"Court Martial" Question/Observation

[BolianAuthor]

Okay, here's another thing I noticed I wish to comment on...

In the episode "Court Martial", there is an exchange between some Starfleet crew at the bar, and Kirk, regarding his allegations. Well, those guys at the bar are wearing uniforms with the Enterprise emblem on them. That's all fine and well, but even on a Starbase, how the hell would it be that Enterprise crew could address their Captain in such a way? I mean, that was downright disrespectful, and the only thing I can think of, is that they were INTENDED to be from the base or another ship, but due to the show's budget, they had to re-use Enterprise uniforms. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Christopher]

They're clearly meant to be non-Enterprise crew. They're old Academy classmates of Kirk. The idea that other ships had different insignias hadn't been settled on yet when "Court-martial" was made.

And subsequent productions have made it clear that the arrowhead emblem was never exclusive to the Enterprise. VGR: "Friendship One" established it as a UESPA emblem in use in the 2060s, and of course the new movie established that it was in use aboard the Kelvin in 2233 (which must be true in the Prime universe, since the new one didn't diverge until the start of the film).

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Okay, cool... thanks for that explanation... I kinda knew they were meant to be non-Enterprise crew, I guess I just needed to hear someone else confirm it.

 

[kkozoriz1]

I imagine it's a fleet emblem. The Enterprise was in the (let's say) Seventh Fleet which used the arrowhead. The Constellation was in the (say Third Fleet) which used the pretzel design. YMMV.

 

[Gary7]

^^ Ah, OK--thanks for that explanation. I could never understand why some crew uniform emblems were different from the Enterprise crew, while others were the same. And it makes even more sense looking at the fan fiction that followed... these fleet emblems are used extensively.

 

[Unicron]

Having the insignia for specific fleets would definitely be more practical than for each individual ship.

 

[T'Girl]

It doesn't take too much observation to figure out a mention behind the exceptions to the arrowhead.

The people in support branches like the JAG corp (Court Martial) or merchant marines (Charlie X) had a separate insignia. In addition senior officers like Fleet Captains, Commodores and Admirals (plus their immediate staffs) had their own insignia.

Everyone else in the various fleets had a arrowhead insignia.

In The Ultimate Computer, Commodore Wesley had his own insignia, while the crewmember behind him had a arrowhead.

 

[Timo]

However, Captain Tracey's Exeter sports her own insignia design, too, making it necessary to believe in either ship-specifc or formation-specific designs.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Captain Robert April]

The plan was for each ship to have its own insignia; in fact, it's the official stance that each ship did have its own insignia.

The oddities of production, however, didn't always allow for the plan to be followed through, so we got instances like "Court Martial" and "The Menagerie".

The "fleet insignia" scenario is an effective compromise between the official line of every ship having its own insignia and the annoyances in the peanut gallery who always chime in with, "What about those guys in 'Court Martial'?"

 

[T'Girl]

Captain Tracey's Exeter

I explain it as Tracy being a Fleet Captain and having his own insignia for that reason, and the doctor we saw was a part of his small personal staff, as opposed to being a part of the regular ship's company.

Ron Tracy had a different insignia sewn to his uniform shirt, but the Doctor in the log recording had his insignia pinned to his shirt the way a police officer's badge is pinned to his shirt. While you can't actual see the Exeter's crew's insignia's because of the way the shirts are oriented, in fact every one of the shirts used did have an arrowhead sewn on.

(they were actual Enterprise shirts)

 

[J.T.B.]

The people in support branches like the JAG corp (Court Martial) or merchant marines (Charlie X) had a separate insignia. In addition senior officers like Fleet Captains, Commodores and Admirals (plus their immediate staffs) had their own insignia.

In that case, wouldn't Decker and Wesley have the same insignia?

I like the idea of individual ship emblems, because the unit identity in TOS seemed tied to an individual vessel more than anything else. However, it light of the various exceptions, I am OK with an insignia for flag/staff personnel (the daisy) and operating vessels using the insignia of their divisions, squadrons, task forces, fleets or whatever. That is still inconsistent for Cdre. Wesley, but perhaps his normal assignment was at a base, like Mendez, and he took charge of the Lexington task force just for the war games.

--Justin

 

[Christopher]

The people in support branches like the JAG corp (Court Martial) or merchant marines (Charlie X) had a separate insignia. In addition senior officers like Fleet Captains, Commodores and Admirals (plus their immediate staffs) had their own insignia.

In that case, wouldn't Decker and Wesley have the same insignia?

No, because Horror Club isn't saying that each rank has its own insignia, but that each individual officer of flag rank has a personalized insignia, as do the people serving directly under that officer. It's an interesting idea.

 

[J.T.B.]

In that case, wouldn't Decker and Wesley have the same insignia?

No, because Horror Club isn't saying that each rank has its own insignia, but that each individual officer of flag rank has a personalized insignia, as do the people serving directly under that officer. It's an interesting idea.

But Commodores Mendez, Stone, Stocker and Wesley all wear the same badge; that's not very personalized!

--Justin

 

[Christopher]

Well, except for Wesley, you could assume that was the insignia of a starbase commander. In general, I'm content just to chalk it up to a low-budget TV series not always being able to afford new costuming elements and handling the matter inconsistently.

 

[J.T.B.]

Well, except for Wesley, you could assume that was the insignia of a starbase commander.

Yeah, but that would be different from the system described before.

In general, I'm content just to chalk it up to a low-budget TV series not always being able to afford new costuming elements and handling the matter inconsistently.

Me too, but it's interesting to try and come up with a system that fits the facts and makes sense with the fewest inconsistencies.

--Justin

 

[Christopher]

Well, my overall theory as borne out by the franchise-wide evidence is that the arrowhead was a 2060s UESPA insignia that Starfleet had adopted as its standard emblem no later than 2233. The appearance of different insignias only within the span of 2266-70* suggests that it was a temporary variation, something tried out by Starfleet and later abandoned. So the inconsistencies could be because it was a fairly new practice to use different insignias, and maybe it wasn't applied uniformly across the fleet because it was something novel and was being refined as it went.

*I checked screencaps from the two animated episodes I know of that showed other Starfleet crews. The crew of the Ariel in "The Eye of the Beholder" wore the same (TAS version of the) arrowhead insignia as the Enterprise crew, but the crew of the Huron in "The Pirates of Orion" wore a different insignia.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I think we might be trying to assign a bit too much importance to the arrowhead prior to 2270. The symbol was around before Archer, but throughout the whole run of ENT, we never saw it, ever, so it was hardly a standardized insignia. According to Roddenberry, it was the association with Kirk's five year mission that elevated its status to universal Starfleet insignia; prior to that, it was just one amongst an unknown number of other insignia used by Starfleet (if anything, the standard Starfleet insignia, prior to TMP, appears to be that starburst/daisy pin).

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Starbase Operations has its own insignia. (Mendez's secretary wears it too)
Epsilon stations have their own.
Each fleet has its own insignia. The guys in Court-martial serve in the same fleet as the Enterprise, but not aboard the Enterprise.
Ariel might've been a different fleet.
Huron was a merchant marine ship.

 

[Timo]

Huron was a merchant marine ship.

That transport had people in Starfleet uniforms in command. Fanfic has sometimes postulated a "Starfleet Merchant Marine", an organization that performs logistics services under the auspices of Starfleet but may involve civilian components; the Royal Navy and the USN have had somewhat similar arrangements for operating their logistics support and sealift services. But it may simply be that the Huron was a through-and-through military vessel, as suggested by the uniforms, ranks, the NCC-F registry and so forth.

If we assume that the arrowhead was just one "Fleet insignia" among others, we might just as well speculate that it was the insignia of the First Fleet or the Home Fleet or some such. When Starfleet at some point simplified its signage (and this clearly did happen, although we might debate the exact timepoint), it would then be natural to choose the "most prestigious" symbol.

Kirk wearing that symbol in TOS might be complete coincidence: many other starships of seemingly equal prestige, operating on similar missions of exploration, flew different symbols, but none of those prevailed. OTOH, perhaps Kirk was a step above the competition after all, and his starship being part of the "Best Fleet" entitled her to undertake both the highest-profile exploration missions, the most glamorous diplomatic runs, and the most dangerous military jobs, whereas the competition only did one or at most two of those mission types?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

Epsilon stations have their own.

Which is, I believe, the last time within the timeline that non-arrowhead insignias were seen in use within Starfleet.

Each fleet has its own insignia. The guys in Court-martial serve in the same fleet as the Enterprise, but not aboard the Enterprise.
Ariel might've been a different fleet.

Except that the Ariel personnel did wear the arrowhead emblem. So if we go with the idea that it was a specific fleet insignia, that would make the Ariel a scout ship operating under the same command base that oversaw Enterprise (probably Starbase 11).