You don't understand the startdates?
Take, for example, 20171208.2012
Let me stick some spaces in some helpful places:
2017 12 08 . 20 12
That better?
20171208 means 8th December 2017, and 2012 is in 24-hour clock format, IE 8:12PM
Stardates in the Star Trek universe work in an entirely different way. Wikipedia has a good explanation on how Stardates work.