Colour coding on uniforms

[Xabitrip]

Sorry if this question has been asked before.

Just been watching Shockwaves P2 and it got me wondering about the colour coding on the uniforms and the fact the Archer and Mayweather both wear yellow piping.

Might be a daft question, but before Archer was promoted to Captain, would he still have worn yellow, or say if Trip was promoted to Captain, would he still wear the engineers red or swap to yellow (I know he did in one episode but was wondering if they just did that so we knew he was a Captain at that point)?

Just seems that Mayweather is the only other one to wear yellow, therefore, do we assume Archer had the same training and background leading up to becoming Captain as Mayweather or might he have come from another specialism and swapped over to yellow upon becoming Captain.

 

[Random Canadian]

Yellow was worn by all member of the command division, and we've seen that that the command division also includes members of lower-ranking positions, such as flight controllers/navigators. If Archer was working as a part of the command division prior to becoming Captain (and it's suggested that he spent at least some time as a test pilot, so I'd assume he was) then he would have. If he was working in another field (such as engineering) then he was probably wearing another colour and switched into the command division when becoming captain.

 

[syc]

Its my understanding that the gold division is used primarily for command positions, Trip was at times temporarily placed in command but should he have taken full command of Enterprise his color would have changed from red to gold or yellow (which ever).

The following descriptions are from the Memory Alpha database and are the most accurate descriptions I could find.

- Command Division -

The command division is the corps of officers within Starfleet who specialize in command and control functions on starbases, aboard starships, and at Starfleet Command. Members of the command division are trained in leadership and have tactical training allowing them to decisively take action in organizing and mobilizing Starfleet crews to perform missions. Command officers include most all of the admiralty, captains, executive officers, adjutants, pilots and flight controller (or helmsman). Command division personnel also fill posts as tactical officers and sometimes in ordnance departments.

- Operations / Engineering Division -

The operations division is the corps of officers and crewmen within Starfleet who specialize in services and military functions on starbases, aboard starships, and at Starfleet Command. Members of the operations division may specialize in a ship or base service, administration, or military operations, or serve as staff officers. Operations officers include engineers, security and tactical, and some service specializations such as communications. Operations division personnel also fill administrative posts as yeomen, personnel officers and portmasters. By the 24th century, this division had new postings established on ships, such as operations officers (aka chiefs of operations).

- Science Division -

The sciences division was the corps of officers within Starfleet who specialized in both scientific and medical research and control functions on starbases, aboard starships, and at Starfleet Command. Members of the sciences division may have specialized in sensors, research, theoretical and physical laboratory work, biological studies, and also as technicians, medics, and surgeons.

Red and Yellow obviously swapped positions in the later years as Patrick Stewart of course looked better in red.

 

[Praetor]

...and it's all complicated more when you realize that the TOS 'gold' were in real life green, and merely looked gold on screen. I believe in the third season they actually did use a more gold-colored fabric when they switched from velour because that's what viewers were used to seeing.

 

[Michael]

Green? Green!? [highlight]GREEN!?[/highlight]

They were clearly avocado!

 

[Praetor]

Green? Green!? [highlight]GREEN!?[/highlight]

They were clearly avocado!

Tomato, toe-MAHH-toe.

Just like my parents' old refrigerator.

 

[Green Shirt]

Green? Green!? [highlight]GREEN!?[/highlight]

They were clearly avocado!

Tomato, toe-MAHH-toe.

Just like my parents' old refrigerator.

The color looked better on uniforms than it did on a fridge.

 

[Praetor]

Hey, I liked my parents' old fridge, thank you.

I still prefer to think of my command color as gold though.

 

[Skywalker]

Red is the command color I grew up with, but even I would have been a little perplexed if the command color in ENT hadn't been gold.

 

[Praetor]

Yeah, the first time I saw TOS I was momentarily confused. I was used to Picard and Riker and the monster maroon movie jackets.

 

[TS-1838-SWATH]

Yeah, the first time I saw TOS I was momentarily confused. I was used to Picard and Riker and the monster maroon movie jackets.

The T.N.G. Uniforms were going to follow the G|R|B = Cmd|Ops|Sci
BUT when PS/JF came out wearing the GOLD they looked Horrible in GOLD so it was then that the production team made the change to:
RED = Cmd
GOLD = OPS
BLUE = Science/Medical

 

[Skywalker]

I still think that the color switch never would have happened had they come up with the uniforms used in Season 3 and beyond in the first place. The super-tight spandex and lack of a collar really looked ridiculous.

I think Data would have looked better in blue with that uniform, too.

 

[Praetor]

I think Data looked better in blue either way. Picard and Riker looking bad in gold I can somewhat see, but I've never understood the idea of the blue looking bad with Data's goldish skin.

 

[Michael]

^ Agreed, Data looked great in blue. But I actually think he looked even better in red. Now that was a good complement to his golden skin.

 

[Praetor]

Worf, on the other hand, always looked weird in red to me.

 

[Skywalker]

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v46/randomir/?action=view&current=TNG-TOS.jpg

Eh? Eh?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Yeah, the first time I saw TOS I was momentarily confused. I was used to Picard and Riker and the monster maroon movie jackets.

The T.N.G. Uniforms were going to follow the G|R|B = Cmd|Ops|Sci
BUT when PS/JF came out wearing the GOLD they looked Horrible in GOLD so it was then that the production team made the change to:
RED = Cmd
GOLD = OPS
BLUE = Science/Medical

Moreover, originally, the uniform colors were a darker value than the ones used on TOS. So the red was actually a wine/burgundy, the blue was a teal, and the gold was a greenish-mustard.

When the main cast uniforms changed material from spandex to wool gabardine in season 3, the wine/burgundy remained. The teal was tweaked several times over the years because of the blue screen, and became lighter and lighter in color almost looking like a sea blue-green. The greenish-mustard became more gold.

 

[Praetor]

Eh? Eh?

Aw, hell, I wanted to do that.

Seriously, nice work. And, I think they still look pretty good that way. It feels weird just because I'm used to it the other way. It would be interesting to try to precisely color-match them to screencaps from TOS...

I wonder how Sisko and Janeway would look in gold...

 

[Skywalker]

I did use the gold color that was supposedly the one we saw in TOS (according to Wikipedia), but I had to futz with the coloring to get it to look natural and not just like I painted it over the real material.

I wonder how Sisko and Janeway would look in gold...

The colors on the original Sisko pic were a little washed out, so it doesn't look that great, but we already know Sisko looks good in gold thanks to Trials and Tribble-ations. I think Janeway turned out pretty well, though.

 

[Praetor]

Say, those look pretty good. Did you do that with desaturation techniques?