History Main / StandardTimeUnits

* In ''DarthsAndDroids'', it becomes clear that the GM has ''not'' set up a standard calendar for the universe when everyone's debating whether Jim can use his Fate Manipulation ability again to avoid his character's death. This despite the Republic in ''StarWars'' having using a standard calendar (based on the calendar of its central planet, Coruscant); of course, Jim's character [[DoomedByCanon did have to die in that scene]].
* In ''{{Unity}}'', the time units are Metric intervals based on the internal circadian period of the ship. A day is divided into 10 decs, which are in turn divided into 10 kaysecs, which are in turn divided into 10 centis of 100 seconds. On the other side, 5 days become a dec, and 5 decs become a round, as explained in the comments on [[http://beesbuzz.biz/d/unity-in_rememoriam.php this comic]].

* In the ''MassEffect'' series, there are two time standards: The standard time we're familiar with, and the Galactic Standard Time, which the rest of the galaxy goes by. In the Galactic Standard Time, a day is divided into 20 hours, each hour is 100 minutes long, and each minute is 100 seconds long. However, 1 galactic second is about twice as fast as 1 Earth second, so it's basically a 50-second minute, and the days would be 15% longer than an Earth day. For convenience's sake, the narrative goes by the Earth Standard Time.

* The Imperium of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' uses Earth years in a continuation of the Gregorian calendar, with the year nominally divided into 1,000 parts for record-keeping purposes.
** They do use a unique notation, though. Instead of "38,420 AD" they would write "420 M39," meaning 420th year, 39th millennium.
** But isn't it a bit odd that they still use the Christian numbering of years? You'd think they'd date it from the Emperor uniting Earth or something...
*** Say it with me now: The '''[[CrystalDragonJesus God]]''' [[GodEmperor Emperor]].
*** Because Emperor said so?
*** It was vaguely hinted in the fluff that the calendar is one of the very few things that survived the Age of Strife, and thus is kept in reverence to the Dark Age of Technology, the legendary Golden Age of Humanity.

*** And also because the second is now defined based on atomic clocks, so that it doesn't change when tectonic activity alters the day length on Earth.

* The eponymous station in ''{{Babylon 5}}'' uses 24 hour Earth days and other units, as does the rest of Earth Force. Other races presumably have their own sets of units; there is a reference to a 'Narn lightyear' at one point.
** Specifically, as Babylon 5 is run by the military, the station keeps Earth Standard Time, which is basically Geneva time. One of the main Mars settlements is located in a different time zone, and calls from there to B5 can result in interrupted sleep for the recipient.
** Also:
--->'''Green Leader:''' Drazi Cycle not Drazi week. Drazi Cycle is Drazi ''year''.

* The Ekumen of [[UrsulaKLeGuin Ursula K. Le Guin's]] novels has a nominal standard year for recordkeeping, but due to the difficulty of interstellar travel most worlds use [[AlternativeCalendar idiosyncratic calendars]] based on the local year.

* The Imperium of ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' uses Earth years in a continuation of the Gregorian calendar, with the year nominally divided into 1,000 parts for record-keeping purposes.

* Utterly and completely averted in many GregEgan novels, which are frequently told from the point of view of conscious AI entities running on weird and whacky computational frameworks. (The weirdnessess are often plot points, and the changing ratio of perceived time versus objective time as the framework changes are also plot points.) There is at least one book (Diaspora?) where you have all that going on AND relativity in the mix. "Rushing," where the character runs their clock incredibly slowly to wait for the Universe to do interesting things in a short space of perceived time, is often used to make the cosmology useful to the plot.

* Averted and played straight at the same time in ''{{Manga/ARIA}}''. Aqua (Mars) has its own calendar to represent that it has a different amount of days per year than Earth, but the series does use both that calendar and the standard Gregorian calendar.

* The lack of this is a serious problem on ''{{Gor}}'', because it means that pinning down how long ago something happened is almost impossible. Most cities measure time by "when so-and-so was administrator", the desert people have proper calendars but those have years with differing lengths, only Ar counts time in a way that [[AuthorAvatar Tarl]] finds meaningful.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'', through Stardates.
* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' does it, though the units are a bit weird since the TranslatorMicrobes don't do conversions.

[[AC:Webcomics]]

* ''[[OrionsArm Orion's Arm]]'' uses fairly hard science and thus has to accept the problem posed by relativity. As a result no one has any idea what year it is by our calendar (except GAIA) and every planet has not just different length days and years but experiences time at a different rate.

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* ''StarTrek'', through Stardates.

* In IsaacAsimov's later ''{{Foundation}}'' novels, this is used as a plot point to deduce the identity of Earth, the forgotten homeworld. The standard year and day correspond to no day or year cycle on any known world, but just might correspond to the original.

* The Traveller Tabletop RPG ''The Third Imperium'' used a 365-day year, probably because of tradition: it was based on the Second Imperium, which had been created by Earth humans conquering the First Imperium.

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* Most nations in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series have their own [[AlternativeCalendar local calendars]], but use Earth's years for the recordkeeping and general communications. It helps that Earth is still around, and a capital of the largest single polity in the inhabited universe, thus conveniently avoiding InsignificantLittleBluePlanet trope.

* Averted and played straight at the same time in ''{{ARIA}}''. Aqua (Mars) has its own calendar to represent that it has a different amount of days per year than Earth, but the series does use both that calendar and the standard Gregorian calendar.

* The lack of this is a serious problem on ''{{Gor}}'', because it means that pining down how long ago something happened is almost impossible. Most cities measure time by "when so-and-so was administrator", the desert people have proper calendars but those have years with differing lengths, only Ar counts time in a way that [[AuthorAvatar Tarl]] finds meaningful.

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

* When Nameless Technician in ''NuklearAge'' points out that the alien spaceship spotted was exactly one mile in diameter, Dr. Genius disbelievingly points out what a coincidence that would have to be. Of course, there is a [[CallBack good reason.]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

--> '''Green Leader:''' Drazi Cycle not Drazi week. Drazi Cycle is Drazi ''year''.
* The 2000s ''BattlestarGalactica'' uses standard Earth units and 24-hour military time without explanation. The series takes place [[spoiler: in the Neanderthal era, in a society that has no knowledge of the planet Earth]], so the best possible explanation is that "standard Colonial time" just happens to exactly resemble Earth chronological conventions.

[[AC: TabletopGames]]

* In the ''MassEffect'' series, there are two time standards: The standard time we're familiar with, and the Galactic Standard Time, which the rest of the galaxy goes by. In the Galactic Standard Time, a day is divided into 20 hours, each hour is 100 minutes long, and each hour is 100 seconds long. However, 1 galactic second is about twice as fast as 1 Earth second, so it's basically a 50 second minute, and the days would be fifteen percent longer than an Earth day. For convenience's sake, the narrative goes by the Earth Standard Time.

[[AC: Real Life]]

** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that it still represents the amount of time it takes for the sun to make one circuit in the sky, even if it doesn't set. And, you know, the sleep cycles of the people there.

* Most of [[HonorHarrington Honorverse's]] nations have their own [[AlternativeCalendar local calendars]], but use Earth's years for the recordkeeping and general communications. It helps that Earth is still around, and a capital of the largest single polity in the inhabited universe, thus conveniently avoiding InsignificantLittleBluePlanet trope.

*** And they live in enviropment-shielded homes with fully artifical ecosystem or on orbit, so Grayson's planetary cycle means little to them anyway.
*** Not true... Though their homes and crops are artificial environments, the Graysons still spend a considerable amount of time outdoors. They just spend their time indoors ''very'' indoors.

* ''{{Farscape}}'' does it, though the units are a bit weird since the TranslatorMicrobes don't do conversions.

*** Say it with me now: The [[CrystalDragonJesus '''God''']] [[GodEmperor Emperor]].

*** OMG Submarines in space =)

** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that it still represents the amount of time it takes for the sun to make one circuit in the sky, even if it doesn't set.

*** On the other hand, time on space telescopes is allocated in kiloseconds (and megaseconds, for really massive projects).