jerryd (12/09/82)
I recently spent some time wading through some old junk to dig out some
material I ordered in my (much) younger days from Star Trek Enterprises
(or was it Lincoln Enterprises?). Having read all of the recent
discussion about stardates on the net, I decided to look them up in my
copy of "The Star Trek Guide", Third Revision, dated April 17, 1967.
(I remember ordering it as "The Star Trek Writer's Guide," but that's
not what it says on the cover.)
The Guide says that stardates were invented to avoid having to mention
ST's century, thus averting arguments about the state of technology in
that century. Stardates were supposed to maintain a constant
progression in one story, with each decimal point representing one
tenth (surprise!) of a day. It further says that the writer didn't
have to worry about progression with other scripts, and that "Stardates
are a mathematical formula which varies depending on location in the
galaxy, velocity of travel, and other factors, [and] can vary widely
from episode to episode."
I hope this settles discussion on the subject; however, I do remember
that one of the ST books ("World of Star Trek", I think) mentions that
the first stories were filmed with ascending stardates, but when they
weren't broadcast in filming order, the above double-talk was
invented.