47


 * For the year 47 see the 1st century.

The number 47 makes frequent recurrences in dialog and on computer screens in Star Trek.

The origin of the significance of 47 can be traced to The Next Generation and Voyager writer Joe Menosky, who attended Pomona College in California. There is a club at Pomona called The 47 Society, which claims that there exists a mathematical proof that all numbers are equal to 47, and that the number 47 occurs with greater frequency in nature than other numbers - 74 makes frequent reappearances as well.

Joe Menosky first started including references to 47 in his scripts in the fourth season of TNG, and the in-joke quickly caught on among the rest of the staff. Since then, references to 47 have been included in many episodes and movies of all the modern series.

According to Ronald D. Moore, the number of 47 references in later seasons of Deep Space Nine declined as the production staff tired of the joke.

When asked about the significance of the number, Rick Berman once joked, "47 is 42, corrected for inflation" referring to 42 being "the " according to  by.

The joke continued in J.J. Abrams's, as there are frequent 47s to be found in the alternate reality.

In Star Trek Online, the MMORPG by Cryptic, a major hub for Federation players to interact inside Earth Spacedock is called Club 47.