Definition of Stardates
According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia, Stardates ate a 'timekeeping system used to provide a standard galactic temporal reference, compensating for relativistic time dilation, warp-speed displacement, and other peculiarities of interstellar space travel.'
Stardates in the Serenity RPG
The Stardate system in the Serenity RPG is very simple. We use the same stardate system used by the producers of TNG. Their system went like this:
- The first digit was a '4'.
- The second digit was the season number.
- The last 3 digits and the decimal were semi-sequential starting with low numbers early in the season and working progressively higher as the episodes went on.
Therefore, the stardates for Season 1 looked like 41xxx.x. Season 2 was 42xxx.x, and so on until 49xxx.x was reached. The next year was stardate 50xxx.x, and so on.
Year Stardate Season 2364 41xxx TNG 1 2365 42xxx TNG 2 2366 43xxx TNG 3 2367 44xxx TNG 4 2368 45xxx TNG 5 2369 46xxx TNG 6 DS9 1 2370 47xxx TNG 7 DS9 2 2371 48xxx DS9 3 VOY 1 ST:Generations 2372 49xxx DS9 4 VOY 2 2373 50xxx DS9 5 VOY 3 ST:First Contact 2374 51xxx DS9 6 VOY 4 2375 52xxx DS9 7 VOY 5 ST:Insurrection 2376 53xxx VOY 6 2377 54xxx VOY 7 2378 55xxx 2379 56xxx ST:Nemesis 2380 57xxx 2381 58xxx 2382 59xxx 2383 60xxx 2384 61xxx 2385 62xxx 2386 63xxx Serenity Colony 2387 64xxx 2388 65xxx 2389 66xxx 2390 67xxx For example, a stardate for sometime in February 2386 would be something like Stardate 63190.7. A stardate for November 2386 could be 63897.2. A stardate for July 2387 would be 64529.3.
Using this system, there is no need to use any sort of 'stardate calculator' computer program, (and any date that isn't comprehensible without a computer program is utterly meaningless to your readers anyways).