From: stdnt163@whscdp.whs.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
Subject: Stardates and Timelines (was Re: Stardate conversions)
Date: 13 Apr 92 13:36:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: whscdp.1992Apr13.073654.392
Organization: Washington HS, Milwaukee, WI

In article <1992Apr9.014517.2291@ducvax.auburn.edu>, dsturm@ducvax.auburn.edu writes:

> A neat little retrofitting (aka back-continuity) works fairly well
> if you establish a stardate cycle starting in 2264.
> 
> 0000 = 2264
> 1000 = 2265
>            Kirk's test run with Enterprise (E:t1Ad,StrSky,WNMHGB,early 1st 
>            season)
> 2000 = 2266
>            Kirk starts a full 5YM (mid 1st season)
> 3000 = 2267
>            Kirk's first full year of 5YM (late 1st, early 2d season)
> 8000 = 2272
>            Chief SFO
> 9000 = 2273
>            Chief SFO
> That stardate cycle included a scaling factor for distance from SFHQ...
> 
> Anyways, if you treat it like the TNG system 1 SD = 8 hours, it's not
> horrendously bad.
> 
> 
> Presumably the next stardate cycle was of the form
> YYdd.d
> 
> 7400 = 2274 TMP
> 
> 7500 = 2275 etc.
> 
> New cycle established...
> 
> 0000 = 2277
> 
> 8000 = 2285 ST2-5
> 
> Return to the YYdd.d cycle...
> 
> 8700 = 2287
> :
> :
> 9522.6 = 2295 August 15  ST6
> 
> Presumably only military intelligence ;-P can explain the switch between
> the Ywww.h and YYdd.d systems.  (Maybe to keep the Roms guessing?)
> 
> Dave Sturm.

	Moving 1000 stardates into a year does make one stardate about equal
to 8.3 hours.  The stardate years shown in all filmed ST episodes and films
does work out, except for one instance.  Using the Ywww.h method, even TOS
works out.
	Our canon evidence on the placement of TOS in the timeline was given
in TNG: Sarek.  Using Sarek's age, we find that TOS is exactly one century
previous to TNG.
	Most people assume that TOS's first season represented one year of the
FYM, when the stardates show that it ran over two and a half years.  TOS ran
from stardates 1000 to 6000, the full FYM.  So they really did get to finish
the FYM in TOS.  TAS fits right in the middle, except for four episodes, three
of which were past 6000, and one that was before 1300(TOS:WNMHGB), but, these
are not canon, and only the one before 1300 cannot be explained, because
it cannot have happened before "Where No Man...," and can't happen in 2274,
since this is the year TMP probably took place.
	Anyway, TOS: Journey to Babel was in stardate year 3000, and TNG's 
43000 was third season, 2366, so the original FYM's third year was 2266.
For stardates 1000 - 5999, the years were 2264 - 2268.  The special missions
ran from SD 6000 to somewhere around 8000, 2269 to 2271. From SD 8000 to 1000,
2271 to 2274, Kirk was chief of SFO and the Enterprise was being refitted,
(which is why the TAS episode from SD 1300 cannot go here, either.)
	Now, in order for TMP's stardate to fit in, the system must now change
to YYdd.d, SD 74**.*, when Enterprise had completed its 18-months in dock, Kirk
had completed 2.5 years as chief of SFO, and McCoy and Spock spent 3 years in
retirement.  This all happened from 2271 to 2274.
	The E's second FYM, we assume, runs from late 2274 to early 2279, when
Kirk again recieves a promotion, and the E becomes a training vessesl in danger
of decommission.  We know this because of the recent canon material presented
in TNG: "Cause and Effect," where the USS Bozeman featured new "Okuda" control
panels, and the crew wore the uniforms from STII to STVI.  The Okuda panels
were not presented on the Enterprise until STIV, so the panels the Enterprise
was refitted with in TMP are already outdated, having probably been designed in
the early 2270's.  We know that technology propmts starship refits almost
every five to ten  years, since the Enterprise was refitted somehow after every
one of its FYM's, so the panels from TMP being outdated in six years does not
seem unusual.  The stardate system was quickly changed back to Yddd.h after
complaints to Starfleet Command, apparently.
	The SD for STII:TWOK is 8141.3, *exactly* 15 years since "Space Seed,"
which was SD 3141.  "Space Seed" was in 2266, so TWOK was in 2281.  STIII to
STV also took place in 2281 (despite what the TNG Tech Man says, it's been
wrong before,) and STVI took place 11 years later, in 2292.
	All stardates presented so far in ST, except for TMP, have worked out
if placed in the timeline so Y in Yddd.h is three less then the actual year.
this still holds true for TNG.  The Stardate system was changed again to
YYddd.d in the year 2323.  2323 plus 41 for TNG's first season is 2364, which
works out fine.
	Even if Paramount didn't plan stardates like this, they worked out
pretty good.