A sci-fi TV show, later turned into a long movie sequel.

Mentioned here for some obscure reason. Maybe they used Tcl in the Enterprise...

...it turns out that Tcl's [clock scan] supports Star Trek's stardate notation:

 % clock scan "stardate 20 . 20"
 -756604800

I've no idea who added this or why. I cannot see it in the documentation either. Strikes me as needless code bloat. Does *anyone* use this?

[RS] Also:
 43258 % clock format [clock sec] -format %Q
 Stardate 57824.5

-

The source for "strftime.c" reveals that the undocumented %Q format specifier is done as a special case:

    /* ... from strftime.c ... */
    if (format[0] == '%' && format[1] == 'Q') {
        /* Format as a stardate */
        sprintf(s, "Stardate %2d%03d.%01d",
                (((t->tm_year + TM_YEAR_BASE) + 377) - 2323),
                (((t->tm_yday + 1) * 1000) /
                        (365 + IsLeapYear((t->tm_year + TM_YEAR_BASE)))),
                (((t->tm_hour * 60) + t->tm_min)/144));
    /* ... */

 (bin) 50 % clock format [clock sec] -format "%Q blah"
 Stardate 57547.3
 (bin) 51 % clock format [clock sec] -format " %Q blah"
  Q blah

Anyone know who/when/why introduced this curious feature?

''Just before the Tcl/2k conference in Austin - ask Jeff Hobbs and/or Kevin Kenny...''

[Ro]:  This is really neat ;)

----
I believe the option was named %Q because of the Star Trek Next Generation
recurring character of Q of the Q Consortium...

[AMG] thinks it's actually the Q Continuum.

"My name's Q.  That's short for Q."
----

Maybe it was in honour of Scotty:

What is Scotty?
Scotty is the name for a software package which allows to implement site specific network management software using high-level, string-based APIs. The software is based on the Tool Command Language (Tcl) which simplifies the development of portable network management applications. The scotty source distribution includes two components: The Tnm Tcl extension allows to access network management information. The Tkined network editor provides a framework for an extensible network management platform. 

What is the story behind the name Scotty?
Some people say it has something to do with the startrek series. Scotty was the character who had to make the impossible possible in order to keep the starship flying and the scotty package may do the same for your network. Others say that this name happened by accident because the author of the Scotty package was just too lazy to come up with a better name...