Security "Blue Shirts" in 'The Cage' & 'WNMHGB'

[Shamrock Holmes]

In the two pilots, security officers are seen wearing blue (rather than TOS red) and having a unique never seen again blocky 'C'-shaped insignia (different from the more curved 'Enginneering' symbol worn during TOS. This is often dismissed as 'Early Installment Weirdness' or an out-and-out costuming error however the second point especially makes this unlikely to me.

For most of the Star Trek franchise, security guards have been shown as either part of Operations/Engineering (ENT, TOS, TNG, VOY), usually combined with Tactical (ENT, TNG, VOY) but not always (TOS) or even a separate service of their own (ENT's MACOs) and while the latter somewhat reflects the RW USN relationship between GMs & MAA's (rare outside of major capital ships) IIRC, the fandom/licencees don't seem to find this satisfactory given the profusion (even before ENT IFAIK?) of 'Starfleet Marines' and similar organisations.

Now personally, I think that especially in the TNG+ era the basic logistics argue against the idea of having a 'dedicated infantry' Division of Starfleet/Federation Uniformed Services, so I think that most of the 'Ship's Security' contingent are likely to be either unrated 'crewman' or specialists in other field (Communications, Engineering and Armory are intuitable based on canon), but I think it's also possible that (in a more realistic enlisted heavy setting?) that the bulk of the section are actually part of the Science Division (possibly designated Landing Party Specialists? Somewhat 'Hollywood CSIs' or somewhat like an Science version of the Religious Program Specialist of the US Armed Forces?)

I'm also relatively keen on the idea of a Starfleet Intelligence or Federation Security Agency representive being embarked onboard as a 'big picture'/'impartial observer' on the Senior Staff (analogous to the NCIS Agent-Afloat Program rather than the old Soviet 'Political Officers') who would also be in charge of managing any 'high-risk' planned security operations and risk assessments, but with the actual 'Team Leader' role going to senior enlisted or junior uniformed officers.

Shamrock Holmes

 

[Timo]

In "Arena", Kirk beams down with one extra of each color when asked to bring along his "tactical aides". The ones in gold and blue wear Lieutenant braid, while the redshirt is braidless (and apparently worthless, as the Gorn sniper eliminates him without hesitation while sparing all the "important" potential captives). The implication would seem to be that Kirk trusts his blueshirts in addition to his goldshirts with top tactical roles - so if blue is to refer to "science" in some fashion, then the definition of science certainly encompasses a broad range of brawny rather than brainy pursuits. Pike's blueshirts might be of similar ilk, standing at various doorways because nothing tactical was going on...

...Or then mere science gophers, ready to carry messages in case the internal communications again failed. Or, given the plot, most probably medics standing by to see which of the officers so badly hurt at Rigel VII would keel over first!

Then again, contradictions regarding shirt colors pile up. It might be better to simply drop the idea that the colors would refer to lines of work at all, at any given era ("division" would either not be visually recognizable, or then, for TOS/TAS, be indicated in the chest badge). Rather, the three colors might just denote the three shifts or watches aboard the ship, with all three happily intermingling during alerts and similar intensive operations. (When Jellico went for four shifts, he just didn't have time to order the green shirts to be replicated!)

security guards [..] a separate service of their own (ENT's MACOs)

Except they weren't. Archer already had plenty of security people, who fought in many a heated small arms fight under the command of Reed in the first two seasons. No doubt his entire crew was somewhat barebones for the first two years, as it had been scaled for a simple tither-and-yon ferry mission and never got a chance for resupply or rotation. But his security team might well have been up to strength, considering what he was supposed to ferry!

The MACO team was a competing organization, to such a degree that Adm. Forrest worried Archer might succumb to the temptations of interservices rivalry. He didn't, and apparently his Starfleet security forces were largely left ashore so that the ship would again sail out with just 80 crew. Military Assault Command vs. Starfleet Command vs. who knows what else?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[J.T.B.]

In the two pilots, security officers are seen wearing blue (rather than TOS red) and having a unique never seen again blocky 'C'-shaped insignia (different from the more curved 'Enginneering' symbol worn during TOS. This is often dismissed as 'Early Installment Weirdness' or an out-and-out costuming error however the second point especially makes this unlikely to me.

I don't recall seeing a "C" insignia in WNMHGB; it was my assumption that it disappeared in the change to the black-bordered badges. If Eddie Paskey is a security guard, in blue with a pistol belt, it's hard to make out what the device on his badge is. Is there another that I'm not remembering?

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I don't recall seeing a "C" insignia in WNMHGB; it was my assumption that it disappeared in the change to the black-bordered badges. If Eddie Paskey is a security guard, in blue with a pistol belt, it's hard to make out what the device on his badge is. Is there another that I'm not remembering?

This true, in fact upon researching it futher, I've discovered that although series regular Eddie Paskey (usually security/engineer with the 'spiral' insignia) appeared as security guard wearing a blue shirt it appears to have a Sciences 'O' on it rather than the Security 'C', however as Scotty wore a beige shirt with a 'O' and the navigator from "The Cage" wore a Command Gold/Green top with the 'spiral' (in contrast with Pike, Number 1, Kirk and WNMHGB!Spock who wore the 'TOS correct' combination of Gold/Green and the 'star'.

So I think the only thing that can be said with any certainty as far as the pilots go is that Engineers, Security and Armory (consider Ops & Comms also?) are not the same department and that (as in RW) while each of the above (esp the officers) may 'fill in' for the others as needed (also true for MAAs & GMs in RW) they are supposed to be readily distinguishable?

Shamrock Holmes

 

[J.T.B.]

This true, in fact upon researching it futher, I've discovered that although series regular Eddie Paskey (usually security/engineer with the 'spiral' insignia) appeared as security guard wearing a blue shirt it appears to have a Sciences 'O' on it rather than the Security 'C',

That's what I thought, too, when I made this:



It's hard to figure out a consistent system for either pilot, just going by what was shown.

 

[ItIsGreen]

So, essentially, the colour/stripe/insignia combinations make no freaking sense. It's almost as if someone was making it up...

 

[Tomalak]

Maybe they just wear their favourite colour? 23rd Century Starfleet wouldn't do anything so proscriptive and prosaic as to make people wear colours denoting their job.

"You can have any colour you like, as long as it's pastel."

 

[drt]

Whoa, I never noticed that "C" insignia before.

 

[FormerLurker]

the guy with the "C" was the one that always stood by the turbolift with the clipboard, wasn't he? He and his prominent forehead?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think that both of these blueshirts have C's:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x00hd/thecagehd0131.jpg

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I think that both of these blueshirts have C's:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x00hd/thecagehd0131.jpg

Agreed.

 

[Timo]

This is all a good attempt at establishing plausible lines of distinction. Yet a big fundamental problem with the colors being there for making different jobs distinct is the pairing of Medical and Sciences. Or Medical and anything, really. If one is in such a hurry that only bright primary colors will serve one's identification purposes (say, on the battlefield), surely the distinction between a surgeon and an anthropologist would be massively more important than the distinction between a photonics engineer and an anthropologist?

OTOH, Trek medics carry guns and kill people, further making them indistinct. Perhaps the point of the colors is to obfuscate?

Onscreen, we never learn what the colors might denote, not even at the most general level. There is one bit of dialogue about a character changing his shirt color ("Paradise" - O'Brien gets gold after becoming Tactical Officer, but we have no idea what he wore before, nor whether he got gold as a "reward" or "had to change") and another about a character being limited in his options by his shirt color ("The Adversary" - Eddington can't become "a captain" wearing gold), but that's it. No reference to color being indicative of division, or line of work, or pay rate, or sexual orientation, or genetic worthiness, or whatever.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[urbandefault]

The "C" probably stood for "casualty" -- like a proto-Red Shirt. The poor guys just didn't know it yet.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Onscreen, we never learn what the colors might denote, not even at the most general level.

You must have forgotten DS9 "Trials and Tribble-ations", which even lampshades it:

BASHIR: Wait a minute, aren't you two wearing the wrong colour?
O'BRIEN: Don't you know anything about this period in time?
BASHIR: I'm a doctor, not an historian.
SISKO: In the old days, operations officers wore red, command officers wore gold.
DAX: And women wore less.

Also, in "Dagger of the Mind":

SECURITY: (to intruder who has swapped overall with technician) Hey, you from Engineering! (runs) Bridge. Section C, deck fourteen.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

This is all a good attempt at establishing plausible lines of distinction. Yet a big fundamental problem with the colors being there for making different jobs distinct is the pairing of Medical and Sciences. Or Medical and anything, really. If one is in such a hurry that only bright primary colors will serve one's identification purposes (say, on the battlefield), surely the distinction between a surgeon and an anthropologist would be massively more important than the distinction between a photonics engineer and an anthropologist?

Again, I basically agree. Which is why I like the TOS!Chapel had a unique "Red Cross" insignia (though a Star of Life or similar would be better) and IIRC the 'scrubs' that Abramverse!McCoy wears sometimes also have this (in black).

(Sidenote, although I'd prefer the Abramsverse! Class A unis to be blue (preferably the "Admirality Blue") rather than mid-gray, I like the fact that Admirals have a unique uniform and that COs wear a different version of the chest pin to Officers).

 

[ItIsGreen]

Not to mention when O'Brien was on the conn in Encounter at Farpoint he wore red, and when he became transporter Chief he wore gold. But then he also wore Ensign and Lieutenant pips in TNG as well, so god knows what that tells us (other than TPTB hadn't decided to make him a noncom yet).

Worf switched from red to gold and back to red again depending on his job, as did Geordi (well, red to gold anyway), Data switches from gold to red when made First Officer in Chain of Command, and Picard wears blue when working in Astrophysics in Tapestry, although that's possibly one of Q's illusions. So the shirt colour clearly has a bearing on what type of job you do (or vice versa). Whether or not it makes sense is another matter...

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Not to mention when O'Brien was on the conn in Encounter at Farpoint he wore red, and when he became transporter Chief he wore gold. But then he also wore Ensign and Lieutenant pips in TNG as well, so god knows what that tells us (other than TPTB hadn't decided to make him a noncom yet).

Worf switched from red to gold and back to red again depending on his job, as did Geordi (well, red to gold anyway), Data switches from gold to red when made First Officer in Chain of Command, and Picard wears blue when working in Astrophysics in Tapestry, although that's possibly one of Q's illusions. So the shirt colour clearly has a bearing on what type of job you do (or vice versa). Whether or not it makes sense is another matter...

[Insert Random Speculation] Actually, I wonder if CONN (from Encounter at Farpoint) and the Security Guard roles that Colm Meaney played (including possibly his appearance in The Wounded might have actually been intended as Josh Clark's Tactical Officer (Joe Carey?) role (despite their looks they are actually about the same age) from Justice.


Shamrock Holmes

 

[BillJ]

That's what I thought, too, when I made this:



It's hard to figure out a consistent system for either pilot, just going by what was shown.

Seems like Sciences and Support flipped insignia's between the two pilots and then flipped back for the series proper.

 

[Drone]

As for the insignias, maybe costuming just got carried away with making pretty and interesting looking designs. This was the age of Spirograph after all, introduced in 1965. Gee, I loved playing with that!!!!!

 

[Timo]

the Security Guard roles that Colm Meaney played

But did he? There was nothing particularly Security'ish about the "Lonely Among Us" appearance - a random goldshirted crewman (say, a transporter operator) just stumbled onto somebody who shouldn't have been there and reacted. And that was it for Colm Meaney and "security", really...

Timo Saloniemi