• Spock visits his parents on Vulcan for the last time before the Babel conference on the Coridan admission. The visit is strained because of Sarek’s disapproval of Spock’s career choice.
“Journey to Babel” (TOS). Amanda chided Spock for not having visited them for four years prior to the episode (2267).
• James Kirk sees Areel Shaw for the last time before Kirk’s trial at Starbase 11. The two had been romantically involved.
“Court Martial” (TOS). Areel said they hadn’t seen each other for “four years, seven months, and an odd number of days” prior to the episode (2267).
• James Kirk is promoted to captain of the Starship Enterprise and meets Christopher Pike, who is promoted to fleet captain.
Conjecture. In “The Menagerie, Part I” (TOS), Kirk said he met Pike once prior to that episode, when the latter was promoted to fleet captain.
• Miners Childress, Gossett, and Benton begin work at the lithium mining operation on planet Rigel XII.
“Mudd’s Women” (TOS). Ruth noted the three miners had been there for almost three years. (Episode set in 2266.)
• A group of 150 colonists under the leadership of Elias Sandoval leave Earth to settle on planet Omicron Ceti III.
“This Side of Paradise” (TOS). Kirk noted the Sandoval expedition had settled on the planet three years prior to the episode, and that the trip had taken a year, suggesting they had departed four years prior to the episode (2267).
• Captain James Kirk, in command of the original U.S.S. Enterprise, embarks on an historic five-year mission of exploration.
Date is conjecture: Assumes “Where No Man Has Gone Before” took place 13 months and 12 days into the mission, per one conjectural theory for stardates. (The episode was set on stardate 1312.) This system of determining stardates was not used in later episodes, but is at least useful for pegging the start of Kirk’s mission in relation to that episode. This is also reasonably consistent with Captain Harriman’s line in Star Trek Generations, that the Enterprise -B, launched in late 2293, was the first Enterprise in 30 years without Kirk in command.
• Joran Belar is born on the planet Trill.
“Equilibrium” (DS9). Calendar date is conjecture, but Trill computer records gave his birth as being on stardate 1024.7, which would seem to be shortly before Harry Mudd’s conviction, see next item.
• Harcourt Fenton Mudd is convicted of purchasing a space vessel with counterfeit currency. He is sentenced to psychiatric treatment and his master’s license is revoked, effective stardate 1116.4. Mudd had previously been convicted of smuggling, although that sentence had been suspended.
“Mudd’s Women” (TOS). Date is conjecture, but it was apparently prior to “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (TOS) because the stardate of his license suspension is lower than the stardate in “Where No Man.”
• April Wade is born on Earth. She becomes a prominent medical researcher at the University of Nairobi.
“Prophet Motive” (DS9). Wade was 106 years old at the time of the episode (2371).
• The real Nancy Crater is killed by planet M-113’s last surviving native. The creature later assumes Nancy’s form and lives with Professor Robert Crater, an archaeologist studying M-113.
“The Man Trap” (TOS). Exact date is conjecture, but Professor Crater noted that Nancy had been killed a year or two prior to the episode (2266).
• The Sandoval expedition arrives at planet Omicron Ceti III for colonization. Unfortunately, the planet is later found to have high levels of deadly Berthold rays, threatening the lives of the colonists.
“This Side of Paradise” (TOS). Kirk noted the colonists had been there for three years prior to the episode (2267).
• A bottle of Dom Perignon champagne of this year’s vintage is used in 2293 for the christening of the Starship Enterprise -B.
Star Trek: Generations. The vintage, 2265, was legible on the bottle’s label.
• Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, a psychiatrist studying crew reactions in emergency situations, joins the Enterprise crew when the ship is at the Aldebaron colony.
Shortly before “Where No Man has Gone Before” (TOS).
~1:[7,#B],11:[1,#I],18:[1,#I],46:[1,#I],132:[14,#I],148:[100,#I],250:[14,#I],265:[21,#I],288:[20,#I],310:[26,#I],358:[11,#I],388:[10,#I]@1“Where No Man Has Gone Before” (TOS)@2Stardate 1312.4. The Enterprise encounters recorder buoy of the S.S. Valiant, which had disappeared near the galaxy’s edge two centuries ago. Evidence from the buoy’s record tapes suggest the ship was destroyed by her captain. Kirk orders the Enterprise to explore beyond the galaxy’s rim, where the ship encounters a strange energy barrier, resulting in the deaths of nine personnel. Gary Mitchell, Kirk’s friend from his Academy days, is somehow mutated by the barrier, and gains tremendous psychokinetic powers. It is later learned that psychiatrist Elizabeth Dehner had been similarly mutated as well. An attempt to quarantine Mitchell at the Delta Vega mining facility is unsuccessful, and Kirk is forced to kill him to protect the ship. Dehner is also killed in the incident.
Date is conjecture: Assumes the episode was six months to a year prior to Star Trek’s first season. This is to allow sufficient time to account for the costume and set changes between this pilot episode and the costumes and sets seen in the series.
Editors’ Note: The tombstone created by Gary Mitchell for Kirk gives the captain’s name as “James R. Kirk.” The captain’s name would later be changed to “James T. Kirk.” Dorothy Fontana notes that Kirk’s middle initial changed because Gene Roddenberry simply forgot that this episode had established it as “R,” but noted that Gene was also fond of giving his characters the middle name “Tiberius.” (Gary Lockwood’s character in Roddenberry’s series The Lieutenant was named William Tiberius Rice.)
This episode (and “Mudd’s Women” [TOS]) establishes that the Enterprise uses “lithium crystals” in its engines, although later episodes changed this to “dilithium crystals.” According to Fontana, RAND Corporation physicist (and Star Trek technical adviser) Harvey Lynn suggested the change. The reason was that lithium is real, but dilithium is not, thus giving Star Trek’s writers more freedom to tell stories without being scientifically wrong. Fontana further suggests that the change might have been a technological upgrade to the ship’s engines.
• The Borg destroy Guinan’s home planet. A small number of Guinan’s people manage to survive by spreading themselves across the galaxy.
“Q Who?” (TNG). One hundred years prior to the episode (2365).
• Planet Ingraham B is attacked by the same parasite creatures that later decimated the population of planet Deneva.
“Operation: Annihilate!” (TOS). Two years prior to the episode (2267).
• Dr. Leonard H. McCoy assigned to duty aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise as ship’s surgeon. He replaces Dr. Mark Piper.
Date is conjecture: He was apparently assigned after “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (TOS), in which Dr. Piper was ship’s surgeon, but before “The Corbomite Maneuver,” which marked McCoy’s first appearance.
• Dr. Simon Van Gelder is assigned as associate director of the Tantalus V penal colony. He serves on the staff of colony director Tristan Adams.
“Dagger of the Mind” (TOS). Spock’s computer research indicated Van Gelder had been assigned six months prior to the episode
• Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu accepts a transfer from staff physicist to helm officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.
Date is conjecture: He was apparently transferred after “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (TOS), but before “The Corbomite Maneuver” (TOS).
• The Starship Enterprise begins routine star mapping mission.
Three days prior to “The Corbomite Maneuver” (TOS).
• Star Trek: The Original Series - Year 1 Begins
Assumes the original Star Trek television series was set 300 years after the first air date of the show (September, 1966).
~1:[4,#B],8:[2,#I],21:[1,#I],27:[1,#I],35:[1,#I],49:[1,#I],72:[1,#I],92:[1,#I],140:[20,#I]@1“The Corbomite Maneuver” (TOS)@2Stardate 1512.2. The U.S.S. Enterprise, on a routine star-mapping mission, makes first contact with the spaceship Fesarius of the First Federation. Although Fesarius commander Balok is initially wary of the Enterprise, presenting a false image, he eventually accepts the assurances of good intentions by Enterprise personnel after Kirk offers assistance when Balok’s ship appears to be disabled. Kirk assigns Lieutenant Bailey to cultural exchange duty aboard the Fesarius.
• A number of women on planet Rigel IV are brutally murdered by an unknown assailant, popularly known as Kesla. The killer is later discovered to be the same energy entity responsible for similar murders a year later on planet Argelius II. The entity is believed to have traveled in the body of Hengist, a native of Rigel IV, hired by the Argelian government as an administrator.
“Wolf in the Fold” (TOS). Computer records indicated the killings had taken place one year prior to the episode (2267).
~1:[3,#B],7:[1,#I],39:[1,#I],52:[1,#I],90:[1,#I],142:[5,#I]@1“Mudd’s Women” (TOS)@2Stardate 1329.8. The Enterprise attempts to rescue a small Class-J cargo ship that has strayed too close to an asteroid belt. The attempt fails, although the crew of the vessel is successfully beamed aboard the Enterprise before the smaller ship is destroyed. In the rescue attempt, however, the Enterprise lithium crystal circuits are damaged, nearly crippling the ship. The captain of the transport, Harcourt Fenton Mudd, is later coerced into assisting Kirk in dealing with lithium miners on Rigel XII to provide crystals to save the Enterprise from a decaying orbit.
Three women traveling with Mudd, who had apparently been recruited by Mudd as wives for settlers on planet Ophiucus III, elect instead to remain with the lithium miners on Rigel XII.
• Harcourt Fenton Mudd is turned over to Federation authorities for illegal operation of transport vessel.
Just after “Mudd’s Women” (TOS).
~1:[4,#B],8:[2,#I],83:[1,#I],113:[1,#I],132:[22,#I],156:[54,#I],211:[2,#I]@1“The Enemy Within” (TOS)@2Stardate 1672.1. The U.S.S. Enterprise on routine geological survey to planet Alfa 177. Magnetic ore contamination from landing party site causes a transporter malfunction, resulting in a partial replication of Captain Kirk. The duplication is nearly perfect, but each copy has only part of the personality traits of the original, thereby threatening the survival of both copies. Science Officer Spock and Engineer Scott successfully modify the transporter to recombine Kirk to his original form.
Remaining members of the Enterprise landing party are trapped on the surface of Alfa 177 until the repair of the transporter, resulting in severe frostbite and exposure to those personnel. Upon return to the Enterprise all landing party members are treated by medical personnel and are given excellent prognoses for a full recovery.
Editors’ Note: This episode marks the invention of the Vulcan nerve pinch, used to neatly (and nonviolently) render the “evil” Kirk unconscious. Star Trek production staffers (and several scripts) would later refer to the trick as FSNP, the “Famous Spock Nerve Pinch.” To the question of why Spock couldn’t have sent a shuttlecraft down to the planet surface after the transporter broke, the answer is that at this relatively early point in the series the show didn’t yet have a shuttlecraft.
~1:[4,#B],8:[2,#I],32:[1,#I],105:[1,#I],123:[23,#I],151:[9,#I],162:[40,#I],204:[10,#I],252:[14,#I]@1“The Man Trap” (TOS)@2Stardate 1513.1. The U.S.S. Enterprise is assigned to perform routine health examinations of archaeological personnel at planet M-113. An investigation is conducted when three members of the Enterprise crew are discovered dead on the planet, killed under unknown circumstances. It is learned that the killer is the last specimen of a species indigenous to M-113. The creature, which is later found to possess an unusual hypnotic ability to cause its prey to see it as someone else, is also discovered to live on sodium chloride that it extracts from its victims’ bodies. Two additional casualties are discovered on board the Enterprise, including archaeologist Robert Crater, before the creature is killed while it is attempting to attack Captain Kirk.
Editors’ Note: Spock tells Uhura that his home planet of Vulcan has no moon, although we see several moons around that planet in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Curiously, none of these satellites were seen when the Starships Enterprise visited that planet in “Amok Time” (TOS) or “Sarek” (TNG). “The Man Trap” (TOS) is also the source of the fannish blessing, “May the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet,” spoken by Sulu, which was itself derived from Star Trek associate producer Bob Justman’s gag nickname for producer Gene Roddenberry.
• Dr. McCoy spills a small amount of acid on a table in his medical laboratory, scarring the table. A year later he notices an identical scar on the same table on the alternate universe version of the Enterprise.
“Mirror, Mirror” (TOS). McCoy noted that he’d spilled acid there a year ago.
~1:[4,#B],7:[2,#I],59:[1,#I],113:[1,#I],126:[45,#I],172:[13,#I],186:[5,#I],193:[5,#I],203:[84,#I],288:[2,#I],291:[10,#I],302:[23,#I],342:[1,#I],368:[5,#I]@1“The Naked Time (TOS)@2Stardate 1704.2. U.S.S. Enterprise assigned to pick up science team from planet Psi 2000. Landing party discovers all researchers to be dead under unusual circumstances, later determined to have been caused by an alien virus. The landing party accidentally brings back the virus to the ship, infecting most of the crew, and threatening the Enterprise when the virus causes personnel to lose emotional control. Among those most seriously affected is Lieutenant Kevin Riley, who commandeers the ship’s engine room. McCoy develops a serum that enables personnel to regain emotional stability. An emergency restart of ship’s engines using a theoretical intermix formula results in the accidental regression of the Enterprise and all ship’s personnel through time, some 71 hours into the past.
Editors’ Note: This episode marks the first appearance of Christine Chapel, played by Majel Barrett, the future Mrs. Gene Roddenberry. Chapel appeared in the original series and in several of the movies. Barrett had previously portrayed the mysterious “Number One,” second in command of the Enterprise in the pilot episode, “The Cage.” Barrett also lent her voice to the Enterprise computer in both the original Star Trek series as well as in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also played Lwaxana Troi.
“The Naked Time” (TOS) was originally planned to be the first part of a two-part story. According to Dorothy Fontana, episode writer John D. F. Black left the series without doing the second part, so Fontana eventually did that story as a separate episode, “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” (TOS), “The Naked Time” does not clearly describe the nature of the Psi 2000 infection, but it is established to be a virus when the same malady strikes the crew of the Tsiolkovsky and the Enterprise -D in “The Naked Now” (TNG). This episode establishes the Enterprise warp drive to be powered by antimatter reactions. Prior to this point, the motive power of the ship’s engines was not specifically described.
• Charles Evans is rescued from the planet Thasus by the crew of the science probe vessel Antares, under the command of Captain Ramart. Evans, a 17-year-old human boy, is the only survivor of a spaceship crash on Thasus some 14 years ago.
