From: Fiona Moore nydersdyner@yahoo.co.uk
Given that the show is supposed to be set in "the third century of the new calendar," and IIRC in "Pressure Point" it is noted that the Federation brought in this calendar
Fanon sometimes refers to the "3rd Century of the 2nd Calendar", no canonical reference in any episode (but cited by Terry Nation in his preface to Attwood's Programme Guide). A "New Calendar" is indeed mentioned in Pressure Point, introduced at about the time the Federation started destroying churches. So the Federation preceded the New Calendar, and hence probably inaugurated it, though it might have been something ratified by a number of powers of which the Federation was but one (bit like the decision to alter the date several hundred years ago, with much ensuing complaint of lost lifespan. The decision wasn't ratified by the Russian Orthodox Church, for one, which I believe is why the October Revolution of 1917 happened in our November).
If so, then the inauguration of the New Calendar might not have been a kind of Year Zero, but merely a continuation of the old calendar with all subscribing parties brought into line.
but then again, was it an abstract standardised system, applicable to any/all planets (a sort of Galactic Metric?), or simply the Earth calendar used as standard? For that matter, how *would* one develop an abstract standardised system that could be used on all planets?
Dunno. Iain? Using the Earth calendar as the baseline seems sensible, analogous to using GMT as a baseline for measuring time across the planet (if indeed it is used in that way by anyone other than the BBC World Service). But would it be 365.25 'days' of 24 hours, or simply 365 days, with or without leap years? It's easy to see how several different systems might have been adopted across the galactic community, slowly drifting out of sync, hence the need for a 'new' calendar to bring them all into line.
Three time references in the series hint at a 24 hour clock in standard use: in The Way Back the London's departure from Earth was advanced to 1700 Earth time (about 5 pm, with the ship taking off in what seemed to be summer - it should have been broad daylight but the ship took off at night, suggesting that Earth time was based on a meridian some way away from Europe. Perhaps the Pacific, perhaps along or close to what is currently the International Date Line?).
In Hostage, Servalan's planetfall on Exbar was scheduled for '2159 standard'. In Harvest of Kairos,shuttle lift-off was scheduled for 0815.
Dates listed in The Way Back are given in what can be seen as a conventional year/month/day notation. (Renor Leesal was born on 42.1.5 and vaccinated on 42.4.3 - he could be born on January 5th and vaccinated on April 3rd, rather less likely born on 1st May and *then* vaccinated on 4th March the same year.)
Other dates are obscure at best - Travis massacred civilians on Zircaster on date code beta 2001, and the Federation surveyed Obsidian on date code 303 ('a long time ago', according to Vila). This is probably just the scriptwriters making it up as they go along (which I'd expect of Allan Prior, not quite so forgivable for the mighty Chris Boucher) and I personally don't attach much canonical weight to either of these references. Besides, TWB comes first and hence takes canonical precedence.
All terribly confusing.
You said it:)
Neil