Just had a thought while watching TNG.
In “Code of Honour,” the episode begins as stardate 41235.25. Then, after Natasha is captured, Picard voices that “one whole day” has gone by and the stardate is 41235.32. Does this mean one day in TNG is equal to 0.07 (stardate)? Or do the last 5 numbers have no meaning at all?
I know it’s a widely discussed issue in this community. Maybe I’m on the completely wrong track and maybe there is another consensus. But I thought it would spark conversation. Cheers!
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 6 months ago
I’m a big believer in “stardates are nonsense, and should remain nonsense,” but there were efforts made to standardize them in the '90s. They weren’t particularly consistent efforts, though. The full history can be found here. By TNG season 6, they were going with:
corvi@lemm.ee 6 months ago
I guess when you’re traveling around faster than the speed of light, time and date stop meaning the same thing as they do back home, so it stands to reason that you couldn’t map stardates to any standard calendar.
At least, that’s my new headcanon.
mosiacmango@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Stardates themselves should be a standard calendar at least amongst themselves.
mercano@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It also removes an emphasis on any one particular planet’s day or year.
wjrii@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Hand successfully waved.
PumpkinEscobar@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The headings / bearings they use are all over the place too, remember looking it up and it feels like the writers just picked whatever numbers best fit the flow / cadence of dialog they were looking for
KillingAndKindess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
And they nailed it especially with Sir Patrick Stuart’s short monologues.
klemptor@startrek.website 6 months ago
Not always. On DS9, when the Defiant was departing the station, the heading was given as 180 mark zero - meaning, traveling exactly backward from their current position. This made sense because when docked, the Defiant’s nose is buried in the docking ring.
Logh@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
“4 stands for the 24th century” so… just a couple of centuries until another y2k style panic?