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From: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Opening Credits (Really Stardates)
Message-ID: <5023@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 18-Aug-85 04:06:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.5023
Posted: Sun Aug 18 04:06:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Aug-85 21:15:54 EDT
References: <1801@bmcg.UUCP>
Reply-To: barmar@mit-eddie.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 16


There is definitely no pattern to stardates between episodes (within
episodes they always increased, except when time travel was involved).
The "Star Trek Concordance" has a list of episodes ordered by stardate.
This was a common question asked of Roddenberry, and the answer he made
up even made it into "The Making of Star Trek" (I think).  He explained
that stardates are a function of both time and position in the galaxy,
necessary because of the time-related effects of warp-speed travel.
Thus, stardates can decrease if you travel across the galaxy.

He admits that he had to make up this silly explanation because they
never bothered to check the continuity of stardates.
-- 
    Barry Margolin
    ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics
    UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar