future, the Stardate used in that episode was added up from Season 4.

(except on DS9, which mostly uses a highly illogical 26hr system instead).

I always assumed Bajor had a 26 hour day.

 

[Finn]

(except on DS9, which mostly uses a highly illogical 26hr system instead).

How is it "highly illogical"?

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

How is it "highly illogical"?

Because unlike 24, which has eight factors (most of which are common with 60 BTW) and is therefore easy to split smaller chunks, 26 has only four factors (1, 2, 13, 26) and is therefore a lot harder to use for timekeeping.

 

[Nike]

I've asked you once before not to post more than twice in a row. Even better, slow down and put all your thoughts into one post.

Thanks

I’m still trying to figure things out. Nobody told me how to multiquote.
I deleted some of my posts.

Because unlike 24, which has eight factors (most of which are common with 60 BTW) and is therefore easy to split smaller chunks, 26 has only four factors (1, 2, 13, 26) and is therefore a lot harder to use for timekeeping.

Interesting coincidence that there are 26x2 weeks in a year. Someone once made a calendar with 13 months. So these factors aren’t unprecedented.

SNW is still going with random TOS style Stardates. Except for the Series premier which used a Kelvin Timeline style stardate for some reason, but that's the only episode to do that.

How do we know it’s not another random TOS-style stardate?

 

[Lord Garth]

Average TOS Stardate for each 10-episode block from start-to-finish. Production Order, just to be clear, starting from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and counting "The Menagerie" twice.

TOS
Episodes 1-10: Average Stardate 1771.19
Episodes 11-20: Average Stardate 2860.84
Episodes 21-30: Average Stardate 3191.18
Episodes 31-40: Average Stardate 3567.80
Episodes 41-50: Average Stardate 4102.94
Episodes 51-60: Average Stardate 4736.41
Episodes 61-70: Average Stardate 5576.00
Episodes 71-79: Average Stardate 5793.33

They progress unevenly and they might go up or down episode-to-episode, but TOS Stardates move upwards in general when looked at in groups of 10.

 

[Nike]

They progress unevenly and they might go up or down episode-to-episode, but TOS Stardates move upwards in general when looked at in groups of 10.

Thank you.

It’s almost as though there was a five-year mission. If they didn’t progress so unevenly, they might almost be as coherent as TNG.

So, an origin one year before WNMHGB, counting by years, e.g. 1.312 year after January 1, 2264, equals stardate 1312 (about April 22, 2265).

And one year in universe is not one IRL. I.e. 3 years in the 20th century equal five in the 23rd.

We also must assume that stardates indicates chronological order, rather than air dates, although in some cases that’s not possible. We’d also have to leave out TAS and the movies.

 

[Henoch]

For TOS, I have 1000 stardates equal one Earth year. I have WNMHGB using United Earth Stardates where 0 starts January 1, 2264, so, the episode ends on April 24, 2265 (1313.8). For the rest of the series, i.e. the start of the five year mission, I have them now using Federation Stardates where 0 starts May 11, 2265, so episode Mudd's Women happens on Sept. 10, 2266 (1329.2). This new stardate start date is to set the start of the series 300 years into the future and put Charlie X on Thanksgiving that year (Stardate 1535 = Thanksgiving 11/23/2266). Not perfect, but not too bad, either. YMMV .

 

[at Quark's]

Isn't the entire idea behind Stardates (and warp factors and such) to give a general impression of the passage of time, but to in fact obfuscate when exactly events take place (or how widely events in separate episodes are spaced apart in either space and/or time so that writers cannot get in trouble with that)? (Or in the case of warp, how fast exactly the ship is moving?) Despite all published 'formulae' and such.

 

[Nike]

Isn't the entire idea behind Stardates (and warp factors and such) to give a general impression of the passage of time, but to in fact obfuscate when exactly events take place (or how widely events in separate episodes are spaced apart in either space and/or time so that writers cannot get in trouble with that)? (Or in the case of warp, how fast exactly the ship is moving?) Despite all published 'formulae' and such.

There’a difference between the production POV and in-universe POV. IN-universe, Kirk was not trying to obfuscate.