# Star Trek: Do "star dates" have any structure or are they just a number the writers picked out of a hat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [June 8, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327 "2025-06-08T13:17:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/61 "2025-06-11T22:23:57Z")
Like in BoT, mentioned above. And then the response was “do what you think necessary.” Thanks a lot. The original writers’ guide mentioned it was kind of like Horatio Hornblower in space. We got Horatio Hornblower with a satellite phone. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/62 "2025-06-11T22:24:22Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Not to mention subspace radio, which allows people many light years apart to talk with no delay. But no one has ever asked for race results, not even once. Reported Admiral Tannen did once but he got so distracted with the annoying kid flying off his aft starboard quarter that he ran the _USS DeLuxe_ into an Aldebaran manure hauler. Since then there has been a strict order against using temporal dislocations to make a profit on sportsbook better (which is the major industry in the Federation of Planets). This is taken so seriously it carries the same penalty as violating the Prime Directive, which is to say, the violator is subjected to long winded monologues about the importance of benevolent non-interference save in this one exceptional case that will never reoccur until another plot complication can only be resolved by breaking it. I had a point when I started this but it has dematerialized like a Romulan spy caught in the act of planting a thermal mine on the warp core, with nobody questioning why virtually anybody can just walk in to engineering and fuck around with antimatter. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > One reason why transporters cannot work in the real world is due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. So, the show writers occasionally have it mentioned that the transporters use a Heisenberg Compensator. No one knows what that is or how it works. It is technobabble. The reason transporters can’t work in the real world is because the entire idea of disintegrating a living organism into fundamental particles is the definition of murder, even if a similar-looking organism is somehow reconstructed thousands of kilometers away later. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/63 "2025-06-11T22:41:41Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@Voyager](#): > > > > Not to mention subspace radio, which allows people many light years apart to talk with no delay. > > Unless the plot of an episode requires the Enterprise to _not_ be able to get an immediate message back to Starfleet. 😉 Distance still matters. Subspace radio is faster than light. But not infinitely fast. But yeah, the speed of subspace radio (and / or the distance to whoever you want to talk to) is whatever is needed for plot advancement. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/64 "2025-06-11T23:20:42Z")
The Planet Killer had been wandering through space for ages. Isn’t it odd that no one ever thought about destroying it from within until it just happened to encounter that brilliant race known as Earthmen? 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/65 "2025-06-11T23:21:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Isn’t it odd that no one ever thought about destroying it from within until it just happened to encounter that brilliant race known as Earthmen? 🤨 Earthling Exceptionalism. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/66 "2025-06-11T23:23:11Z")
… And sometimes even in weeks! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/67 "2025-06-11T23:46:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Isn’t it odd that no one ever thought about destroying it from within until it just happened to encounter that brilliant race known as Earthmen? If it tried to eat the earth today, it would succeed. To defeat the planet killer, you need 1) a space faring culture, with 2) weapons of at least 97.835 megatons, and 3) a way to deliver the weapon inside without itself being destroyed by the planet killer like so much space debris. Oh and 4) a commander that isn’t around the bend. If Decker had been left in command, the episode would have ended with two dead starships. The episode provided 3, the key piece, in the form of the nearly dead Constellation. After repeated viewings, I’m still not sure if Decker “knew” blowing up the shuttle might damage it from within (dialog does not support this) or if he was just suicidal. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/68 "2025-06-12T00:00:45Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > A Stardate is a five-digit number followed by a decimal point and one more digit. Example: “46254.7”. The first two digits of the Stardate are “46.” The 4 stands for the 24th Century, the 6 indicates sixth season. > > So _Star Trek_ is limited to having only ten seasons of shows set within any particular century (and in practice, probably nine)? No. Out of universe they picked the 4 for the 24th century. In universe, when they bump up to dates starting with 5 (in later seasons of Star Trek Voyager), they are still firmly in the 24th century. It’s just a coincidence that they lined up during the missions of the Enterprise-D. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/69 "2025-06-12T00:50:12Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Not to mention subspace radio, which allows people many light years apart to talk with no delay. But no one has ever asked for race results, not even once. How could there even _be_ a race result what with warp technology? The race would be over before it began. Oddly enough, that’s reminding me of a short SciFi story, I think it may have won a Hugo, in which in the protagonists’ universe, everything is going backwards by our perspective. A person comes out of the grave, grows younger. I can’t remember the name of it, though. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > The reason transporters can’t work in the real world is because the entire idea of disintegrating a living organism into fundamental particles is the definition of murder, even if a similar-looking organism is somehow reconstructed thousands of kilometers away later. Not to mention the similar looking organism having all the same thoughts, memories, etc. as the original. Unless, of course, the plot requires otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/70 "2025-06-12T03:37:09Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > In reality, would a star date based on anything have any meaning? Time, and therefore dates, would be relative to the individuals keeping track. Ships traveling any distance on impulse power would experience time dilation. The calendar/time on the ship would be accurate within itself, but it would be inaccurate to those in not traveling or traveling at different speeds. I always took the ‘stardate’ to be for the purpose of the local ships ‘day to day’ logs and records - meaning it only had meaning relative to the location its recorded from (ships log, day 1). The ships, after all, had shifts and nominal clocks day/night, etc. It would be nigh impossible to run any kind of ship without some kind of schedule and a way to keep it. It could then be reconciled once you reach a destination where it matters - so long as you have a relative starting point. Back in grade school - I had my own stardate I used on all my papers - yymm.d - 7912.07 was a very important date. Yes, I thought I was clever. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/71 "2025-06-12T03:39:26Z")
> [@simster](#): > > Back in grade school - I had my own stardate I used on all my papers - yymm.d - 7912.07 was a very important date. Yes, I thought I was clever. I did the same in high school. And thought I was clever, as well. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/72 "2025-06-12T03:48:15Z")
> [@simster](#): > > It could then be reconciled once you reach a destination where it matters - so long as you have a relative starting point. In the Star Trek:TNG episode [Cause and Effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cause_and_Effect_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)) the Enterprise is caught in a time loop and keeps crashing into another ship and the Enterprise is destroyed. Then the “day” resets itself and it happens again, over-and-over Groundhog Day style. Eventually the crew manages to break the cycle and get out of the time loop. Once they do Picard tells the crew to access a Federation time beacon so they can figure out when they are. So, presumably the Federation has some kind of standard clock everyone uses. It makes sense since if they want ships A, B and C to rendezvous at a certain place and time they need to be using the same clock to manage that. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/73 "2025-06-12T03:52:32Z")
Sure - if you can afford to wait 3 weeks for the response - with that damn clock flashing 12:00 repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/74 "2025-06-12T04:20:30Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > So, presumably the Federation has some kind of standard clock everyone uses. It makes sense since if they want ships A, B and C to rendezvous at a certain place and time they need to be using the same clock to manage that. That would make sense (even if that one TNG episode may have been one of the few times when it was a plot point). Rendezvouses with other Starfleet ships are really common in the various series, and they never seem to have an issue with meeting up at the right time. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/75 "2025-06-12T05:44:10Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I’m still not sure if Decker “knew” blowing up the shuttle might damage it from within (dialog does not support this) or if he was just suicidal. Just suicidal, as evidenced by the way William Windom gave Shatner overacting lessons. I believe Spinrad’s original concept was that Decker was the Ahab of space. It would be nice if he did an Ellison and released the original script. > [@Monty](#): > > How could there even _be_ a race result what with warp technology? The race would be over before it began. Oh, they put warp engines on race horses now. (I had recently watched the Belmont.) > [@Monty](#): > > Oddly enough, that’s reminding me of a short SciFi story, I think it may have won a Hugo, in which in the protagonists’ universe, everything is going backwards by our perspective. A person comes out of the grave, grows younger. I can’t remember the name of it, though. _Counter-Clock World_ by Philip K. Dick, though I seem to remember others on the same subject. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/76 "2025-06-12T06:32:17Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Once they do Picard tells the crew to access a Federation time beacon so they can figure out when they are. And at that point, the writers lost the “science”. Since they were in a loop that repeated, and as far as they could tell, the rest of the universe was unaffected, they should have ended up at the exact time as they would have the “first” time through the loop, not 17 days later (or whatever). They time traveled each time, not got stuck in some loop in the existing timeline. Otherwise, anyone “driving by” would have been able to see them doing their loop. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/77 "2025-06-12T10:51:04Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Once they do Picard tells the crew to access a Federation time beacon so they can figure out when they are. Said beacon runs on an orphaned fork of Linux maintained by one guy in his basement. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/78 "2025-06-12T11:00:59Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > > > So, presumably the Federation has some kind of standard clock everyone uses. It makes sense since if they want ships A, B and C to rendezvous at a certain place and time they need to be using the same clock to manage that. > > That would make sense (even if that one TNG episode may have been one of the few times when it was a plot point). Rendezvouses with other Starfleet ships are really common in the various series, and they never seem to have an issue with meeting up at the right time. It’s a decent bet that the folks at HQ want to be able to reconcile the logs of the various ships and stations out there. Which requires a common time base _somehow_. IOW, did that trigger-happy Kirk guy shoot the Klingons’ flagship before or after K’org blew up Beta Antares 4. Who started this war? ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyEcks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnyecks/32/18197_2.png) [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/79 "2025-06-12T13:06:47Z")
Fritz Liber wrote “The Man Who did not Grow Young” with that premise, combined with the immortal man premise. The protagonist watches everyone grow young around him as he remains the same. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327/80 "2025-06-12T16:25:44Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > So, the show writers occasionally have it mentioned that the transporters use a Heisenberg Compensator. No one knows what that is or how it works. It is technobabble. The people who know how it works don’t know what it is, and vice versa. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-do-star-dates-have-any-structure-or-are-they-just-a-number-the-writers-picked-out-of-a-hat/1019327.md?page=5)