If You Could Rewrite "The Original Series" . . .

[Pauln6]

Taking as granted the fact that Nichelle really did look better in red than in gold-colored avocado, and moving on to try to posit an in-universe explanation, I would guess that communications involved electronics, maybe duotronics, certainly subspace technology, and so technical stuff. Uhura was certainly trained to repair and modify her own console under the hood, even though she hadn't needed to do it in years ("Who Mourns for Adonais?").

Why lawyers in red, too? Well, the law is very technical. (No seriously, it should have been gold-colored avocado or arguably blue; historians should have been blue for sure.)

The kitchen sink is plumbing though, and we know Scotty knows all about that, so, yeah, the catch-all is red....

Interesting aside: security in Franz Joseph's TOS tech manual is in the command section (gold, with the star).

There is a lot of illogic about the colour schemes. There are probably far more command officers than there needs to be. Red was Services, which covered engineering, security, and administration, so Areel Shaw was under administration I suppose. Social sciences might not be deemed a key post, so possibly you would have an officer qualified in that discipline but posted to another department. McGivers might have been a senior security officer or engineer. Mulhall is weird since astrobiology would be a posting in its own right, and as a Lt Commander, it's a pretty senior positions too. Even if she's an engineer, there would still need to be an astrobiologist, so her red uniform and description definitely do not tally.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Mulhall is weird since astrobiology would be a posting in its own right, and as a Lt Commander, it's a pretty senior positions too. Even if she's an engineer, there would still need to be an astrobiologist, so her red uniform and description definitely do not tally.

Given that Kirk doesn't know her when he meets her for the first time, she may have been a passenger they were transporting elsewhere (along with others, because if she boarded alone, he'd have known about it; he usually does) and as such had no official duties onboard the Enterprise, which is supported by her surprise that she'd been assigned given landing party duty.

 

[Pauln6]

Given that Kirk doesn't know her when he meets her for the first time, she may have been a passenger they were transporting elsewhere (along with others, because if she boarded alone, he'd have known about it; he usually does) and as such had no official duties onboard the Enterprise, which is supported by her surprise that she'd been assigned given landing party duty.

Do they refer to her as the ship's astrobiologist ? If not, that's as good an explanation as any! I don't know why they didn't just make her an engineer...

 

[JonnyQuest037]

How or why communications ends up in red in TOS is anybody's guess.

Taking as granted the fact that Nichelle really did look better in red than in gold-colored avocado...

Yeah, I don't think there's much more of an explanation other than "Nichelle looked better in red."

 

[Nerys Myk]

Most of the women in the show looked good in red and blue. The gold, not so much. Not sure why.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Do they refer to her as the ship's astrobiologist ? If not, that's as good an explanation as any! I don't know why they didn't just make her an engineer...

She just identifies herself as "Doctor Ann Mulhall, Astro-biology." Not as being attached to the Enterprise.

 

[Maurice]

Most of the women in the show looked good in red and blue. The gold, not so much. Not sure why.

Green.

 

[Commishsleer]

Dehner looked good in gold

 

[FormerLurker]

Dehner wore blue.

 

[Maurice]

Dehner looked good in gold

Don't make this into the shower scene from M*A*S*H. Heh.

 

[Emperor Norton]

I would remove the "12 like it line" on the Constitution class. They didn't even follow that at the time of that episode, for goodness sake.

 

[Emperor Norton]

Most of the women in the show looked good in red and blue. The gold, not so much. Not sure why.

In terms of fashion, it may be a contrast thing. Men wore pants, so you had the contrast of black and gold that made it pop. Women wore no space pants, so it was more emphasis on the gold with black only on the collar and boots.

 

[Commishsleer]

Dehner wore blue.

Yes she did.
What was I thinking?

Umm just testing if you were paying attention

 

[FormerLurker]

Don't make this into the shower scene from M*A*S*H. Heh.

Hotlips wore a shocked expression.

 

[Commander Luskeen]

The only thing I'd change from TOS is the awful, obvious use of stunt doubles