When Does "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979) Take Place?
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" is a science fiction film written by Harold Livingston with Alan Dean Foster and Gene Roddenberry that released December 7th, 1979. So when is "The Motion Picture" set?
It takes place on the fictional Star Trek timeline in the year:
We know this because Admiral James T. Kirk says, "2 and a half years as Chief of Starfleet Operations may have made me a little stale" and Captain Will Decker later warns, "Sir, you haven't logged a single star hour in 2-and-a-half years." [In the expanded element comic-book “Star Trek: Untold Voyages" #1 (1998), which takes place merely hours after the end of this movie, Kirk buttresses that this 2.5 year period is the duration of time since the end of his original mission with the thought "Maybe my two-and-a-half years on Earth have left me too rusty".]
2273 AD
We know this because Admiral James T. Kirk says, "2 and a half years as Chief of Starfleet Operations may have made me a little stale" and Captain Will Decker later warns, "Sir, you haven't logged a single star hour in 2-and-a-half years." [In the expanded element comic-book “Star Trek: Untold Voyages" #1 (1998), which takes place merely hours after the end of this movie, Kirk buttresses that this 2.5 year period is the duration of time since the end of his original mission with the thought "Maybe my two-and-a-half years on Earth have left me too rusty".]
Based on Kirk's other statement: "5 years out there dealing with unknowns like this", it's clear the mission first seen in the TV series "Star Trek" (1966) season one, which takes place in 2265 AD to 2266 AD, was finished in 5 years. In "Star Trek: Voyager" season seven episode nineteen "Q2" (2001), former member of the Borg Collective Icheb states that Kirk and his crew did indeed complete their 5-year mission in 2270 AD. Furthermore, in the expanded element novel "Star Trek: The Lost Years" (1989) the unnamed narrator tells us "Even now, at 5:45 A.M. on this damp fall morning two weeks later, the enthusiasm she had ignited in him still hadn't worn off." in a scene that takes place on Earth 3 months after the end of the famous deep-space mission and the fall season traditionally begins in September and ends in November. The vague but multiple mentions that "2 and a half years" have passed since that point puts it presumably in January, February, or March of 2273 AD.
9.2,270 - 3 months = 6.2,270
or
11.2,270 - 3 months = 8.2,270
and
6.2,270 + 2 years and 6 months = 1.2,273
or
8.2,270 + 2 years and 6 months = 3.2,273.
Also, the expanded element novel "Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History" (2012), puts the events of this film in 2273 AD.
Although the famous "stardate XXXX.X" captain's records that open most episodes and some films were mistaken for years on the Gregorian calendar, there is no one-to-one relationship between them. As identified in the biography "Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek": "They marked off sections on a pictorial depiction of the known universe and extrapolated how much earth time would elapse when traveling between given points, taking into account that the Enterprise's warp engines would be violating Einstein's theory that nothing could exceed the speed of light. They concluded that the 'time continuum' would therefore vary from place to place, and that earth time may actually be lost in travel. 'So the stardate on Earth would be one thing, but the stardate on Alpha Centauri would be different,' Peeples says." so they are relative to long distance travel and not an absolute calendar. HOWEVER, actual years on the Gregorian calendar began to be used later.
It is the second chronological film in the Star Trek universe and can be watched at its timeline point. [Expanded elements enrich the experience: It can be watched after reading the short story "Night Whispers" in the anthology "Star Trek: Enterprise Logs" (2000) and before reading the comic-book "Star Trek: Untold Voyages" #1 (1998).]
It was adapted to prose in late 1979 and to comics as "Marvel Super Special" #15 in the same year.
