TOS Chronology

[MAGolding]

In original broadcast order, "Errand of Mercy", broadcast on March 23, 1967, was the 26th episode of TOS.

The Enterprise reaches their assigned position and Kirk reads the sealed orders.

KIRK: Good. (puts it into a decoder) We both guessed right. Negotiations with the Klingon Empire are on the verge of breaking down. Starfleet Command anticipates a surprise attack. We are to proceed to Organia and take whatever steps are necessary to prevent the Klingons from using it as a base.
SPOCK: Strategically sound. Organia is the only Class M planet in the disputed area, ideally located for use by either side.
KIRK: Organia's description, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Inhabited by humanoids. A very peaceful, friendly people living on a primitive level. Little of intrinsic value. Approximately Class D minus on Richter's scale of cultures.

They are attacked by a Klingon ship and destroy it.

UHURA: Automatic all-points relay from Starfleet Command, Captain, code one.
KIRK: Well, there it is. War. We didn't want it, but we've got it.
SPOCK: Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.

SPOCK: Negotiating with the Organians will be time-consuming, Captain, and time is one thing we'll have the least of.
KIRK: We won't get it by talking about it. The trigger's been pulled. We have to get there before the hammer falls. Ahead warp factor seven.

While negotiating with the Orangians could be expected to be time consuming, what would be really time consuming would be building a bases on Organia or in the Organian system that keep the Klingons away and prevent them from using the planet and the star system.

I understand why starfeet Command didn't ignore the Prime Directive and try to establish a base on Organia much earlier. Organia is in the disuputed area and such an attempt could provoke the Klingons to start a war that Starfleet hoped to avoid. And I understand why Starfleet Command didn't order Kirk to destroy all life on Organia and turn its surface into an ocean of red hot magma, making it useless for the Klingons. That would have been evil.

But I don't understand how Starfleet Command thought that Kirk could possibly have enough time to fortify Organia against the Klingons. As I remember, I started a thread about that.

Captain's log, stardate 3198.4. We have reached Organia and established standard orbit. No signs of hostile activities in this area.

Kirk decides to beam down with Spock to Organia to negotiate. Since a Klingon fleet has been detected in "this quadrant" Kirk tells Sulu to retreat if a Klingon fleet is detected and alert the Federation Fleet.

KIRK: The Klingon fleet is in this quadrant. We know that Organia will be a target. If they should emerge

What does Kirk mean by "emerge"?

Emerge from warp drive? Emerge from hyperspace? Emerge from a wormhole connecting the Organia system to another star system? Emerge from a cloaking device by turning it off?

Beaming down, Kirk introduces himself to Ayelborne, chairman of the Council of Elders. Spock wanders off to study the village, and Ayelborne takes Kirk to the council chambers.

In the next scene the elders seat themselves at a table and Kirk talks to them about the Klingon threat and the Federation's offer of assistance. Spock enters.

SPOCK: Captain, our information on these people and their culture was not correct. This is not a primitive society making progress toward mechanisation. They are totally stagnant. There is no evidence of any progress as far back as my tricorder can register.
KIRK: That doesn't seem likely.
SPOCK: Nevertheless, it is true. For tens of thousands of years, there has been absolutely no advancement, no significant change in their physical environment. This is a laboratory specimen of an arrested culture.
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Spock. That might be useful.
AYELBORNE: We have discussed your offer, Captain. Our opinion is unchanged. We are in no danger. We thank you for your kind offer of assistance, although we must decline it, and we strongly recommend that you leave Organia before you yourselves are endangered.
KIRK: Gentlemen, I must get you to reconsider. We can be of immense help to you. In addition to military aid, we can send you specialists, technicians. We can show you how to feed a thousand people where one was fed before. We can help you build schools, educate the young in the latest technological and scientific skills. Your public facilities are almost non-existent. We can help you remake your world, end disease, hunger, hardship. All we ask in return is that you let us help you. Now.
AYELBORNE: Captain, I can see that you do not understand us. Perhaps
KIRK: (answering communicator) Excuse me, sir. Kirk here.
SULU: Captain, a large number of Klingon vessels have just arrived.

The Klingon fleet arrives and Kirk tells Sulu to retreat.

Soon after Kirk says:

KIRK: If you had listened to me

Seeming to imply that if they had agreed to Federation protection a few minutes ago the Enterprise could have deployed some sort of instant planetary defense system capable of holding off a Klingon fleet.

Captain's Log. stardate 3201.7. Mister Spock and I are trapped on the planet Organia, which is in the process of being occupied by the forces of the Klingon Empire. The Organians have provided us with native clothing in the hopes we may be taken for Organians.

Apparently only minutes have passed since the ending of the last scene. 3.3 stardate units have passed between 3198.4 and 3201.7. Each minute that passed during that interval makes a stardate unit 0.3030 minutes longer; each hour that passes during that interval makes a stardate unit 0.3030 hours longer, each day that passes during that interval makes a stardate unit 0.3030 days longer.

And I can't help wondering how to make the interval of 3.3 stardates last much longer than the actually time shown onscreen between them during the episode.

That night Kirk and Spock blow up a Klingon munitions dump.

Kor captures Kirk & Spock.

KOR: You'll talk. Either here, now, voluntarily, or under our mind-scanner. The fact is, Captain, I have a great admiration for your Starfleet. A remarkable instrument. and I must confess to a certain admiration for you. I know, of course, that it was you who destroyed our supplies last night.

So this is the second day on Organia.

Kor threatens to have Spock dissected and turn Kirk into a mental vegetable unless Kirk gives him the information Kor wants. Kor sends Kirk to a cell, giving Kirk 12 hours to change his mind and talk.

Later:

KIRK: How much of the twelve hours do we have left?
SPOCK: Six hours, forty three minutes, if the Klingons are punctual.

So it is 5 hours and 17 minutes later. Ayelborne released them from the cell.

A few minutes later, Kor broadcasts a message that 200 Organian hostages have been killed, and 200 more will be killed every two hours until the saboteurs are handed over to the Klingons. Kirk & Spock decide to try to stop Kor within the next two hours before any more hostages are killed.

After Kirk & Spock leave the council chamber:

AYELBORNE: Trefayne.
TREFAYNE: They will wait until darkness.
AYELBORNE: And then?
TREFAYNE: Terrible. Inconceivable. Savage.
AYELBORNE: We will wait.

So apparently nightfall and darkness are less than 2 hours away.

Kor sends Klingons to round up another bunch of hostages. Kirk and Spock enter Kor's office.

KOR: So, you are here. You will be interested in knowing that a Federation fleet is on its way here at the moment. Our fleet is preparing to meet them.

A minute or so later, the Organians stop the fighting on Organia and on the two fleets, and all throughout Federation and Klingon space.

AYELBORNE: As I stand here, I also stand upon the home planet of the Klingon Empire, and the home planet of your Federation, Captain. I'm going to put a stop to this insane war.

Apparently the Organians have not been organic beings for a very long time:

KIRK: You should be the first to be on our side. Two hundred hostages killed.
AYELBORNE: No one has been killed, Captain.
CLAYMARE: No one has died here in uncounted thousands of years.

AYELBORNE: Yes, please leave us. The mere presence of beings like yourselves is intensely painful to us.
KIRK: What do you mean, beings like yourselves?
AYELBORNE: Millions of years ago, Captain, we were humanoid like yourselves, but we have developed beyond the need of physical bodies. That of us which you see is mere appearance for your sake.

KIRK: I'm embarrassed. I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn't want. We think of ourselves as the most powerful beings in the universe. It's unsettling to discover that we're wrong.
SPOCK: Captain, it took millions of years for the Organians to evolve into what they are. Even the gods did not spring into being overnight. You and I have no reason to be embarrassed. We did, after all, beat the odds.
KIRK: Oh, no, no, no, Mister Spock, We didn't beat the odds. We didn't have a chance. The Organians raided the game.

Kirk's words that it is unsettling to discover that we're not the most powerful beings in the universe may indicate that "Errand of Mercy" is in an alternate universe where "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Charlie X", "The Squire of Gothos", and "Arena" did not happen.

 

[MAGolding]

In original broadcast order "The Alternative factor", broadcast on March 30, 1967, is the 27th episode of TOS.

The Enterprise is orbiting a planet.

SPOCK: Very typical, Captain. Iron-silicon base, oxygen-hydrogen atmosphere, largely arid, no discernible life. No surprises.
KIRK: Photographic section, begin scanning. Tie in to visual section 988-TG, computer bank 22. Kirk out. About four more orbits ought to do it, Mister Lesley. That'll wrap it up. Lay in a course for Starbase 200.

Later, when they beam down to the planet, many bushes are seen. Have all the bushes died recently along with all of the bacteria that might have decomposed them? And how does Spock explain an atmosphere rich in oxygen without photosynthesis? Once again characters talk like plants are not lifeforms. Possibly in the future many people will restrict life forms to animals that have some sort of awareness and will.

The ship is struck by a strange and massive effect. The special effects for this include an image of the Trifed Nebula, which is about 4,000 light years from Earth, a possible clue to the location of the planet. A humanoid life form has appeared on the planet below. Kirk and Spock beam down with security guards.

Captain's log, stardate 3087.6. While investigating an uncharted planet, the Enterprise and at least this entire quadrant of space, has been subjected to violent, unexplained stress and force. Sensors have reported the presence of a human being on the planet below who might be connected with the phenomenon. With my first officer and a security team, I have set out in search of him.

[Planet surface]

(Kirk, Spock and four armed red-shirts arrive on a rocky terrain with a few scrubby bushes. They walk on a little way until they spot a strange craft on the ground. A one-man flying saucer with a perspex dome cockpit. As they reach it, a man calls out from a ridge.)
LAZARUS: You came! Thank the heavens. There's still time. It's not too late. We can still stop him. But I, but I, need, need your help.
(He falls.)

Back on the bridge:

MASTERS: (A woman in a blue uniform) Report on the dilithium crystals, Captain.
KIRK: Yes.
MASTERS: Whatever that phenomenon was, it drained almost all of our crystals completely. It could mean trouble.
KIRK: You have a talent for understatement, Lieutenant. Without full crystal power, our orbit will begin to decay in ten hours. Re-amplify immediately.
MASTERS: Aye aye, sir.

UHURA: Red Two message in one minute, Captain. Starfleet Command. Code Factor one, sir.
KIRK: Repeat.
UHURA: Code Factor one.
KIRK: Invasion status. All hands, this is the Captain. Battle stations. I repeat, battle stations. This is no drill.

UHURA: Message ready, Captain. Main screen, coming up.
KIRK: Kirk here. Enterprise standing by, Commodore.
BARSTOW [on viewscreen]: You're aware of the effect an hour ago?
KIRK: Yes, sir.
BARSTOW [on viewscreen]: You may not be aware of its scope. It occurred in every quadrant of the galaxy and far beyond. Complete disruption of normal magnetic and gravimetric fields, timewarp distortion, possible radiation variations. And all of them centring on the general area which you are now patrolling. The question is, are these natural phenomena or are they mechanically created, and if they are, by whom? For what purpose? Your guess, Captain.
KIRK: Thank you, sir. I have considered all the alternatives. My best guess is it could be a prelude to invasion.
BARSTOW [on viewscreen]: Exactly our consensus. I'm giving you the job of finding out specifically.
KIRK; Aye, aye, sir. Can you assign me other starships as a reserve?
BARSTOW [on viewscreen]: Negative. I'm evacuating all Starfleet units and personnel within a hundred parsecs of your position. It's going to be tough on you and the Enterprise, but that's the job you've drawn. You're on your own.
KIRK: I see. You mean, we're the bait.
BARSTOW [on viewscreen]: Good luck.
KIRK: Thank you, sir. (transmission ends) Maintain alert status at all battle stations.

Barstow says the effect occurred in every quadrant of the galaxy and far beyond.

This suggests that the 'galaxy" that Barstow spoke of was not the entire Milky Way galaxy but a much smaller region of it. In the era of TOS English may have words for sections or regions of a galaxy that don't exist in 20th century English and so are mistranslated into it as "galaxy"

Barstow said he was evacuating all Starfeet personnel within 100 parsecs, or 326.156 light years. A sphere of space 200 parsecs or 652.312 light years in diameter is vast, but tiny compared to the Milky Way galaxy.

Barstow mentioned timewarp distortions. Were those timewarp distortions which appear out of nowhere, or where they distortions in the artificial timewarps created by advanced societies? The Federation may have the ability to create timewarps, since "The Menagerie Part 1" mentioned breaking "the time barrier" and "time warp factor seven".

Kirk sends Spock to Lazarus's ship and talks to Lazarus.

LAZARUS: That's how I came to be down there, Captain, pursuing the devil's own spawn, a thing I've chased across the universe. He's humanoid outside, but inside, he's a hideous, murdering monster. I'll get him, Captain. I swear it.
KIRK: You say this one man
LAZARUS: Not man! Thing.
KIRK: Thing destroyed your entire civilisation.
LAZARUS: To the last man, woman and child.
KIRK: How did you escape?
LAZARUS: I was inspecting magnetic communications satellites. You believe me, don't you?

And of course the audience of this confusing episode can't know how much, if any, of that story is correct. Kirk beams down with Lazarus. There is a scene of the Trifed Nebula again, and two Lazaruses fight in a space time corridor, which happens every time the Trifed Nebula effect is seen..

Captain's log, stardate 3088.3. We continue to orbit the dead planet, which seems to be the source of the phenomenon which has struck the Enterprise and all sections of the galaxy once again. As for Lazarus, the story he tells me about the humanoid continues to trouble me.

There were 0.7 stardate units between 3087.6 and 3088.3. The conversation with Barstow was an hour after the first effect, so there should be at least 1.4 hours in a stardate unit.

Mccoy says he treated a wound on Lazarus's forehead and it later disappeared (indicating thee was a switch).

In a rec room Lazarus overhears Lt. Masters talking about the dilithium cyrsals:

MASTERS: I know what you mean. Re-amplification finished on the dilithium crystals?
ENGINEER: Yes. Ready and waiting.

in a corridor, Lazarus sways as the Trifid Nebula is seen again, and when it stops he has a bandage on his forehead again.

KIRK: Lazarus, are you all right?
LAZARUS: Yes. But impatient. Have you decided to help me yet?
(McCoy removes the plaster to show the cut.)
LAZARUS: Is something wrong?
KIRK: No. I have a ship's physician with a strange sense of humour.
MCCOY: This is no joke, Jim. I know what I saw.

Kirk is called to the bridge and takes Lazarus with him. Spock shows him a sort of rip in the universe which the dilithium crystals detected.

SPOCK: A kind of physical warp, Captain, in which none of our established physical laws apply with any regularity. However, with the dilithium crystals, I was able to localise it.
LAZARUS: Yes! That's it! The dilithium crystals. With their power we could do it.
SPOCK: You refer to the humanoid?
LAZARUS: Yes. We've got him, Captain, we've got him.
KIRK: What do the crystals have to do with it? All they show us the point of radiation.
LAZARUS: That's just it, that's the key. That's the way to trap him. That's the solution. Captain, I beg of you. I plead, I demand. Give me the crystals.
KIRK: Out of the question. Those crystals are the very heart of the power of my ship.

This Lazarus leaves, and has another seizure and Trifed Nebula image. When things clear he is missing the head bandage.

In Engineering Lazarus overpowers an assistant and then Lt. Masters.

UHURA: Captain, Security reports Lazarus missing.

Captain's log, stardate 3088.7. We are no closer to finding an answer to the strange phenomenon than we were at the beginning. Not only have two of my crewmen been attacked, two of our dilithium crystals are missing, and without them the Enterprise cannot operate at full power. They must be found.

3088.7 is 0.4 stardate units after 3088.3 Sicnce at least 1 hour elapses in that period, there must be at least 2.5 hours in a stardate unit in "The Alternative Factor".

(This Lazarus has his head injury back again.)
KIRK: Fact. You said you needed the crystals. Fact. An hour after you said you must have them, they were missing. Fact. Two of my crewmen were attacked.
LAZARUS: And fact, Captain. I didn't take the crystals. I'm not the one. Find my enemy, find the beast, and you'll find the crystals.

Down on the planet again Lazarus has another "nebula moment". Later he warns Kirk of a falling rock and falls himself.

In sickbay, Kirk accuses this Lazarus of lying:

KIRK: This is a computer report of the evidence you gave at your first screening. It calls you a liar, Lazarus. For one thing, there's no planet at the location you said you came from. There never has been. If you want help from us, you'd better start telling the truth.
LAZARUS: You wouldn't believe me if I told you.
KIRK: Try us.
LAZARUS: All right. I distorted a fact in the interest of self-preservation, for my holy cause. I needed help, not censure. Freedom, not captivity for being a madman. I was afraid that's what you'd call me if I told you the truth.
KIRK: I'll have the truth now.
LAZARUS: My planet, my Earth, or what's left of it, is down there beneath us.
KIRK: What are you saying?
LAZARUS: My spaceship is more than just that. It's a time chamber, a time-ship, and I. I am a time traveller.
KIRK: And this thing you search for is a time traveler, too?
LAZARUS: Oh, yes. He's fled me across all the years, all the empty years to a dead future on a murdered planet he destroyed. Help me! Give me the tools I need to kill him! The crystals! Don't let him get away! Don't let him get away.
KIRK: Lazarus, you're hurt. I know. I sympathise, but I've got four hundred and thirty other men to worry about. Now where are those crystals?
LAZARUS: I told you, he's got them. He took them. The thing! The thing!

And the audience can't tall if Lazarus did chase his enemy through time to the distant future, when his world was dead. If that dead planet once had a civilization, one Lazarus might have actually destroyed it and all life on the planet. Or course a civilized planet could have become naturally dead and uninhabitable with time. As far as Iknow, star systems with habitable planets could have formed and intelligent life could have flourished on those planets, which could later hve naturally become unable to support life, many millions, long enough ago that life on those planets could have been extinct for millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or even billions of years by now.

Alone, Lazarus has one of his seizures and "nebula moments". Kirk and Spock decide that their is a whole between universes and there are two different Lazaruses.

SPOCK: Jim, madness has no purpose or reason, but it may have a goal. He must be stopped, held. Destroyed if necessary.
KIRK: I don't follow you.
SPOCK: Two parallel universes project this. One positive, the other negative. Or, more specifically, one matter, the other antimatter.
KIRK: Do you know what you're saying? Matter and antimatter have a tendency to cancel each other out. violently.
SPOCK: Precisely. Under certain conditions, when two identical particles of matter and antimatter meet
KIRK: Like Lazarus. Identical. Like both Lazarus', only one is matter and the other antimatter. If they meet.
SPOCK: Annihilation, Jim. Total, complete, absolute annihilation.
KIRK: Of everything that exists, everywhere.

Of course it takes a lot more than one particle of antimatter and one particle of matter meeting to destroy two parallel universe. Relatives of mine have had PET scans which involve particles and anti particles annihilating each other. And of course people are not particles but collections of gazillions of particles.

Therefore I guess Spock isn't talking about the relatively normal antimatter in the rest of TOS more or less as known to science, but some as yet undiscovered form of matter that is really strange and really "anti" to normal matter, much more so than what we call antimatter. The name of that matter must have been translated to antimatter in 20th century English by mistake.

Lazarus starts a fire that fills the dilithium section with smoke. Masters and an engineer evacuate the area, and Lazarus steals dilithium crystals. Lazarus knocks out the transporter technician and beams down to the planet. Kirk orders Spock to bring security and beams down.

On the planet, Kirk accidentialyl sends himself to the magnetic corridor and then to the antimatter universe, where he finds another Lazarus and another little spaceship..

KIRK: Not completely. This is a parallel universe?
LAZARUS: Of course.
KIRK: Antimatter?
LAZARUS: Here, yes.
KIRK: And if identical particles meet
LAZARUS: The end of everything. Civilisation, existence, all gone. I tried to stop him, Captain. That's why I took your dilithium crystals.
KIRK: He has two more.
LAZARUS: That's very bad, Captain. If he comes through at a time of his own choosing. But I think if we hurry and you will help me, he can yet still be stopped. There's little time left. He meant to come through. When you accidentally passed through, it drained his crystals. It'll take him about ten minutes to re-energise with the equipment aboard his ship. That should give us enough time.
KIRK: Exactly what did I pass through?
LAZARUS: That's hard to explain, Captain. I call it an alternative warp. It's sort of a negative magnetic corridor where the two parallel universes meet. It's sort of a safety valve. It keeps eternity from blowing up.

LAZARUS: Both universes, Captain. Yours and mine.
KIRK: Surely Lazarus must realise what would happen if you should meet face to face outside the corridor.
LAZARUS: Of course he knows, Captain, but he's mad. You heard him. He's lost his mind. When our people found a way to slip through the warp and prove another universe, an identical one, existed, it was too much for him. He could not live knowing that I lived. He became obsessed with the idea of destroying me. The fact that it meant his own destruction, and everything else, meant nothing to him.
KIRK: So you're the terrible thing, the murdering monster. The creature.
LAZARUS: Yes, Captain. Or he is. It depends on your point of view, doesn't it? It's ready, Captain. If we can force him into the corridor while I'm waiting for him, we can put an end to this. But if he comes through at a time of his own choosing and breaks into this universe to find me
KIRK: I understand. What do you want me to do?
LAZARUS: Find him. Force him through his threshold, while I'm waiting for him, into the corridor, and I'll hold him there.
KIRK: You can't hold him forever.
LAZARUS: Can't I, Captain? You destroy his ship.
KIRK: If I destroy his ship, won't yours also be destroyed?
LAZARUS: It will.
KIRK: And your door will be closed.
LAZARUS: Yes, and so will his.
KIRK: You'll be trapped inside that corridor with him forever. At each other's throats throughout time.
LAZARUS: Is it such a large price to pay for the safety of two universes?

Kirk returns through the magnetic corridor and pushes the Lazarus in his universe through into the magnetic corridor.

SPOCK: Take these crystals to the Enterprise.
KIRK: I must destroy that ship completely.

They fire the ship's phasers to destroy the spaceship onthe planet below and thus the other one, and trap the two Lazaruses in the magnetic corridor for all eternity.

So if there were two mirror civilizations on the alternate universe versions of the planet, was one or both of them destroyed, or was that just a wild claim by the insane Lazarus?

They got two of the missing dilithium crystals back, but apparently lost the other two in an alternate universe. How well can the Enterprise function without them?

I quote from my post number 1 at the thread https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/a-mirror-universe-theory.304200/:

Fans of Lost in Space might remember the episode "The Anti-Matter Man", December 27, 1967, which may have been influenced by TOS episodes like "The Enemy Within", October 6, 1966, "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, and "Mirror, Mirror", October 6, 1967. The anti-matter world of that episode certainly doesn't resemble the antimatter universes of theoretical physics or of harder grades of science fiction, but does resemble the Mirror Universe(s) of Star Trek in some respects.

I note that the Lost in Space episode "The Magic Mirror", February 16, 1966, might possibly have had a slight degree of influence on "Mirror, Mirror". The strange relationship between matter and antimatter universes in the TOS episode "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, with the good Lazarus and the evil Lazarus, may have influenced both the Lost in Space episode "The Anti-Matter Man", December 27, 1967 and the TAS episode "The Counter-Clock Incident", 12 October 1974.

What is more important than this tangled web of possible influences is the fact that the TOS episode "The Alternative Factor", March 30, 1967, with the good Lazarus and the evil Lazarus, and the TAS episode "The Counter-Clock Incident", 12 October 1974, are both part of Star Trek canon, and both feature anti matter universes which are reversed or opposite to the prime universe in various ways.

So the technobabble explanations for those two goofy antimatter universes in Star Trek canon should possibly have some relation to the technobabble explanation for the creation of the Star Trek Mirror Universe(s).

 

[johnnybear]

Although I prefer episodic television of the sixties and seventies to the serial based shows we watch today I do agree that you have to suspend disbelief with comments made by Kirk in Errand of Mercy about not being the most powerful beings in the universe! But then again maybe the channel you are watching the episode on didn't show Charlie X, Arena, Squire of Gothos or The Corbomite Maneuver!!!
JB

 

[MAGolding]

In original broadcast order "The City on the Edge of Forever", broadcast on April 6,1967, is the 28th episode of TOS.

The Enterprise has trouble avoiding time ripples around a planet. Sulu is inured, and McCoy is called to the bridge.

KIRK: Spock?
SPOCK: This is of great scientific importance, Captain. We're actually passing through ripples in time.
KIRK: Maintain orbit. Open the channel to Starfleet Command. Precautionary measure, Lieutenant. Broadcast to Starfleet Command my past week's log entries, starting with the unusual readings we had on the instruments and how they led us here. Inform Starfleet Command that apparently something or someone down on this planet
(McCoy enters)
KIRK: (pointing to Sulu) Bones. Can effect changes in time, causing turbulent waves of space displacement.

McCoy revives Sulu with an injection of cordrazine, but the next time ripple causes McCoy to inject himself with all the remaining cordrazine in the hypo.

Driven into temporary insanity, McCoy flees from the Bridge.

Captain's log, supplemental entry. Two drops of cordrazine can save a man's life. A hundred times that amount has just accidentally been pumped into Doctor McCoy's body. In a strange, wild frenzy, he has fled the ship's Bridge. All connecting decks have been placed on alert. We have no way of knowing if the madness is permanent or temporary, or in what direction it will drive McCoy.

McCoy beams himself down to the center of the time disturbance. A landing party follows to search for him.

KIRK: These ruins extend to the horizon. Begin recording.
UHURA: Recording, sir.
SPOCK: And of considerable age. On the order of ten thousand centuries old.

SPOCK: This single object is the source of all the time displacement.
KIRK: Explain.
SPOCK: I can't. For this to do what it does is impossible by any science I understand. It is operating even now. Putting out waves and waves of time displacement, which we picked up millions of miles away.

How could they have detected the time ways only millions of miles away if they have been following the strange instrument readings for a week?

KIRK: Then what is it?
GUARDIAN: (The doughnut pulses bright in time with the words) A question. Since before your sun burned hot in space and before your race was born, I have awaited a question.
KIRK: What are you?
GUARDIAN: I am the Guardian of Forever.
KIRK: Are you machine or being?
GUARDIAN: I am both and neither. I am my own beginning, my own ending.
SPOCK: I see no reason for answers to be couched in riddles.
GUARDIAN: I answer as simply as your level of understanding makes possible.
SPOCK: A time portal, Captain. A gateway to other times and dimensions, if I'm correct.
GUARDIAN: As correct as possible for you. Your science knowledge is obviously primitive.

If the Guardian has been waiting since before Earth's Sun burned hot in space it would be over 4,600,000,000 years old, and a city "only" 1,000,000 years old would be very young compared to it.

If the Guardian meant that nobody had asked a question near it in over 4,600,000,000 years, the people who lived in that city 1,000,000 years ago must not have been the type to ask questions. But maybe the Guardian didn't mean that Kirk was the first person to ask a question in all that time, but that it had been waiting for questions,and sometimes getting them, for that time. .

The Guardian shows images of Earth's past history.

KIRK: Strangely compelling, isn't it? To step through there and lose oneself in another world.
SPOCK: I am a fool. My tricorder is capable of recording even at this speed. I've missed taping centuries of living history which no man before has ever
(But McCoy has woken up, and dashes towards the Guardian.)
SCOTT: Doctor McCoy!
KIRK: Bones, no!
(McCoy leaps through the doughnut and the pictures stop. He's gone.)

They can no longer contact the Enterprise.

GUARDIAN: Your vessel, your beginning, all that you knew is gone.
KIRK: McCoy has somehow changed history.
SCOTT: You mean we're stranded down here?
SPOCK: With no past, no future.

Captain's log, no stardate. For us, time does not exist. McCoy, back somewhere in the past, has effected a change in the course of time. All Earth history has been changed. There is no starship Enterprise. We have only one chance. We have asked the Guardian to show us Earth's history again. Spock and I will go back into time ourselves and attempt to set right what ever it was that McCoy changed.

SPOCK: I was recording images at the time McCoy left. A rather barbaric period in your American history. I believe I can approximate just when to jump. Perhaps within a month of the correct time. A week, if we're fortunate.
KIRK: Make sure we arrive before McCoy got there. It's vital we stop him before he does whatever it was that changed all history. Guardian, if we are successful
GUARDIAN: Then you will be returned. It will be as though none of you had gone.
UHURA: Captain, it seems impossible. Even if you were able to find the right date
SCOTT: Then even finding McCoy would be a miracle.
SPOCK: There is no alternative.
KIRK: Scotty, when you think you've waited long enough. Each of you will have to try it. Even if you fail, at least you'll be alive in some past world somewhere.

Kirk and Spock leap through the guardian.

KIRK: I've seen old photographs of this period. An economic upheaval had occurred.
SPOCK: It was called Depression, circa 1930. Quite barbaric.

After stealing clothing and fleeing from police, Kirk and Spock hide in a basement.

SPOCK: First, I believe we have about a week before McCoy arrives, but we can't be certain.
KIRK: Arrives where? Honolulu, Boise, San Diego? Why not Outer Mongolia, for that matter?
SPOCK: There is a theory. There could be some logic to the belief that time is fluid, like a river, with currents, eddies, backwash.
KIRK: And the same currents that swept McCoy to a certain time and place might sweep us there, too.
SPOCK: Unless that is true, Captain, we have no hope. Frustrating. Locked in here is the place and moment of his arrival, even the images of what he did. If only I could tie this tricorder in with the ship's computers for just a few moments.
KIRK: Couldn't you build some form of computer aid here?
SPOCK: In this zinc-plated vacuum-tubed culture?
KIRK: Yes, well, it would pose an extremely complex problem in logic, Mister Spock. Excuse me. I sometimes expect too much of you.

They are found by Sister Edith Keeler who runs the 21st Street Mission and offers them jobs:

EDITH: Fifteen cents an hour for ten hours a day. What are your names?

After eating, they here Edith's speech at the mission. Edith talks to Kirk, telling him of a vacent room for rent at her place $ 2.00 per week,and a monthly calendar is seen in the background that looks rather clear in the remastered version. There is a thread on this site where I discuss what month of what year it could have been.

Memory Alpha says:

A comparison of the calendar on the wall behind Kirk and Edith when she calls him and Spock "uncommon workmen" to the real calendar from 1930 shows that this episode was taking place in May, 1930, however the calendar year and date were taped-over and the month also shows only thirty days.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever_(episode)

Why do they think that a month with only thirty days can be May in 1930 or n any other year. May is one of the rest that thave 31 days. Only April, June, September, and November have only 30 days.

Later, Kirk enters their room, when Spock has started constructing a computer.

KIRK: Mister Spock, I've brought you some assorted vegetables, baloney in a hard roll for myself, and I've spent the other nine tenths of our combined salaries for the last three days on filling this order for you. Mister Spock, this bag does not contain platinum, silver or gold, nor is it likely to in the near future.

So it is at least two day after the first day they worked for Edith. So Kirk spent $ 8.10 on electronics and $ 0.90 on food.

SPOCK: Captain. Captain, in three weeks at this rate, possibly a month, I might reach the first mnemonic memory circuits.

Were they able speed it up, or did it take three weeks to be able to scan the recorded history. Possibly when Spock borrows the fine clockmaking tools he is able to speed things up a bit.

One night, as Kirk and Edith are walking:

KIRK: Let me help. A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He'll recommend those three words even over I love you.
EDITH: Centuries from now? Who is he? Where does he come from er, where will he come from?
KIRK: Silly question. Want to hear a silly answer?
EDITH: Yes.
KIRK: A planet circling that far left star in Orion's belt. See?

A view of the Brooklyn Bridge at night is seen, but no stars are seen. Can you actually see constellations in a New York City night, and if so, what time of year is Orion's belt visible?

The song "Goodnight Sweetheart" is played as Kirk walks with Edith. in our timeline it was was released in 1931, the year after Kirk and Edith allegedly walked.

The use of the song "Goodnight Sweetheart" is a slight anachronism, since the song was first recorded in 1931. [9]

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Goodnight_Sweetheart

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever_(episode)

Spock finds a newspaper report saying that social worker Edith Keeler of the 21st Street Mission was killed in auto accident. Kirk enters.

KIRK: February 23rd, 1936. Six years from now. (reading below the headline FDR confers with slum area 'angel') The President and Edith Keeler conferred for some time today
(Then the whole thing goes up in flames.)
KIRK: How bad?
SPOCK: Bad enough.
KIRK: The President and Edith Keeler.
SPOCK: It would seem unlikely, Jim. A few moments ago, I read a 1930 newspaper article.
KIRK: We know her future. Within six years from now, she'll become very important. Nationally famous.
SPOCK: Or Captain, Edith Keeler will die this year. I saw her obituary. Some sort of traffic accident.
KIRK: You must be mistaken. They both can't be true.
SPOCK: Captain, Edith Keeler is the focal point in time we've been looking for, the point that both we and Doctor McCoy have been drawn to.
KIRK: She has two possible futures then, and depending on whether she lives or dies, all of history will be changed. And McCoy
SPOCK: Is the random element.
KIRK: In his condition, what does he do? Does he kill her?
SPOCK: Or perhaps he prevents her from being killed. We don't know which.

That night, or another one, McCoy appears out of nowhere and meets "Rodent" a bum from the 21st Street Mission.

The cordrazine frenzied McCoy freaks out "Rodent":

MCCOY: Where? Where are we? Earth? The constellations seem right, but. Explain! Explain this trick.
MAN: I, I,
MCCOY: Biped. Small. Good cranial development. No doubt considerable human ancestry. Is that how you're able to fake all of this? Very good. Modern museum perfection. Right down to the cement beams. Very, very good. Oh, I'd give a lot to see the hospital. Probably needles and sutures. All the pain. They used to hand-cut and sew people like garments. Needles and sutures. Oh, the terrible pain!
(He passes out on the ground and his colour starts to improve. The man frisks him, finds his phaser and runs off a little way. Then he fiddles with the phaser, and disintegrates himself.)

So McCoy was also able to see and recognize constellations in a New York City night in the 1930s. Would light pollution have drowned out the stars?

Note that two people die in this story, Edith and "Rodent" Note that there are four possible combinations of their death or survival. There is a classic article by Jeff Mason from Trek magazine and the Best of Trek books, that claims that of those four outcomes, only one leads to Star Trek actually happening in its alternate universe, and only one leads to the television series Star Trek being produced in the alternate universe in which we live.

Kirk and Spock talk in their room:

KIRK: How long before we get a full answer?
SPOCK: I'll need at least two more days before I dare make another attempt.
KIRK: McCoy could have been in the city a week now for all we know, and whatever he does that affects her and changes history could happen tonight or tomorrow morning.
SPOCK: Captain, our last bit of information was obtained at the expense of thirty hours work in fused and burned circuits.
KIRK: I must know whether she lives or dies, Spock. I must know what to do.

This indicates their next view of the r historical records should be at least 48 hours in the future.

In daytime, an unknown period of time after McCoy appeared and an unknown period of time after Kirk and Spock talk, McCoy Enters the 21st street Mission.

EDITH: There's a cot in the back room. They won't find you there. Come on.
(She helps him out just as Spock comes in and starts serving the drinks.

Kirk and Spock talk in their room. Spock has his mnemonic memory circuits working again. Is this at least 48 hours after the previous talk, or has Spock managed to speed things up?

SPOCK: This is how history went after McCoy changed it. Here, in the late 1930s. A growing pacifist movement whose influence delayed the United States' entry into the Second World War. While peace negotiations dragged on, Germany had time to complete its heavy-water experiments.
KIRK: Germany. Fascism. Hitler. They won the Second World War.
SPOCK: Because all this lets them develop the A-bomb first. There's no mistake, Captain. Let me run it again. Edith Keeler. Founder of the peace movement.
KIRK: But she was right. Peace was the way.
SPOCK: She was right, but at the wrong time. With the A-bomb, and with their V2 rockets to carry them, Germany captured the world.
KIRK: No.
SPOCK: And all this because McCoy came back and somehow kept her from dying in a street accident as she was meant to. We must stop him, Jim.
KIRK: How did she die? What day?
SPOCK: We can estimate general happenings from these images, but I can't trace down precise actions at exact moments, Captain. I'm sorry.
KIRK: Spock, I believe I'm in love with Edith Keeler.
SPOCK: Jim, Edith Keeler must die.

The V-2 (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, "Retribution Weapon 2"), technical name Aggregat 4 (A4), was the world's first long-range[4] guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon", assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.[5]

And the thought has occurred to me that Star Trek may be in an alternate universe in which the A4 rocket was not named the V2. Maybe it was never used as a Vengeance Weapon, or maybe it was known as the V1 instead of the cruise missile that was called the V1 in our history. Either would leave the designation of V2 available for a hypothetical more advanced German missile.

The rocket design that was given the designation V2 in our alternate universe had a rather small warhead which weighed about one tone. Early fission bombs in the 1940s and well into the 1950s were too big for the warhead of the V2 and weighed several tons. A V2 couldn't carry one.

Furthermore, the range of the V2 rocket was only 200 miles.

So my theory is that aliens from other space and/or time travelers from the future convinced the Nazi leaders that they needed the equivalent of ICBMS with nuclear warheads and maybe provided technical information. to help the Nazis develop atomic bombs faster, and smaller and lighter bombs, while building larger and more powerful rockets, thus building atomic bombs that could be delivered by their intercontinental rockets.

That would be quite different from the Nazi atomic bomb and rocket projects in our history. Anyway, in the alternate history of Star Trek the USA got involved in the war and managed to defeat Nazi Germany, while in the alternate history where Edit Keeler lived she managed to delay US entry into the war and the Nazis won.

KIRK: How did she die? What day?
SPOCK: We can estimate general happenings from these images, but I can't trace down precise actions at exact moments, Captain. I'm sorry.

Earlier Spock supposedly saw Edith's obituary dated 1930. Would the complete date be on the page. How could Spock not have read the full date of her death?

MCCOY: The most common question to ask would be, where am I? I don't think I'll ask it.
EDITH: Why not?
MCCOY: The only possible answer would conclusively prove that I'm either unconscious or demented. This looks like old Earth around 1920 or 25.
EDITH: Would you care to try for 30?
MCCOY: I am unconscious, or demented.

So Edith Keeler, and the newspaper report of her death, both say the year is 1930, according to the year count then in use.

When Spock scolds Kirk for saving Edith when she stumbles on the stairs:

KIRK: It's not yet time. McCoy isn't here.
SPOCK: We're not that sure of our facts. Who's to say when the exact time will come? Save her, do as your heart tells you to do, and millions will die who did not die before.

And again I ask how Spock read the year from her obituary and not the exact date.

McCoy has recovered and is talking to Edith:

EDITH: We can talk about that later. I have to go. My young man is taking me to a Clark Gable movie.
MCCOY: A who movie?
EDITH: A Clark Gable. Don't you know?
MCCOY: Well, I know what a movie is, but.

And later:

(Edith, Kirk and Spock leave the Mission together, then Spock heads off alone. Kirk and Edith dodge traffic to cross the street.)
EDITH: If we hurry, maybe we can catch the Clark Gable movie at the Orpheum.
KIRK: What?
EDITH: You know, Doctor McCoy said the same thing.
KIRK: McCoy! Leonard McCoy?
EDITH: Yes. He's in the Mission. He's

So Edith expects people to know what a Clark Gable movie is, in the year 1930 of her calendar. We can call the "calendar used in her era in "the City on the Edge of Forever" the CF calendar.

Here is a link to a list of Clark Gable's movie credits:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000022/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Clark Gable became a star in 1931.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Gable#1930-1935:_Early_success

There is the same situation with the song "Goodnight Sweetheart" being played in 1930 CF even though it wasn't published until AD 1931 in our alternate universe.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Goodnight_Sweetheart

The use of the song "Goodnight Sweetheart" is a slight anachronism, since the song was first recorded in 1931. [9]

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever_(episode)

Therefore Star Trek must be in an alternate universe where either:

1) Clark Gable was already a movie star in AD 1930, and "Goodnight Sweetheart" was already published in AD 1930.

or:

2) A different calendar or at least year count is used in the early 20th century, where the year 1930 CF is the same as the year AD 1931 or later. That would make the year 1936 CF the same as the year AD 1937 or later.

In my post number 77 on page 4 of this thread I point out a similar situation with the Folsom Point in "The Galileo 7", discovered in AD 1926 in our history but in 1925 in the calendar used in "The Galileo 7".

So TOS should be in an alternate universe where either the Folsom Point was discovered in AD 1925 instead of AD 1926, or else a different calendar counting the years from a different epoch was then used in North America.

I wonder if the Guardian of Forever was always telling the truth, or if it lied to manipulate Kirk and Spock to do its bidding.

Maybe it cut off communications with the Enterprise when McCoy went though the Guardian, convincing Kirk and Spock that McCoy had changed history and erased everything they knew.

Then, when Kirk and Spock leaped through the Guardian, the Guardian sent them to some alternate universe where Edith Keeler and "Rodent" would have lived longer, and McCoy, Kirk and Spock caused the deaths of Edith and "Rodent", which may have been the goal of The Guardian

Perhaps The Guardian of Time wants to make more and more alternate universe have a history similar to that in the alternate universe of Star Trek, or maybe it has some other "timey-wimy" reason.

 

[Henoch]

Can you actually see constellations in a New York City night, and if so, what time of year is Orion's belt visible?

Yes, Orion's Belt is visible in New York City, even today unless it is behind a building. According to NASA (.org) Alnitak, the star at the left side of Orion's belt, is 817 light years away. It seems that most of the stars in Orion's Belt are visited by Starfleet in TOS's era.

 

[Mytran]

I wonder if the Guardian of Forever was always telling the truth, or if it lied to manipulate Kirk and Spock to do its bidding.

Maybe it cut off communications with the Enterprise when McCoy went though the Guardian, convincing Kirk and Spock that McCoy had changed history and erased everything they knew.

Then, when Kirk and Spock leaped through the Guardian, the Guardian sent them to some alternate universe where Edith Keeler and "Rodent" would have lived longer, and McCoy, Kirk and Spock caused the deaths of Edith and "Rodent", which may have been the goal of The Guardian

Perhaps The Guardian of Time wants to make more and more alternate universe have a history similar to that in the alternate universe of Star Trek, or maybe it has some other "timey-wimy" reason.

I'm fully on board with a more manipulative GoF.
In both its appearances the actions of the GoF seemed focused on preserving a predestination paradox and wasn't against using some misdirection to achieve its goals!

 

[Tenacity]

what would be really time consuming would be building a bases on Organia

kirk said nothing about starfleet building a base on organia or in it's system. kirk intent seem to be to organize the organians to resist the klingons themselves.

 

[MAGolding]

n original broadcast order, "Operation - Annihilate!" broadcast on April 13, was the 29th episode of TOS.

The episode opens at the is in the Deneva system, approaching the colony planet Deneva.

Kirk tells Uhura to try a private subspace channel.

SPOCK: As I speculated, Captain, the overall pattern of mass insanity destroying civilisations follows an almost straight line through this section of the galaxy. Over here the Beta Portilin system the ancient civilisations. Archaeologists have given us information indicating that they were the beginning. Two hundred years ago, Levinius Five was swept by mass insanity, then Theta Cygni Twelve. The last was Ingraham B, two years ago.
KIRK: And next in line, Deneva. Bones, what's your theory about the cause of all this?

Theta Cygni is a real star, about 60 light years from Earth, with equatorial coordinates right ascension 19 hours 36 minutes, declination plus 50 degrees minutes. If any of the other stars could be identified, a line connecting all of them could be drawn.

A Denevan flies his spaceship into the Denevan sun and claims to be free before his ship vaporizes. MCoy asks:

MCCOY: Jim, your brother Sam and his family, aren't they stationed on this planet?

Captain's log stardate 3287.2. The mass insanity we have tracked across this section of the galaxy seems to have already touched Deneva. That planet, colonised over a century ago, is one of the most beautiful in the galaxy.

So Deneva was colonized over a century ago.

I wonder if Deneva was named after Deneb. If Deneb was a multiple star, the brightest star would be Deneb A , and the next Deneb B, and so on, though Deneb is apparently a single star. Deneva always sounds little like Deneb A to me.

SPOCK: Planet development is normal, Captain. Originally colonised as a freighting-line base in this area.
SCOTT: Aye, they make regular trips from here carrying supplies to the asteroid belt for the miners and bringing cargo out. I've made the run a couple of times myself as an engineering advisor.
SPOCK: No Federation contacts for over a year.

Mention of "the asteroid belt" makes it seem like somebody though Deneva is supposed to be in our solar system, thoughit certainly isn't. So the asteroid belt mentioned could be in the Deneva solar system or in another nearby one.

"No Federation contacts for over a year" makes me wonder whether Deneva is part of the United Federation of Planets, is independent, or part of another interstellar government.

They make brief contact with a Denevan woman.

MCCOY: Jim, did you know who that woman was?
KIRK: Yes. You were right a while back. My brother Sam lives on Deneva. He's a research biologist. That woman sounded like his wife Aurelan.

as they prepare to beam down to the capital city of Deneva:

SPOCK: Lieutenant Uhura has had no further response to our signals. Sensors report the expected number of humans on the planet surface. However, they are strangely quiet. Very little activity.

KIRK: There are almost a million inhabitants of Deneva. There's more than one hundred thousand in this city alone. Where is everyone?
SPOCK: They're here, Captain. In the buildings. Strangely quiescent.
KIRK: My brother's lab is over there. They signalled us once. There should be someone there. Let's find out what's happening.

They find Sam Kirk dead, Aurelan hysterical, and Peter Kirk unconscious. Kirk beams back up with McCoy, Aurelan, and Peter.

KIRK: Yes, I'm here. You have to tell us what happened, Aurelan, to you and the others.
AURELAN: They came eight months ago.
KIRK: Who?
AURELAN: Things. Horrible things! Visitors brought them in their vessel from a planet. Ingraham B.
KIRK: What kind of things?
AURELAN: Not the ship's crew's fault. The things made them bring their ship here.
KIRK: Aurelan, it's important that you tell us. What kind of things?
AURELAN: Not their fault.
(She starts screaming and crying again, so McCoy gives her another shot.)
MCCOY: When she answers questions, any questions, it's as if she's fighting to get the answers out. As though something is exerting pain to stop her.
AURELAN: They use it to control us. They're spreading, Jim. They need us to be their arms and legs. They're forcing us to build ships for them. Don't let them! Don't let them go any further!
(One last scream and convulsion, then all her readings plummet to zero. KIRK: My brother's son?
MCCOY: I'll do everything I can, Jim, to save him.

Back on the planet, they find some of the creatures, and Spock is infected.

Captain's log supplemental. Whatever the creatures are, they have apparently taken over all the inhabitants of Deneva. Meanwhile, ship's surgeon Doctor McCoy is examining a strange puncture wound left by one of the creatures on Mister Spock's back.

Later, on the bridge, McCoy shows Kirk two specimens in a jar:

MCCOY: To be very frank, Jim, I don't know that I can do anything for Spock or your nephew. (hold up the jar) They're pieces of some form of living tissue. I removed one from Spock's spinal cord, the other from your sister-in-law's body. They're both the same. The boy's too weak to touch. Besides, removal of the tissue wouldn't stop the pain anyhow as far as I can tell.
KIRK: Did you operate on Spock in time?
MCCOY: No. I just removed these for examination. His body's full of these tentacles, entwining and growing all about his nervous system.
KIRK: My nephew?
MCCOY: The same. Evidently, when the creature attacks, it leaves a stinger much like a bee or wasp, leaving one of these in the victim's body. It takes over the victim very rapidly, and the entwining is far, far too involved for conventional surgery to remove.
KIRK: Recommendations?
MCCOY: I'm sorry, Jim. The lab, the science departments, we're all stumped.

Spock wakes up and goes to the bridge, trying to control the ship.

SPOCK: Down! I must take it down.

Is the creature inside trying to land the Enterprise on the surface, or is Spock trying to crash it into the capital city and kill a lot of ciitizens and creatures?

Later, in sickbay, Spock is more in control of himself:

SPOCK: It is proving to be an inconvenience, but it is manageable. And the creature, with all of its thousands of parts, even now is pressuring me. (the pain indicator hits the top of the monitor) It wants this ship, but I am resisting.

Possibly the Enterprise would be better than all the ships the creatures are forcing the colonists to make.

KIRK: Help them. I don't care what it takes or costs. You've got to help them.
MCCOY: Jim, aren't you forgetting something? There are over a million colonists on that planet down there, just as much your responsibility. They need your help, too.

Spock persuades the Captain to beam him down to get a live creature. Spock captures one of the creatures.

In the lab:

SPOCK: Unimportant at the moment, Doctor. Please observe. Interesting, gentlemen. A one-celled creature resembling, more than anything else, a huge, individual brain cell.
KIRK: Yes. That would answer a lot of questions.
SPOCK: Do you understand what I'm suggesting, Captain?
KIRK: I think so. This may be one cell in a larger organism. An incredibly huge organism, in fact.
SPOCK: And although it is not physically connected to the other cells, it is nevertheless part of the whole creature, guided by the whole, drawing its strength from the whole, which probably accounts for its unusual resistance to our phaser weapons.
KIRK: Existing so differently from any living matter or energy as we know it, that it may have come here, planet by planet, from an entirely different galaxy.
SPOCK: From a place where our physical laws do not apply. We may therefore find it difficult to destroy, Captain.
KIRK: But not impossible, Mister Spock. The Denevan that flew into the sun cried out that he was free, that he'd won. That's the angle to work on, gentlemen. I want an analysis of all this from Medical and Life Science departments within the hour.

So if the creatures come from another galaxy, their path might lead from the "upper" or "lower" edge or surface to the galactic disc to Theta Cygni.

Later:

MCCOY: I'm sorry, Captain. I've tried everything I can. Variant radiation, intense heat, even as great as nine thousand degrees.
KIRK: Then you're wasting your time. There has to be something that'll kill the creature without destroying the human host.
MCCOY: Which happens to be my point. The thing won't die, even at temperatures and radiation which would burn Spock and your nephew to ashes.
KIRK: I can't accept that, Bones. We've got fourteen science labs aboard this ship. The finest equipment and computers in the galaxy.
MCCOY: Captain, I understand your concern. Your affection for Spock, the fact that your nephew is the last survivor of your brother's family.
KIRK: No, no, Bones. There's more than two lives at stake here. I cannot let it spread beyond this colony, even if it means destroying a million people down there.

But in "What Are Little Girls Made of?" Sam Kirk had three sons months or years earlier. Were the the other two found dead off screen, or was McCoy just assuming their weren't any other kids in the family? Are "Operation-Annihilate!" and "What Are Little Girls Made of?" in alternate universes where Sam Kirk had different numbers of children, or were the other two boys somewhere else on Deneva or another planet. during this episode?

Aurelan was portrayed by Joan Swift, who was born 11 May 1933 and was 33 years and 9 months old in February, 1967 when her scenes were filmed. Craig Hundley/Huxley as Peter Kirk was born 22 November 1954, and was 12 years and less than three months old when his scenes were filmed. If peter had brothers, they would probably be younger instead of older.

Captain's log, stardate 3289.8. I am faced with the most difficult decision of my life. Unless we find a way to destroy the creatures without killing their human hosts, my command responsibilities will force me to kill over a million people.

SPOCK: I regret I see no other choice for you, Captain. We already know this thing has destroyed three civilisations. Perhaps more.
MCCOY: Gentlemen, I want it stopped, too, but not at the cost of destroying over a million people.
SPOCK: Including myself, Doctor, and Captain Kirk's young nephew. Understandably upsetting, but once it spreads past here, there are dozens of colonies beyond and billions of people.
MCCOY: If killing five people saves ten, it's a bargain. Is that your simple logic, Mister Spock?
KIRK: I will accept neither of those alternatives, gentlemen. I cannot let this thing expand beyond this planet, nor do I intend to kill a million or more people to stop it. I want another answer. I'm putting you gentlemen on the hot seat with me. I want that third alternative.

Killing 5 to save 10 seems a lot better to one of the 10 than to one of the 5.

If McCoy disapproves of it so much, why doesn't he oppose killing the creatures? Why doesn't he suggest that Spock mind meld with the specimen and negotiate a peace treaty with it? Maybe they could provide robots for the creatures to control in return for the creatures freeing the colonists?

maybe the creatures would give up using organic host bodies and prefer to control robots, but could be persuaded to do favors for the Federation by taking over the Romulans and the Klingons.

And since it is uncertain whether there are thousands, or millions of the creatures, or only one creature with many bodies, we can't know whether the creatures are more like the five or the ten in McCoy's analogy.

Well, maybe "Operation-Annihilate!" is in an alternate universe to episodes like "Dagger of the Mind", "a Taste of Armageddon", and "The Devil in the Dark" where Spock used his telepathic powers.

Later, in Kirk's quarters, they go over it again, and Kirk has his inspiration:

KIRK: But one other thing you haven't mentioned. It's bright. It radiates a blinding light if you're close enough.
MCCOY: Nothing lethal about light.
KIRK: Not to us. But down on the surface, the creatures stayed in the shadows for the most part. Suppose they weren't simply hiding. Suppose they're sensitive to light. Light, like in a sun, close up.
SPOCK: A possibility.
MCCOY: You can't move Deneva closer to the sun, Jim.
KIRK: No, but you can move the equivalent of the sun to Deneva. Mister Spock?
SPOCK: Yes. In essence, it can be done. A string of satellites around the planet with burning tri-magnesite and trevium.

They test light on the captured specimen.

SPOCK: Of course. The light of the sun at the proximity where the Denevan declared himself free was one million candles per square inch. If this works, the satellites we orbit will produce light of such intensity that even someone in a closed, darkened area will be affected by it.

They kill the creature, Then they test it on Spock, kill the creature, and Spock is blinded.

MCCOY: I threw the total spectrum of light at the creature. It wasn't necessary. I didn't stop to think that only one kind of light might've killed it.
SPOCK: Interesting. Just as dogs are sensitive to certain sounds which humans cannot hear, these creatures evidently are sensitive to light which we cannot see.
KIRK: Are you telling me that Spock need not have been blinded?
MCCOY: I didn't need to throw the blinding white light at all, Jim. Spock, I
SPOCK: Doctor it was my selection as well. It is done.

SULU: Completing the seeding orbit, Captain. Two hundred and ten ultraviolet satellites now in position. Seventy two miles altitude, permanent orbit about the planet.
KIRK: Good. Scanners?

Seventy two miles high doesn't seem high enough for permanent orbit.

The mean or average radius of the Earth is 6,371.0088 kilometers or 3,958.7613 miles. Adding 72 miles to that we get a radius of about 4,031 miles. A sphere with that radius would have a surface area of about 2.048 times 10 to the eight power square miles. or 204,000,000 square miles . With 210 satellites, that would give an area of 971,428.5714 square miles of that sphere for each satellite. The square root of that is 985.6 miles. So the satellites would have to be equally spaced at intervals of about a thousand miles to cover all of Deneva.

Of course Deneva could be significantly larger or smaller than Earth.

In 1913 it was discovered that the Earth has an atmospheric layer which adsorbs a lot of ultra violent ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The highest intensity ultraviolet rays are adsorbed by nitrogen in the atmosphere. The types of ultraviolet which can penetrate nitrogen gas are UV-A, UV-B, and A UV-C. Most UV-A reaches the surface of Earth, but only a little UV-B, and none of the deadliest UV-C gets through the Ozone layer. At some wavelengths of UV-B there are hundreds of millions of times as many rays from the Sun at the top of the atmosphere than reach the ground.

At 72 miles above Deneva, the "ultraviolet satellites" are above the height of the ozone layer on Earth. So the "ultraviolet satellites" should produce light in the UV-A spectrum so that most of it will reach the surface of Deneva..

The ultraviolet and possibly visible light destroys the creatures, freeing the Denevans.

I wonder how the Denevan who flew his ship into the sun killed the creature.light wouldn't b penetrate the hull of his h ship, and the windows might not be transparent to ultraviolet light.

Apparently enough of the visible light and ultraviolet light is reflected from various surfaces to reach the creatures hiding the shadows and kill them. And the creatures that were outside during the dark night would be overwhelmed by the sudden burst of bright light.

But what about the creatures hiding inside.the bodies of humans? Wouldn't they be shielded from the light by the flesh of the humans they inhabit? When I ride in a car and can turn by fact woard the sun and close by eyes, an d I see red light through my eyelids, and when the car passes int shad I see blue instead of read. So if the creatures have tendrils in the upper layers of human skin those tendrils will be burned by light penetrating it.

On may 1, I found that the flashlight of my phone is bright enough to light up my finger when it is over the light. My finger glows red. Thus some light can penetrate about half an inch or 1.5 centimeters of flesh. 21st century humans usually have bare heads and hands when outdoors, though I tend to cover up more than most, and TOS era people don't usually wear hats and gloves outdoors.

So humans controlled by the creatures, working outdoors in space ship yards at night when the creatures don't expect any light, would suddenly have their hands and heads flooded with light, killing the tendrils in their heads and hands, which might set off a cascading systems failure leading to death for the rest of the creature. killing the rest of each creature. If most of the creatures on the planet were inside humans working outside at night, most of them might died, and thus the rest of the creatures might die off since they were part of a super creature that might not survive having the majority of its cells die.

Possibly the creatures were biological weapons designed to be seeded on a planet, drive the inhabitants to insanity and death, and then be killed off by ultraviolet satellites so the planet could be colonized. And possibly some of the creatures got loose and have been infecting planets every since. Note that the times between planetary infections seem to vary widely. After all the natives of a planet died in madness, a few of the creatures may survive infecting wildlife and eventually infect space travelers who visit the planet. And possibly the creatures were programmed to die when they sensed that their hosts were seeing bright light, explaining how the Denevan pilot was freed from his creature inside the protective hull of his spaceship.

It is uncertain that all of the creatures are dead. Possibly a few creatures survived, infected various Denevan animals, and multiplied enough to form a new super creature, waiting to infect and control another human. So Deneva, along with Ingraham B, Theta Cygni XII, Lavinius V, and Beta Portolan, needs to be watched closely.

A scene with Peter Kirk was filmed but not used in the episode. Peter decided not to return to Earth to live with his grandmother but stay on Deneva and live with his father's partner and his wife. Since that scene was not in the aired episode it is possible that Peter went back to Earth.

in the ending that was filmed, Spock and McCoy come to the bridge.

KIRK: Spock. You can see.
MCCOY: The blindness was temporary, Jim. There's something about his optical nerves which aren't the same as a human's.
SPOCK: An hereditary trait, Captain. The brightness of the Vulcan sun has caused the development of an inner eyelid, which acts as a shield against high-intensity light. Totally instinctive, Doctor. We tend to ignore it, as you ignore your own appendix.
KIRK: Mister Spock. Regaining eyesight would be an emotional experience for most. You, I presume, felt nothing?
SPOCK: Quite the contrary, Captain. I had a very strong reaction. My first sight was the face of Doctor McCoy bending over me.
MCCOY: 'Tis a pity your brief blindness did not increase your appreciation for beauty, Mister Spock.
KIRK: If you gentlemen are finished, would you mind laying in a course for Starbase Ten, Mister Spock?

:

I wonder whether the Vulcan sun is 40 Eridani A, 40 Eridani B, or 40 Eridani C.

The 2.6 stardate units between stardates 3287.2. and 3289.8 could happen within a single day, thus making less than 9.2 hours per stardate unit, or opossibly take more time than that. The really long periods of the episode might be the skipped over parts, building the 210 satellites and helping Deneva recover, especially treating the million colonists for excessive ultraviolet exposure,and there are no stardates given after them.

 

[Henoch]

But in "What Are Little Girls Made of?" Sam Kirk had three sons months or years earlier. Were the the other two found dead off screen, or was McCoy just assuming their weren't any other kids in the family? Are "Operation-Annihilate!" and "What Are Little Girls Made of?" in alternate universes where Sam Kirk had different numbers of children, or were the other two boys somewhere else on Deneva or another planet. during this episode?

Aurelan was portrayed by Joan Swift, who was born 11 May 1933 and was 33 years and 9 months old in February, 1967 when her scenes were filmed. Craig Hundley/Huxley as Peter Kirk was born 22 November 1954, and was 12 years and less than three months old when his scenes were filmed. If peter had brothers, they would probably be younger instead of older.

The younger two sons probably died of Rigelian fever a couple of years ago. Very sad.

 

[Mytran]

It is uncertain that all of the creatures are dead. Possibly a few creatures survived, infected various Denevan animals, and multiplied enough to form a new super creature, waiting to infect and control another human. So Deneva, along with Ingraham B, Theta Cygni XII, Lavinius V, and Beta Portolan, needs to be watched closely.

Your whole speculation about how the light rays may have actually been able to kill the creatures is great, but this final chapter is just cherry on the cake! Fantastic

 

[MAGolding]

In original broadcast order "Amok Time", broadast on September 15, 1967, is the 30th episode of TOS, and the first in the second season.

Eventually the 4th season of Star Trek: Enterprise described Vulcan as being 16 light years frm earth in one episode and over 16 light years from Earth in another, thus putting the star of Vulcan among the few stars that are between 16.0 and 17.0 light years form Earth. This list has 12 star systems, some with two or three stars, within that distance range.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_star_systems_within_16–20_light-years

As the episode opens, McCoy tells Kirk that Spock has been acting strange lately:

MCCOY: Well, it's nothing I can pinpoint without an examination, but he's become increasingly restive. If he were not a Vulcan, I'd almost say nervous. And for another thing, he's avoiding food. I checked and he hasn't eaten at all in three days.
KIRK: That just sounds like Mister Spock in one of his contemplative phases.

Nurse Chapel takes a tray of Plomeek soup to Spock's Room.

MCCOY: Jim, when I suggested to Spock that it was time for his routine check-up, your logical, unemotional first officer turned to me and said, you will cease to pry into my personal matters, Doctor, or I shall certainly break your neck.

Spock throws the bowl of soup out the door. At the door, Spock asks Kirk:

SPOCK: Captain, I should like to request a leave of absence on my home planet. On our present course you can divert to Vulcan with a loss of but two point eight light days.

So there are two possibilities. One is that the ship would divert from its straight course to its destinatino, turn to go to Vulcan, and from Vulcan take a new course to the destination planet, and that the total length of the journey with the diversion to Vulcan would be only 2.8 light days. longer.

So you would draw a straight line from where the Enterprise is at the moment to the destination.star system. Then draw a dot showing the position of Vulcan's star system a littel to the side of that line. Draw a line from Vulcan to the straight line to the destination, a line from Vulcan that hits the other line at a right angle. Now draw a line from the position of the Enterprise to Vulcan, and another line from Vulcan to the destination star. So now their are two right angled triangles. And if we knew the length of some of the sides we might be able to calculate how far Vulcan is from the original line to the destination star.

Or maybe Spock meant that the Vulcan system was 1.4 light days from a point on the straight course to the destination star. In that case the Enterprise could turn at a right angle, travel 1.4 light days to Vulcan, leave Spock there., reverse course, travel 1.4 light days back to the point where it turned, and then turn back onto the course to the destination star having traveled a total of 2.8 light days farther than the straight line course..

Sin our part of the galaxy a typical distance between a star and its closest neighbor star is usually about 5 light years, and thus about 1,826.25 light days. Thus a diversion of 2.8 light days is about one in 652.2, or about 0.0015, of the average distance between a star and its closest neighbor. So the place where the was coming from, the destination star, and Vulcan, would seem to be lined up almost perfectly which would be highly unusual.

In Spock's quarters Spock repeats his request for leave on Vulcan.

KIRK: I'm more interested in your request for shore leave. In all the years
SPOCK: You have my request, Captain. Will you grant it or not?
KIRK: In all the years that I've known you, you've never asked for a leave of any sort. In fact, you've refused them. Why now?
SPOCK: Captain, surely I have enough leave time accumulated.
KIRK: Agreed, but that isn't the question, is it? If there's a problem of some sort, illness in the family
SPOCK: No. Nothing of that nature, Captain.
KIRK: Then since we're headed for Altair Six, and since the shore facilities there are excellent
SPOCK: No! I must. I wish to take my leave on Vulcan.
KIRK: Spock, I'm asking you. What's wrong?
SPOCK: I need rest. I'm asking you to accept that answer.
KIRK: Bridge. Helm.
SULU [OC]: Yes, Captain?
KIRK: Alter course to Vulcan. Increase speed to warp four.
SULU [OC]: Aye, sir.

"All the years" that Kirk knew Spock are probably at least. 2.0 years. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of whether Kirk and Spock knew each other before Kirk became commander of the Enterprise, except that Gary Mitchell served with Spock for years before "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and that Spock served with Captain Pike for eleven years, and Kirk mentioned meeting Pike once, perhaps the only time Kirk met Pike.

The destination planet is Altair VI. If Vulcan can be proven to be a planet in a specific star system, A line from Altair to Vulcan's star system extended into space should give some indication of where the was coming from on the voyage to Altair. Altair is one of the 12 star systems that are between 16.0 and 17.0 light years from Earth, so that leaves only 11 possibilities for the star system of Vulcan. Of course nobody would know the distance from Earth to Vulcan back in 1967.

Captain's log, stardate 3372.7. On course, on schedule, bound for Altair Six via Vulcan. First Officer Spock seems to be under stress. He has requested and been granted shore leave. Ship surgeon McCoy has him under medical surveillance.

They get a message from Starfleet Sector Nine:

STARFLEET [OC]: To Captain, USS Enterprise from Starfleet Sector Nine. Inauguration ceremonies, Altair Six, have been advanced seven solar days. You are ordered to alter your flight plan to accommodate, by order of Komack, Admiral, Starfleet Command. Acknowledge.

KIRK: Mister Chekov, compute course and speed necessary for compliance.
CHEKOV: (a bit of a Russian accent) We'll have to head directly there at warp six, sir. Insufficient time to stop off at Vulcan.
KIRK: Head directly for Altair Six. Sailor's luck, Mister Spock. Or, as one of Finagle's Laws puts it, 'Any home port the ship makes ill be somebody else's, not mine'. The new president of Altair Six wants to get himself launched a week early, so we have to be there a week early. Don't worry. I'll see that you get your leave as soon as we're finished.
SPOCK: I quite understand, Captain.

According to the official warp factor scale, warp factor four, which they were on before, is 64 times the speed of light and warp factor 6 is 216 times the sped of light. 7 days have been subtracted from the they have to reach Altair VI. At warp factor 4, they could have traveled an additional 448 light days, or 1.22 light years. Every day that they travel at warp factor 6 instead of warp factor 4 they will gain 152 light days over the distance they would have made at warp 4. So in 2.94 more days at warp 6, they should make up for the last seven days at warp 4.

10 days at warp 4 equals 640 light days, and 3 days at warp 6 equals 648 light days. 11 days at warp 4 equals 704 light days and 4 days at warp 6 equals 864 light days. So when Starfleet called the inauguration should have now been only 3 days away. So when Starfleet called the total distance they would have to travel in direct line to Altair would appear to be about 640 to 648 light days, or about 1.75 to 1.77 light years.

So they were headed for Vulcan when they had to turn straight for Altair when less than two light years from Altair, and the total added length that the diversion to Vulcan would add only 2.8 light days to the journey. This implies that Vulcan should be very close to Altair. And there seem to be only 11 star systems the correct distance from Earth that could be Vulcan.

Of course if the speed of warp factors is much greater than the official TOS warp scale, Vulcan could be farther away from Altair. Since Altair and Vulcan are both between 16.0 and 17.0 light years from Earth, the maximum possible distance between Altair and Vulcan would be 32.0 to 34.0 light years. And that should set a maximum possible speed for warp 6, as well as narrowing down the candidates for Vulcan..

Later Kirk learns that Spock has ordered the Enterprise to Vulcan at maximum warp. Kirk orders Spock to sickbay, and McCoy examines him.

After examining Spock, McCoy tells Kirk:.

MCCOY: Jim, you've got to get Spock to Vulcan.
KIRK: Bones, I will, I will. As soon as this mission is
MCCOY: No! Now. Right away. If you don't get him to Vulcan within a week eight days at the outside, he'll die. He'll die, Jim.
KIRK: Why must he die? Why within eight days? Explain.

If they are 3 day's from Altair, going from Altair to Vulcan would take 6 days, so Spock would still be alive. But who knows how many hours or days the Enterprise was supposed to stay for the ceremonies. Kirk talks to Spock about Vulcan mating, and calls Admiral Komack.

KIRK [OC]: Lieutenant, get me Admiral Komack at Starfleet Command, Sector Nine. Pipe it down to McCoy's office.
UHURA: Starfleet Command. Yes, sir.
CHEKOV: Mister Sulu, you don't think
SULU: Maybe you ought to plot a course back for Vulcan, just in case.

.

Does Sulu mean that they have already passed Vulcan and it is now behind them as they head for Altair, or am I reading too much into "back to Vulcan"?

KOMACK [on monitor]: Captain, you're making a most unusual request.
KIRK: I'm aware of that, sir, but it's of the utmost importance. You must give me permission to divert to Vulcan.
KOMACK [on monitor]: But you refuse to explain why it is so important.
KIRK: I can't, sir, but believe me, I wouldn't make such a request
KOMACK [on monitor]: Altair Six is no ordinary matter. That area is just putting itself together after a long interplanetary conflict. This inauguration will stabilise the entire Altair system. Our appearance there is a demonstration of friendship and strength which will cause ripples clear to the Klingon Empire.
KIRK: Sir, the delay would be, at most, a day. I can hardly believe that
KOMACK [on monitor]: You will proceed to Altair Six as ordered. You have your orders. Starfleet out.
MCCOY: Well, that's that.
KIRK: No, it's not. I know the Altair situation. We would be one of three starships. Very impressive, very diplomatic, but it's simply not that vital.
MCCOY: You can't go off to Vulcan against Starfleet orders. You'll be busted
KIRK: I can't let Spock die, can I, Bones? And he will if we go to Altair. I owe him my life a dozen times over. Isn't that worth a career? He's my friend. Bridge. Navigation.

So if they were going to travel 3 days at warp 6 and thus 640 to 648 light days, and a diversion to Vulcan would add a day or less, at warp 6 they would travel less than 864 light days in 4 days, increasing speed to warp 7 would enable them to travel 1,372 light days in 4 days, and increasing speed to warp 8 would enable them to travel 2,048 light days in 4 days. So if the official TOS speed scale is correct they would be less than 5.6 light years from Altair via Vulcan at a that moment.

Since diverting to Vulcan would originally have added only 2.8 light days to the voyage, the fact that it would now add at least hundreds of light days to the voyage suggest that they had passed the shortest possible route to Vulcan and were getting farther and farther from Vulcan, so they would have to backtrack to get to Vulcan, return over the distance they backtracked, and then continue to Altair.

I wonder if any of the times Kirk says Spock saved his life were in previous episodes.

Kirk tells Chekov to:

KIRK: Mister Chekov, lay in a course for Vulcan. Tell Engineering I want warp eight or better. Push her for all she'll take.

Nurse Chapel hears and goes to tell Spock:

CHAPEL: I came to tell you that we are bound for Vulcan. We'll be there in just a few days.

"Just a few days" should be more than 1.0 days, and possibly more than 2.0 days. but if Vulcan was already behind them it would have to be less than half a day behind them if the diversion would be less than one day. Perhaps the two days or more to get to Vulcan would take them one day closer to Altair, so they would be only one day later than scheduled. And that might require a much bigger course correction than if they had changed course to Vulcan when much farther from Vulcan and Altair.

When they arrive at Vulcan, Spock invites Kirk and McCoy to the ceremony. They beam down the ceremonial location:

SPOCK: This is the land of my family. It has been held by us for more than two thousand Earth years. This is our place of Koon-ut-kal-if-fee,
MCCOY: He called it Koon-ut what?
KIRK: He described it to me as meaning marriage or challenge. In the distant past, Vulcans killed to win their mates.
MCCOY: And they still go mad at this time. Perhaps the price they pay for having no emotions the rest of the time.

On Earth, being able to trace your family history, and family property ownership, back more than 2,000 years is a rare distinction, if any family at all can truthfully claim it. Of course in the era of TOS the oldest lineages now on Earth will be a few centuries older. And of course a Vulcan family should have a lot fewer generations in 2,000 years than a human one.

Of course, nobody knows whether McCoy speculation is correct.

T'Pau says:

T'PAU: What they are about to see comes down from the time of the beginning, without change. This is the Vulcan heart. This is the Vulcan soul. This is our way. Kah-if-farr.

I wonder how far back in time the "beginning'' that T'Pau mentions was.

After McCoy declares Kirk dead:

MCCOY: McCoy to Enterprise.
UHURA [OC]: Enterprise. Lieutenant Uhura here.
MCCOY: Have the transporter room stand by to beam up the landing party. (ends communication) As strange as it may seem, Mister Spock, you're in command now. Any orders?
SPOCK: Yes. I'll follow you up in a few minutes. You will instruct Mister Chekov to plot a course for the nearest Starbase where I must surrender myself to the authorities. (the sound of a transporter off screen) T'Pring. Explain.

So their mission was to go to Altair, and Kirk disobeyed orders by going to Vulcan and delaying reaching Altair. And Spock cares so little about their mission that he intends to go to the nearest starbase instead of Altair VI, further delaying their arrival. What would be wrong with proceeding to Altair VI and quietly surrendering to the highest ranking Starfleet officer there?

And in the end:

UHURA: Response to T'Pau's request for diversion of Enterprise to planet Vulcan

[Sickbay]

UHURA [OC]: Hereby approved. Any reasonable delay granted. Komack, Admiral, Starfleet Command.
KIRK: Well, a little late, but I'm glad they're seeing it our way. How about that T'Pau? They couldn't turn her down. Mister Chekov, lay in a course for Altair Six. Leave orbit when ready. Kirk out.

I also discuss the voyage in "Amok Time" in the thread "The Voyage in Amok Time". https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-voyage-in-amok-time.304698/

Since there is only one stardate in "Amok Time", there is no way to tell the length of a stardate unit in the epeisode.

 

[MAGolding]

Stardates in TOS Season One

I quote from my post number one on page one of this thread:

5) Stardates. No assumptions are made about stardates. If episodes happen in stardate order, it is possible that there is a fixed relationship between the passage of stardates and time on planets, so that there could be X stardates in one Earth year, for example. But if episodes happen in production order or airdate order stardates would increase and decrease over time, and thus calculating the relationship between stardates and planetary time would be much more complex.

[Added May 4, 2020. I note that it is possible that stardates go from 0000.0 to 9999.9 and then turn back to 0000.0. It is also possible that in TOS stardates have more digits than are ever actually mentioned on screen. So that stardate 429999.9 would be followed by stardate 430000.0 and the stardates would go up to stardate 439999.9 and then to 440000.0,and so on. But only the last four digits before the decimal point and the ones after the decimal point would be mentioned. Thus it might not always be true that an episode with a higher stardate is after an episode with a lower stardate.]

So what would a first time viewer deduce about stardates in the first season of TOS if they paid close attention to them?

If they assumed that episodes happened in broadcast order they would have to deduce that stardates usually increased during episodes and between in episodes but sometimes decreased between episodes.

If they assumed that episodes happened in stardate order then they could believe that stardates always increased and never decreased.

What is the length of a stardate unit in shipboard hours and days - which might be the same length as Earth hours and days - according to TOS season one episodes?, Is that length the same in all episodes, or do some episodes have inconsistent stardate lengths? If different episodes have different stardate lengths, then it is possible that how fast a stardate unit increase over time varies with time, and stardates might sometimes decrease over time.

Or maybe Starfleet uses different stardate systems which have a different length of stardate units. So Starfleet Command might often order starships to switch from using stardate system one to using system two, and later order ships to use system three, and later still order them to go back to using system two, and so on.

Or if most Star Trek TOS episodes happen in alternate universes of their own, some might happen in alternate universes where Starflelet uses stardate system one, others in alternate universes where Starfleet uses stardate system two, and so on.

In post number nine on page on page one I found little evidence of started unit length in "The Man Trap".

"Added June 11, 2020. Since Kirk told Crater they would be back "tomorrow" to finished the examinations, and then later beamed down to ask crater questions, there was obvious less than 48 hours between those two beam downs.

Some time after stardate 1513.1, Kirk said they would be back "tomorrow" Then came stardate 1513.4, and after that Kirk decided to beam down and question Crater ahead of the scheduled visit. After that visit Kirk made a log on stardate 1513.8. So there are less than 48 hours in the up to 0.7 stardate units between Stardates 1513.1 and 1513.8. Thus there are fewer than 68.6 hours in a stardate unit."

I suppose that "fewer than 68.6 hours in a stardate unit " should be consistent with every other episode.

Post number ten, discussing "Charlie X" has only this to say:

"As far as I can tell the episode could take a day or a week. The interval between the three stardates given, 1533.6, 1533.7, and 1535.8, or 2.2 stardate units, could be less than one Earth day, thus making fewer than 10 or 11 hours per stardate unit, but the time elapsed is not certain."

In the next episode by broadcast order "Where No Man Has Gone Before", what an attentive viewer learned about the stardate system would depend on how well he could read the dates seen in the files of Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner, and on the tombstone of Kirk, and whether they thought those dates were years or stardate.

In my post number 23 on page 2, I discuss the stardates in W"here No Man Has Gone Before",

In it I deduce there are probably at least 2 hours in the 0.2 stardate units between stardates 1313.1, and 1313.3. making at least 10 hours per stardate unit.

I also deduce that there are probably fewer than 12 hours in the 0.5 stardate units between 1313.3 and 1313.8, and thus fewer than 24 hours per stardate unit.

"So a stardate unit should be about 10 to 24 hours long according to the evidence of "Where No Man Has Gone Before"."

"If a stardate unit should be about 10 to 24 hours long, there should be about 365.25 to 876.6 stardate units in a year."

I discuss whether the birth dates of Mitchell and Dehner were given in years or in stardates and the implications and also discuss whether the numbers on the tombstone of Kirk were years or stardate or a combination.

I deduce that if stardates rise from 0000 to 9999 and then start over at 0000 again in a series of cycles, or if stardates have at least five digits before the decimal point but only the last four digits before the decimal point in TOS (just as only the last few digits of Julian Day numbers are sometimes used) the birth dates of Mitchell, Dehner, and Kirk can be plausible numbers of years in the past if there are 10 to 24 hours in a stardate unit.

However the voyage to Delta Vega takes fewer than 0.2 stardate units from 1312.9 to 1313.1. And the distances to Delta Vega is described as "a few light days".

"Presumably Delta Vega was more than one light day and less than seven light days which would be a light week. A light day is the distance traveled by light in one day. It is 1/365.25 of a light year and is 24 light hours, or 1,440 light minutes, or 86,400 light seconds."

"So Delta Vega should have been 1 to 7 light days, or 24 to 168 light hours, or 1,440 to 10,080 light minutes, away."

"If there are 10 to 24 hours in a stardate unit., 0.2 stardate units would be 2 to 4.8 hours. If the Enterprise was traveling slower than light at impulse power when traveling to Delta Vega, the farthest it could travel would be 2 to 4.8 light hours, which would be 0.0119 to 0.2 of the stated distance to Delta Vega."

So that seems to indicate that 0.2 of a stardate unit should be at least 1 to 7 days, and thus a stardate unit should be at least 5 to 35 days long.

But possibly the Enterprise, despite its much reduced speed, was travelling faster than light to Delta Vega. If there are 2 to 4.8 hours in 0.2 stardate units, travelling 24 to 168 light hours in that time would require a speed of 5 to 84 times the speed of light.

Kirk's log after hitting the barrier says:

Captain's log, Star date 1312.9. Ship's condition, heading back on impulse power only. Main engines burned out. The ship's space warp ability gone. Earth bases which were only days away are now years in the distance. Our overriding question now is what destroyed the Valiant? They lived through the barrier, just as we have. What happened to them after that?

Assuming that days means at least one day and less than a week, and that years means at least one year and less than a decade, the ratio between normal speeds and the speeds after the damage to the main engines should be 365.25 to 3652.5 days divided by 1 to 7 days, or about 52.17 to 3652.5. If the speed after the damage was still faster than light, at least 5 to 84 times the speed of light, the speed before the damage would be at least 260.85 to 306,810 times the speed of light.

If the Enterprise traveled faster than light to Delta Vega, there could be 10 to 24 hours in a stardate unit as other evidence in "where No Man B Has Gone Before" indicates.

There are only two stardates in "The Naked Time".

Captain's Log: Stardate 1704.2. The science party we were to have picked up has been found dead. Life support systems had been turned off. Station personnel, frozen to death. Conditions highly unusual. Meanwhile, we remain in orbit to complete our mission, close scientific measurement of the break-up of this planet.

In the rec room, Sulu, Riley, and Tormolen are having a meal when:

UHURA [OC]: Attention. Engine room on standby alert. All duty personnel to the Bridge. Acknowledge.
SULU: You sure you're all right now, Joe? We've got to leave.

So Sulu and Riley are on duty and probably taking a lunch break, while Tormolen seems to have gone off duty sometime after returning from the planet.

Captain's Log, stardate 1704.4. Ship out of control, spiraling down towards planet Psi 2000. We have nineteen minutes of life left without engine power or helm control.

I can only guess that there are about 1 to 24 hours in 0.2 stardate units between the two stardates, thus making about 5 to 120 hours in a stardate unit.

Later the Enterprise is thrown back in time 71 hours. If the original version or the TOS-R version shows a clear shot of the stardate then, the length of a stardate unit in "The Naked Time" can be calculated.

In "The Enemy Within" five stardates are given, from 1672.1 to 1673.1. Those correspond to later afternoon to sometime during the night on the planet Alfa 177, and thus to about 3 to 12 hours if Alfa 177 days are similar enough to Earth days in length, a dubious assumption. So possibly, repeat possibly, a stardate unit might be 3 to 12 hours long.

Kirk makes his fourth log entry, possibly while confused, on stardate 1673.5. Spock makes the fifth log on stardate 1673.1. There are three possibilities:

1) the transcript of the episode includes one or more incorrect stardates different from the ones in the episode.

2) Kirk was too weak to use the correct stardate in his fourth log entry.

3) The stardate actually decreased by 0.4 units during the interval, which would prove that stardate units sometimes decrease. Unless a chronologist assumes that it was merely a script error.

In post number on page 2 I discuss "What are Little Girls Made of?"

There is only one stardate in "What are Little Girls Made of?" so there are no clues about stardate length in that episode.

In post number 41 on page 3, I calculated the length of a stardate unit in "Miri" .

Captain's Log, stardate 2713.6. The building Miri led us to also housed an automatic transmission station, which sent out the signal that drew us to this planet. We also discovered something else. That the blues blotches, characteristic of the unknown disease had appeared on each of us, with the exception of Mister Spock. There was a well-equipped laboratory in the building. Doctor McCoy took tissue samples of each of us in an attempt to isolate the organism responsible.

Later they calculate how much time they have left to live:

FARRELL [OC]: Computer indicates one hundred seventy hours, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Verified, Captain. We have seven days.

Later:

Captain's Log, stardate 2717.3. Three days, seven hours left to us. Investigation proves that the supply of food in the area is running dangerously low. Unless something is done, the children will starve in a few months. The disease is working on each of us according to Doctor McCoy's prediction. Our tempers are growing short, and We're no further along than we were two days ago.

"Three days and seven hours are 79 hours, so that is 91 hours, or 3 days and 19 hours, after 170 hours were left, which was sometime after stardate 2713.6. So there are at least 91 hours in 3.8 stardate units, making at least 23.9, or twenty three point nine, hours in a stardate unit."

In post number 45 on page 3 I discuss "Dagger of the Mind".

Captain's log, stardate 2715.1. Exchanged cargo with penal colony on Tantalus V. I've departed without going ashore.

When Dr. Van Gelder is discovered aboard, they head back to Tantalus V. Later:

KIRK: Estimated arrival at Tantalus?
SPOCK: Fifty seven minutes, thirty seconds, Captain.

So the round trip from Tantalus to where they turn around and back to Tantalus should be at least 115 minutes, almost two hours.

Captain's log, stardate 2715.2. Standard orbit, planet Tantalus V.

[Bridge]

KIRK: Mission, routine investigation and report as per ship surgeon's medical log. As for my last entry, it seems I will get to meet Doctor Adams at last. However, I would have preferred other circumstances. Sickbay. Report, Doctor.

.

"So 0.1 stardate units between 2715.1 and 2715.2 equals at least 120 minutes or two hours, meaning that in this episode 1 stardate unit should equal at least 20 hours."

I also note that a stardate unit at least 20 hours long wouldn't fit well with the number of stardate units since "Charlie X", and would result in only 2,191.5 stardate units in exactly five years, though there are many more stardate units in the five year mission.

"Three possibilities:

One) Kirk's five year mission is stretched considerably to allow for the many more than 2,191.5 stardate units it covers.

Two) the relationship between stardate units and time units changes and varies over time.

Three) different stardate systems, with different lengths of stardate units are used in different episodes, perhaps due to changes in the system, or else to Starfleet using different stardate systems in different alternate universes the episodes happen in."

In post number 46 on page 3 I discuss "The Corbomite Maneuver".

Captain's Log, star date 1512.2. On our third day of star mapping, an unexplained cubical object blocked our vessel's path. On the Bridge, Mister Spock immediately ordered general alert. My location, Sickbay. Quarterly physical check.

Captain's Log, star date 1513.8. Star maps reveal no indication of habitable planets nearby. Origin and purpose of the cube still unknown. We've been here, held motionless, for eighteen hours.

"So there are 1.6 stardate units and 18 hours between 1512.2 and 1513.8. Thus in "The Corbomite Maneuver" a stardate unit seems to be approximately eleven and a quarter (eleven point two five) hours long, considerably shorter than it seems to be in "Dagger of the Mind"."

To sum up so far:

In "The Man Trap" there are fewer than 68.6 hours in a stardate unit.

In "Charlie X" an uncertain interval of time means that there might possibly be fewer than 10 or 11 hours per stardate unit, or possibly much more.

In "Where No Man Has Gone Before" a stardate unit should be about 10 to 24 hours long - if the Enterprise travels faster than light on the voyage from the barrier to Delta Vega.

In "The Naked Time" there might be about 5 to 120 hours in a stardate unit.

In "The Enemy Within" possibly, repeat possibly, a stardate unit might be 3 to 12 hours long, assuming that days on Alfa 177 are about as long as Earth days, a dubious assumption. There is also a possible example of a stardate decreasing with time.

There is only one stardate in "What are Little Girls Made of?" so there are no clues about stardate length in that episode.

In "Miri" it seems like there are at least 23.9, or twenty three point nine, hours in a stardate unit.

In "Dagger of the MInd" 1 stardate unit should equal at least 20 hours.

In "The Corbomite Maneuver" a stardate unit seems to be about 11.25 hours long.

Thus "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Naked Time", "Miri" , and "Dagger of the MInd" might use the same stardate system, with stardates 23.9 to 24 hours long.

"The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Enemy Within", "The Naked Time", and "where No Man Has Gone Before" might all use the same stardate system. with stardates 11.25 hours long.

And there are other possiblities.

To Be Continued:.

 

[Henoch]

And there are other possiblities.

I "fix" most (but not all) stardates inconsistencies using the following logic (number 4 being the "fix"):
1 1000 stardates = one Earth year or 365.25 days or 8766 hours; or ~2.74 stardates = 1 day or 1.0 stardates = 0.365 days (8.76 hours);
2 Scene or actor delivered stardates on-screen are actual stardates of the event and cannot be changed;
3 Log entries are always spoken in the present tense narrative;
4 "Log" entries can be minutes, hours, days, weeks, months after actual events as-recorded in the ship's records during the episode or as-edited in the mission report after the event;
5 I try to assume the least amount of lapsed time of log entries (report while still fresh in memory) but you can also assume any length of time prior to the inserted log stardates, even several months on rare occasion.
6 It is better to sort the episodes by finish stardates, but this is only a minor issue versus start stardates;
7 Episode durations and time between episodes must be estimated based on episode dialog or action; as a rule of thumb, one to two weeks (20-40 stardates) should be allowed between episodes, but only a day or two is sufficient to travel several star systems if they are in a hurry like answering a distress call (speed of plot can be very fast);
8 Several unknown stardate episodes must be estimated; as a rule of thumb, try to stick to production order if possible, i.e. put episode 54 as close to 53 or 55 as possible;
9 I put in additional time to complete the unaired parts of each mission (x days scanning before episode, deliver x to y after episode) or for repairs, set changes and starbase visits; serious ship repairs can take one or two weeks; upgrades maybe longer.
10 If there is no explanation for something that doesn't fit, assume it is a script error and move along. (This actually occurs with five episodes: TCOTK (maybe); TGOT; TDY; ATCSL; SB which I rule all have script errors.)
11 Have fun is the most important rule.

For example, here's my run down for the following three problematic first season episodes:
Stardate
2664.0 actual start stardate for What Are Little Girls Made Of?
2670.0 actual finish stardate for What Are Little Girls Made Of? Duration 6.0 stardates or 2.2 days.
2682.5 actual start stardate for Miri.
2702.5 actual finish stardate for Miri. Duration 20.0 stardates or 7 days.
2712.4 Kirk records his only log entry in his mission report for What Are Little Girls Made Of?
2713.5 Kirk records his first log entry in his mission report for Miri.
2715.1 actual start stardate and recorded first log entry for Dagger of the Mind which interrupts Kirk's mission report for Miri.
2715.2 actual stardate and recorded second log entry for Dagger of the Mind.
2717.1 actual finish stardate for Dagger of the Mind. Duration 2.0 stardates or 0.7 days.
2717.3 Kirk records his final log entry in his mission report for Miri.

 

[MAGolding]

Stardates in TOS Season One, Part Two.

I discussed "Mudd's Women" in post number 47 on page 3.

Captain's log, Stardate 1329.8. The U.S.S. Enterprise in pursuit of an unidentified vessel.

Captain's log, Stardate 1329.1. We've taken aboard from unregistered transport vessel its captain and, and three unusual females. These women have a mysterious magnetic effect on the male members of my crew, including myself. Explanation unknown at present.[Captain's quarters]

If the transcript recorded both of those stardates correctly, the stardate may have actually decreased by 0.7 of a stardate unit in the interval. Unless the "mysterious magnetic effect" the woman had on Kirk made him give the wrong stardate in the second log entry, and it was really 1330.1 or something. All of the later stardates in the episode increase after this one and two of them are still lower than 1329.8. Of course it is possible that Kirk was excited during the pursuit of Mudd's ship and said stardate 1329.8 when it was really stardate 1328.9.

So some people may consider this episode proof that stardates sometimes go down as well as going up.

When they need new dilithtum crystals to control the ship's power:

SPOCK: There's a lithium mining operation on Rigel 12. High-grade ore, I've heard.
KIRK: Location and distance.
SPOCK: Mister Farrell has the course. Less than two day's travel.
KIRK: Make for Rigel 12, Mister Spock.

Captain's log, Stardate 1329.2. On board the U.S.S. Enterprise, a ship's hearing is being convened against the transport vessel's captain. I'm becoming concerned about the almost-hypnotic effect produced by the women.

[Briefing room]

KIRK: This hearing is convened. Stardate 1329.2, on board starship U.S.S. Enterprise. Formal hearings against transport captain Leo Walsh. Start computer.

Leo Walsh turns out to be Harcourt Fenton Mudd, who doesn't have a valid Master's license.

COMPUTER: Incorrect. Master's license revoked Stardate 1116.4.

Captain's log-- Stardate 1330.1. Position, fourteen hours out of Rigel 12. We're on auxiliary impulse engines. Fuel low, barely sufficient to achieve orbit over the planet. Lithium replacements are now imperative. The effect of Mudd's women on my crew continues to grow, still totally unexplained. Harry Mudd is confined to his quarters under guard.

If Rigel XII was less than two days' travel, it should have been between 1.5 and 2.0 days' travel. Did Spock mean 24 hour days, making the journey last for 36 to 48 hours, or did he mean a working day or watch? In that case, if there are two 12 hour watches per 24 hours, the journey should take 18 to 24 hours, if there are three 8 hour watches per day, the journey would take 12 to 16 hours, if there are four 6 hour watches per day, the journey should take 9 to 12 hours.

If Spock was speaking of 24 hour days, they should have traveled for 22 to 34 hours by stardate 1330.1; if Spock was speaking of 12 hour days, they should have traveled for 4 to 10 hours; if Spock was speaking of 8 hour days, s they should have traveled for minus 2 to plus 2 hours; if Spock was speaking of 6 hour days, this would be before they left on voyage to Rigel!.

They headed for Rigel XII sometime between stardates 1329.1 and 1329.2, 0.9 to 1 stardate units before stardate 1330.1. So there should be fewer than 2 to 2.22 hours per stardate unit, or 4 to 11.11 hours per stardate unit, or 22 to 37.77 hours per stardate unit. If the stardates in the episode are not all messed up because Kirk was too distracted by the women to record an accurate stardate even once.

In post number 46 on page 3 I discuss "the Corbomite Maneuver".

They encounter the warning buoy and Kirk makes the first log:

Captain's Log, star date 1512.2. On our third day of star mapping, an unexplained cubical object blocked our vessel's path. On the Bridge, Mister Spock immediately ordered general alert. My location, Sickbay. Quarterly physical check.

They wait and consider options while the buoy blocks their path.

Captain's Log, star date 1513.8. Star maps reveal no indication of habitable planets nearby. Origin and purpose of the cube still unknown. We've been here, held motionless, for eighteen hours.

Kirk tries to evade the buoy put it closes in and threatens them so Kirk destroys it.

So there are 1.6 stardate units in a period of 18 hours, thus making about 11.25 hours per stardate unit.

Captain's Log, star date 1514.0. The cube has been destroyed. Ship's damage minor but my next decision, major. Probe on ahead or turn back.

0.2 stardate units later should thus be about 2.25 hours later.

Kirk decides to "boldy go" forward, and they encounter the Fesarius. Balok begins to tow the Enterprise with his small command ship.

Captain's Log, star date 1514.1. The Enterprise is in tow. To this point, no resistance has been offered. My plan? A show of resignation. Balok's tractor beam has to be a heavy drain of power on his small ship. Question. Will he grow careless?

This should be about 1.125 hours after the previous log entry.

I discuss "The Conscience of the King" in post number 48 on page 3

Captain's log, star date 2817.6. Starship Enterprise diverted from scheduled course. Purpose, to confirm discover by Doctor Thomas Leighton of an extraordinary new synthetic food which would totally end the threat of famine on Cygnia Minor, a nearby Earth colony.

And before the next stardate, 2818.9, Kirk asks the library computer questions about Kodos.

COMPUTER: Working. Kodos the Executioner, summary. Governor of Tarsus Four twenty Earth years ago. Invoked martial law. Slaughtered fifty percent of population Earth colony, that planet. Burned body found when Earth forces arrived. No positive identification. Case closed. Detailed information follows. On stardate 2794.7,

"The event on stardate 2794.7 could have been a recent event like closing the Kodos case. But if it was an event during the Tarsus IV disaster, there would be 20.0 to 21.0 years in only 22.9 stardate units, making each stardate unit 0.87 to 0.91 Earth years long, and making the voyage to Benecia take up all the five year mission.

Maybe the stardate system changed during those 20 years.

Maybe stardates increase from 0000 to 9999, drop back to 0000 and increase to 9999, over and over again. Maybe the four digit stardates in TOS are the last four digits of longer "real" stardates Either possibility would mean that there would be ten thousand more stardates for each time that the last four digits passed 9999 between the Tarsus IV massacre and the episode. Thus stardate units could be only a few hours long.

Leonore Karidian asks Kirk to transport the Karidian company to Benecia and Kirk agrees.

SPOCK: May I inquire as to our course, Captain?
KIRK: Benecia Colony.
SPOCK: Benecia Colony is eight light years off our course.

Captain's log, stardate 2818.9. There are many questions in my mind, too many, perhaps, about the actor Karidian and his daughter. For personal reasons, I'm almost afraid to learn the answers.

So they leave Planet Q for Bencia sometime between stardate 2817.6 and stardate 2818.9. If there are 0.87 to 0.91 years in a stardate unit, the 1.3 stardate units between the two logs would total 1.131 to 1.183 years.

KIRK: Mister Spock, ETA the Benecia Colony.
SPOCK: We'll arrive stardate 2825.3, Captain, approximately fifteen hundred Benecia time

So if they left Planet Q between stardates 2817.6 and 2818.9, the voyage to Benecia will take 6.4 to 7.7 stardate units. If there were 0.87 to 0.91 years per stardate unit, the voyage to Benecia would last 5.568 to 7.007 years.

There are two scenes set during ships nighttime on the Enterprise and a play is about to be performed at night when the next log is made:

Captain's log, stardate 2819.8. Suspect under surveillance. Strategic areas under double guard. Performance of the Karidian Players taking place as scheduled.

There may be about half a day, one and half days, or two and a half days in the interval since leaving Planet Q, depending whether the night scenes happen during one, two or three nights. Thus during the 0.9 to 2.2 stardate units there coudl be about 12, 36, or 60 hours, and thus about 5.45 to 13.33, hours, 16.36 to 40, or 27.27 to 66.66 hours per stardate unit. And the voyage to B3encia lasting 6.4 to 7.7 stardate units would thus take about 34.88 to 513.28 hours.

In post number 55 on page 3 I discuss "The Managerie Part 1" and "The Menagerie Part 2".

Spock tells Pike that the voyage from Starbase 11 to Talos IV will take 6 days at maximum warp, although there is some evidence that it takes only about one day.

An unspecified time after Kirk arrives on the Enterprise:

Captain's log, stardate 3012.4. Despite our best efforts to disengage computers, the Enterprise is still locked on a heading for the mysterious planet Talos Four. Meanwhile, as required by Starfleet General Orders, a preliminary hearing on Lieutenant Commander Spock is being convened. And in all the years of my service, this is the most painful moment I've ever faced.

Spock choose an immediate court martial:

Captain's log, stardate 3012.6. General Court-Martial convened. Mister Spock has again waived counsel and has entered a plea of guilty.

Spock begins showing his evidence.

"the "Menagerie Part 1" opens with a recap of the previous episode.

Personal log, stardate 3013.1. I find it hard to believe the events of the past twenty four hours or the plea of Mister Spock standing general court-martial.

Do the past 24 hours go back only as far as the beginning of Spock's court martial on stardate 3012.6, thus making 24 hours in 0.5 stardate units and 48 hours per stardate unit.

Or do the 24 hours go back to Spock's hearing on stardate 3012.4, thus making 24 hours in 0.7 stardate units, and 38.57 hours per stardate unit?

Or do the 24 hours go back to the beginning of the episode at an unmentioned stardate, so that there could be 24 hours per stardate unit., or 12 hours, or some other number?

After Pike rests, the court martial reconvenes.

Personal log, stardate 3013.2. Reconvening court-martial of Mister Spock and the strangest trial evidence ever heard aboard a starship. From the mysterious planet now one hour ahead of us, the story of Captain Pike's imprisonment there.

So now they are only one hour from Talos IV. Assuming that Stardate 3012.4 was between 0 and 72 hours after the voyage to Talos IV began, and that the voyage to Talos IV last 5.5 to 7.0 days, or 132 to 168 hours, there should be 59 to 167 hours in 0.8 stardate units between 3012.4 and 3013.2, or 73.75 to 208.75 hours per stardate unit.

What if Spock did not mean 24 hour days when saying the voyage to Talos IV would last 6 days? What if Spock meant work days or watches aboard ship, which were 12 hours or 8 hours or 6 hours long? Then the voyage to Talos IV would last 66 to 84 hours, or 44 to 56 hours, or 33 to 42 hours. If half to all of the voyage happens in 0.8 stardate units, there will be 41.25 to 105 hours, or 27.5 to 70 hours, or 20.625 to 52.5 hours, in a stardate unit.

Or possibly the Talosians gave Captain Kirk the illusion each day when he woke that it was the second day of Spock's trial, so Kirk went through a sort of Groundhog Day experience, repeating the second day over and over until they reached Talos IV.

Or possibly it took a lot less than 6 days to reach Talos IV from Starbase 11.

So in "the Managerie" a stardate unit could equal 48 hours, 38.57 hours, 73.75 to 208.75 hours, 41.25 to 105 hours, or 27.5 to 70 hours, or 20.625 to 52.5 hours, or some unspecified different number of hours.

In post number 59 on page 3 I discuss "Balance of Terror" stardates.

After the wedding of Angela Martine and Robert Tomlinson is postponed due to a Romulan attack.

Captain's Log, stardate 1709.2. Patrolling outposts guarding the neutral zone between planets Romulus and Remus and the rest of the galaxy, received emergency call from outpost 4. The U.S.S. Enterprise is moving to investigate and assist.

Kirk orders Uhura to send updates of status to the nearest command bases every quarter hour. A Romulan ship destroys outpost four and they follow the Romulan ship back toward the Neutral Zone. The fight the Romulans, and the Romulan ship continues toward the Neutral Zone.

One minute from the Neutral zone, the Enterprise fires on the Romulans. After fighting, both ships stay where they are, playing dead.

KIRK: Lieutenant Uhura, inform Command base, In my opinion, no option. On my responsibility, we are proceeding into the Neutral Zone. Steady as we go, Mister Sulu. Continue firing.

Captain's log, Stardate 1709.6. We are at the Neutral Zone. Have lost contact with the intruder. No reaction on our motion sensors but believe the Romulan vessel to be somewhere close by. With all engines and systems shut down, the Enterprise is also playing the silent waiting game in hope of regaining contact.

They wait some more.

Captain's log, supplemental. Now motionless for nine hours, forty seven minutes.

Later, the ships fire again. After the final battle:

KIRK: How many men did we lose, Bones?
MCCOY: Only one. Tomlinson. The boy who was getting married this morning. His fiancée is at the chapel.
(Kirk turns to go, and Rand enters)
RAND: We finally received an answer from Command base, sir. They say they'll support whatever decision you have to make.

So the 0.3 stardate units between stardates 1709.2 and 1709.5, plus at least nine hours and 47 minutes or at least 9.7833 hours, total less than 24 hours. With less than 14.216 hours in 0.3 stardate units, there are fewer than 47.38 hours per stardate unit.

So in "Mudd's Women" there should be fewer than 2 to 2.22 hours per stardate unit, or 4 to 11.11 hours per stardate unit, or 22 to 37.77 hours per stardate unit.

In "The Corbomite Maneuver" there are 11.25 hours per stardate unit..

In "The Conscience of the King" there should be about 5.45 to 13.33, hours, 16.36 to 40 hours, or 27.27 to 66.66 hours per stardate unit.

In "the Managerie" a stardate unit could equal 48 hours, 38.57 hours, 73.75 to 208.75 hours, 41.25 to 105 hours, or 27.5 to 70 hours, or 20.625 to 52.5 hours, or some unspecified different number of hours.

In "Balance of Terror" there are fewer than 47.38 hours per stardate unit.

To be Continued.

 

[Mytran]

In post number 55 on page 3 I discuss "The Managerie Part 1" and "The Menagerie Part 2".

Spock tells Pike that the voyage from Starbase 11 to Talos IV will take 6 days at maximum warp, although there is some evidence that it takes only about one day.

Bear in mind that the first captain's log of the episode is not made until just before Spock's court martial begins. They could easily be 5 days into the journey to Talos by that point, having spent the intervening time trying to wrest control back from the locked-out computer.
Not to mention time needed for staff to prep for the court martial

 

[MAGolding]

Stardates in TOS Season One, Part Three.

I discuss "Shore Leave" in post number on page 4.

On the planet, Mccoy sees the white rabbit and Alice.

On the ship, Kirk dictates a log:

KIRK: Captain's log. Stardate 3025 er, point 3. We are orbiting an uninhabited planet in the Omicron Delta region. A planet remarkably like Earth, or how we remember Earth to be. Park-like, beautiful, green, flowers, trees, green lawn, quiet and restful. Almost too good to be true

McCoy then calls Kirk to report he rabbit and Spock convinces Kirk to go to the planet.

On the planet, Sulu finds a pistol, Kirk meets Finnegan, Yeoman Barrows is attacked by Don Juan, and Kirk meets Ruth.

Captain's log. Stardate 3025.8. Investigation of this increasingly unusual planet continues, and we are seeing things that cannot possibly exist, yet they are undeniably real.

[Rocky outcrop]

KIRK: (into communicator) McCoy, do you read me? Ruth. Ruth, how can it be you? How could you possibly be here? You haven't aged. It's been fifteen years.

.

"So if Kirk got the decimal points correct, there were 0.5 stardate units between 3025.3 and 3025.8. If I was a member of a landing party there would be only so long I could stay on the surface of the planet before I had to beam back up to the ship for a meal or to use the bathroom, etc., I guess people will differ on how long half a stardate unite could be without some people beaming back to the ship by now. I can't help thinking that in "Shore Leave" half a stardate unit should be a lot less than half a 24 hour day."

Duty calls and Kirk reluctantly leaves Ruth. Yeoman Barrows finds a princess costume, Rodriquez sees a tiger, Sulu is attacked by a samurai, Spock beams down, The black knight kills McCoy.

Captain's log, supplemental. All contact with the Enterprise has been lost. We're trapped here. Our ship's surgeon, my personal friend, is dead. We're certain now that whatever we're facing is terribly real.

And there are no more logs or stardates in the episode.

Obviously a stardate unit in "Shore Leave" should be short enough that half a stardate unit is a short enough time that none of the shore party would want or need to beam back to the ship for anything. So a stardate in "Shore Leave" should be less than twice as long as the maximum time that a chronologist thinks that people would voluntarily stay on a planet's surface.

I discuss the Galileo 7" in post number 77 on page 4.

Captain's Log, stardate 2821.5. On route to Makus Three with a cargo of medical supplies. Our course leads us past Murasaki 312, a quasar-like formation, vague, undefined. A priceless opportunity for scientific investigation. On board is Galactic High Commissioner Ferris, overseeing the deliver of the medicines to Makus Three.

The Muraski 312 goes wild, and the Galileo 7 is drawninto it.

Captain's Log, stardate 2821.7. The electromagnetic phenomenon known as Murasaki Three Twelve whirls like some angry blight in space, a depressive reminder that seven shipmates still have not been heard from. Equally bad, the effect has rendered our normal searching systems useless. Without them, we are blind and almost helpless.

Kirk has only two days to find them before leaving for Makus III.

FERRIS: Yes, but you've lost your crew.
KIRK: We have two days to find them.
FERRIS: Two days? ln all that? Two days?

FERRIS: Well, Captain?
KIRK: We have until 2823.8 to continue the search, Commissioner.

So approximately 2.1 stardate units equal approximately two days.

But what type of days? I can think of about four possibilities.

One, 24 hour days, which makes a stardate unit equal about 22.8 hours. Two, workdays or watches 12 hours long, making a stardate unit about 11.42 hours long.. Three, workdays or watches 8 hours long, making a stardate unit about 7.6 hours long. Four, workdays or watches 6 hours long, making a stardate unit about 5.7 hours long.

Captain's Log, stardate 2822.3. We continue to search, but I find it more difficult each moment to ward off a sense of utter futility and great loss.

Presumably right after that log, Ferris says:

FERRIS: (stepping into the turbolift) Twenty four more hours, Captain.

Captain's Log, stardate 2823.1. Our landing parties are on the surface of Taurus Two. We continue to hope. Instruments are slowly returning to an operable condition as the ion storm slowly disperses. On the ship, we can only wait helplessly.

So there are 24 hours between a time that is somewhere between 2822.3 and 2823.1 and 2823.8, and thus 24 hours in 0.8 to 1.5 stardate units, making 16 to 34.28 hours per stardate unit.

Sometime presumably soon after stardate 2823.1, Ferris says:

FERRIS: You are, Captain. For another two hours and forty two minutes.

So there are two hours and 42 minutes, or 2.7 hours, in less than 0.7 stardate units.making more than 3.8 hours per stardate unit.

So the only one of the four earlier possibilities consistent with the 24 hour statement of Ferris is the one that makes a stardate unit about 22.8 hours long - possibly 24 hours.

I discuss "The Squire of Goths" in Post number 78 on page 4.

The first log is:

Ship's log Stardate 2124.5. First Officer Spock reporting for Captain James Kirk. We are orbiting the lone unrecorded planet in the star desert. For four hours, we have made every possible instrument sweep, but Captain Kirk and Helmsman Sulu remain unaccounted for. I have placed the ship on red alert.

When Trelane unfreezes Kirk, McCoy says:

MCCOY: You disappeared from the bridge after Sulu. We've been looking for you for four hours.

So this should be shortly after the first log was made.

Captain's Log Stardate 2125.7. Science Officer Spock reporting for Captain Kirk. We have completed fourteenth orbit of this planet without establishing contact with our missing officers or the parties sent to find them. Subspace communications remain blocked. However, by diverting impulse power to our sensors, we have made them operable, and we have detected one small area on the surface which seems relatively stable.

So the Enteprise made 14 orbits around Gothos, some in the four hours before 2124.5 and some in the 1.2 stardate units period between 2124.5 and 2125.7. I note that the shortest period for an orbit around Earth is about 90 minutes, which would make the ship in orbit around Gothos for 1,260 minutes or 21 hours,.About 11.333 of the orbits would have been made in the 1.2 stardate units between 2124.5 and 2125.7, making 17 hours pass and a stardte unit equal 14.166 hours..

Then Spock beams them up to the ship.

The time since Trelane unfroze Kirk seems to be a lot closer to 17 minutes than to 17 hours. Perhaps the Enterprise can orbit the planet Gorthos in a lot less than 90 minutes. And possibly some sort of time warp causes time to pass much slower on Gothos than on the Enterprise.

Trelane appears and takes them back to Gothos. After a few minutes, Kirk challenges Trelane to a duel

Captain's Log, stardate 2126.1. Delayed report. The whole bridge crew are the unwilling guests of the creature who calls himself Trelane. We are weaponless, powerless, and our only hope of escape with the Enterprise lies in playing his games. I've decided to make my move with the field of honour game, and everything depends on my one chance with the ancient duelling pistol.

So there are 0.4 stardate units before the duel, possibly about 5.666 hours, which seems many times too long, so the Enterprise should really zip around Gothos much master than an Earth satellite. And possibly some sort of time warp causes time to pass much slower on Gothos than on the Enterprise.

As they try to flee, Trelane blocks their path with the planet Gothos. Kirk decides to beam down to Gothos,

Captain's Log, Stardate 2126.3. First Officer Spock reporting. Still no word from Captain Kirk on the surface below us. Waiting time is almost up. I will soon be forced to attempt departure as per instructions.

If there were some minutes between stardate 2126.1 and Kirk deciding to beam down to Gothos, and almost an hour has passed since Kirk beamed down, there should be approximately a hour in the 0.2 stardate units between 2126.1 and 2126.3. and thus there should be about about 5 hours in a stardate unit in "The Squire of Gothos".

Continued:

 

[MAGolding]

Stardates in TOS season One Part Four.

I discussed "Arena" in post number 83 on page five.

Captain's log, Stardate 3045.6 The Enterprise has responded to a call from Earth observation outpost on Cestus Three. On landing, we have discovered that the outpost has been destroyed

They fight off a Gorn attack, leave medical personnel to search for survivors on Censtus III, and pursue the fleeing Gorn ship.

After pursuing the alien vessel for an unspecified period of time:

Captain's log, Stardate 3046.2. We are in hot pursuit of the alien vessel which destroyed the Earth outpost on Cestus Three.

They are stopped by the Metrons, and Kirk is sent to a planet to fight the Gorn Captain.

So there are 0.6 stardate units between the two logs. And no real indication of how much time elapses between those two stardate. According to the official TOS warp scale it should take weeks, months or years to travel that distance, while according to the structure of the story there could be only a few hours between the two stardates. Thus the length of stardate units in "Arena" is really uncertain.

I discussed "Tomorrow is Yesterday" in post 85 on page 5.

All the stardates used in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" should be somewhat inaccurate since the Enterprise is centuries in the past when they are logged. Presumably they are the stardates which would have been valid if the Enterprise stayed in it own time, counting the time elapsed on the Enterprise since the last log entries were made. Or possibly stardates were already used by someone in that era so they might be the stardates valid in the time that the Enterprise was now in.

Captain 's log Stardate 3113.2. We were en-route to Starbase 9 for resupply when a black star of high gravitational attraction began to drag us toward it. It required all warp power in reverse to pull us away from the star. But, like snapping a rubber band, the breakaway sent us plunging through space, out of control, to stop here, wherever we are.

Mr. Scott says that it will take four hours to re-energize the warp engines.

Captain's Log Stardate 3113.7. Our engines are being repaired, but we are still locked in time, and we have aboard a passenger whom we do not want, and we cannot return.

Captain 's Log, Stardate 3113.9. First Officer Spock recording. Due to an unfortunate accident, we have taken aboard another unwanted passenger.

Kirk is captured down in the airbase, and Scott calls Spock to say that the warp engines have been re-energized. Kirk is rescued.

"So this should be about four hours after Scott said the engines would be ready in about four hours, which was between stardates 3113.2 and 3113.7. This is between stardates 3113.9 and 3114.1, so four hours in 0.2 to 0.9 stardate units should equal about 4.44 to 20 hours per stardate unit. Since a different calculation indicates about 7.2 to 33.8 hours in a stardate unit, there should be about 7.2 to 20 hours in a stardate unit in "Tomorrow is Yesterday"."

Captain's Log, Stardate 3114.1. We must make an attempt to break free of this time, or we and our reluctant passengers will remain its prisoners. All we have is a theory and a few facts.

Kirk says the Enterprise will travel back in time "beyond yesterday", beyond when they encountered captain Christopher, which should have been about 5:30 PM local time. So that indicates that stardate 3113.2 was about 6.5 to 30.5 hours earlier, making about 7.2 to 33.8 hours per stardate unit. Since a different clue indicates about 4.44 to 20 hours in a stardate unit there may be 7.2 to 20 hours in a stardate unite in "Tomorrow is Yesterday".

"Tomorrow is Yesterday" indicates there may be 7.2 to 20 hours in a stardate unit.

I discussed "Court Martial" in post number 94 on page 5.

Captain's Log, Stardate 2947.3. We have been through a severe ion storm. One crewman is dead. Ship's damage is considerable. I have ordered a non-scheduled layover on Starbase Eleven for repairs. A full report of damages was made to the commanding officer of Starbase Eleven, Commodore Stone.

Captain's Log, Stardate 2948.5. Starship Enterprise remains in orbit around Starbase Eleven. Full repairs in progress. I've been ordered to stand by on Starbase Eleven until the inquiry into the death of Lieutenant Commander Finney can be conducted. I'm confident of the outcome.

Captain's Log, Stardate 2948.9. The officers who will comprise my court-martial board are proceeding to Starbase Eleven. Meanwhile, repairs on the Enterprise are almost complete.

Captain's Log, Stardate 2949.9. The evidence presented by the visual playback to my general court-martial was damning. I suspect even my attorney has begun to doubt me.

Captain's Log, Stardate 2950.1. After due consideration, the general court-martial has reconvened on board the Enterprise.

And there are a few indications of how much time passes between those stardates.

Jamie Finney accuses Kirk of Murdering her father in Stone's office between stardates 2947.3 and 2948.5. Sometime between stardates 2948.5 and 2948.9 Kirk tells Stone:

KIRK: Yes. He was an instructor at the Academy when I was a midshipman, but that didn't stand in the way of our beginning a close friendship. His daughter Jamie, who was here last night, was named after me.

If this was more than a day and half after Jamie was there, the next night would already have passed and become last night, and the night Jamie was there would have been "the night before last". Making the rather dubious assumption that Starbase 11 uses Earth time, there should have been fewer than 36 to 48 hours in about 0.1 to 1.6 stardate units, and thus fewer than 22.5 to 480 hours per stardate unit.

Between stardates 2949.9 and 2950.1 Jame says:

JAMIE: I was just so upset that night. I'm sorry.

She says "that night", so presumably at least 36 to 48 hours have passed and the night she accused Kirk is no longer "last night". So at least 36 to 48 hours in 1.4 to 2.8 stardate units makes at least 12.85 to 34.28 hours per stardate unit.

Between stardates 2949.9 and 2950.1 Kirk says.

KIRK: Two days ago, I would've staked anything on my judgment.
COGLEY: You did. Your professional career.

Kirk and Cogley's statements imply that Kirk staked everything on his judgement 2 days ago. If that was when Kirk demanded an immediate court martial in Stone's office on stardate 2948.9, there would have been approximately 48 hours, may be 36 to 60, in a difference of 1 stardate unit, and thus about 36 to 60 hours per stardate unit.

Or maybe the two days earlier, about 36 to 60 hours, were at Stardate 2948.5, 1.4 stardate units earlier, thus making about 25.7 to 42.8 hours per stardate unit.

Or maybe the two days earlier, about 36 to 60 hours, were at Stardate 2947.3, 2.6 stardate units earlier, thus making about 13.8 to 23 hours per stardate unit. per stardate unit.hours per stardate unit.

So in "Court Martial" there should be about 13.8 to 23 hours, or about 25.7 to 42.8 hours, or about 36 to 60 hours, in a stardate unit.

To recap the second 10 episodes of the first season of TOS:

In Mudd's Women" there should be fewer than 2 to 2.22 hours per stardate unit, or 4 to 11.11 hours per stardate unit, or 22 to 37.77 hours per stardate unit. If the stardates in the episode are not all messed up because Kirk was too distracted by the women to record an accurate stardate even once.

In "The Corbomite Maneuver" there are 1.6 stardate units in a period of 18 hours, thus making about 11.25 hours per stardate unit.

In "The Conscience of the King" there may be about about 5.45 to 13.33, hours, 16.36 to 40, or 27.27 to 66.66 hours per stardate unit.

In "the Menagerie", parts 1 & 2 a stardate unit could equal 48 hours, 38.57 hours, 73.75 to 208.75 hours, 41.25 to 105 hours, or 27.5 to 70 hours, or 20.625 to 52.5 hours, or some unspecified different number of hours.

In "Balance of Terror" there are fewer than 47.38 hours per stardate unit.

In "Shore Leave" the number of hours in a stardate unit should be few enough that nobody would want to beam back to the ship during half a stardate unit.

In "The Galileo 7" a stardate unit should be about 22.8 hours long - possibly 24 hours.

In "The Squire of Gothos" there should be about about 5 hours in a stardate unit.

In "Arena" the length of stardate units is really uncertain.

In "Tomorrow is Yesterday" there should be about 7.2 to 20 hours in a stardate unit.

In "Court Martial" there should be about 13.8 to 23 hours, or about 25.7 to 42.8 hours, or about 36 to 60 hours, in a stardate unit.

 

[MAGolding]

Stardates in TOS season One part Six:

I discuss "the Return of the Archons" in post number 95 on page 5.

"So about six hours have passed since the last time they communicated. So 6 hours pass from a time between stardate 3156.2 and stardate 3157.4 and another time between stardate 3157.4 and stardate 3158.7. Assuming that at least 0.1 stardate unit elapses, there should be 6 hours in 0.1 to 2.5 stardate units. So there should be 2.4 to 60 hours in a stardate unit. And those should be Earth hours."

"The Return of the Archons" indicates there are 2.4 to 60 Earth hours in a stardate unit.

I discuss "Space Seed" in post number 100 on page 5.

"Obviously there are over 9 hours between stardate 3141.9 and stardate 3142.8. So at least 9 hours in 0.9 stardate units means there are at least 10 hours in a stardate unit."

So "Space Seed" has at least 10 hours in a stardate unit.

I discuss "A Tasted of Armageddon" in post number 107 on page 6.

"So almost but not quite 24 hours have passed between stardate 3192.5, shortly before those 24 hours began, and an unknown length of time after stardate 3193.0. Thus a period of 0.5 stardate units must be less than 24 hours long, and there must be less than 48 hours in a stardate unit."

So in "A Taste of Armageddon" there are fewerthan 48hours in a stardate unit.

I discuss "This Side of Paradise" in post number 110 on page 6.

"From what I see they apparently spend less than a day on the surface of Omicron Ceti III during the episode. So the 0.4 stardate units between stardate 3417.3 and stardate 3417.7 should be less than 24 hours and less than the 12 hours of an average period of daylight on Earth, unless the days are longer on omicron Ceti III.. So thee should be fewer than 60 hours in a stardate unit, and probably fewer than 30 hours.

Between stardates 3417.3 and 3417.5, McCoy says:

MCCOY: Nothing, but I examined that man no more than two hours ago. You know what his readings were? Perfect, perfect, and perfect. Just like everyone else I've examined here.

So there seem to be at least 2 hours in less than 0.2 stardate units. Thus there seem to be at least 10 hours per stardate unit."

Thus three seem to be 10 to 60 hours per stardate unit in "This Side of Paradise".

I discuss "The Devil in the Dark" in post number 111 on page 6. Unfortunately, there is only one stardate given in the episode.

I discuss "Errand of Mercy" in post number 121 on page 7.

I found the length of a stardate unite in "Errand of Mercy" very puzzling.

"Apparently only minutes have passed since the ending of the last scene. 3.3 stardate units have passed between 3198.4 and 3201.7. Each minute that passed during that interval makes a stardate unit 0.3030 minutes longer; each hour that passes during that interval makes a stardate unit 0.3030 hours longer, each day that passes during that interval makes a stardate unit 0.3030 days longer.

And I can't help wondering how to make the interval of 3.3 stardates last much longer than the actually time shown onscreen between them during the episode."

It would be normal to interpret the episode as indicating that only about 5 or 10 minutes pass between stardates 3198.4 and 3201.7. Which would make about 1.51 to 3.03 minutes per stardate unit!.

There would have to be 3.3 hours between the two stardates to make 1 hour per stardate unit, 6.6 hours between them to make 2 hours per stardate unit, 9.9 hours between them to make 3 hours per stardate unit, and so on. There should have been 33 hours between the two stardates to make 10 hours per stardate unit, 66 hours to make 20 hours per stardate unit, 79.2 hours to make 24 hours per stardate unit, and so on.

So possibly a lot more time somehow passed between the two stardates than was seen in the episode.

I discuss "The Alternative Factor" in post number 122 on page 7.

" 3088.7 is 0.4 stardate units after 3088.3 Since at least 1 hour elapses in that period, there must be at least 2.5 hours in a stardate unit in "The Alternative Factor"."

So there are at least 2.5 hours in a stardate unit in "the Alternative Factor".

I discuss "The City on the Edge of Forever" in post number 124 on page 7. There are no stardates in the episode.

I discuss "Operation - Annihilae!" in post number 128 on page 7.

"The 2.6 stardate units between stardates 3287.2. and 3289.8 could happen within a single day, thus making less than 9.2 hours per stardate unit, or possibly take more time than that. "

So if stardates 3287.2 and 3289.8 happen within a day, there are fewer than 9.2 hours per stardate unit. If they are between 24 and 48 9.23 hours apart, there are 18.46 hours per stardate unit, if they happen 48 to 72 hours apart there are 18.46 to 27.69 hours per stardate unit.

So I guess that my next post should list all of the stardate lengths from all 29 episodes of the first season.

 

[MAGolding]

Stardates in TOS season One part Six:

I discuss "the Return of the Archons" in post number 95 on page 5.

"So about six hours have passed since the last time they communicated. So 6 hours pass from a time between stardate 3156.2 and stardate 3157.4 and another time between stardate 3157.4 and stardate 3158.7. Assuming that at least 0.1 stardate unit elapses, there should be 6 hours in 0.1 to 2.5 stardate units. So there should be 2.4 to 60 hours in a stardate unit. And those should be Earth hours."

"The Return of the Archons" indicates there are 2.4 to 60 Earth hours in a stardate unit.

I discuss "Space Seed" in post number 100 on page 5.

"Obviously there are over 9 hours between stardate 3141.9 and stardate 3142.8. So at least 9 hours in 0.9 stardate units means there are at least 10 hours in a stardate unit."

So "Space Seed" has at least 10 hours in a stardate unit.

I discuss "A Tasted of Armageddon" in post number 107 on page 6.

"So almost but not quite 24 hours have passed between stardate 3192.5, shortly before those 24 hours began, and an unknown length of time after stardate 3193.0. Thus a period of 0.5 stardate units must be less than 24 hours long, and there must be less than 48 hours in a stardate unit."

So in "A Taste of Armageddon" there are fewer than 48 hours in a stardate unit.

I discuss "This Side of Paradise" in post number 110 on page 6.

"From what I see they apparently spend less than a day on the surface of Omicron Ceti III during the episode. So the 0.4 stardate units between stardate 3417.3 and stardate 3417.7 should be less than 24 hours and less than the 12 hours of an average period of daylight on Earth, unless the days are longer on omicron Ceti III.. So thee should be fewer than 60 hours in a stardate unit, and probably fewer than 30 hours.

Between stardates 3417.3 and 3417.5, McCoy says:

MCCOY: Nothing, but I examined that man no more than two hours ago. You know what his readings were? Perfect, perfect, and perfect. Just like everyone else I've examined here.

So there seem to be at least 2 hours in less than 0.2 stardate units. Thus there seem to be at least 10 hours per stardate unit."

Thus three seem to be 10 to 60 hours per stardate unit in "This Side of Paradise".

I discuss "The Devil in the Dark" in post number 111 on page 6. Unfortunately, there is only one stardate given in the episode.

I discuss "Errand of Mercy" in post number 121 on page 7.

Apparently only a few minutes pass on screen in the 3.3 stardate units between stardates 3198.4 and 3201.7, and the plot doesn't seem to have room for many more minutes to pass off screen between those two stardates. Thus about there should be about 5 to 20 minutes in 3.3 stardate units and there should be about 1.51 to 6.06 minutes per stardate unit.

Maybe it took hours or days between stardate units to locate a town that it seemed reasonable to beam down to, or something. I find it hard to believe that stardate units could be as short as indicated.

I discuss "The Alternative Factor" in post number 122 on page 7.

There should be at least 1.4 hours, and also at least 2.5 hours, in a stardate unit.

I discuss "The City on the Edge of Forever" in post number 124 on page 7.

Unfortunately there are no stardates in "The City on the Edge of Forever".

I discuss "Operation - Annihilate!" in post number 128 on page 7.

The 2.6 stardate units between stardates 3287.2. and 3289.8 could happen within a single day, thus making fewer than 9.2 hours per stardate unit, or possibly take more time than that.

To sum up:

In "The Return of the Archons" there should bee 2.4 to 60 Earth hours in a stardate unit.

In "Space Seed" there should be at least 10 hours in a stardate unit.

In "A taste of Armageddon" there should be fewer than 48 hours in a stardate unit.

In "This Side of Paradise". there should be 10 to 60 hours in a stardate unit.

There is no way to estimate the length of a stardate unit in "The Devil in the Dark", which has only one stardate.

In "Errand of Mercy" there should be 1.51 to 6.06 minutes - not hours - hours in a stardate unit, which seems very hard to believe..

In "The Alternative Factor" there should be at least 1.4 hours, and also at least 2.5 hours, in a stardate unit.

There is no way to estimate the length of a stardate unit in "The City on the Edge of Forever", which has no stardates.

In "Operation - Annihlate!" there should possibly be fewer than 9.2 hours per stardate unit, possibly more.,

 

[MAGolding]

Stardates in TOS Season One Every Episode:

In "The Man Trap" there should be fewer than 68.6 hours per stardate unit.

In "Charlie X" there might possibly be fewer than 10.09 hours per stardate unit, or possibly more.

In "Where No Man Has Gone before" there should be 10 to 24 hours in a stardate unit.

In "The Naked Time" there should be about 5 to 120 hours in a stardate unit.

In "The Enemy Within" there might possibly be 3 to 12 hours in a stardate unit.

In "Mudd's Women" there should be 2.0 to 2.22 hours or 4.0 to 11.11 hours, or 22.0 to 37.77 hours, in a stardate unit.

There is no way to estimate the length of a stardate unit in "What are Little Girls Made of?" which has only one stardate.

in "Miri" there should at least 23.9 hours in a stardate unit.

In "Dagger of the Mind" there should be at least 20 hours in a stardate unit.

In "The Corbomite Maneuver" there should be 11.25 hours in a stardate unit.

In "the Menagerie" there could be 20.625 to 52.5 hours, or 27.5 to 70 hours, or 38.57 hours, or 48 hours, or 41.25 to 105 hours, or 73.75 to 208.75 hours, in a stardate unit, or possibly some different number.

In "The Conscience of the King" there should be about 5.45 to 13.33, hours, 16.36 to 40, or 27.27 to 66.66 hours per stardate unit. Or possibly 0.87 to 0.91 Earth years in a stardate unit.

In "Balance of Terror" there should be fewer than 47.38 hours per stardate unit.

In "Shore Leave" there should be only a few hours in a stadate unit, since characters remain on the surface of a primitive planet for over half a stardate unit straight without beamng up to the ship..

In "The Galileo 7" there should be about 22.8 hours in a stardate unit - possibly 24..

In "The Squire of Gothos" there should be about 5 hours or about 14.166 hours in a stardate unit.

In "Arena" the length of a stardate unit is not clear since there is no explicit time span between stardates..

In "Tomorrow is Yesterday" Thee should be 7.2 to 20 hours in a stardate unit.

In "Court Martial" there should be about 13.8 to 23 hours, or about 25.7 to 42.8 hours, or about 36 to 60 hours, in a stardate unit.

In "The Return of the Archons" there should be 2.4 to 60 Earth hours in a stardate unit.

In "Space Seed" there should be at least 10 hours in a stardate unit.

In "A taste of Armageddon" there should be fewer than 48 hours in a stardate unit.

In "This Side of Paradise". there should be 10 to 60 hours in a stardate unit.

There is no way to estimate the length of a stardate unit in "The Devil in the Dark", which has only one stardate.

In "Errand of Mercy" there should be 1.51 to 6.06 minutes - not hours - hours in a stardate unit, which seems very hard to believe..

In "The Alternative Factor" there should be at least 1.4 hours, and also at least 2.5 hours, in a stardate unit.

There is no way to estimate the length of a stardate unit in "The City on the Edge of Forever", which has no stardates.

In "Operation - Annihlate!" there should possibly be fewer than 9.2 hours per stardate unit, possibly more.

The only episode to give a rather precise length for a stardate unit is "the Corbomite maneuver" with 11.25 hours. Or possibly "The Squire of Gothos" if the figure of 5 hours from one calculation and the figure of 14.166 hours from another calculation can be resolved into one precise figure.

So how to interpret these widely varying stardate lengths?