Different Coloured Uniforms

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Can someone please explain what the different colours signify? (red, yellow, blue) Is it a person's rank?

 

[Melakon]

Departments. In TOS and I think ENT, green/yellow for command, red for operations/services, blue for science.

In TNG and after, green and red were swapped for some reason.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Departments. In TOS and I think ENT, green/yellow for command, red for operations/services, blue for science.

In TNG and after, *green and red were swapped for some reason.

*Yellow (TNG didn't use green alternate)

And it was because Stewart didn't look good in yellow.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

What about in Voyager?

 

[Melakon]

All the 24th century shows follow TNG's color assignments.

For the JJ movies, it's back to TOS.

 

[CorporalClegg]

For the record, ranks are determined by the gold jewelry on officers' collars. They're called pips.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Can someone please explain what the different colours signify? (red, yellow, blue) Is it a person's rank?

TOS: Green = command; Red = operations; Blue = sciences
TNG, DS9, Voyager: Red = command; Green/gold = ops; Blue = science

Can't quite nail down the ENT colors as of yet. They seem to be different depending on lighting. Blue is still science; command looks to be the same green/gold that is used for TNG operations; and ops looks purplish.

 

[Enterprise1701]

I've read that the command division costumes of TOS were actually lime green, but the set lighting made them look golden yellow.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I've read that the command division costumes of TOS were actually lime green, but the set lighting made them look golden yellow.

Avocado.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ No thank you, I already ate.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Thanks for clearing that up I'm still new to all this.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Pfft. Newbs.

 

[J.T.B.]

In TNG and after, *green and red were swapped for some reason.
*Yellow (TNG didn't use green alternate)

And it was because Stewart didn't look good in yellow.

I've also heard it was because red for the captain was a link to the ST2+ movie jackets. Anything definitive on that? Or maybe it was just the shade; the TNG color did look more burgundy than the TOS color.

 

[SPCTRE]

Can't quite nail down the ENT colors as of yet. They seem to be different depending on lighting.

The ENT colors are supposed to follow* the TOS color scheme AFAIK.

*(well, not "follow" in a chronological sense of course )

 

[F. King Daniel]

Departments. In TOS and I think ENT, green/yellow for command, red for operations/services, blue for science.

In TNG and after, *green and red were swapped for some reason.

*Yellow (TNG didn't use green alternate)

And it was because Stewart didn't look good in yellow.

And because Brent Spiner looked terrible in blue, the incredibly vague post of "operations officer" was created as an excuse to get their science-officer-in-all-but-name in a yellow uniform.


Considering the uniforms of TOS were originally coloured as a means to push colour TV's with the justifications (i.e. different crew departments) coming later, I think it's best not to dwell on them too much (like, why does Hoshi wear blue and Uhura red, when they do the same job? Why was Spock in yellow for the second pilot episode? If Data is "operations officer", who actually is the TNG science officer?)

 

[SPCTRE]

Departments. In TOS and I think ENT, green/yellow for command, red for operations/services, blue for science.

In TNG and after, *green and red were swapped for some reason.

*Yellow (TNG didn't use green alternate)

And it was because Stewart didn't look good in yellow.

And because Brent Spiner looked terrible in blue, the incredibly vague post of "operations officer" was created as an excuse to get their science-officer-in-all-but-name in a yellow uniform.

Too bad they didn't go with the 2nd officer, command division route. I thought Brent Spiner looked pretty good in command red in "Chain of Command" (Part II).

 

[T'Girl]

In the second pilot, only a few of the officers wore command gold (Kirk, Spock, a few others), most of the other bridge officers wore a different sand colored shirt.

 

[J.T.B.]

Considering the uniforms of TOS were originally coloured as a means to push colour TV's with the justifications (i.e. different crew departments) coming later, I think it's best not to dwell on them too much (like, why does Hoshi wear blue and Uhura red, when they do the same job? Why was Spock in yellow for the second pilot episode? If Data is "operations officer", who actually is the TNG science officer?)

Agreed, the dividing lines seem fairly fuzzy. Kevin Reilly also wore gold in the communications department.

Too bad they didn't go with the 2nd officer, command division route. I thought Brent Spiner looked pretty good in command red in "Chain of Command" (Part II).

Yet Data stayed in gold when he took command of Sutherland. But having a non-command division officer as second officer is at least consistent with TOS.

 

[Mudd]

And because Brent Spiner looked terrible in blue, the incredibly vague post of "operations officer" was created as an excuse to get their science-officer-in-all-but-name in a yellow uniform.

Most of the job assignments in TNG were originally "incredibly vague."

The decisions about job assignments, etc were made well before final costuming was settled on. That Data was not the ship's science officer was also established internally early on.

 

[Melakon]

As I recall, they were deliberately trying to not make Data an obvious Spock replacement.