Just curious...Has anyone ever taken the time to figure out the order of episodes by Star Dates? I just finished compiling such a list if anyone's interested...There are a few suprises in there! So far, I've only done TOS but, I plan to include the films & animated series tomorrow. I've only done it for the Shatner/Nimoy versions of STAR TREK (filmed, that is) because I wasn't really a fan of DS9, VOY or ENT & NEXGEN seems to be pretty much in order.
Stardate Chronology
- Thread starter David A. Sobral
- Start date
Umm, what episodes with overlapping stardates?
Sure, the last date in "Miri" is high enough to clash with "Dagger of the Mind" - but it is also a rather apparent error, one where the first four digits should still remain 2713 while the last one should roll over to 7. That's the rate at which the dates progress elsewhere in the episode.
And while the last date mentioned in "Conscience of the King" overlaps with those of "The Galileo Seven", it is not a real date. It is a speculative arrival date that is supposed to be realized after the end credits roll - and "The Galileo Seven" features and emergency mission that apparently aborted the intended original one.
(Or are we including TAS in the mix? To call that "interesting" is something of an understatement...)
Timo Saloniemi
Sure, the last date in "Miri" is high enough to clash with "Dagger of the Mind" - but it is also a rather apparent error, one where the first four digits should still remain 2713 while the last one should roll over to 7. That's the rate at which the dates progress elsewhere in the episode.
And while the last date mentioned in "Conscience of the King" overlaps with those of "The Galileo Seven", it is not a real date. It is a speculative arrival date that is supposed to be realized after the end credits roll - and "The Galileo Seven" features and emergency mission that apparently aborted the intended original one.
(Or are we including TAS in the mix? To call that "interesting" is something of an understatement...)
Timo Saloniemi
When I created my own TOS based chronology I put the episodes in Stardate order including TAS and TMP. I've also got pictures.
You can download it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KGRXEW8Y
You can download it here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KGRXEW8Y
Also "The Man Trap" and "The Corbomite Manuever" had overlapping stardates (both episodes give 1514.1 during log entries).
"The Gamesters of Triskellion" and "Metamorphosis" also overlap.
There are eight original episodes which are never given star dates on screen. Three of these are assigned stardates from being in the script, although they were never stated on screen.
These three are
The City on the Edge of Forever - 3134
A Piece of the Action - 4598
Patterns of Force - 2534
The stardate of "2534" for "Patterns of Force" is somewhat curious, as it would chronologically place that episode among the early first season entries. "Patterns" was actually produced late in the second season, when epsisdes typically had stardates in the high 4000's.
"The Gamesters of Triskellion" and "Metamorphosis" also overlap.
There are eight original episodes which are never given star dates on screen. Three of these are assigned stardates from being in the script, although they were never stated on screen.
These three are
The City on the Edge of Forever - 3134
A Piece of the Action - 4598
Patterns of Force - 2534
The stardate of "2534" for "Patterns of Force" is somewhat curious, as it would chronologically place that episode among the early first season entries. "Patterns" was actually produced late in the second season, when epsisdes typically had stardates in the high 4000's.
When was Stardate 1 supposed to be, at around about the time the 5 year mission started going by that chronology.
And before that the Captain would say "Captains Starlog - October 23rd 2261" or something.
And before that the Captain would say "Captains Starlog - October 23rd 2261" or something.
I got the impression that they don't really use months and years like that in TOS. Whenever Spock uses a year (such as 1992) he always adds "old world calender" as if that system is no longer in use. Not to mention Decker's ridiculous dating error in TMP of "launched more than three centuries ago" which strongly suggests he has no idea how the old world calender and stardates fit together!
I've always imagined Stardates as being particular to Starfleet - and even then only applicable to that ship (ie: Enterprise, Defiant, Farragut etc...) and pertain only to one mission (ie: the Enterprise's five year mission) to indicate time elapsed on that ship/mission. 
Everywhere else - including Starfleet Command - uses the Date/Month/Year system. The "old world calendar" might only contain a small difference from the one the Federations uses - ala the differences between the Julian and Gregorian (ours) calendars. Who knows what difference there is between theirs and the "old" calendar? Perhaps they've decimalised the months? Or even time itself...?!
This would seem to be the only postulation that makes sense of the passage of time for stardates across the various series. The Enterprise D's mission is "ongoing" (wasn't it originally going to be 15 years or somesuch?) so it makes sense that they reached five-digit (point something) stardates whereas the Kirk-led five-year mission only used four-digit (point something) stardates...?
Everywhere else - including Starfleet Command - uses the Date/Month/Year system. The "old world calendar" might only contain a small difference from the one the Federations uses - ala the differences between the Julian and Gregorian (ours) calendars. Who knows what difference there is between theirs and the "old" calendar? Perhaps they've decimalised the months? Or even time itself...?!
This would seem to be the only postulation that makes sense of the passage of time for stardates across the various series. The Enterprise D's mission is "ongoing" (wasn't it originally going to be 15 years or somesuch?) so it makes sense that they reached five-digit (point something) stardates whereas the Kirk-led five-year mission only used four-digit (point something) stardates...?
Alan Dean Foster cleaned up the mess that TAS stardates were in when he adapted the episodes for the "Star Trek Log" volumes, renumbering them all, although he also changed event order to reflect the order they appear in the "Logs".
Hmh? I don't see anything beyond 1513.8 (the third and final log entry, if we don't count the "additionals") in the former.
But much as the final date in "Miri", Spock's "3259.2" in "Gamesters" is greatly at odds with the earlier dates given in that episode. It's probably more like a mispronunciation of "3219.2", or at least should be, from the in-universe point of view. In no other episode does such short passage of time (specified as mere two hours!) correspond to more than fifty stardate units...
Timo Saloniemi
I watch the episodes of the seasons I got by stardate too. I just wonder what the stardates for the ones that says stardate unkown. I have list on my comptuer that has the episodes of TOS, on it and its by stardate. I like to put a stardates on my list for the episodes that has a unkown stardate. So I like to know that too, how do you find out what the stardates for ones unkown?
So if two sets of events that can't have occurred simultaneously bear the same stardate, wouldn't this seem to indicate that TOS stardates are relative and not absolute, as Roddenberry himself suggested? Relative to what, exactly, remains unspecified but IIRC Roddenberry said it might have something to do with the location and speed of the ship...
Does anybody know how I can find out what the stardates for these episodes of TOS:
The Omega Glory
Assignment Earth
Mirror, Mirror
Day of the Dove
That Which Survies
Those episodes have unkown stardates, and I would like to know what they are. Can anybody tell me where I can find out these stardates? Please it would help me out a lot. I list of episodes by stardate, and I need those stardates for those ones that dont have one. So if anybody has it please let me know, thanks!
The Omega Glory
Assignment Earth
Mirror, Mirror
Day of the Dove
That Which Survies
Those episodes have unkown stardates, and I would like to know what they are. Can anybody tell me where I can find out these stardates? Please it would help me out a lot. I list of episodes by stardate, and I need those stardates for those ones that dont have one. So if anybody has it please let me know, thanks!
Either that - or then our heroes really lived the same days twice.
Which is apparently exactly what happens in the aftermath of "The Naked Time". And after "Tomorrow is Yesterday", time travel appears to become a routine mission type for our heroes... Perhaps they just decided to get more lightyearage out of their five-year mission?
You mean made-up stardates? Does it matter who made them up?
1) The Omega Glory: This adaptation of a pilot/show pitch script features no plot points that would fix the story in time. Since it's one of the Chekov-less episodes, we could place it very early in the series even if we believe that Chekov only came aboard in "Catspaw". Really, we could even place it before "Miri" to explain how our heroes are not particularly impressed by the existence of a duplicate Earth there - they have already seen weirder.
2) Assignment Earth: Rather irrelevant, since no part of the episode takes place in the era where stardates are in use. It suffices that this happens after "Tomorrow is Yesterday" where our heroes learned the time travel technique, thus after SD 3120. How long Starfleet mulled it over before deciding to utilize the technique is anyone's guess.
3) Mirror, Mirror: The novel Q Squared suggests SD 3823.7; the earlier novel Dark Mirror said 4428.9, but we could argue this was a Mirror date.
Both are essentially okay.4) Day of the Dove: Dialogue indicates this is three years after "Errand of Mercy", so if we believe that a thousand stardates mark a year, then anything between 6200 and 7200 would be fine, and anything above 5700 would be acceptable. (Unless those were Klingon years, that is!)
This episode would then probably be one of the very last in TOS, if not the last. And it appears that nothing in the plot goes against this.
FWIW, Memory Beta lists SD 3372.7 without any explanation. Perhaps this is mentioned in some novel referring to the events, such as the War Stories anthology which features the return of the creature from the TOS episode?
That Which Survives: Nothing solid there, but Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise suggests it happened on SD 5978.2. Yet a closely related novel Gateways: One Small Step is mum on the subject of dates.
Timo Saloniemi
Oh, okay thanks. That gives me better idea where to place the episodes on my stardate list.Maybe I need to buy that book Mr Scott's Guide To The Enterprise.I probbley look that book up online and see if they have it. Anyways thanks!
Either that - or then our heroes really lived the same days twice.
Which is apparently exactly what happens in the aftermath of "The Naked Time". And after "Tomorrow is Yesterday", time travel appears to become a routine mission type for our heroes... Perhaps they just decided to get more lightyearage out of their five-year mission?
You mean made-up stardates? Does it matter who made them up?
1) The Omega Glory: This adaptation of a pilot/show pitch script features no plot points that would fix the story in time. Since it's one of the Chekov-less episodes, we could place it very early in the series even if we believe that Chekov only came aboard in "Catspaw". Really, we could even place it before "Miri" to explain how our heroes are not particularly impressed by the existence of a duplicate Earth there - they have already seen weirder.
2) Assignment Earth: Rather irrelevant, since no part of the episode takes place in the era where stardates are in use. It suffices that this happens after "Tomorrow is Yesterday" where our heroes learned the time travel technique, thus after SD 3120. How long Starfleet mulled it over before deciding to utilize the technique is anyone's guess.
3) Mirror, Mirror: The novel Q Squared suggests SD 3823.7; the earlier novel Dark Mirror said 4428.9, but we could argue this was a Mirror date.
4) Day of the Dove: Dialogue indicates this is three years after "Errand of Mercy", so if we believe that a thousand stardates mark a year, then anything between 6200 and 7200 would be fine, and anything above 5700 would be acceptable. (Unless those were Klingon years, that is!)
This episode would then probably be one of the very last in TOS, if not the last. And it appears that nothing in the plot goes against this.
FWIW, Memory Beta lists SD 3372.7 without any explanation. Perhaps this is mentioned in some novel referring to the events, such as the War Stories anthology which features the return of the creature from the TOS episode?
That Which Survives: Nothing solid there, but Mr Scott's Guide to the Enterprise suggests it happened on SD 5978.2. Yet a closely related novel Gateways: One Small Step is mum on the subject of dates.
Timo Saloniemi
Those five episodes you listed above have absolutely NO authorititave star dates, since the original writers and creators of the series never gave them any. Any star dates or subsequent places in TOS chronology assigned to these five episodes by fans and pundits such as ourselves are purely subjective. Trying to assign an official star date for "Mirror, Mirror" or "The Omega Glory", therefore, however well argued one's case is, is going to be like a Sherlock Holmes buff attempting to definitively give a date for "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" within the Holmes chronology. It will never be accepted as canonical.
I can, however, tell you how stardate 3372.7 came to be assigned to "Day of the Dove". This is actually the stardate for "Amok Time". A printing error in a series of Trek picture books called "photonovels" which adapted existing episodes to photostory paperback format, assigned "Amok Time"'s stardate to "Day".
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