Gene Roddenberry created Stardates as an abstract idea without any thought to actual implementation, choosing to leave the idea up to the imaginations of the viewers.
As a result, little thought was given to the numbers used in Stardates for episodes, except that the numbers for the dates generally increased. But so little care was exercised with the dates that sometimes episode Stardates actually overlapped. When pressed for an explanation, Roddenberry said:
This time system adjusts for shifts in relative time which occur due to the vessel's speed and space warp capability. It has little relationship to Earth's time as we know it. One hour aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise at different times may equal as little as three Earth hours. The Stardates specified in the log entry must be computed against the speed of the vessel, the space warp, and its position within our galaxy, in order to give a meaningful reading. However, Roddenberry admitted that he didn't really understand this, and would rather forget about the whole thing.
Enter either a date or a Stardate then click on calculate to see the result.
A note on the formats:
Dates should be entered with an optional 24 hour clock time: DD/MM/YYYY HH:MI
Stardates should be entered with 4 digits before the decimal place and up to 4 after. You must include the decimal point.
A note on Stardates:
Stardates began at midnight on 01/01/2323, so any dates before this time will appear as negative numbers.
We know that the three digits immediately to the left of the decimal place - and all digits after the decimal
place - make up the percentage of the current year that has elapsed so far (multiplied by 10).
The one or more digits at the beginning of the Stardate are the number of years before, or after, 2323 so a
Stardate of -320981.5195 means 320 years before 2323, or 2003 (in this case the Stardate is Noon on Christmas Day 2003).
Date or Stardate:
