Few references to time are given, some more meaningful than others. In The Way Back it was announced that the London's departure from Earth was advanced to "1700 Earth time", and Vila noted that this was only eight hours distant (ie: about 0900). It was night when the London left the dome city, despite it being summer (as evidenced by the leaves on the trees, and the implicit date - see below). This suggests that Earth time was applied to the whole planet, with no local time (at least as far as launchings were concerned). Keiller, In Gold, advised the Space Princess" passengers to "tune all chronometers to frequency seven for synchronisation with Federation Standard Time".
In Hostage Servalan's planetfall on Exbar was scheduled for "2159 standard". In The Harvest of Kairos the kairopan shuttled was scheduled to take off from the planet at 0815. Both of these times fall within the scope of a 24-hour clock.
Several date codes were seen in The Way Back. Study of the medical records of Renor Leesal et al show an apparent chronological progression from years 42 to 52, the day before Blake's alleged assault being 52.6.8. This might be taken to mean either June 8th or August 6th (it might mean something else entirely, of course). If so, it is more likely to be June 8th, since Renor Leesal was apparently born on 42.1.5 and vaccinated on 42.4.3 - these dates are more likely to be January 5th and April 3rd respectively than May 1st and March 4th. The year "52" can mean several things - see FEDERATION.
Other dates given were less meaningful. Travis" massacre of civilians on Zircaster is given the date code "beta 2001". The Federation's investigation of Obsidian is listed as having "date code 303" which Vila called "a long time ago". It could not have been that long ago, however, since Hower was on Obsidian at the time of the investigation, after having trained with Hal Mellanby at the Federation's Central Science Complex.
References were made to "Earth years" in Moloch, "Earth hours" in Power, and "standard days" in Gold.
See also TIME UNIT
The mechanism used by Federation and other ships to exceed light speed, though by how much was never made clear.
See also HYPERDRIVE, PHOTONIC DRIVE, SPEED, INTERGALACTIC DRIVE.
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The Mark X pursuit ships in The Harvest of Kairos were described as
the newest and fastest at Servalan's command, yet Zen noted a modified fin
that implied "primitive Time Distort facility". Pursuit ships in earlier
episodes (eg Hostage) had been seen to travel at speeds of up to
TD-10. No explanation for this apparent anomaly was given.
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The following timeline is based on the various (frequently vague or approximate) references given by various people in various episodes. Some of them are possibly contentious, and since there is little indication as to how much time each season represented (Ven Glynd mentions two years separating The Way Back and Voice from the Past), the relative placing of some of the more recent events is rather conjectural.
| 3,000 | years before City at the Edge of the World, the people of Keezarn launch their ship to find them a new home. |
| 700 | years before Killer, Wanderer K47 disappears in 61 Cygni. |
| 411 | years before Avon's visit, Terminal is built. |
| 200 | years before Pressure Point, the Federation begins to expand. |
| 200 | years before Powerplay, Chenga is settled. |
| 200 | years before the crew reach Xenon, Dorian discovers the underground room on the planet. |
| 125 | years before Cygnus Alpha, the first prisoners are landed on the penal colony (approximate - might be 100 or 150 years). |
| 100 | or more years before Traitor, the old monorail tunnel on Helotrix is sealed. |
| 100 | years before Mission to Destiny, Destiny is settled. |
| 50 | years at least before Mission to Destiny, the Ortega is built. |
| 40 | years before Orac, Ensor goes into hiding (according to Blake - see ENSOR). |
| 30 | years or more before Children of Auron, disease is eliminated from Auron. |
| 30 | years before Pressure Point, Control is moved from Earth (according to Travis). |
| 30 | years before Rescue, Dorian begins work on developing a teleport system. |
| 23 | years before The Way Back, the Fletch expedition is massacred by the Waazis (inferred date). |
| 20 | years before Aftermath, Hal Mellanby leaves Earth with Dayna. This is before Servalan becomes a prominent political figure. |
| 20 | years before Power, Maravik defeats the Seska. |
| 15 | years before The Harvest of Kairos, Tarrant takes his first command on the kairopan shuttle. |
| 12 | years before Bounty, Sarkoff becomes President of Lindor. |
| 12 | years before Games, Belkov begins mining feldon on Mecron II. |
| 7 | years before Bounty, Sarkoff is voted out of office. |
| 10 | years before Assassin, pirates begin operations on Domo. |
| 10 | years before Orbit, Egrorian flees from the Space Research Institute with Pinder and several million credits. Tarrant studies at the SRI shortly afterwards. |
| 4 | years before The Way Back, Blake's first rebellion is defeated and Travis badly injured (Blake again met Ven Glynd two years later, or 6 years after his first trial, before going to Star One). |
| 6 | years before Star One, top secret experiments begin on Bucol-2. |
| 5 | years before Sand, the first expedition to Virn is wiped out. |
| 4 | years before Death-Watch, Deeta Tarrant becomes Champion of Teal. |
| 3 | years before Trial, Travis massacres 1,417 civilians on Zircaster. |
| 3 | years before Stardrive, Dr Plaxton begins working with space rats. |
The date given for Dr Havant's treatment of the three children allegedly molested by Blake is 52.6.8 - see FEDERATION and TIME for further discussion on what this might mean. Although 20th Century and earlier events were mentioned on a number of occasions, no indication was given as to how far back such events might have been.
Unspecified period of time. Selma told Jenna that miners absorbed a lethal dose of radiation from monopasium-239 in 30 time units.
In Hostage Travis gave Blake 25 time units to reach Exbar before Inga would be killed.
A poison extracted from pamperanian fungi, used on Forbus by Commissioner Sleer to enslave him to her, manufacturing pylene-50 for her Pacification Programme.
Crewman of Wanderer K47, along with Kemp and Wardin. His body was not found when the ship was recovered by the salvager on Fosforon.
| Krantor's assistant in Freedom City, and wearer of a rather suspect headdress. He informed Krantor of Travis" whereabouts, and surmised (correctly) that Kline was in fact Docholli. He berated Krantor for losing 10 million credits to Avon and Vila. His dealings with Krantor suggested a homosexual relationship between them. |  |
A bidder at the slave auction on Domo, representing Valeria of Prim and Natratof of Gourimpest.
Four types of toolbox were shown in the series. The first was a small toolbox used by Dal Richie in 'The Way Back' to carry the equipment he used to open the dome's exit at Sub 43; the second was a black toolbox used in 'Space Fall' by a technician on the London who was checking the ship's computer when he was attacked and eventually knocked out by Avon.
The third type of toolbox was the most widely seen, in a total of six episodes. It should be mentioned that it might not have been the same toolbox that appeared in all the episodes. In appearance, it was red with a white top, separated by a black stripe, on the outside, white on the inside. Its lid was light grey with two thin red stripes on top, white underneath; and it was fastened to the top of the toolbox by fasteners on either side of the latter; and it had a handle for carrying on top. While this type of toolbox is particularly associated with Vila, it was used by other B7 crewmembers in half the episodes in which it appeared.
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This type of toolbox first appeared in Time Squad, when bracelets
and other equipment were loaded into it by Vila and Gan. Vila carried and used
it during this episode; this was also the case in Seek-Locate-Destroy, the
toolbox carrying the equipment used to break into the Federation base on
Centero. In both these episodes, its interior was divided into a series of dark
grey tubes, presumably used to facilitate the storage of objects.
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This type of toolbox was again used by Blake in Bounty, it containing a rope and grappling hook used by him to gain access to Sarkoff's residence. Of interest was that Sarkoff was carrying the toolbox when teleported up to the Liberator. The last time this type of toolbox was seen was in Countdown, when carried down by Avon when he went down to Albian with Del Grant to disable the solium radiation device, it presumably contained the necessary equipment.
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A fourth type of toolbox appeared in four episodes, used by Blake, Rashel,
and Vila. It was roughly two thirds the size of the third type of toolbox,
grey, with three ribs, a hinged lid, and a handle for carrying it on its
side. Blake was seen with this type of toolbox in Sub-Control Room Four in
Redemption; Rashel was seen with it in Weapon; and Vila was seen with
it in The Keeper and City at the Edge of the World. While Vila was not
seen using any of the equipment packed into it in The Keeper, it
presumably contained the low energy probe he used to collapse the first
forcefield in City. Rashel may have been using a toolbox as a suitcase in
order not to attract the attention of security.
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| Sara used a club hammer to destroy the flight controls of the Ortega, a primitive instrument compared to the hand tools usually seen. Avon and Del Grant used an electric drill in Countdown. Less prosaic tools mentioned include an "extractor" and "separator" (in Countdown), a "probe" (in Mission to Destiny), insulated saw, laser knife, laser lance, laser probe, link clamp, and magnetic probe. In Power, Avon searched for dynamon crystals with the aid of a petroscope. |  |