Something I just realized about Lieutenant Nilsson

[Tomalak]

Paris outranked Torres, as established in Displaced. Granted, Torres outranked him after Thirty Days when he was demoted to Ensign. Things get fuzzy when Paris is re-promoted in Unimatrix Zero, technically Torres has seniority in rank, but Paris is still command division.

As far as I can recall, Torres commands the bridge exactly once, in the episode with The Rock. That was a unique situation anyway because most of the crew was on shore leave and unavailable.

As an aside, I always thought they should have promoted Kim after Thirty Days. Kim outranking Paris would have changed the dynamic to their relationship. But I can't really complain with the running gag about him being a perennial ensign on a ship full of lieutenants.

 

[Blue Squadron]

The original concept of the gold / silver / copper on blue uniforms was kinda neat and quite cleverly used colours that linked into the uniforms shirts from The Cage. The downside was that the gold and copper were somewhat difficult to distinguish visually, especially when not well lit. The original version of the uniform at least had the traditional department symbols on the delta badges and that was the real give-away. Now that everyone is wearing the standardised silver ellipse with gold delta that no longer applies.

Lieutenant Commander Airiam wore Sciences silver but Lieutenant Nilsson never wore silver -- she was in Operations copper back in season two and is continuing to wear the same for now.

As an aside, it struck me in the scene from People of Earth where the secondary bridge crew all beam down to go hug a tree that they are ALL wearing the Operations copper colour, not one of them is in Sciences silver or Command gold.

 

[Styleset]

I'm not sure why this conclusion should be drawn. Pulaski and McCoy are examples of full Commanders who were clear and vocal about not being bridge officers or in the line of command.

So, about Nilsson... She's apparently no longer wearing silver in the promo for "Unification III". I can't really tell bronze and gold apart there, but the promo pics suggest she's wearing the exact same shade as Rhys at least, and apparently the same as Owosekun, Bryce and Detmer. Is Nilsson the new XO, then? Or was she demoted from spore engineering to regular engineering and now has to bow to Reno?

Timo Saloniemi

Nilsson always wore bronze. I’m pretty sure she’s an engineer.

 

[Timo]

Ah, cool. Seems bronze is the going color for pretty much everybody but Stamets, Culber and whoever gets the 1st and 2nd prizes in the chain of command.

Weird that Nilsson "stepped in for Airiam" but never changed department colors. But this is Starfleet and weird is their business.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Styleset]

The original concept of the gold / silver / copper on blue uniforms was kinda neat and quite cleverly used colours that linked into the uniforms shirts from The Cage. The downside was that the gold and copper were somewhat difficult to distinguish visually, especially when not well lit. The original version of the uniform at least had the traditional department symbols on the delta badges and that was the real give-away. Now that everyone is wearing the standardised silver ellipse with gold delta that no longer applies.

Lieutenant Commander Airiam wore Sciences silver but Lieutenant Nilsson never wore silver -- she was in Operations copper back in season two and is continuing to wear the same for now.

As an aside, it struck me in the scene from People of Earth where the secondary bridge crew all beam down to go hug a tree that they are ALL wearing the Operations copper colour, not one of them is in Sciences silver or Command gold.

It’s bronze, not copper. But you are correct that all the junior officers who serve on the bridge are “red shirts.”

 

[plynch]

"ideally" wouldn't most people on a science or exploration vessel be red or blue shirts? You need some commanders, but the main jobs would be to keep things running and do science. Would make sense to have Nilsson in blue/silver.

 

[Timo]

The very first "regular" episode already made mention of the exceptional abundance of silvershirts. And the show has always had an excess of engineering and science characters who crowd the labs and quarrel over decisions, rather than merely performing duties as part of a streamlined hierarchy. That's a flying laboratory fer ya all right.

But the bridge team is the one that generally gets things done, with Stamets only contributing through esoteria and interventions and being part of the spore machine. So the bronze folks are at the forefront - and at the sets that we see the most.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

So, apparently she’s 3rd in command on Discovery, right after Captain and First Officer....
So is it good or bad, that outside of Saru and Burnham it’s not really clear the command structure of Discovery? Who’s fourth in command? I have no idea

Recently rewatced DS9 and the senior staff are very inexperienced in S1. Outside of Sisko who is only a commander you have a couple of lieutenants and an NCO

 

[Blue Squadron]

It’s bronze, not copper. But you are correct that all the junior officers who serve on the bridge are “red shirts.”

Yes, I would originally have called them gold, silver and bronze too (although real bronze tends to look darker and more brown-like), however, per an interview with Gersha Phillips, the costume designer, on StarTrek.com:

“So, it's printed with a puff paint. Then we foil them, and then that's how we get over there to what we have now, which are the foiled versions. And then our foiled colors are… Our copper is operations, and our silver is science and gold is command. Those are our three colors. Then we have the medical. I don't know if you can see it there, the white one, behind, over on that side.”

That's why I started referring to its as "copper" not as "bronze" -- and, actually, when you see it in natural lighting it is indeed more of a copper colour.

 

[Blue Squadron]

"ideally" wouldn't most people on a science or exploration vessel be red or blue shirts? You need some commanders, but the main jobs would be to keep things running and do science. Would make sense to have Nilsson in blue/silver.

True -- but in the three-department / three-colour model, Command is a whole department rather than just a few senior officers; it encompasses a broader set of roles in the overall co-ordination and piloting of the ship; e.g. in TOS this included Sulu as helmsman and Chekov as navigator as well as a bunch of other guys in the background. Same for all they guys in burgundy wandering around in the background in TNG.

This changes somewhat in the movies, when the senior command role is separated out from the more operational functions and there are a rather larger number of more specialised departments, each with their own specific colours.

At the time of Discovery, arguably, at least Detmer, as the helm officer, could be in gold. Owosekun is officially described as an "operations officer" -- but this presumably derives from the copper colour of her uniform so that's a bit of a circular argument! The 'Operations' position next to 'Helm' was established with TNG. The colours/departments for certain roles were somewhat variable between The Cage, WNMHGB, and TOS-proper but if Owo was intended to be the navigator then she also could be in gold.

I guess they deliberately put Sarah Mitich into copper rather than silver after they created the role of Nilsson as they wanted to specifically separate the actor and character from associations with Airiam...?

 

[Styleset]

Yes, I would originally have called them gold, silver and bronze too (although real bronze tends to look darker and more brown-like), however, per an interview with Gersha Phillips, the costume designer, on StarTrek.com:



That's why I started referring to its as "copper" not as "bronze" -- and, actually, when you see it in natural lighting it is indeed more of a copper colour.

I heard Gersha Phillips say that. It was a mistake. She and others have said bronze elsewhere. And it’s demonstrably bronze and not copper.

 

[Tomalak]

"ideally" wouldn't most people on a science or exploration vessel be red or blue shirts? You need some commanders, but the main jobs would be to keep things running and do science. Would make sense to have Nilsson in blue/silver.

The crew is smaller than during Lorca's heyday - it's possible most of the science specialists left the ship at the end of his reign of terror, or declined to go to the future with Saru and the rest of the main crew. It makes sense that those who are left are mainly operations staff who are needed to keep the ship running.

 

[Blue Squadron]

I heard Gersha Phillips say that. It was a mistake. She and others have said bronze elsewhere. And it’s demonstrably bronze and not copper.

Copper. Bronze. Whichever.

That just happens to be the only "official" reference I've ever seen that specifically names the colour used for the Operations department. Like I said, I thought of it as "bronze" before I read that interview transcript (it fits with the whole pattern of Olympic medals so it's an obvious association to make) but if the designer herself was calling it "copper" (and clearly she was) then I was happy to go with her terminology. If you know of other alternative references please do share.