Spoilers S4. More new uniforms - hooray (!).

The grey uniforms are still going to be worn by personnel at Federation HQ. Why should Discovery have to explain an in universe uniform change when no other series did.

 

because...um...Discovery

 

The S3 grays are still in the background in the big meeting so it's probably going to be something about representing a new day for Starfleet.

 

When has any uniform change ever been explained in-universe?

 

TMP. It was well established why everything looked different. And that reason was "Because."

 

Commodore Stocker sheepishly points out the new togs to the returning Enterprise crew. (TOS - Annual comic: "The Final Voyage")

Other than that, though, they do not discuss it with outsiders.

 

"You know tailors, they love to change things." L.H. McCoy

 

Hell, if anything, most of the time on screen, everyone seems to intentionally avoid acknowledging uniforms have changed. I mean, the Romulans who took over USS Prometheus never stopped to question why the EMH on a brand new starship was wearing an outdated uniform.

 

I'm still mad the Voyager crew didn't get to wear the FC uniforms

 

DS9 sort of did, a couple of times:

- When Bashir is rescued from the Dominion prison camp, he's wearing the old uniform, because it wasn't until after he was replaced by a Changeling that the unis changed.
- In the Homefront/Paradise Lost two-parter, Sisko wears a TNG style uniform whenever he's on Earth.

 

That's not really an explanation.

 

Neither of those are explanations. Unless you think of explanations in the same way Alanis Morrissette thinks about irony.

explanation
/ɛkspləˈneɪʃ(ə)n/
noun

1. a statement or account that makes something clear.
   "the birth rate is central to any explanation of population trends".

Neither of your examples fall under the definition of what an explanation is. We're never given any statement as to the uniform changes. Sisko never says 'I'm wearing the TNG uniform, because that is what starship and ground based personnel wear'. No one even acknowledges Bashir wearing an older uniform and Bashir doesn't acknowledge the new uniforms.

 

I'm glad they didn't. Whenever I picture them in the FC Uniforms, it just doesn't work in my mind.

It's kind of the same as when the Discovery crew put on the gray 32nd Century uniforms. I was cringing, thinking, "Why couldn't they just stick with the old uniforms?" The gray uniforms clashed with too much with the bronze bridge... and thank God that Gersha Phillips came around. If they could drop that pin thing right in the middle of the neck, the new colorful versions of these uniforms would be perfect.

In a strange way, it's like the gray 32nd Century uniforms are a callback to the TMP Uniforms while the colorful 32nd Century Uniforms are a callback to the ones from TWOK-TUC. Even though all that's really different are the colors.

 

Actually that bit doesn't make a lot of sense. I suppose we can assume the announcement about the new uniforms was made significantly before the swap (like the real world) so he already knew they were coming, but still.

 

You'd think in those 900 years the colours for command etc. would be different. They were on the Relativity a couple of hundred years prior.

 

You might want to sit down for this because I bet you thought you'd never hear this, but... I agree with you.

 

Isn't it? Command has been all 3 colors, so assuming they use a 3 color system, then whatever they pick will match some era and be different from another.

It's different from the era Discovery left. It just happens to match the 24th century.

 

That is not entirely accurate. Blue represented command division instead of sciences but Operations gold and Red were done away with entirely and replaced with Bronze and Grey respectively. It's 300 years between the events of relativity and 3188. That is plenty of time for the colours to cycle back.

 

Indeed. As it is, I can only think of three times in which a uniform change was acknowledged in dialogue in the entire franchise:
-TNG Night Terrors Gillespie tells O'Brien about a man in an old Starfleet uniform being spotted in engineering.
-DS9 Trials and Tribble-Ations, everyone discusses the TOS uniforms, specifically the fact that Command and Operations had swapped colors in the 23rd century.
-Disco Brother, Pike comments they wear "new uniforms" on the Enterprise.

Of these three examples, the only one that comes close to an explanation is Pike's line in Brother. Meaning in Star Trek's fifty-five year history, there's only been one on screen explanation for a uniform change, and that only happened two years ago. And there's only been two other times in which a uniform change was even acknowledged in dialogue. Hell, Lower Decks with its plethora of obscure in-jokes doesn't even include dialogue about uniform changes.

 

Can't believe I'm doing this, but here's why I agree with thribs' point: the Relativity had different colors besides just blue, and gold, and red; and so did the TWOK Uniforms with their collars/undershirts. The DSC S4 Uniforms are sticking with the basic three colors, although they still have Medical White.

Though, in fairness, the Uniforms at Starfleet Command still have grays, silvers, etc.