Why do they say Stardate?

olver · Crewman Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 3

This has been really bothering me for a while:
Why do they always say 'Stardate' before the date? Wouldn't that be like me always saying 'Date' before telling somebody what day it was? If we're supposed to believe that the 'Stardate' system has become the generally accepted method of time-keeping, surely they would just say the number and everybody would understand what was being referred to, just as if I say 30th April 1963 everybody knows I am talking about. It ruins my enjoyment of Captain Picard's logs.

Curtis · **Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:58 pm**

It doesn't ruin my enjoyment of Picard's logs...I mean, they most likely say "Stardate: when recording their logs because it is just that...a recording into the ship's computer for the Federation's purposes. Look at the black box of an airplane / helicopter / etc. of this time period for example. Whenever the captain records a log on one of them, he / she does state the word "date" first and then the actual date that it is for military purposes or if the vehicles "black box" is found...this way they have an idea of what went wrong when and can try to solve the problem if its mechanical or try something completely different when going into enemy territory next time, if that was the case. So all in all, in my opinion, that is most likely the same exact reason the captain of a starship on Star Trrek says "Stardate" before every entry too...remember, Star Trek maybe set in the future, but not everything advanced in technology or changed from the past...this was likely a method that was carried over

!

Lord Borg · **Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:57 pm**

Stardate is a method of time keeping to try and make things a little more unified, as the countless member worlds and starships all would be operating in different timezones/measurements of time. They can be roughly translated to an Earth date, though.

olver · Crewman Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 3

Curtis, thanks for this response. How do you look at the black box logs? I didn't think it was possible to access such things, can you just ask the pilot?

And Lord Borg - I am aware of what Stardate means, as I read an excellent wiki entry on it - I just find it odd that they have to say the word 'Stardate' before saying the date itself. It's be like somebody asking me the time, and me saying 'TIME: three thirty', which actually I do do sometimes I suppose, when I am sleepy.

Ntypical · **Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:36 pm**

As Curtis said. It is the "official" way of doing things. And is actually done that way in official logs today, though it does change service to service and sometimes even unit to unit (some do not place much importance on it at all and they look like a five year old wrote in them).

Just like in a Staff Duty Officers logbook. Kind of looks like this.

Julian date
078

Then the names and billets of the command staff and reporting chain.

Then the Officer of the day's rank and name.

Then the Staff Duty Officer's rank and name.

0800: I rank/name/SSN have assumed all duties and responsibilities as Staff Duty Officer, etc etc.
0900: log entries and what not until the end of the day
1000:

(you get the point)

0001: Official date change, the Julian date is now 079.

Then log entries until the change over with your relief at 0800 the next morning.

Log books, just like in trek, today are legal documents and can be used for everything from evidence in a court martial to whatever else. So they need to be as neat proper and uniform as you can make them.

Curtis · **Thu Mar 19, 2009 7:00 pm**

29th Century Starfleet · Sophomore Cadet Joined: 30 Mar 2009 Posts: 11

I saw this neat little tool online at this link that converts stardates.

http://www.sector001.com/info/stardate.shtml

I was born on stardate 31908.03 for example

It is really neat.

olver · Crewman Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 3

Olver's log, Stardate 200904.02

Thanks everybody!

sneh · Crewman Joined: 08 May 2009 Posts: 2

StephenRichardson · Freshman Cadet Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 5

Stardate is the command to activate the voice-activated command system to start an audiolog.

Cosiris · **Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:01 pm Recording in the Log cabin**

I would think the command to activate the audio recording would be "Captain's Log" which seems to be what happens at the beginning of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier when Kirk is sitting in his chair and trying to record a log entry but the PADD explodes. To me recording a Captain's Log is a formal procedure so speaking the stardate is probably just part of that formality. No different from when we fill out our taxes, there's still a field that says DATE.