Dating the Time Lord Way

By: Rihays

Oh, you thought I was talking about courtship and marriage? Silly human. Of course not. I'm talking about calendars and time and dates. That sort of thing. So if you're looking for ideas on how to win the girl, keep going. If you're looking for a really nerdy way to suggest a date for your next dinner or your wedding, well, you might be in the right place.

Dating Systems

During the Rassilon Era, Gallifrey used as many as 5 dating systems. The first is Relative Dating. Relative Dating began with the installation of the Eye of Harmony as is identified with the prefix RE. Relative Dating is also called Local Date Line as is usually abbreviated to five digits.
An example of Relative Dating would be: RE5725.2

The second system is Matrix Dating as is used to record absolute or fixed events. It can be identified by the suffix MD.
An example of Matrix Dating would be: 6798.5MD

The third system is called Date Indexing. Date Indexing is shortened to only two digits and is identified by DI either before or after.
An example of Date Indexing would be: 92DI (DI92)

The fourth system is GRT which is basically a shorter version of Relative Dating and uses the suffix GRT.
An example of GRT would be: 1213GRT

The fifth system is Gallifreyan TL Dating System. It is used to "date" Time Lords, though the true intended purpose is a mystery. It comes with the suffix TL.
An example of Gallifreyan TL Dating System would be: 100447TL

Calculating the Year

Earth to RE

So, how does one calculate the date? Well, each system does it a little differently. Consider the following:

Any Earth date can be translated into Local Dateline (LD) by adding 3,503,412,400.2 (about 3.5 billion) to the Earth year if after 1 BC or 3,503,412,399.2 if before 1 AD.

1999 AD on Earth               417 BC on Earth

          1,999                            417
+ 3,503,412,400.2              + 3,503,412,399.2
-----------------              -----------------
RE3,503,414,399.2              RE3,503,412,816.2
         (4,399.2)                      (2,816.2)

The year on Gallifrey can be calculated by adding 2004716.44 to the Doctor's age. The Local Dateline (ie the 4 digit version) can be found by adding 4716.44

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I am 903 years old and I'm the man who is going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below."

So, strictly speaking, you could in fact find out what year it is (or would have been) on Gallifrey at the time he said this.

Doctor's Age: 903
Relative Dating                Local Date Line

      903                                 903
+ 2,004,716.44                   +      4,716.44
------------                   -----------------
RE2,005,619.44                   RE     5,619.44

Put them together and you get:

2007 AD on Earth

          2,007
+ 3,503,412,400.2
-----------------
RE3,503,414,007.2

Oh, but what's this? There seems to be some, erm, major discrepancy. RE2005619.44 seems to be far cry from RE3,503,414,007.2. However, let us remember that Gallifrey is located inside Inner Time and is protected by any number of temporal locks and barriers. This may mean that Inner Time's time turns differently than the rest of the universe, or at least our part of it.

So, which system should we use? I submit we should stick with the official planetary dating (the adding 3.5 billion). Why? Because the Laws of Time state that Time Lords' personal timelines must always stay in sync with Gallifrey's time line. It is unlikely the Doctor does this.

Earth to DI

Converting an Earth date to the Date Index is as easy as subtracting 1,695,300 from its RE or adding 304,700 to the 4-digit LD.

1999 AD on Earth               417 BC on Earth               1999 AD on Earth               417 BC on Earth

          1,999                            417                         1,999                            417
+ 3,503,412,400.2              + 3,503,412,399.2             + 3,503,412,400.2              + 3,503,412,399.2
-----------------              -----------------             -----------------              -----------------
RE3,503,414,399.2              RE3,503,412,816.2             RE        4,399.2              RE        2,816.2
-     1,695,300                -     1,695,300               +       304,700                +       304,700
-----------------              -----------------             -----------------              -----------------
  3,501,719,099.2DI              3,501,717,516.2DI           DI      309,099.2              DI      307,516.2
            (99.2DI)                       (16.2DI)                    (DI99.2)                       (DI16.2)

Earth to GRT

Next is converting an Earth year to GRT, which is merely subtracting 2,003,543 from the full RE.

1999 AD on Earth               417 BC on Earth

          1,999                            417
+ 3,503,412,400.2              + 3,503,412,399.2
-----------------              -----------------
RE3,503,414,399.2              RE3,503,412,816.2
-     2,003,543                -     2,003,543
-----------------              -----------------
  3,501,410,856.2GRT             3,501,409,273.2GRT

Gallifreyan TL Dating System is merely used to "date" Time Lords relative to Gallifrey's date and can be found by adding 100,448 to a Time Lord's age. The purpose of this system is largely a mystery.

A Little More Specific

Gallifreyan years are identical to Earth years, though the actual number of days is a little hard to calculate. We do know:

Gallifreyan new year is between day 274 and day 310 on Earth (appx. as Oct. 20)
Dec 30 10:47 pm EST is 1/5th of the way through the Gallifreyan year

Assuming the new year does fall on October 20, that means Gallifrey operates on a 360-day year. At any rate, Gallifrey hosts several holidays on specific days from the new year (not necessarily a specific date).

Day 1 (Oct 20th~) Creation of the Web of Time
Day 13 (Nov 1st~) The Thirteeth Night: Gallifreyan Cults practice Mimesis
Day 128 (Feb 24th~) Intuitive Revolution Day
Day 162 (Mar 30th~) Otherstide/Othermass/Festival of Freedom: No one leaves their houses on Otherstide eve, and gifts are given to time-tots.
Day 205 (May 12th~) Death of Omega
The Festival of the Timewright (Anmers-Tonastide, or TimeWorker), Feast of Omega, and Rassilon's Flag Day are other holidays.

Again, it is important to note that these are merely approximations. Variances in planetary orbit, calendar-keeping, dating systems, and even the passage of time itself in Inner Time vs. Normal Space could affect the dating conversions. Use with discretion.

SparkNotes

Convert Earth Years To:		Prefix/Suffix
Relative Dating	+ 3,503,412,400.2 if after 1 AD + 3,503,412,399.2 if before 1 BC	RE-
Date Indexing	+ 3,501,717,100.2 if full RE (and -1 if BC) + 304,700 if 4-digit LD	-DI-
GRT	+ 3,501,408,857.2 if full RE (and -1 if BC)	-GRT

What about Earth to MD?

It is unknown how this is done. Since Matrix Dating is used by the Matrix and APC, it could be an entirely separate system running on its own fixed timeline.