Why does the chronometer on Virdons ship appear to be broken and what is the story behind that rumor?
The POTA series was never one known for keeping accurate track of dates used in the overall plot, a mistake which has caused all manner of continuity problems for fans in the decades since. The main problem was Taylor’s ship chronometer reading 3978 AD and in the sequel, Brent saying that even though they arrived after Taylor, that the date on their ship was 3955 or 23 full years earlier than we see Taylor land. This problem is compounded in the opening scenes of the POTA TV series, where the Earth / Ship time starts out as being August 19, 1980. Both clocks start out on the same date. As the opening credits roll, we see the Earth time chronometer rapidly advance from August 19, 1980 up to June 14, 3085 AD. What fans noted was that during this time, the subjective ship time never changed at all!
