Maybe there's some jackass in the Starfleet supply department who keeps giving Janice the wrong rank pin as a goof.
In all my years of Trek fandom, I have never bothered to learn the movie-era rank insignia. So that's one aspect that I pay no attention to. Kor
I guess we'll have to write off Woman in Cafeteria's rank pin as a costuming error, since that rank was never spoken of onscreen but Lieutenant JG was (in "Flashback"). Kind of like Colonel West's uniform in ST VI.
Other examples have been cited as far as screwed up rank insignia. On VOY, Tuvok originally had Lt.Cdr. pips, then he was a Lt., then he was promoted to Lt.Cdr. I seriously doubt he would get busted in rank, so no reason to believe Rand ever did. Hell, Kirk was still wearing his admiral jacket with the gold piping after he was reduced to Captain at the end of TVH. They changed the insignia, but not the jacket. It's just laziness on the part of the costuming departments.
Wasn't Spock formally cited as a Lieutenant Commander in season one despite having a commander's stripes?
No, she was a Lieutenant JG in Star Trek VI. "Flashback" had her wearing Lt. Commander insignia and I think they even called her "Commander" once or twice. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Janice_Rand#Rank_ambiguities I wouldn't say it was laziness so much as it was simple human error. I doubt that every single person in the costuming departments had all the rank insignia memorized. Supposedly someone noticed that Valeris' collar and shoulder strap didn't match in STVI after the first day of dailies, but they couldn't afford to go back and reshoot her scenes with the correct colors. So it had to stay wrong for the rest of the shoot. Honestly, that mistake bugs me a lot more, because it's a lot tougher to ignore.
I wonder if they'll actually get to that point whenever they revamp TOS and the movies again. And if I'd even want them to.
Many TNG characters have appeared onscreen with the incorrect rank. O'Brien's rank was all over the place. Data had the wrong rank in the flashbacks of "All Good Things..." Spock and McCoy appeared with switched division colours at the end of TMP. Valeris had mismatched collar and shoulder strap, plus incorrect rank insignia. Chapel had one red sleeve in an episode of TAS. It's a costuming glitch. Essentially yes. The scene was filmed at ILM. Even if someone noticed (and Ms Whitney did on the day), Paramount Costume was not just next door.
That's a 'no' from me. I welcome any attempts at restoration, but I don't want the actual content fiddled around with.
Guys, try not to macro threads older than a year, but I'm making an exception with this thread as we've got a really good conversation going. I rate this a cheddar thread.
Do enlisted crew have dress uniforms? Maybe her timeline can be reconciled if she has a MCPO rank insignia...
I always thought it was her, until I read on Memory Alpha it wasn't. It doesn't make any sense for it not to be her, but I never accused MA of making sense, either. Yes, nothing but it being the same actress, her reaction, and the fact that the scene dwells on her so.
Memory Alpha can be extremely stubborn about onscreen facts. Nimoy invited Whitney to portray Rand in ST III. That's good enough for me.
No but my new laptop arrived today. How long is her screen time? 30 seconds? I could probably do it manually. Then there would be no doubt in my mind. NCO's do have insignia. Stands to reason that dress uniforms for a senior NCO might look similar to an officer. Memory Alpha might come in handy after all. Don't worry though, my intention is to play around with the Memory Wall footage first.
When we saw the film first-run in 1984, my father, an ardent Trek viewer in the ‘60s, noticed it was Rand right away.