Do we know why Pike and co are in the different uniforms?

[BillJ]

However, varying the thickness to create a system parallel to the final TOS series braids, where the thick stripe represents the solid braid and the thin stripe represents the broken braid, is a natural retcon.

While I love the braids, I have no issue with Discovery and the Abrams films using stripes in their place.

 

[GNDN18]

Except they’re too close to the cuffs.

 

[Blue Squadron]

As I recall, the TOS pilots used solid stripes in different thicknesses instead of the braids and broken half ones. So, DSC using them is historically accurate. The DSC TOS uniforms might not be as much, given that their sandwiched between the same turtlenecks used in those TOS pilots, but I guess we could say that the Constitution-class officers uniform went from the turtlenecks to the DSC ones and then back to the turtlenecks (which might've come with changes to the rank stripes). Maybe not the most elegant solution, but it's no worse then the frequent Starfleet uniform changes we've seen over the years.

Nope, the pilots used single gold cuff-rings for ALL officers. Even Pike only has a single gold stripe. The only variation to this is that in WNMHGB Kirk, as captain, has two gold cuff rings but all the other officers still have just a single cuff ring. The full range of cuff rank insignia, using the wavy lace and broken stripes for the half-braids, didn't appear until the standard gold / blue / red uniforms of TOS.

I don't recall that the pilots actually did that. I recall only one thickness of solid stripe. Nor was the rank depiction in either pilot really in alignment with the system in the series. Production-wise, it was still a work in progress.

Yep, agreed -- as above!

However, varying the thickness to create a system parallel to the final TOS series braids, where the thick stripe represents the solid braid and the thin stripe represents the broken braid, is a natural retcon.

Yes, the use of thin stripes in place of the full-thickness but broken stripes does indeed approximate the TOS system and, in fairness, I totally understand how they arrived at that pattern of insignia for the 2009 movie (and onwards) but, inevitably, it does end up looking like contemporary USN insignia (or those of most other contemporary navies), which completely undoes the unique design and deliberate intention of the TOS system to avoid such similarities.

With that in mind, I think the JJ-verse interpretation of the cuff insignia lacks the imagination and flair of the TOS version. Using something more like the TOS version would have helped to set the DSC Enterprise uniforms apart from the JJ-verse. I completely accept, however, that this is just my ideal and that other opinions are just as valid!

 

[thribs]

Because they represent the best of the best.

 

[GNDN18]

Because they represent the best of the best.

Except for CPO Garrison. He was not the best of the best.

He was better than the shrugging yeomen, though.

They had none.

 

[Timo]

At the end of the day, then, we have a system in place in "The Cage":

- People called Lieutenant, or then nothing, wear single braid.
- People called nothing wear the broken braid.
- People called Yeoman, or nothing, wear no braid.

Which is at least compatible with TOS even if not particularly supportive of it. This character ostensibly (but never in dialogue) named (Clarence Patrick Obama?) Garrison would be the equivalent of Joe Tormolen of TOS; the rest would be Lieutenants just like Uhura or Sulu, or then braidless crewmen or Ensigns just as in TOS.

"Where No Man" is qualitatively different in that one character is established as Lieutenant Commander but wears the single braid more appropriate of a mere Lieutenant in TOS terms: an actual contradiction, when "The Cage" had none.

I'm not sure there ever was an intent to distance Trek from today's naval practices much. Moving from pilot to series just brought the budget for introducing more intricate braid. But the aim always was to make people mutter "Ah, yes, Royal Navy braid", just as with the phasers making them go "Now here comes the Colt" - to keep things familiar rather than alien. Trek had plenty of alienness to try and mitigate....

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

- People called Lieutenant, or then nothing, wear single braid.
- People called nothing wear the broken braid.
- People called Yeoman, or nothing, wear no braid.

WNMHGB and Charlie X suggest that two braids can be worn by junior ship "captains" (substantively commander by rank), so lieutenant commanders and lieutenants wear one braid, and ensigns wear none (or ladder braid?) and yeomen/enlisted wear none.