diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/ddate.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/ddate.pm
index 3bd6c6f73..4e9d919a3 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/ddate.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/ddate.pm
@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ sub IkiWiki::displaytime ($) { #{{{
         my $gregorian=POSIX::strftime("%d %m %Y", localtime($time));
 	my $date=`ddate +'$IkiWiki::config{timeformat}' $gregorian`;
 	chomp $date;
+	if ($? || ! length $date) {
+		return "some time or other (hail Eris!)";
+	}
 	return $date;
 } #}}}