Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!cmcl2!lanl!unm-la!prewitt
From: prewitt@unm-la.UUCP (AIDE Mike Prewitt)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Stardate
Message-ID: <357@unm-la.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Feb-86 23:58:22 EST
Article-I.D.: unm-la.357
Posted: Thu Feb 27 23:58:22 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Mar-86 23:38:29 EST
References: <593@bentley.UUCP> <391@ur-tut.UUCP>
Reply-To: prewitt@unm-la.UUCP (AIDE Mike Prewitt)
Distribution: net
Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Los Alamos
Lines: 33
Keywords: stardate, calendar

In article <391@ur-tut.UUCP> scco@ur-tut.UUCP (Sean Colbath) writes:
>In article <593@bentley.UUCP> kwh@bentley.UUCP (KW Heuer) writes:
>>How long is a "starday", i.e. the difference between Stardate 1234.0
>>and Stardate 1235.0?  I suspect it's inconsistent (someone once told
>>me that the first digit is the number of seasons the show has been on),
>>but can someone find an "official" definition?
>>Karl W. Z. Heuer (ihnp4!bentley!kwh), The Walking Lint
>
>I don't know about "official" definition (as a matter of fact, I seem
>to remember several stardates being "re-used"), but an old Star Trek
>Calendar I have (circa 72-73?) used a neat system:  All the dates on
>the calendar were "stardates" in the format YYMM.DD.  Therefore, the
>stardate today would be 8602.24...
>
>Sean Colbath
>
>"Why thank you, CAPTAIN McCoy..."


Stardates were to be used as a standard timescale because of the relitivity
laws ( later forgotten ) and because of timescales being different from planet
to planet or starsystem to starsystem.  When running the series the stardates
became out of order because the episodes were shot in a different order then
they were shown. ( this is more true today because of local stations messing
up in syndication. ) see THE MAKING OF STARTREK.

	The calanders mentioned by Sean were Paramont studio's way of 
capitalizing on STARTREK.  The system is clean when on earth, but on 
Vulcan or somewhere else, forget it.

				Mike Prewitt
				University of New Mexico,
				Los Alamos campus.