Star Dates a measure of time. In an episode it was used as a reference to time and a date. Originally, star dates were used so that Star Trek could be established as taking place a long way into the future without actually being pinned down to a particular time. The stardates were arbitrary, chosen without regard to consistency. The only thing that was consistent was that the stardates generally increased.
Furthermore, even ignoring obvious verbal slips, the stardate ranges of episodes occasionally overlapped, and star dates sometimes even decreased within the confines of a single episode. When pressed for an explanation, Gene 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.Roddenberry went on to explain that stardates would be different in different parts of the galaxy at any one time. He admitted that he didn't really understand this, and would rather forget about the whole thing.
Roddenberry's explanation does make some sense. It seems to suggest that star dates are completely subjective. This will be dealt with in the next section. Contradicting this, however, is the suggestion that position is relevant to the calculation. This part of his explanation, at least, must be discounted on the grounds of absurdity. His explanation is not canonical, so it may be treated like any other theory.
Gene Roddenberry was actual a very creative man. He had to come up with this explanation because the episodes were not aired on television in the order that they were filmed. If you look at the production number and the star date in the Episode Guide, you will notice that the star dates line up but because the studio aired the episodes in an arbitrary order (actually the order in which they like the most) the star dates appeared arbitrary. The writers of the episodes did not help the situation as well. Therefore the official explanation was created.
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