25 The 4 at the beginning of tng stardates means 24th century (Objections to the theory)
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This article is from the Stardates in Star Trek FAQ, by Andrew Main zefram@dcs.warwick.ac.uk with numerous contributions by others.
25 The 4 at the beginning of tng stardates means 24th century (Objections to the theory)
Objection: the 4 at the beginning of TNG stardates is supposed to represent
the 24th century. This means that one year has to be 100 units, not 1000.
Or: the digit after the first 4 is the season number, so what happens when
they get to season 10? Does the stardate become 410xxx?
The 4 at the beginning of TNG stardates was originally (in real life) decided
on for two reasons. First, it showed that TNG was a lot later than the films
and the original series. Second, 4 was chosen specifically because TNG
supposedly took place in the 24th century. This does *not* mean that that is
the Star Trek universe's reason for the 4. 4 just happened to come up shortly
before the Enterprise-D was launched.
The second digit was originally chosen to correspond to season numbers, but
that doesn't mean that it will always be like that. It was merely a
convenience, which still works (albeit in a modified form) for ST:DS9 and
ST:VOY. We have now reached what would have been ST:TNG's tenth season, and
the stardates are of the form 50xxx. This does not mean that they have
reached the 25th century. (2401*01*01 will be SD [21]78000. And no, the 25th
century will *not* start in 2400. And 2400 *will* be a leap year in the
Gregorian calendar.)
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