The average StarFleet Officer should have different Uniforms for different purposes IMO, but almost all should be of similar stylings to each other unless there is a deeply thought out purpose to the different designs. · Normal Uniform <- Basic day to day wear within StarFleet facilities / vessels / Official StarFleet work/business. · Formal Uniform <- Formal / Ceremonial occaisions. · Desert Uniform <- Designed for Hot & Arid environments · Jungle Uniform <- Designed for Hot & Humid environments · Winter Uniform <- Designed for Cold & Wet environments · Zero-G Uniform <- Innerware designed to work with standard Zero-G Outter ware · Worker Uniform <- One-Piece OverAll designed to get down & dirty OR whatever specialized Uniform deemed fit for the Service/Division/Section as needed by the job/profession · Combat Uniform <- Uses appropriate Camoflage for the environment, ergo many types, Service/Division/Section markings are minimized or outright hidden for camouflage purposes
The problem with the badges is that they’re just not very clear; too reflective in the bright lighting. It could be a single gold pip, implying one-star flag officer rank — this would broadly fit if they were thinking of the equivalent to Commodore Oh In Picard. I agree that they’re going for the slightly enigmatic / mysterious angle with Cronenberg’s character. He actually plays it very well and the clear implication is that he’s likely Starfleet Intelligence or possibly even the direct successor of Section 31 himself (Director of Starfleet Intelligence?) — and he clearly knows far more about Georgiou, the mirror universe and the late Terran Empire, which she’s equally clearly not happy about...! I like the understated and only slightly menacing style. It’s way more George Smiley than Leland and I rather hope we see a lot more of him!
I've been looking for a decent image of Vance's transporter badge to check something I was suspicious of and, lo, I find not just him but also David Cronenberg's character, Kovich, on Trek Movie! If you look at the bottom part of the badge, the polished section of the ellipse low the delta, I think these images make it pretty clear that part is gold for the flag officer badges, along with the clearly visible gold pips (whereas the other officers of captain and below appear to have the lower section and the pips in polished silver/chrome). I would say that this should pin Kovich at the rank of Commodore and my bet is Director of Starfleet Intelligence (+/- Section 31...!)
I've tweaked these sketches of the new badges a few times before, but I think this is pretty much it now and fits with what se can see in the post above:
A Photoshop made by Michael Ball over on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10157989785503951&set=gm.3720849744670068
I think the nature of the polished finish is such that it simply reflects light like any other shiny surface, so they all kinda end up looking much the same. I've had a suspicion all the way through that the lower area and the pips were gold for the admiral but have been struggling trying to find a decent image to confirm it. It certainly makes sense; given that the basic design of the badges is the same, they needed some way to differentiate a four-pip full Admiral from a Captain and a three-pip Vice Admiral from a Commander, and so on. The additional gold at the bottom does help to make it a bit more obvious than just using gold for the pips. The simple elliptical shape and the polished nature of many of there surfaces make it pretty difficult to spot anything from a distance, other that than fact that it's a metallic ellipse! The new design is definitely growing on me, especially now it's possible to work out the full range of badges, but I still don't like that lack of clarity the moment you're more tan a couple of feet away from the wearer.
Ha! Nicely done. Yeah, I can see how that could work. Perhaps by the very end of the season or the start of next season...? Maybe...?
I’d be fairly convinced that if we look carefully, we can see that the pips and the lower section are gold on that badge — but that’s one of the problems with this design: as much as I like the aesthetics as a concept (and I do), as a badge with a practical purpose outside of its technical functions (that is, to convey specific information about the role of the wearer) then it just doesn’t really work that well. From a TV show point of view (and, let’s face it, that’s *really* what it’s for) everything gets lost in the reflected light from the metallic surfaces. The original TNG badge worked because, actually, it wasn’t polished silver and gold. The screen-used costume badges were painted with metallic paints and so were much less reflective. The chrome on the Picard 2399 badge worked well because it was just the outline of the delta against a flat grey background and that shiny part helped it to stand out. Here, however, everything is shiny so all the details are lost.